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1. I'm going to update values wherever I can based on Smash Ultimate values now that they have been discovered. This change will apply to the Arle Nadja and SpongeBob movesets. In addition, they also will have their movesets updated to use Training Stage Units as the measuring stick for height, width, and projectile distance. Anything that is marked with an asterisk will be noted to still be based on Smash 4's values, however.
2. Scooby-Doo, after I realized he's never been done before at all, is finally joining the Brawl! I mean, Smash 4. I mean, Ultimate. You get it. He's incomplete, but he's got yet another dumb comeback mechanic gimmick, except it's also one that can kill him dead, too. Unlike Arle and SpongeBob, he's coming with the above features.
* Most of his moveset will be based on a particular trilogy of video games: Night of 100 Frights, Mystery Mayhem, and Unmasked. Two of them are games that own a special place in my heart, and the other is Mystery Mayhem. However, other games, and unlike SpongeBob, other media, will be used if these three turn out to be not enough.
3. SpongeBob will have some images added to him to visualize his moveset in a much more cohesive way.
Good to know Revali has been improved; I was honestly worried the new set wouldn't turn out well.
And with that, I can now focus on Rex. It's mostly his specials and grab game that got a huge overhaul, but I slightly modified some other moves as well.
Paper Mario
I actually do like the core mechanic of the set quite a bit. This is a much more respectable way to use the partners than the old version, given you have to actually earn the chance to use them so they feel like more than "just a special" really. Said partners are also decently interesting as attacks go, compared to the extremely underwhelming ones in your old Paper Mario. The set also gives a decent few other options to earn, like buffing your grab, your hammer's damage, or dash speed, even leading into a potential one hit kill with the hammer that requires some very situational setup. I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the criticism that's been thrown the set's way, I don't think its overcomplicated in and of itself with how nicely everything is presented to the player visually and the relative simplicity of using Paper Mario's 8 paint cards. Nor do I think its stupid to have a corner case one hit KO that deals 65%, if the player has to earn it if anything I think that's really cool when done right.
That's about where my praise for the set ends unfortunately, as I'm on the whole not terribly fond of the set's execution. This is partially in the melee and partially in the actual way the cards are implemented. The former I don't have a ton to say about, but while it does an okay job of being "evasive" to make Paper Mario capable of weaving around attacks to mitigate his awful weight and make better use of his versatile kit, a lot of it really just comes across as more gimmicky than it does interesting. The grab game felt particularly awkward to me for that, with new partners getting jammed onto singular throws after being treated with something resembling respect earlier, and the hammer charging throw feeling more like a wonky gimmick than like its mechanic actually brings anything to the table.
The real problem for me is the fact that while I think the basis of the cards is fine, a lot of them are fundamentally flawed. One of them exists entirely for flavor, which is fine, I can appreciate that as a for fun thing like Snake's codec(although its impact is diminished without examples, honestly). Three of them are partners, who have the fundamental problem of replacing Huey as an option. I could actually see wanting to switch from Huey to a partner for certain situations despite how much paint Huey gathers and the sizeable boost he gives to your hammer attacks. Those situations get a lot less common when you consider that you lose Huey for the entire stock if you switch to any of the partners, which greatly stifles your paint gain and also takes away your access to a powerful damage buff. Cudge I think is the actual worst one in the set though, because it actually increases Paper Mario's lag on his hammer attacks in exchange for a power boost. Is the power boost nice? Yeah, but in Smash speed is almost universally more valuable than power and slower power characters need to compensate. Turning yourself into a slower power character with your hammer attacks strikes me as, if anything, just kind of a downgrade. This leaves Paper Mario with the copies, a grab extender, and a dash range boost, which makes his selection look a lot less impressive and it really is clunky to have all these options that actually take away from him irreversibly barring a suicide.
So unfortunately, yeah I can't say I like Paper Mario, though I think you're on the right track with trying to tackle slightly more complex subject matter. Making the Huey loss and Cudge's speed decrease in some fashion reversible would actually be all you'd really need to do to make this set voteable for me, even if I don't think the melee is among your stronger ones. Its an admirable effort and the best Paper Mario set we've gotten, it just needs some tuning in places.
Washizu
Gotta say, its a really pleasant surprise to see you actually tackle a character like this again, it reminds me of Von Karma a lot from back in the day and while that set has admittedly not aged well, nothing from MYM12 really has and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it at the time. The actual core Mahjong mechanic is, admittedly, quite a challenge to use properly but the set is actually pretty self-aware of that, giving him options like the pummel, white suits, up smash, and Side B to make it easier to pull off. The set never trivializes the process of playing it either, unless you want to commit to an extreme flowchart with the white suits that will absolutely get you killed. The Up Special feels like a suitable and well characterized reward for all your hard work, and I'd say up through the grab game the set feels very well designed and interesting.
Unfortunately, there's a lot to criticize here, but it honestly doesn't feel like sloppiness so much as this character requiring a slightly different approach than the one you took. Early on the gold is introduced with a rage boosting mechanic when its destroyed while providing a slope with it on the stage. This is the main thing you give his melee to play off, and it honestly feels kind of weak in that regard, with the rage mechanic being barely utilized or brought up at all. The slope is, but it pretty rarely feels like it contributes as much as you want it too, making an attack slightly easier to hit here and a KO percent a little earlier there. Washizu doesn't fit in as naturally with these Warlordian mechanics as your more traditional bruiser heavyweights but uses them anyway. While having a subtheme be a little weak in a set where a much stronger mechanic is the core theme, the way you've set things up specifically makes this a bigger problem.
Washizu's Mahjong is in fact, 100% reliant on his melee game to work, because it depends on his staled moves. Mahjong is also a complicated and hard to achieve mechanic, so frequently you are stuck with the less Mahjong-oriened part of his playstyle. There are certainly places where this felt like it was handled pretty well, like how getting a 5 part matching set is made vastly more difficult by his Dair and Dash Attack being hard to land. While I'm actually pretty fond of Dair though, due to it becoming a much more interesting move in the context of the main reward for playing Mahjong, Dash Attack existing solely for the purpose of "this move is awful" feels like a mistake and like it could use a rework of some sort. The standards and aerials just felt like the set was reaching a lot for both animations and applications, with Up Tilt and Fair feeling like pretty extreme examples of both. To go into more detail, Up Tilt's main purpose seems to be KOing slightly earlier with slope angling and has an extremely comical animation that requires a pretty big reach to put in the set, Washizu trying to relive his glory days with the plastic ball and chain that he swings around his neck is a bit much. Plus even if its plastic, he's old and frail enough to need a cane, I can't imagine that'd be good for his spine. Fair has the weirdly inconsistent flavor with the white suit in the aerial dying instantly but if he grabs one you already have on stage because the aerial one is, uh, more pathetic for some reason? The payoff for specifically having the white suit in this fair is something that will basically only ever come up if you grab the foe, which while not an uncommon occurrence still strikes me as pretty niche payoff for swinging around a copy of your minion with inconsistent durability.
As for the actual Mahjong, the set has a surprisingly limited amount of payoff for it. Up Special is great and I kind of wish the aerials were a bit more frequently designed around it like Dair, and the blood drain is obviously good. I think Washizu could at least have something else beyond that, with just the bonus for having a match on FSmash being all he has in terms of other moves. I know you don't want him totally dependant on having matches for power given how wonky that would be to maintain, but another payoff move or two in exchange for say, Down Smash or one of the rather weak inputs I pointed out would make it a bit more exciting to actually go for.
I really hate to just keep complaining, I don't even dislike the set and I'll get into why in a moment, but I actually felt the characterization seemed a bit off to me. Admittedly, this is coming off me watching Kaiji and judging more off Hyoudou than actually having seen Washizu myself, but from what I know Washizu in canon is treated with a fair amount of seriousness and respect, and if its equal to or more than Hyoudou was this set feels a bit too goofy for him. In the set, he's swinging around his own minions in comical fashion, using his nose to attack, dropping gold and then getting mad the opponent breaks it, and using a wacky plastic ball and chain to relive his glory days. I'm not saying this character doesn't have comedic qualities and they shouldn't appear at all in the set(I actually think the grab's flavor is great, and Washizu looking like an idiot if he declares he wins with no matches is perfectly understandable), but as the set gets into the smashes, standards, and aerials makes Washizu look more and more like a joke character. If the top image of the set is anything to go on, this dude is not a joke character at all. I think part of this comes down to the fact that you tend to make sets that use large amounts of physical comedy in the characterization, and while its not completely unfitting on Washizu it takes a bit too big of a role. Its also a little strange how hard you stretch to give him physical attacks when you're perfectly happy to let the pummel and Up Special be magical, allowing the guy who took over hell in his fantasy a little more mahjong magic in place of like, a goofy plastic ball and chain that I don't think he even has in canon feels better to me.
For all my complaints, I would not have spent so long on this comment if I knew you didn't like the character so much. Because frankly, I complain a lot but most of the things I'm complaining about are still serviceable. The melee functions just fine, even if I think it doesn't come across as particularly interesting or a good second layer to the Mahjong it at least would play like a functional smash character. The characterization is wonky in places, sure, but it has its fair share of hits. I enjoy the Nair flavor text even if it wouldn't appear in the actual game and the whole grab game just feels great for exhibitting his character. Honestly most of the problems just feel like they come down to approaching this character like a Fist of the North Star lord when someone more physically frail and simultaneously genuinely dangerous feels like it requires a different style. Its not something that can't be fixed with edits though, and I could even see why you'd be satisfied with the set as is. I just think you'd be happier if a set for this character you liked so much was more of a frontrunner, you know?
Ulrich
I don't think anyone who knows my taste in movesets will be surprised that this is my favorite set of the contest by a sizeable margin, because this is a very fun projectile/minion playground type set. Admittedly, its not one that reinvents the wheel, working off a projectile pocket is a concept MYM used quite a lot in the Cuphead movement last contest. That said, I really do appreciate Ulrich's take on it, as the Blood Puppet is approached in a very interesting way. For one it has an extremely rhythmic pattern, taking out the usual guesswork that interacting off minions sometimes suffers from a bit in exchange for one that's very predictable for both Ulrich and his opponent. Its more of an extension of Ulrich's own abilities than a separate entity, its primary power being the reuse of Ulrich's projectiles at times he could never use them himself. The set is absolutely loaded with great interactions with the blood puppet, from all the things it can absorb to using it as a simple tether point for Up Special, which the aerial game plays off for some surprisingly excellent melee in a set that seems like it would struggle to have that.
The grab game is a real highlight, having both a series of interesting actual throws with the cargo throw and the battery/healing throws to start out with but really giving the blood puppet a ton of exciting material that opens up several new layers of depth for it. I will say the pummel mechanics strike me as borderline impractical at times(I think the hammer will probably almost never happen), but with how closely Ulrich will probably play alongside his Blood Puppet and how many options he has to weaponize it out of a grab game or just abuse its close proximity to him, its honestly not as bad as it might appear at first glance from the numbers. I will say the set's not perfect, Smady pointed out Down Smash feels a little strange animation-wise and while I generally like the move I agree with him, and there's an interaction or two that feels superfluous here or there. That said, this is a pretty impressive realization of a genre that was arguably spammed half to death last contest in the Cuphead movement, but honestly still manages to feel at all fresh here. I think its that you didn't rely on a lot of typical projectile patterns, the set actually has zero reflectors in it despite being a bullet hell set. That's genuinely kind of impressive.
Here's my first entry into this dumb contest thing.
ABRIDGED YUGI MAKES A SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME APPEARANCE
Entrance: Making The Jump
Abridged Yugi from the background on a platform on a horse runs and jumps off it onto the Battlefield & the horse falls to its death.
Neutral B: Mind Crush
Abridged Yugi unleashes the dark power from his millennium puzzle in a short burst, this burst can absorb projectile moves & thrown items, if you wait for a while the puzzle starts to glow. If you use Mind Crush while the Puzzle glowing, you can use a more powerful version of Mind Crush, that will stun opponents and deal a massive amount of damage. (6% (No Glow), 14% (Glow))
Side B: King Of Shuffling
A. Yugi will shuffle his deck, but since he's terrible at it, some of his cards will fly out in the direction you pressed the button in, sometimes the cards will fly out in the opposite direction, and above or below him. If one of the cards lands on the ground, it will become a slip trap (4% per card)
Up B: The Phresh Pharaoh of Bel-Air
A. Yugi sits down on his throne, the throne will go upwards and rotate slowly. A. Yugi can stop this move with a simple press of the B button, it'll stop at around 8 seconds. Think of this move as a slightly nerfed version of the Herlelin assist trophy from brawl.
Down B: Kuriboh
Abridged Yugi summons Kuriboh, with Kuriboh, By pressing a button on the d-pad, Abridged Yugi will command it. By pressing Left or Right, Kuriboh charges at an opponent closes to it and bites their leg, the opponent however can shake Kuriboh off. Pressing Up will cause Kuriboh to create a rainbow bridge, which will magically damage opponents that come into contact with it and will extend your Smash Attacks. Pressing Down will separate Kuriboh into the Kuriboh Brothers, They will hover around Abridged Yugi, & anyone that comes into contact with them will be hit, They will remain around you for 6 seconds. (4% per Bite (Side))
Final Smash: Berzerker Soul
Abridged Yugi summons Breaker The Magical Warrior and then activates Berzerker Soul, A. Yugi will draw a card from his deck, if it's a monster then Breaker attacks, The number of monster cards he draws depends on what percentage he's at, for example... If A. Yugi has about 50% he will draw 5 monster cards. (20% per Monster Card)
Okay, SO, Washizu. I thought the set was...okay. The Mahjong mechanic and how it works is pretty legitimately interesting, but I feel like it is lacking in some areas. First off, I feel like the payoff is kinda low. There's his Up Special, which is admittedly, pretty good, his blood drawing through, kiiiind of the KO throw but that's more based on the foe and F-Smash. This mechanic is significantly more involved and complex than, say, Cloud's Limit Break and yet affects the same number of moves. I feel like given how central this mechanic is to Washizu, it should do more to his set.
The other thing is the Mahjong mechanic is mostly interesting in the context of having a good set to fight the foe, as the way you generate your resource in this case is fighting the opponent. This means that Washizu's melee and general fighting is going to be central to enjoying him and that there's the push and pull of "move i want to use" and "Move that finishes my hand". Inherent tension, basically. And you actually do something good with this in making 1 move in each section hard to complete due to having one move that isn't easy to hit with. One of the problems I have though is that Washizu's fighting outside the Mahjong is...pretty boring? I wasn't able to get much of a sense of how Washizu wants to actually fight the foe in the aerials or ESPECIALLY the standards, which felt fairly weak. The ball and chain feels like an out of nowhere addition especially since, as far as I know, it is basically a flashback thing. Why does the plastic "toy" ball and chain have iron spikes in it, anyway? Why does it do the damage it does when the spikes don't pop out and why doesn't he pop them out for the Jab?
In general the problem I have with the melee is it feels like it lacks a point and is using slopes as a crutch to have something to say. The gold itself doesn't even feel that well layered into the set, and then kind of comes around for some lame interactions in the standards that don't feel especially worth it? is Washizu REALLY able to take advantage of the rare chance that he uses his Up Tilt at a purely upward angle, especially given he is (rightfully) not a terraformer? I feel like he needs a stronger base playstyle outside of the Mahjong because gaining the Mahjong tile pieces directly requires fighting the opponent, so that meat needs to be fun.
To that end, someting I would suggest for "moves that are hard to land for full Mahjong hands" is to make them more SITUATIONAL than, say, just plain bad in the Dash Attack's case, and then think of ways to play off of those situations in the rest of the set. For example, a move that is good for catching out an air dodge or roll, and so Washizu wants to use his moves/threaten to use moves that bait the opponent into doing so, and now the opponent has to think if Washizu wants to actually hit wit hthe move or is using it to bait and complete his hand. Not only does this create an interesting gameplay function, but it even fits the flavor of these kind of Mahjong manga with back-and-forth plotting and "what if he knows i know" kind of things.
Another option is, for example, to make it so some of his harder to land moves can be combo'd into...but in return he loses a longer combo or a more damaging option. So Washizu needs to weigh if he wants to go for the hard to hit move to complete his hand OR if he wants more damage fast, basically the same risk vs. reward you talk about in the opening of what Washizu is suggested by the minions vs. risky decisions. This also helps add tension and decision-making to Washizu's overall gameplan even if he doesn't have a full match of Mahjong or what have you.
I, personally, would remove the ball and chain on the Standards and give him more Mahjong-y attacks, kiiind of like the Up Smash. Given Washizu's biggest trait is that he is an Old Mahjong Rich Guy and whatnot, it feels a lot more natural for him to do that. I wouldn't even mind if he just, I dunno, pulled out a large Mahjong piece and hit the foe with it. Phoenix Wright can get away with stuff like this in MvC3, we've had PW sets get away with it as an example, and it feels like the kind of character where this propiness is justified. The ball and chain attacks feel out of place, especially since the weapon makes no appearance before the last section (hell, he uses a lance before then!) and why id it even plastic anyway?
I would consider removing the gold Special entirely. Or if you keep it, intergrating it more into the playstyle, or hell making it more "Washizu can spend his hard earned fortune to Do A Thing". Right now it doesn't feel like it connects into most of his playstyle is a satisfactory way to me. I would consider actually making this Special into a big, flashy attack based on the Mahjong mechanic. Like, these Mahjong plays usually have a character reveal their BIG HAND with a FLASHY NAME AND LOTS OF DRAMA, so what if Washizu simply had a move where he called his hand and its power varied on what he had. Maybe even add in a hand for having 9 DIFFERENT tiles since IIRC that is a Mahjong thing, or just to represent Ultra Rare Mahjong Hands or what have you. It would fit thematically and give Washizu a big chance to cash in on managing his Mahjong mechanic well. If yu want an extra reason of why the hand does this super damage, give it the POWER OF THE GOOOOODS or some ****.
Off the top of my head, some other thoughts: Washizu's nose in Up Aerial is his 4th strongest kill move. Given F-Smash is ultra laggy, Dash Attack is intentionally bad and his kill throw requires the opponent's stale moves, Washizu's main kill move is his nose. This seems Slightly Odd. The flavor of Neutral Aerial is going to be super hard to convey in the actual game and so just look like Washizu keeps punching his fist into a mirror on a reasonably spammed move. Taking out a minion JUST for FAir feels kind of bizarre, like if King Dedede took out a Waddle Dee for UAir or some ****. I think expanding the cane mechanic past just the throw could be interesting and add more to the cane moves if breaking them on different moves did things or contributed to the throw break. Down Aerial implies the shockwave deals 17% damage, this is stupid on an old man hitting the ground with a spear. Washizu is bizarrely heavy for an old Mahjong playing rich guy, equal to a big swordsman who wields a two handed sword with one hand and a character whose major defining trait is fat. Being an antagonist does not make you 8th in weight by default.
You already saw this when I posted it before, but despite the negativity I wouldn't call Washizu bad...just ultimately a pretty average set that suffers heavily from some flaws.
I’d like to highlight a section of a comment from user Jakisthe, a disclaimer of sorts.
“Before I get into this, I want to break down a bit of how I approach these. What I’m looking for is three things at first:
-How well does it fit in Smash: Does it seem like it’s a bunch of Smash moves, or is this an ASW game. To this end, there is a sort of ‘maximum complication’ calculus I do; any given move in Smash 4 (or Ultimate) can be very complicated, but very rarely do we see every move be very complicated. Some characters might have Smash specials or ranged smash moves, but it’s less common that, say, every special can be smashed. With system elegance being a prime consideration for the series, this is key.
-How well does the character get represented: Are they doing something entirely crazy? Is it all out of, well, character? Is it focusing only on one aspect of the character and not really the entirety of what they represent (not what they can do, as characters typically can do quite a bit more moves than a Smash set allows).
-Is it mechanically interesting: We might have a character who only shoots bullets, and that’s certainly not a particularly wonky move, but if there’s nothing but linear projectiles, that’s…uh…less positive. Add detail! Moves can get canceled out, moves can have special properties, and moves can work in unexpected ways. Also I mean here is that simply adding a bunch of status effects to something which is otherwise quite basic, well, that can seem like a crutch to me. If it’s 3 types of lasers, one with fire, one with dark, and one with freeze, well, why not mix it up? The balancing act here with point 1 is tricky but pretty important.
And then I go from there. Those 3 areas aren’t to call out anyone, just wanted to give an intro before I get into the swing of things with Paper Mario by Munomario777 (does that work?).”
All these points have merit, and I share Jakisthe’s perspective here, as they are questions I keep in mind while I read a moveset. I’d like to point out that this disclaimer is an excellent way of conveying to the author of the set and others who read one’s comment exactly what one’s perspective is on movesets. There’s no obscurity as to what Jakisthe was looking for, as they laid it all out going right into it. This helps stimulate feedback and reduces the age-old habit of taking pieces of someone’s comment and turning them into these little soundbites that they’ll drop repeatedly to warp the author into appearing as someone they’re not.
I would like to add a couple of other goals, sort of an addendum to Jakisthe’s bullet points. When I approach a moveset, I try to find something neat in every moveset, instead of getting angry that not everybody is willing to play by precisely my rules. You might notice that I’m not terribly harsh in my previous comments if I dislike the set, and I will always praise the author for what pieces I do like of their moveset. There may not be many, but I at least owe them that praise. I believe in positive reinforcement, and if I put the whole moveset down like a sickly dog behind the wood shed then they wouldn’t be inspired to improve on the bad while retaining the good. I think that if I had posted my first moveset and all I received in return was scathing criticism I wouldn’t be terribly inclined to continue writing. I’m sure there’s some people who would write another moveset out of spite, as in “Oh you don’t like that, huh? Well I’ll get better and then I’ll show you! I’ll show you all!” If that’s you, bravo on building a tesla coil for the school science fair after Spike told you that your potato battery didn’t have what it takes to beat the sleek platinum battery he made with all that money he has. YEAH SPIKE, THAT “MALFUNCTION” WAS INTENTIONAL, I HOPE THE BURNS LEFT A SCAR.
The second (fifth?) point I’d like to convey with my comments is understanding what the author’s perspective and goals are. I try to figure out what the writer considers important in a moveset, and why they wrote it like they did. I can tell if you made your moveset to the best of your ability according to your standards, and if you didn’t, I know if you can improve. Everyone has potential to grow, and there is a point where I stop trying to give advice on what to improve on and start just saying what I personally found enjoyable out the moveset. If your moveset isn’t what I personally like, that doesn’t mean you’re too stupid to make it my way – it just means that you have a different idea of what makes a good moveset. I try to appreciate that different people have different styles in MYMing, and different values. It is Make YOUR Move, not Make MY Move, after all. MMM? That’s just a silly acronym. Not great for branding. It doesn’t roll off the tongue at all.
Lastly, and bear with me because there are actual comments after this, I look for a good reading experience. Reading experience is sort of a catch-all description for presentation, writing style, and comprehension. I think of MYM sometimes as a parallel to GameFAQs. Remember GameFAQs? For the young’uns reading this, GameFAQs was once the bastion of gaming strategy, where any author could write a walkthrough for a video game in Notepad. They were beautifully written too, the best ones. ASCII art, table of contents, authors who wrote like they were and actual human being and not some robot or video games journalist who never played the damn thing beyond the first six hours. These wonderful souls knew the game inside and out and passed that knowledge down to us fledgeling squires looking up cheat codes for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or a walkthrough of Pokemon Ruby on our mom and dad’s dial-up when we were done playing Runescape for the day (which was never. Pop had to pull me off Runescape.) And oh yes, there were forums on GameFAQs... and some of the discussion that went on there was about as bad as the old days of MYM. I shudder to remember them.
Anyway, that’s an elaborate analogy but that’s what if felt like back then. What I’m getting at is that I think that movesets are kind of like a GameFAQs guide and there are aspects of them we can emulate. Presented clearly, well written, entertaining to read, and informative. They convey all the information you need to understand the moveset, and some have much more detail and information than others. Is the moveset with lesser detail worse than the one with more? Some would argue yes, but those are the same people who look for the more elaborate and complete walkthroughs. I used to read walkthroughs by one author (Yes, there were even cults of personality back then too!) that didn't necessarily have the stats on every single weapon in the game, but all the information I wanted was there, and the way he wrote it entertained me.
Conversely, there were a few walkthroughs that I read that I disliked: They had poor writing style, didn’t include all the information I was looking for, and were just presented rather boringly. How this all loops back to the point I was making was they were a poor reading experience. A moveset is more than just a collection of moves, their data presented factually and as-is. A moveset is a guide to your character, a walkthrough of something that didn’t exist until you willed it into existence. If you’ve ever read House of Leaves, think of the reader as Johnny Truant, the author as Zampanò, the moveset as The Navidson Record, and the character as the house. If you haven’t read House of Leaves, let me recommend you the best piece of ergodic literature ever written. Seriously. Go get it from a bookstore with your Christmas money.
Alright, essay is done. I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my mind, and better understand where I’m coming from. I don't like the idea that movesets can be directly compared along set standard of quality, as everyone makes the sets they want, and I'm satisfied with that. I might encourage you to do more things that I’d like to see, but other than that, just keep doing whatever makes you happy. I want everybody to do things the way that gets them the most pleasure without coming under fire for it. I don’t think there’s only one correct way to make your moves, as it would be kind of boring if everything was homogenous. Every MYMer’s work is a patch in a great quilt of these threads, and I think the best way to approach sets is to distill what the essence of each MYMer is and understand it from that perspective.
I don't know how much of Aromage Rosemary’s backstory and personality you came up with yourself because all I can find on her is just the card you have displayed at the beginning of the moveset and some fanart. I assume a deck using her gave you some inspiration too, but I have a high regard for people who can squeeze a well-crafted moveset out of such limited source material. As a side note, the moveset's introduction ends with "Will this be enough to get her through all the HMAs of MYM20?" I can only assume you wrote this in MYM20 and forgot to change that line.
The first paragraph of her special mechanic kind of seems like a "win-more" mechanic to me. I mean obviously everyone wants to be at a lower percentage than their opponent, save for the weirdo characters out there. If Rosemary's player is healthier than their opponent, you (the moveset creator) don't need to mechanically reward the player. The idea of not getting hit is a fundamental aspect of fighting games that will wire itself into every player. If you're lower than the opponent, you're already ahead and getting a bonus is just even more crippling. Conversely, if you're already more damaged than the opponent, you're already behind and can't use the mechanic anyway.
I don't like some of the ways the aroma cloud behaves. The part where they linger for a set amount of time in place then just float straight instead of simply dispersing doesn't follow the logic of how I would expect the aroma to work. I don't understand why an aroma cloud cancels momentum- does the scent of flowers stop Bowser as he flies through it at 70 miles per hour? I do like that the cloud can cancel Rosemary's attacks like a sort of smelling salt. This is a pretty unique tool for a combo character to have!
I originally thought this moveset was written by FrozenRoy when I came upon it while skimming down the page, and for good reason. This is a very well-done tribute to Froy and written in a style heavily reminiscent of one of his movesets: heavy detail, a deep move interaction web, and moves with branching that make them seem like multiple moves in one. If that's what you were aiming for, well done! I think your own style suits you well but there's definitely traits from this you can integrate into your own writing. The set has an impressive eye for detail and has many technical layers that you go out of your way to point out. This sort of writing style isn't a light read by any means but will definitely appeal to veterans who have both a long attention stamina and an eye for servicing the Smash game engine, such as the two people who commented it before I did.
On that note I would say that if you had done this style for a character that's more in line with your usual character choices (obscure anime characters, often girls) I don't think many people would dedicate the time and effort to giving Rosemary a careful read. Thankfully, the ideas behind her and her source material are interesting enough to draw those readers in. The moveset is very informative and factual but doesn't have the voice you display so prominently in your other movesets. Rosemary's moveset is so dense, unemotional, and wordy for an eighteen-year-old girl who is supposedly "known for her optimism and motherliness" that it's almost oppressively ironic. None of her personality, or yours for that matter, expresses itself through your prose. It's why I mistook it for someone else at first, even at a glance. You have a very unique flavor that distinguishes your movesets from everyone else.
Several moves you included met my expectations going into the moveset, especially with their properties. Aromas being affected by windboxes is one of them. I suppose this makes up for the strange behavior of the aromas in the first place, so I'm going to assume you intended for windboxes to affect the aromas as they were floating upwards after their four seconds were up, and there's a way to utilize that specific maneuver that I'm just not catching on to. Aroma Garden behaves more or less like I think it should, but its brevity compared to the rest of the moveset makes it seem like I'm missing something. Also maybe it's just because of you posting it right after Hidan, but Aroma Garden feels like it was inspired by the Jashin blood circle... or maybe vice-versa? Rosemary doesn't feel like she needs to be in it as much as Hidan needs to be in his circle, but the stationary playstyle seems like a running thread with your movesets, Kat.
Last nitpick: her grab game. Your use of "astral" and "aroma" as vine descriptors make me think these aren't physical plants but more of a psychic, magical manifestation in the form of vines. Like a Hermit Purple or Holy's Stand situation. I just had to sneak in a Jojo's reference. If this is the case, wouldn't it make more sense both considering her Aroma Garden and the text on the card itself to make them actual plants she grows? If they are actual vines and I'm just rambling, ignore this. Anyway, you've done an impressive achievement stepping up your game and improving Kat, and I feel like this set is actual growth for you. You're beyond the point of improving in huge increments, now it's all about applying your skills to an idea and character people will go wild for. Great job!
Reading Guzma's Golisopod after Rosemary is almost a metaphorical representation of stepping out of Rosemary's oppressive aroma clouds and taking a breath of air. It's practically a U-Turn in terms of the reader experience, even though Golisopod can't learn U-Turn. This drastic change is almost certainly due to the 5K set challenge. It does look deceptively short and easy to read, but the amount of Smash jargon condensed inside it doesn't allow one to simply skim, as they'd simply be lost. More on this in a minute.
First Impression makes a good, well, first impression. Interacting with Smash mechanics like move staling while still keeping it incredibly relevant to Guzma's Golisopod's playstyle is the absolute smartest way to make a boring move interesting. It just works, as a certain developer would say. I could see Sakurai implementing a move like this. It's completely in-line with the idea of the move too, and the opponent will have to think about it at all points in the match. Obviously you want to lead with it to start putting it in the queue, but your foe knows this and can play around it. A computer foe might not know this and playing against one would be different than a human, despite the move not having any superficial "mind games" going for it like a move with that kind of distinction would. I love First Impression, despite its innocent and simple appearance.
Brevity is the soul of wit, but your adherence to the 5K challenge results in you having no room for voice, resulting in a moveset that is ironically as impersonal as the wordy Rosemary! I do appreciate the light read it provides, as it's a much more digestible moveset as a result of its length, but not because of the technical lingo. Very little of each move describes how the attack actually looks, more of it is dedicated to function. Your writing style tends to be lacking in areas due to word restrictions, as you have several incomplete sentences in the moveset. "Rears a watery arm. Hunkers down and becomes watery before charging forth slowly. Lowers its guard for 60 frames and counters between frames 5-25." If we ignore the Final Smash and introduction, the lack of voice doesn't carry over any of what makes this Guzma's Golisopod. It could be any trainer's! You missed out on some humorous characterization that I would have expected from one of your sets, like Hidan.
I love how you not only mention Smash terms in the moveset which continues the growth in gamesense I've gotten from reading these, but also that you link examples for those who are less-inclined to know these things. Not everyone knows what ledge cancelling is, for instance, but you have a nifty link to help them learn it. After all these years you still write movesets to be both fun and educational, a perspective you were ridiculed for in the past. You're one of the veterans who has consistently stuck to your guns and haven't let anyone change your most important values. That's really great.
One move I question the usefulness of is the Spite version of Sucker Punch. The only way to get a benefit from this is for you to use the counter multiple times in a row and at specific times in the opponent's attack frames. I wouldn't say this is impossible to pull off normally, but it makes Golisopod incredibly predictable for a payoff that... isn't that great. You need a moveset that really benefits from staling, and I mean really benefits, for this to work. To the average player, they won't even care if their moves are stale. I would be interested to see how a Guzma's Golispod and Knuckles Washizu game would go, either against each other or doubles.
As a last note, the Final Smash is quite lengthy compared to the rest of the moveset, it's almost like it was from a completely different one. Perhaps it could have been boiled down to something half as short to give the rest of the moveset some more fat. Then again, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting as a "finale" to the moveset. Good job writing a set within character constraints, either way!
Paper Witch Mintis just an adorable moveset that I like quite a lot. I don't know if it's the toolbox-style neutral special, the cutesy-little creations she summons, or the chaotic nature of the moveset that I like the most. Maybe it's all three? There's certainly a lot to like here. Your writing style, for instance, makes a very light and entertaining read that's easier to follow along with than practically any set I've read so far. The way you describe attacks is just so flowing and understandable, not at all bogged down with hefty detail or advanced Smash jargon. The reader can understand how the moves work without having to decipher it.
The neutral special... ah the neutral special. I love toolbox-style moves like this. I'm sure a lot of other MYMers do as well, seeing as toolbox sets have traditionally been successful in the past but the way Mint uses it is really clever. All of her moves interact with it and some do in much cleverer ways than I'd anticipate (the grab, for instance). Turning specific moves into throwing items is a concept I don't think has ever been done before... except maybe in Junahu's TAC. The set turns these cutesy and vibrant hitboxes into a chaotic whirlwind of stage control that I just love.
Speaking of chaos, Mint's prankster personality shines through in the attacks. She does quite a lot through these paper magic attacks, and many of them turn over the usual rules of engagement in Smash. Fighting with her would be like fighting chaos itself. She doesn't discriminate when it comes to attacks; she'll slice her own attacks in half, toss them around, destroy her scrolls, it doesn't matter to Mint. Chaos doesn't care. It would be certainly chaotic with her on the stage. I mean, how do you even maneuver around all these frogs, windboxes, logs she throws out... and aerial smashes? What heresy is this? She goes against the laws of Smash! Shows her disregard for rules and order.
Mint's personality really shines through in the moveset. You really show your talent for crafting these OCs, UserShadow. It's full of personality and friendliness. Little notes here and there in the set really draw the reader in and make them want to know Mint better. You take care to make sure her characterization is consistent and you have plenty of room for voice, even when remaining within 5K! I do adore those taunts especially. What a perfect way to wrap up the moveset. The playstyle section, too, I must commend you for. Thanks for writing a very helpful guide for the reader. Your moveset, devoid of visual imagery, makes up for that with a guide that knows exactly what it's talking about and clears up any confusion the reader may have. Great work, UserShadow!
I need more roguelike-inspired movesets in my life. Movesets like Baron Von Guu. You've certainly nailed down the character, it looks like. Baron Von Guu feels like a Snidely Whiplashian villain with all the evil laughs, animations, alliteration, and minions you've written for him. He's certainly not a serious villain, is he? Our Baron is more like the kind of villain you see get beaten time and time again and come back next time with more dastardly devices to defeat our heroes. Very fitting of Flinthook, too, which as I remember was a kind of Saturday Morning Cartoon-style game about our plucky space captain.
Unfortunately for all the "slime" based attacks, they certainly don't feel like slime to me. The hitboxes are slime in visual only, not function. They don't behave like slime at all, or any kind of liquid, save for a spare mention of "frothy" and their interaction with the "Liquidators" and Baron Von Guu's head sloshing around. One could make a case for the Liquidators not behaving like slime or goo or any kind of liquid either, really- their hitboxes are transcendant and attacks with slime could be substituted for pretty much any other kind of energy, such as ectoplasmic, nuclear, or even solar. Imagine, if you would, the Liquidators being made of light; the slime pellets being light pellets as in Mega Man; and even the signature beam from his boss fight acting as a solar beam. The main argument against this is of course the interaction between the goo attacks and the Liquidators themselves, which I think is quite brilliant.
This interaction is the main attraction of the moveset and what makes it feel so unique. It kind of reminds me of a Kamekian-style moveset where you summon a minion, use attacks on it to grow it, and then get a payoff from it being big. In this case it has several tiers of strength from the result of your attacks which I think is pretty neat design choice. You say that the biggest reward is the huge Liquidator, but you allow different players with different playstyles to use the Liquidators in their own way. For instance, I'm quite fond of the small Liquidators that pursue the foe and accumulate damage over time, a constant status effect that's detrimental and puts them on their toes, constantly harassing them. That's the kind of player I am.
Baron Von Guu's other attacks compliment him quite nicely. The lightning attacks, for instance, really scream "villain" especially the tesla coils on his smash, and there's something really comical about Von Guu taking off his head and using it as an exaggerated soccer ball. The "self-knockback" clause on it is a very smart design decision that I appreciate. I'm not that fond of his Caltrops as I think he has plenty of stage control already but they were lifted straight from the boss battle so I don't blame you for including them.
I do like that the moveset carries over some of the tense pace of Von Guu's boss fight. For reference, the fight had Flinthook constantly jumping onto hooks to avoid a myriad of imminent projectiles and beams, and the floor itself was dangerous, giving staying on the move a stressful priority. I think Von Guu plays similarly here; if the foe stays still the Liquidators will catch up to them and they'll be at a disadvantage. Most of Von Guu's best attacks are on the ground which means they'll want to approach from the air and chase him in the air. The barrage of slime pellets, beams, and his own head even make the fight a bullet hell. All in all, a very funny and well-characterized take on Von Guu that shows off your very easy-going, flowing move interactions.
I have been meaning to write a comment for Ulrich Hetfield for quite some time, but I wanted to give it a more careful read before I conveyed my thoughts on it. Apologies, Froy. The good news is I can echo the praise so many people have given Ulrich. The set is perhaps the poster child for your brand, and shows off all the things that make your movesets great.
You know how I said that your moves often feel like multiple moves masquerading as one? In this set it's fairly obvious because of a dense interaction web involving the Blood Puppets. The Blood Puppets are clearly the star of the show here, and Ulrich is fairly content to sit back and support them. It fits his character that you've crafted fairly well; I would have loved more "iconoclast" and less "vampire" but the evil minister side of him shines fairly well in the playstyle as he manipulates his minions. He gives them a command (projectile) then they regurgitate that command (projectile) like the mindless drones they are. Ulrich suffers from his congregation being attack, but only half of that damage. He will sometimes reward them with his own lifeblood and sustain them but he's equally ready to dispose of them when they provide a benefit to him. Did he really need to be that edgy, however? Blood, Metallica, scythes, atheism, demon/angel wings, and anime... 13-year-old me would be in love with this guy.
The density and depth of your move interactions is very impressive and you seek out describing an interaction with practically everything. This sometimes comes as a detriment to the reading experience, as the moveset is so dense and heavy it's a test of endurance to read in one sentence. The minion-altering throw is quite possibly the worst/best example of this, as it feels like its own moveset in a way. This isn't anything too terribly bad, it's just not that friendly or welcoming. Some of the interactions are insane in scope of move interactions, such as the throw that Ulrich can set up three other moves to set up a kill combo with. The other projectile-absorbing interactions and the blood puddles really squeezes the most out of this singular minion-focused playstyle. I do love Ulrich, but I must say that I don't feel the desire to read another set with this playstyle after this monster of a read. Perhaps I feel like it's been done to death, or maybe I have this creeping feeling that moveset authors would like to turn what would be a normal character concept into something deeper by adding a minion, trap, or other paraphernalia that they can apply their attacks to to complicate things. Think of it as a "Build-A-Bear Workshop" playstyle, if you know what I mean.
I'm not quite as fond of the grab game as others, although I do recognize how impressive it is. It's mainly the mechanical difference between the pummel and the second part of the Neutral Special when attached to a Blood Puppet. It looks to me like they're the same attack, but the Pummel has a significant difference in effect than the Side Special. Why is it "cracked" now? Why does it gain weight and make shockwaves, when it doesn't in the Side Special? Also, the interaction between "stacking" blood in the Down Throw I just... don't get. I assume it has to do with the pummel, which is reasonable. The pummel never mentions "stacks", and its added weight fades away; the modifications from the Down Throw add even more weight than the weight added from their threshold requirement, and this weight never goes away. The very first modifications (the wings) require two seconds of pumped blood which would give the Blood Puppet two more units of weight but the wings themselves add three units. Also do they stack with the blood pumped in by the pummel? Will the modification's weight be added on or subtracted from the weight from the pummel? I don't quite understand how "upgrading" one of the new features works either; I assume you use the down throw multiple times on the same Blood Puppet. If that's so, I don't know if you must pump the required amount of blood from the pummel into it prior to using the throw every time, or if you can upgrade it for free every time. It seems like a lot of investment for very little payoff, even though the move is quite a cool bit of interaction with Ulrich and his minions. Perhaps I'm not quite groking it due to the sheer density of information provided?
A few minor notes that may just be typing errors that can be easily fixed before I close. The dash attack makes Ulrich travel half the length of Battlefield as it's currently worded: "Hetfield usually goes about half of a Battlefield, but there are a few ways to change this." I assume you meant to write Battlefield platform. The secondary grab uses the A button, which I believe you meant to write Z button: "Hetfield is rather unique in having a second grab: if A is held, Hetfield will hold an open palm and release a huge spray of blood..." If not, well, it would be helpful to know at what point you hold A.
Final thoughts: Awesome job, Froy. You crafted a fine OC that serves the playstyle, and a fine moveset that was made with an interesting idea and playstyle that serves the character. Neither of them are quite endearing on their own, but they compliment each other so well that the moveset works wonderfully. You clearly had a blast writing it, and it feels like a sustained idea formulated from the spirit of music. I do love those song references. It's quite a lot to wrap your head around, but when you finally get what every move does in relation to the blood puppets you get a satisfying read. The focus on projectiles and interactions isn't that much of a detriment, although some move interactions feel contrived in places. Notably as some people have pointed out, is the Down Smash. My recommendation would be to perhaps change the DK clap to a fist emerging from the Blood Puppet in a Bayonetta-style fashion. Other than that, awesome job Froy; this eclipses everything else I've read from you this contest.
As an aside, I've updated my Moveset Rankings on page 4. My grading system is pretty similar to Froy's, but I give slight more weight to pet movesets.
Thanks for the replies Khold! It's good to hear your comments, they have an eye for the less gameplay-orientated details like characterisation and presentation.
Indeed, Rosemary was intended to be posted in MYM20, but I didn't think she was good enough at the time and she wasn't quite finished yet. In any case, this contest is likely to have a lot less competition! I practically made up her backstory, just like I did with my other yugioh set Madolche Majeleine. The way I described her "personality" didn't have a strong impression on me, so I wasn't able to convey it into the set very well. In my mind, her personality would probably be that of a stereotypical magical girl. She may as well be an OC for all intents and purposes.
The Guzma observation about him not having a presence in the set itself is a good one, and something I was rather aware of when making the set. I'll be sure to remember this if I do another trainer set. Perhaps it would help if the trainer in question had a theme that could be conveyed in the Pokemon itself, like a Kahili set having Toucannon fly out like a golf ball or swing its wings like a golf club. It would probably help if the trainers had animations like with Pokemon Trainer.
"What are you talking about? I am me. Nobody else!"
No. XIII Roxas, the Key of Destiny
#13 of the Organization, Roxas is the newest member of it: He is the Nobody of Sora and was created under special circumstances. To be specific, he was created when Sora became a Heartless in Kingdom Hearts 1 to release Kairi's heart. This makes Roxas the only Nobody whose normal self is a person and not a Heartless (Ansem, Seeker of Darkness is sentient but still a Heartless): This has rather lasting impacts on Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II and the franchise as a whole. Namine, it should be noted, was made from the same incident. The fact that Sora became a normal person again means Roxas was born without memories, not knowing who his Somebody was: Given that Nobodies' tend to default to mimicking the emotions of their original self, it also means he was quite off to begin with. Seeing as he is playable in his own game, 358/2 Days (...yeah just roll with the Kingdom Hearts titles already) in addition to the prologue of Kingdom Hearts II he is more explored as a character than random one-offs like Lexaeus, Xaldin or Demyx.
I won't go into the entire plot, this is merely an intro after all, but 358/2 Days in specific covers Roxas' time in Organization XIII and his bizarre, and at times rather toxic (they're emotionless beings, what can you expect?), friendship between himself, Axel and Xion. Xion being a "Nobody" non-member of Organization XIII who was actually made from a comatose Sora's memories...yeah don't think about it too much. Roxas is shown to be rather quick to anger, headstrong when it comes to finding out about himself and the mysteries surrounding the Organization, but still childish and not exactly one with the brains to figure out the absurdity that is Kingdom Heart's plot. The game ends with Roxas killing Xion, by Xion's own plan, leaving Organization XIII and being captured by Riku after a long fight (which was foreshadowed way back with Another Story, Another Dive (AKA Deep Dive), a video which may have caused more wild theories than about any game preview ever). Riku and DiZ then put Roxas in a virtual Twilight Town ehile wiping his memory to prepare him for merging back with Sora after the events of Chain of Memories: This is because Roxas, as Sora's Nobody, is holding half of his power and they need Sora to take on the Organization (and DiZ considers Roxas less than nothing due to his hatred for Nobodies. Riku wants his friend back, mostly).
This plan gets derailed because Axel, on orders from Organization XIII plus his own personal friendship with Roxas, crashes into the program and tries to get Roxas to join the Organization again...well, or to kill him, because the Organization ordered him too. Or to go with him and also not go back to the Organization. Axel is rather conflicted in what to do at this point is what I am getting at. Things fail, especially since Roxas really doesn't much know what is going on, and Roxas ends up rather forced into a position to merge back with Sora. Later in the game, Roxas fights with Sora for his right to exist and implied to take over Sora's body and live again (Sora wins, of course), and finally in one last scene to make peace with Sora and fully, truly merge with him...which when Sora learns all the details, especially in Dream Drop Distance, makes Sora quite uncomfortable: It is all but stated one of the major goals of Sora in Kingdom Hearts III is to find a way to release Roxas and truly let him live his life.
Roxas' element is Light, a contrast with the Organization who tend towards darkness: Roxas in specific is associated with the light of sunset (and to a lesser degree sunrise, but mostly sunset). His light powers most prominently include up to 13 "light lasers" emblazoned with Organization XIII's symbols and the ability to dash with a bright light akin to a Len's Flare which makes him hard to read. Roxas dual wields keyblades, although for some time he can only wield one, and specifically always dual wields Oathkeeper and Oblivion. This is because these two keyblades symbolize Sora's bonds in life: Oathkeeper symbolizes Kairi and the promise made with her on the Destiny Islands, Oblivion symbolizes Riku, his bond with darkness and the literal oblivion of Riku and Sora's homes. Roxas' style is as stylishly combo-centric as most any keyblade wielder, but he tends to brute force things quite a bit and has a more direct style compared to Sora.
/ Statistics \
Roxas is a middleweight, but at the higher end of it much like Sora: Roxas' weight is tied with Corrin at 98. Roxas is quite fast at dashing, being equal to Cloud for the 10th highest dashing speedi n the game. His walking speed is more mediocre, tied with Corrin, Roy and Yoshi for almost exactly middle of the road. Roxas fights in a slightly crouched position like his KHII fight and has an overall size which can be compared to Pit. Traction is quite low, being equal to Pit and Dark Pit for 38th.
Aerially, Roxas has a fairly high air speed equal to Cloud during limit, while having fairly solid but not amazing aerial control. He is quite floaty, being between Villager and Zelda/Olimar. Gravity is equal to Villager. This would place him at 46th. Roxas has a total of four jumps: His ground jump and second jump are good, but not amazing. His last two jumps do not go especially far, but can be good for combo continuation and small corrections (and recovery, of course). Nothing else special to talk about, for now.
/ Specials \
"The Keyblade...a truly marvelous weapon. Were it only in more...capable hands..."
/ Up Special: Sunset's Approach \
Roxas dashes in a chosen location, light glaring off of his body: As you can see, this gives it a look like a len's flare. Roxas dashes about the length of one Quick Attack dash (Pikachu dashes twice, remember), although unlike Pikachu he does not disappear as seen above. After the single dash, Roxas can do one of three things: He can do nothing, which causes him to take minimal ending lag as the move ends. Roxas does not enter helpless when the move ends and can use any jumps he has remaining, although he cannot use the Up Special again barring the usual like getting hit. Roxas can use his Up Special again before the ending lag to perform a second dash ala Pikachu's Quick Attack, which causes Roxas to dash again for the same distance. Roxas does not enter helpless and follows the same rules as the first dash, albeit with slightly longer ending lag. Roxas dashes at a slightly slower speed than Pikachu during his Quick Attack. Overall, a pretty good recovery that along with his multiple jumps makes Roxas quite hard to edgeguard and so he can be harder to kill than you'd expect a 98 weight to be.
Ah, but then there is the third option. You can perform an attack instead, forfeiting the chance to dash again in order to strike. This might not sound all that interesting given the fact the move has low ending lag, but Roxas briefly keeps the len's flare effect when using an attack like this. In other words, the opponent can't tell what Roxas is doing. Roxas would be wise to utilize this move to trick the opponent and make them unsure of themselves: Dash in, then dash back out. Dash in, stay in place when they go to defend and grab them. Punish them for attempting to chase you by instead attacking them. Roxas has strong mobility with this move and that makes it difficult to defend against. At the same time if you're using this to just attack, then you're adding the lag of starting the move and dashing to the mix, and the move does at least have some average starting lag. It's a movement ability all about trickery, so do not get predictable. The flare lasts for roughly as long as the Up Special's ending lag does: Laggier moves might not be completely concealed, but that doesn't mean the opponent has enough time to defend on instinct. Since the movement is fast, Roxas can also use this in combos, most commonly more aerial based: Roxas can even bluff he is going for a true combo move and go for a riskier option to catch an opponent unaware.
/ Neutral Special: Strike Raid \
Roxas takes one of his Keyblades, which one depends on which side he faces and is purely aesthetic, and tosses it in a chosen direction (forward, by default) and sends it spinning as a projectile. It spins vertically-aligned. It travels 1.5 Battlefield Platforms before stopping and returning to where Roxas is when its movement ends: It will bounce off of surfaces in a manner like Link's boomerang. Throwing the Keyblade takes some time and the ending lag is not the best, but neither are horribly laggy: It just means it is something which is punishable. The Keyblade travels at about the speed of Link's boomerang.
The keyblade has two different hitboxes when it is out. When it is outgoing/thrown, it is a single hitbox that deals 8% damage and some light-moderate knockback in the direction of it, decent enough but it isn't spectacular. On the way back, it deals 5 hits of 0.5% that drag opponents along the path of the keyblade's return. This ends with a finishing 6th hit that deals 4% that lightly hits the opponent along the Keyblade's path. This is pretty natural as a way for Roxas to set up some of his more difficult to hit moves such as Down Smash or Forward Smash or what have you.
While the keyblade is overlapping Roxas, then pressing the B button while it is overlapping him will cause Roxas to grab it and throw it once again with drastically reduced starting lag: By default he throws it the direction it came, but you can still influence the direction as if throwing it normally. Roxas can do this even when in the middle of a move or starting/ending lag, which will cancel it into the throwing animation and thus can allow Roxas to play quite sneaky with what he is going to do when he has a returning Keyblade to him, not to mention some interesting combos given the move is now significantly faster. This is particularly prominent with Roxas' light dash, as he can cancel the dash itself or a move he uses at the end of it into the keyblade throw unexpectedly.
If Roxas uses a move that requires two Keyblades, the other one will teleport to him and end this move by the way (Keyblades in universe can do this: See, amusingly, Roxas' defeat). If the move requires one keyblade, however, the move will stay out. The keyblade teleporting to Roxas adds a few frames, about 3, of starting lag to whatever move he is using. If the Keyblade finishes it's boomeranging path without finding Roxas, it dissolves into light/darkness (depending on which Keyblade it is) and returns to Roxas after a very brief moment. If he doesn't hit B to throw it again when it overlaps him, the Keyblade simply returns to him without any lag (or affecting his current move).
Whenever Roxas tosses a Keyblade like this, he powers it up, which is seen by the keyblade either glowing white-blue for Oathkeeper or purple-black for Oblivion. Each power-up increases the damage the keyblade deals: The outgoing hit adds 4% damage, while the return hit adds 3% damage to the last hit only. Each toss also increases the speed a little bit The Keyblades' power can be increaeed up to 5 times, although Roxas can continue to throw them for pure redirection past that if he desires. This adds 20% damage to the outgoing hit that kills at 85%: Pretty nuts, but you need to do 5 redirects to get to that point, which is exactly as strict as it sounds and is obviously punishable. The returning hit is only +15%, but it is pretty good. The knockback does not scale as hard as you would think from the damage boost which makes it easier to follow-up than the outgoing strike.
Strike Raid can become one of Roxas' most powerful moves, but the base utility of this move should not be forgotten. It is a space controlling projectile that can lead into your other moves or allow Roxas to perform a cancel. While the 3 frames of teleport lag add a small risk, it is not much of a risk vs. reward: The biggest issue with Roxas can more be finding time to use the somewhat laggy first version. It also is not the best camping option, but it can somewhat useful for that.
/ Down Special: Light Array \
Roxas points one of his Keyblades forward, which one depends on the direction he is facing (if one of the keyblades is out due to Strike Raid, he'll always just use the one still in his hand of course!), as the symbol of Organization XIII appears behind him, about one Roxas-length behind and half a Roxas above himself. A ray of light then ignites from the symbol and it travels forward. The ray's height is roughly a Roxas and a half, as per where it starts. The speed depends on the input. Tapping the control stick makes a slow beam that Roxas can fairly easily outpace and is intended more for spatial control than anything else (it's pretty great at breaking approaches!), while smashing the control stick produces a faster beam that is stronger for approaching and which Roxas can approach behind because he is slower than it: This forces an opponent's reaction and then Roxas can react to their reaction.
The damage done is the same no matter what version is used, as is the knockback: 6.5% damage and combo starting knockback and hitstun inwards, which will usually mean towards Roxas. Plain and simple it is one of the combo starters for Roxas' more aggressive and combo oriented game, with the purpose of the hitbox before then determined by how you start it. The starting lag of this move is somewhat long and it only travels 1.25 Battlefield Platforms, so it isn't very good for camping (not that that's Roxas' primary game anyway). The ending lag however is rather short, giving Roxas ample time to play off of it. The Nobody symbol appearing seperate Roxas means that it isn't very sneaky out of a Light Dash, though if one was especially spicy they could still try something like Light Dash forward -> Light Array. Not much else to say, I wager.
/ Side Special: The End \
Roxas glides forward, performing a leading strike with Oblivion (or Oathkeeper if Oblivion is on Strike Raid duty). This dashing attack is fast to start up and deals 8% damage to anyone Roxas runs through, with mediocre knockback that can potentially lead to something but is definitely not one of Roxas' primary combo starters. This is partially because this attack actually has pretty bad ending lag, which also makes it punishable although Roxas can possibly cross the opponent up to be less punishable. Light spills from where Roxas' struck like a wound: After 4 seconds it explodes outwards, dealing light upwards knockback and 8% damage. This is shieldable and actually deals little shieldstun, but if Roxas is free and close enough he can still punish shielding it with a grab. He can use the actual hit to start a combo, to extend a combo he is in the middle of or as an extra push to kill someone off the top later on. Roxas dashes slightly further than Fox Illusion with this attack. If Roxas hits an opponent already struck by this move, it will add a new instance of the Side Special light explosion to them, which can really pressure the opponent if they allow it to happen.
Used in the air, Roxas dashes straight forward and completely stalls his falling. He doesn't enter helpless after this move, although it is once per air trip, and so Roxas could potentially use this move to vary up his landings or recovery. This is especially true when taking something else into account: Much like Ike's Quick Draw, Roxas can actually cancel all the landing lag of this move if he lands at juuuust the right time. The timing is the same as Ike's Quick Draw. It's very specific and so difficult to pull off in a useful way in a match, but it is an option that allows Roxas to land safely and can create some sudden and confusing movement when combined with his Up Special. On that note, Up Special can be really nice with this move: It'll cover a lot of this move's starting lag and the additional range can make for sudden strikes, while also allowing Roxas to still potentially fake out and retreat with it. You could even, in theory, Up Special to a spot you can Side Special and land laglessly at and so get out of a sticky situation or really surprise an opponent!
/ Smashes \
/ Down Smash: Dual Slash \
Roxas brings Oathkeeper and Oblivion inwards, glowing with light and dark energy respectively, then slashes them outwards and creates a LARGE circle of swirling light around him, enough to fully cover a Battlefield Platform if he stands in the middle of it. The swirling light deals 3 hits of 3%-4.2%, followed by a final hit of 10%-14% damage, for a total of 19%-26.6% damage which is quite nice. Knockback, on the other hand, is pretty disappointing and fails to kill until 180%-158%. The keyblades slashing are a seperate hitbox that only deals 16%-22.4%, but actually kills significantly earlier (130%-110%).
This move has very long starting lag, making it risky to start up, although you could use a Light Dash to cover up some of it. Interestingly, almost all of the starting lag is pre-charge with the move taking almost no time to come out afterwards. This can be intimidating, as an opponent in shield for example has to risk either eating a fully charged attack to their shield (which will assuredly do a lot to it!) or risk Roxas releasing on reaction/quick prediction to a shield drop, grab or roll. The duration of the attack is also rather long, which is good for the attack but leaves it punishable, mostly from the air as it doesn't really hit vertically. The ending lag on this is slightly low, surprisingly, but not ultra fast.
Charging this move gives Roxas more beenfits than just delaying it. After charging it briefly, six of Roxas' down special lasers will appear around him and circle him for the rest of the charge. These lasers deal 6.5% damage and lightly knock opponents down and towards Roxas. Generally if the light lasers hit the opponent, they will combo right into the second hit if Roxas releases quickly. And if the opponent is really close, it can potentially even combo into the higher knockback keyblade hit! If Roxas charges this move to at least halfway, the lasers will shoot off around him as the attack finishes, with most just aesthetically flying into the background, but one flying to his left and right. These are slightly stroner in terms of knockback but still deal 6.5% damage, with the knockback now being away from Roxas. They move fairly fast and go 1.25x the distance of the energy circle. They will never hit an opponent hit by other parts of this move, but since they are fired slightly later can catch out later dodges and give Roxas some more safety. Note that the fact so much of the starting lag is pre-charge works against Roxas here: It takes longer to pull up these lasers than it would if it was earlier into the starting lag. Keep this option in mind nonetheless!
This move's primary purpose is a hard read move that can catch out most defensive options with its range and safety on shield, being especially adept at catching out rolls thanks to its long range to both sides and duration. It deals a lot of damage and can be a highly damaging combo finisher on a read, such as predicting an air dodge as they come to the ground and thus hitting them when they come out of it. Oh, and do keep in mind that it requires both keyblades, so it is just that touch laggier when you've got Strike Raid going.
/ Forward Smash: Hurricane Blast \
Roxas leaps into the air, lingering for just a moment as he readies his keyblades and then whirls down to the ground, slicing both of them downwards like a deadly light wheel. This move is actually fairly fast to come out, although it isn't blazing fast, especially due to the slight delay before he actually strikes. This attack causes Roxas to travel about 1/3rd of a Battlefield Platform in distance as he does so. Roxas spinning to the ground is a hitbox that deals 4 hits of 1%-1.4% damage and a final strike as Roxas slashes his keyblades outwards that deals 13%-18.2%. The total damage is 17%-23.8%, which is fairly good although getting all of the multi-hit damage is actually kinda tricky. The KO power is not amazing, 140%-123%, but it is reasonable enough at the ledge or more for starting edgeguards. The ending lag on this is reasonable and somewhat fast, hardly unpunishable but opponents need to be fast on the uptake, and the fact Roxas shoots up into the air fairly fast means he can use it as a movement option to dodge some attacks and then strike at the opponent in front of him. Tricky!
While a Up Special might not seem useful given Roxas' rise, it actually is pretty darn good: It covers Roxas entirely before he rises, which not only makes it a lot harder to defend against (with just the delay on his strike from the air) but also means that Roxas can do some bluffing before rising up and using the movement to dodge an attack, then get a reasonably strong attack out of it. Works well with the directional tricks you can already do with the Up Special.
Like Down Smash, Roxas' Forward Smash gets a bonus when charging, as one of Roxas' Nobody lasers appears roughly one Battlefield Platform in front of him. It rushes towards him over the course of the Forward Smash charge, dealing 6.5% damage and light knockback towards Roxas. In most cases, this will true combo into the actual Forward Smash and so puts pressure on opponents, especially if they backroll (getting caught by the laser's distance if they just backrolled the hit) or if they spot dodge (mess up the timing and you either get hit by the laser or a properly timed Forward Smash release). Charging also serves the benefit to delay Roxas rising, which can be a notable mixup when it is blocked by Roxas' light dash. Boy for someone with the element of light he sure is a sneaky bugger, huh?
/ Up Smash: Two Become One \
Roxas holds both of his keyblades out under him with a spinning flourish before striking them both above him and forming an X-shape with them, slashing outwards as he does so: The closest Smash analogue I can think of animation-wise is Greninja's Up Smash, but in reverse. This move has two hitboxes: The first and the one you want to hit with the most is the potent sweetspot at the middle of the X which is made when it first forms and at the start of the slashing animation, dealing 18%-25.2% damage and is Roxas' risky kill move. It kills at 95%-70%, which is pretty good when you look at the rest of the set and Roxas generally being a combo character. The sourspot is...less impressive, 12%-16.8% and mediocre knockback that won't kill past 200% uncharged. It can be good for getting opponents airborne, but it doesn't lead into combos, and ingeneral is a poor consolation prize. The starting lag on this attack is actually decently fast, although not lightspeed fast, but the ending lag is pretty atrocious and begs Roxas to be hard punished if he fails to land the attack which is where a lot of the risk comes from.
Since this move can come out fairly fast, Roxas can use it as a threatening move in some situations in order to land his less risky moves: One particular way to do so is to use your Up Special to get under a landing foe and be hidden briefly. The opponent now needs to read if you're going to use that chance to Up Smash them while they can't see during a good deal of the starting lag or if you're going to delay to punish a predictive air dodge. And since Roxas has the positional advantage, he can play it cool and only throw out Up Smash when he feels confident, has identifies the opponent reading him being too cowardly to throw it out or throwing it out specifically to inspire fear in the opponent so they air dodge and get punished by, say, a combo aerial. It is also one of Roxas' few reasonable kill moves, as Strike Raid requires hefty and predictable setup to reach strong killing power: As a combo character, flatout hitting the opponent out early is not his strong suit!
If Roxas charges this move, then the light beam effect actually comes after the move for him: His keyblades shoot out two of the light beams when he slashes, sending out a short distance (1-1.5 Ganondorfs depending on charge) projectile that deals 6.5% damage and lightly knocks opponents up. This is basically worthless if you hit the sweetspotted versions, but on some ocassions it could combo from the sourspot for some more damage, or maybe just cover an extra option.
/ Standards \
/ Jab: Dual Arcanum \
Roxas' jab is based on his default combo in his Kingdom Hearts II fight, alternating slashes with each of his keyblades, each one advancing Roxas forward slightly. The first two slashes deal 1% each, then the next 2 slashes deal 2% each and they're all very low knockback and will pretty much always combo. The starting lag is rather fast and if you end the move here there is little ending lag, although the hitstun is naturally low as well. Instead of calling back the keyblade if it is out with Strike Raid, this move simply removes the other keyblade's hit and thus makes it a 1% hit into a 2% hit with it being harder to directly combo. It does mean Roxas always has a fast keyblade option to throw out, though.
The fifth hit is where things get interesting. Roxas can either use his natural jab finisher, where he leaps back a reasonable amount and then rushes forward with a double-keyblade strike that deals a rather strong 10% damage and kills at 160%. Considering it is a jab, this is pretty strong! It also doesn't combo from the rest of the jab: It's just too slow to start up and thus is shieldable. The ending lag isn't tooo bad on it, anyway, though. This WILL summon the keyblade from Strike Raid back to Roxas.
But what really gets to this is that Roxas can instead use any of of his tilts right out of the fourth jab, essentially turning any of Roxas' tilts into a jab finisher. By doing this, Roxas can mix the opponent up on if his last hit will be safe to shield and the timing of the shield grab. If an opponent tries to grab you before you get out Forward Tilt, for example, then they will get hit of Roxas performs his jab finisher (dodging it with the jump back) and strike them instead. This along with the quickness of the attack make it a key part of Roxas' smooth and combo creating standard game!
/ Forward Tilt: Rejection of Fate \
All of Roxas' tilts share the fact they are "two part" attacks akin to Link's Forward Smash: A first part of the attack, and then hit A again to use a second part. This is particularly important for the Forward Tilt, as the first part of the attack isn't much of an attack: Roxas holds one of his keyblades in front of him defensively and highly reminiscient of the guard pose from Kingdom Hearts, defending him against attacks which deal 12% or less damage that would strike him from the front. This comes out quite fast, although of course not as fast as a shield, and it has quite low ending lag: You can get faster punishes than a shield usually. It does only work from the front, though. This is particularly useful out of a Jab in order to defend against opponents who, for example, are planning to use an attack to stuff your jab finisher or prefer to use a faster or riskier option than a shield grab to defend against your jab options.
For Roxas' second part of this attack, he bends down with the other keyblade (summoning it to his hand with the usual lag if it is involved in Strike Raid) and bashes the opponent with a forward strike that deals 11% damage and knockback better for spacing or getting the opponent off you than acombo (but Roxas has other moves for that!). While this would normally be fast, the attachment to the guarding part of the attack makes it a bit slow, with it having average ending lag. It deals really nice damage for a Forward Tilt, especially given Roxas isn't a heavy, but he doesn't get anything off of it. Roxas going Jab -> F-Tilt 1 -> F-Tilt 2 is a pretty solid option with some safety, however!
In addition to the aforementioned uses, Roxas can do some other stuff with it. Using Forward Tilt's guard is a good way to feint the opponent out with a low commitment, since the opponent has to be wary of a follow-up Forward Tilt but probably doesn't have a fast move to power through it (save, perhaps, for a grab...but why would you do this in grab range of the foe?!). Roxas can cancel the guarding action into a catch and throw of Strike Raid, something he cannot do if he is shielding and which can be potentially quite rewarding.
/ Up Tilt: Sunrise's Calling \
Roxas twirls one of his keyblades above him, a vertical spin so that it looks circular facing the camera (as opposed to a Link style Spin attack), dealing 4 hits of 1% each and quite light knockback upwards: It is overall weak enough it can be difficult to do much with it early, since the opponent won't suffer enough hitstun to combo off of it. Later on, this caaaan lead into an aerial combo since at higher percentages they'll take more hitstun, although Roxas may instead want to go for a less gaurenteed but more rewarding option than the quick ones he must use to combo and instead read the opponent or put them in 50/50s, for example with his Up Smash. This move is quite unsafe on shield indeed due to the low damage and knockback output, but it DOES come out very fast and has very low ending lag, so it isn't all that punishable of a move to throw out. It covers good space above roxas and a bit forward, but it definitely lacks the horizontal reach of most of Roxas' keyblade moves. If Roxas has a returning Strike Raid, he could use the multi-hit properties of the move to keep them in place to get hit by it and maybe be able to catch and toss it back on them for additional damage if the situation calls for it (usually at moderate percents, higher percents just don't connect well due to distance).
One thing he can pretty much always combo the first hit into is the second hit of this move, done by the same method as Forward Tilt as aforementioned, which causes Roxas to perform a leaping, vertical slash with his other keyblade (recalling it for the normal 3 frames of lag with Strike Rad out) that deals 5% damage and usually leads into an aerial combo: This part of the attack has more hitstun than the first, so it combos at a lot better percents. It also lacks a lot of the mixup options that the one hit version does especially due to the fact that Roxas ends in the air and thus cannot perform, say, an Up Smash read. It's still quite useful for damage racking and is Roxas' primary starter of aerial combos.
/ Down Tilt: True Light's Flight \
Roxas swipes one of his keyblades in front of himself from a crouching stance, The damage is 7.5% which isn't bad but nothing amazing to write home about either, while the knockback is primarily useful for resetting neutral or in some cases potentially getting a tech situation. It has pretty average starting lag, but for a Down Tilt the ending lag is rather low: This makes it one of Roxas' safer poking tools in neutral, especially grounded neutral as his ground moves tend to be a bit more aggressive or tricksy and unsafe, and means he could also throw it out as a low-reward identification tool for his other moves. It can also shield poke nicely, as the hitbox is pretty low to the ground.
This move's follow-up attack has Roxas lunge forward, the maximum distance being one Battlefield Platform forward but he will stop short if he would be able to hit a foe ala Quick Draw, and bring both of his keyblades downwards as a strong downward and overhead slam. This deals 9% and can combo out of Down Tilt from low to mid percents, the 3 frames of lag if you need to summon the extra keyblade from Strike Raid may reduce these windows, with its knockback varying depending on if the opponent is grounded or airborne. The grounded knockback is weaker, but the foe remains grounded and slides across the ground: Good for getting ledge slips or keeping the opponent grounded and at higher percents Roxas may be able to combo into a Dash Attack, Side Special or other move that lets him reach the opponent in time. In the air, it is a moderate-but-not-powerful spike that won't usually be enough to outright kill non-Little Mac foes until he gets some good percent off...but it DOES put him in a strong advantage state for the recovering foe.
Roxas can leap off of ledges with this follow-up attack, so Roxas could use this as an edgeguarding tool or starter or even perform a dry Down Tilt to fake out the second hit and then use the low ending lag for other purposes. Roxas can use the second hit as part of his identification game, throwing it out after a Down Tilt if the opponent prefers options like dragging shield to rush in or jumping. He could even potentially use the bounce as a combo hitbox in some situations, like a weaker Yoshi. Do note the follow-up attack is laggier to end than the normal Down Tilt by a fair deal and that since Roxas rushes in he can't really make it safe if the opponent just pulls up a shield...so be kinda sparing with it.
/ Dash Attack: Another Side \
Roxas' Dash Attack is based on his appearance in Another Side Another Story and the end of his KH2 fight cutscene: Roxas rushes forward, faster than his normal dash speed, and performs a long and elaborate series of slashes as he does so: These go on for quite a while and deal a total of 6% damage, finishing with a double slash at the end that deals 7% and kills at 175% but has pretty high base knockback. This move always requires two Keyblades, so keep that in mind. The long duration and ending lag make it punishable, but the starting lag is actually pretty good and the long distance can be used for closing the game.
Ultimately, the primary purpose of this move is to punish moves that are too far away for Roxas to normally punish, to catch combos he normally might be too far away for, and to occupy space with hitboxes for a long time as an anti-dodging tool or to control space. The knockback can also be good for starting a gimp and it can cover a reasonable amount of ledge options at once with its duration. A kind of utility move.
/ Grab Game \
/ Grab: Light's Grasp \
If Roxas has two Keyblades in hand, one dissolves into light/darkness as he swipes that hand forward. This is a pretty fast motion, but it is also shorter range. Recovery time is quick. Since the Keyblade dissolves WHILE he swipes forward, this does not go faster if a Strike Raid Keyblade is out. The ending lag, however, IS three frames shorter if Roxas doesn't have both Keyblades on him, as he doesn't need to resummon it.
/ Pummel: Bash \
Roxas bashes the opponent in the face with his keyblade's hilt. 2% damage and a really standard pummel.
/ Back Throw: X-Ecute \
Roxas "releases" the opponent (this is just an animation) and in a flash, quite literally as it has the len's flare visual effect, Roxas appears behind the opponent with his back turned. Roxas then swiftly turns around (resummoning his 2nd keyblade if he has it) and slashes at the opponent as if to decapitate them. This is based on his KH2 animation where he takes his Keyblades back. Roxas only strikes with the # of Keyblades he has on him, for two different strikes.
With one Keyblade, the strike deals 6.5% damage and combo level knockback, albeit not amazingly so, and the usage of this should be obvious: Hit the opponent, string together hits on an opponent, deal some damage. The two keyblade variant is perhaps more interesting, dealing 13% damage and knockback that leaves Roxas in an advantage state that allows him to aggress the foe. While this has no true combos, it often allows Roxas to take more risky 50/50s such as his Forward Aerial's sweetspot, IN ADDITION to having more upfront damage. Thus, Roxas can go for more assured damage utilizing a one Keyblade combo, or he can be risky and go for a lot more damage with two at the risk of not getting as much off of it. This is before bringing in, for example, Strike Raid combos or whatnot of course.
One final thing to note about this move: It doesn't turn the foe around. This means their back is to Roxas, while Roxas is facing the opponent. This can make the advantage state that extra bit stronger as it limits the opponents attacking options. It also makes it an interesting move if Roxas gets the opponent off stage with it, so that's nice.
/ Down Throw: Sunset Fall \
Roxas throws the opponent to the ground for 3% damage, then crashes into their back with one of his Keyblades for another 4% damage that pops opponents forward lightly. The angle is perfect for creating tech situations and has quite low knockback growth which makes it rather consistant. Teching instantly lowers the amount of options Roxas has since its faster, so a missed tech creates some pretty big punish options. Roxas' Light Dash and Side Special are especially adept at dealing with these kind of tech situations, the Light Dash especially notable for the obscuting properties of the first dash and ability to match movement with a second one. This is a straightforward throw with a very straightforward purpose, but is nonetheless effective at what it does.
/ Forward Throw: Sunrise Impact \
Roxas chucks the opponent forward for a reasonable 5.5%, swiftly pointing his Keyblade at the opponent as he charges light/dark energy (Depending on if its Oathkeeper or Oblivion) into it. If Roxas doesn't have a Strike Raid out, he'll re-summon his 2nd keyblade after chucking the foe and charge it with dark/light energy as the opponent flies away. Roxas fires the energy from the keyblades after a moment, which fires off an arrow-tipped blast of energy at the foe (It looks like Sora's Giga Impact projectiles). One keyblade fires a single beam that deals 5% damage and okay-to-low knockback as a somewhat thin beam. With two keyblades, they become a swirling helix of light and darkness that deals 11% damage that kills at around 170%. No matter which version is used, Roxas can move extremely fast afer firing off the attack.
The hit does not combo from the throw until pretty late, although it does mean it can combo-kill at 170%, it does put Roxas' opponent into a big bind. They could take the hit, which is sometimes the best idea, but of course Roxas enjoys free damage on the opponent. They could air dodge quickly, but Roxas can rush at the opponent and try to punish the air dodge in reply due to the low ending lag on the throw. And if you combine it with a Strike Raid running around or sometimes a light beam, you can put the opponent into a real no win scenario!
/ Up Throw: Rise and Fall \
Like Down Throw, Roxas' Up Throw is quite simple: He just grabs the opponent and throws them right up there! It deals a mediocre 7% damage, but the knockback is low enough that Roxas can get some nice combos out there at low and mid percentages. At high percentages, it becomes more of a landing chase scenario with ocassional combos (For example you can get a combo or 50/50, depending on percent and opponent's falling speeds, for the Up Aerial tipper) which works nicely with Roxas' Up Smash. There isn't really any utility to be spoken of here, but it is a nice option to go along with one keyblade Back Throw as a combo option (and gives Roxas a combo option when he has both keyblades!). That's really all there is to say.
/ Aerials \
/ Back Aerial: Wild Swing \
Roxas takes one of his keyblades and performs a rather long, looping slash behimd himself from bottom to top. It's kind of like Marth's Back Aerial if he didn't turn around visually and has a long startup but good range and serves as a rare spacer option in Roxas' more combo-centric toolkit, along with one of his rangiest blade moves due to his arm extension. The attack deals 11% damage and kills at 155%, with the knockback being pretty good for getting opponents away from Roxas. If the opponent is a rushdown character, then this can give some valuable breathing room, and Roxas can potentially aggress the opponent with a Light Dash.
Ending lag on this is moderate, trending towards the longer range, but it has some generous autocancel frames which allow it to be a pretty useful shorthop move for Roxas. This makes it a good neutral move, but it has downsides Roxas must be aware of. A big one is actually Roxas needing to turn away from the opponent, especially since he does not turn around for this move, as it can actually make getting in some offense awkward with him. He can try to go in with an Up Special or Side Special, but these are pretty punishable options if predicted and so Roxas needs to be careful about spamming them. This move is also as mentioned takes a while to come out, making reacting to it easier...especially if you're being predictable! Thus, it is a strong neutral tool that Roxas needs to be careful about just throwing out all the time.
/ Forward Aerial: Oblivion's Oath \
Roxas thrusts his arms forward, sending out both of his keyblades to rapidly spin in front of him: Unlike his fight, where he does this with them horizontally aligned, here he does them vertically (since horizontally wouldn't be all that useful in a 2D fighter). The spinning keyblades are a multihit hitbox that deals 5 hits of 1% damage each, then a final hit of 2% damage with weak knockback. The ending lag is a bit long to combo, but Roxas does end up with a small frame advantage nonetheless. Starting lag is pretty average.
This move has a sweetspot in the middle of the hitbox, where Oblivion and Oathkeeper meet. This sweetspot deals 14% damage and rather strong knockback that can kill at 130%. The sweetspot isn't too large, if the opponent is too far out they'll get hit by the multi-hit instead, but it isn't Knee-small or anything. It is one of Roxas' reasonable aerial kill options and can be good for air dodge reads or as a strong option out of an aerial Light Dash. This can be used with one keyblade, but that causes Roxas to simply spin the keyblade in front of him: This has the same damage as the normal spinning keyblade hitbox on this move, but with no sweetspot, and he spins it more towards his center since without another keyblade to grind against no reason to put it up/down. Due to this he COULD combo into a Strike Raid cancel if he has one keyblade, but now he has no good kill option out of it.
This move covers the front of Roxas mostly vertically, but it doesn'r extend as far out horizontally as a lot of Roxas other moves. As a short hop option it can be good for creating a sort of "wall" and can be okay if you hit the opponent, but the multi-hit often isn't that good on shield so it can be a bit risky. It is better as a retreat tool or to hold your ground than to approach, basically.
/ Down Aerial: Total Eclipse \
Roxas swings one of his keyblades in a sweeping slash under him, which covers a wide horizontal length under him. It doesn't deal more than average damage, 8%, but it has variable knockback that is useful for comboing. Hitting the opponent with the middle of the swing sends the opponent straight upwards, while hitting them near the start (with Roxas swinging from the right) will send the opponent towards the right and hitting the opponent near the end (where the blade is now on his left side) sends the opponent leftwards. An upward strike is a good combo into his Up Aerial or into other high flying moves, while hitting the opponent in front of Roxas is good for Forward Aerial (the sweetspot even combos at some percents, usually mid percents or particularly high percents with a jump) and a back hit can lead into a Back Aerial (although the long starting lag on Back Aerial makes this harder than the others). And all of the hits can lead into a Neutral Aerial fairly often. This makes it a good move to start some damaging combos! Starting lag is fine, ending lag is a bit low and it even has okay hitbox duration.
Generally speaking, this move is used to scoop foes from under Roxas and get them into the air in addition to combos: With two additional midair jumps, Roxas likes juggling the foe all over. His Up Smash being one of his best kill options and a mixup tool also helps with that. It can be a reasonable landing tool, it has reasonably safe landing lag, and is solid if Roxas himself is being juggled as well. Note that while it has side-to-side coverage, it is still mostly side-to-side coverage below Roxas: Unless you rise with a jump, you won't be catching people level with you or higher except in rare circumstances (like them fastfalling into it).
/ Up Aerial: Sunburst \
Roxas thrusts his keyblade to the sky as it shines with a brilliant light, delivering multiple hits that total 6%, before the light bursts outwards as a finishing hitbox. Everywhere except the tip of the keyblade deals 4% damage and light upwards knockback, making it a reasonable juggle move for the high flying Roxas. The tip is a small sweetspot that deals 7% damage and kills off the top at 133%, making it a reasonable but not really especially strong finisher. The fact Roxas can go pretty high up and has some mobility can help get the foe higher on the screen for a cleaner kill. About average to come out and end, the long duration allows it to potentially catch out air dodges but also allows it to be punished harder.
Want to really mess with someone? If you've got a Strike Raid up you could, potentially, go for an Up Aerial to hit them into the Strike Raid to drag them back into a sweetspot Up Aerial! Not very consistent, but it is sick when you pull it off.
/ Neutral Aerial: Dark Galaxy \
Roxas releases his keyblade(s) from his hand, arcing his backand letting out a yell as he exudes a sphere of dark energy around him. His keyblades spin around him during this time, acting as their own hitbox. The dark sphere is a single hit hitbox that deals 10% and mediocre radial knockback. It is pretty good at getting opponents off of you, but the knockback isn't high enough to be a consistant kill option. The sphere itself has good range all around Roxas, which is useful for him. His keyblades swirl around him at the time, going in a diagonal pattern (with two, they go on opposite sides, so diagonally up-right to bottom-left and up-left to bottom-right: Clear in the image!). These keyblades do three hits of 2.5% each and will combo into each other for a total of 7.5% along with weak knockback.
The starting lag on this move is on the higher end, making it a bit risky as a GTFO move, but the ending lag actually is reasonably low and Roxas can get a nice little combo after a keyblade hit (mostly at mid or higher percents) and it means Roxas is reasonably safe when he does get the move off. You could cancel out of the longer duration of this move with a Strike Raid returning to you which could make for some longer combos with the keyblade hits especially. Just don't use it as too much of a panic button, since it can get stuffed easily when predictable.
/ Final Smash: Final Hour \
Roxas dashes to the "center" of the stage, or platform he is on if it is a large stage, invincible once it starts. He then ascends into the air, shooting out an aesthetic pillar of light that turns into 13 points and falls into the background, changing it to a beautiful sunset pattern. Roxas then creates two orbs of light energy to each side of him, wildly spinning his keyblades and sending out slightly smaller orbs of light. Each orb goes fairly fast and lightly homes in on the nearest opponent when fired, dealing 10% (5% with Final Smash Meter) damage after each orb for a total potential damage of 130% (65% with Final Smash Meter) damage if all 13 of the fired orbs hit. Ina 1v1, all of the orbs will be tracking one target and making it a lot harder to avoid at least some damage. A FFA makes avoiding at least some of this almost impossible, but who gets how much damage and how much hits is basically random in such a chaotic spot.
/ Playstyle: \
"Guess my summer vacation is...over."
Roxas has a pretty simple and clean playstyle, an agile combo character with tricks up his sleeve. The first and most paramount for Roxas is his Up Special: The mental pinch he can put on the opponents is a pretty big part of his game plan, Roxas can dash in to an opponent and force them to consider a multitude of options (NOTE: I'll finish writing this tomorrow or later tonight)
Roxas! My favorite KH character got his set, hell yeah! I can tell you put a lot of love into this set and you've confirmed you've been working on it for a while, so let's see what we got. I'm simply going to be covering some moves I find stand-out (be that in a good or bad way) and some interesting thoughts I had in regards to him, so take what I say with a grain of salt; this is a bit rambly, instantaneous, and by a newbie.
Firstly, Up Spec seems a bit powerful. In a game genre all about knowing and responding to what an opponent is doing, not being able to see what your opponent is in the middle of is harsh, especially on such a low commitment move. I assume it's quite stuff-able given it has no hitbox and moves slower than Pika's Up Spec, and when Roxas it immediately stops the lens flare, but that isn't mentioned. That, along with being forced to move a set distance before being used along with the briefness of the effect make it balanced enough though, espeically since Roxas does have some decent weaknesses.
Strike Raid is a great move, reminds me of the boomerang item which I like a lot. The ability to cancel any move's endlag would be OP, but with how excellently you have to space and time to actually do so is a fair trade as well, and I like the growing returns each throw gives you, forcing you to pick between the different ways you can pressure your opponent. Do I stay in my Keyblade's path so I can increase it's power and reduce my lag potentially? Or go all out, use the projectile as an approach and strike from a different angle with Roxas' often disjointed and mutli-hit hitboxes? Great dichotomy.
S-Spec and D-Spec are fun moves that compliment the combo-character playstyle and were excellent, flashy shows of power I'm glad were included, but there isn't much to say beyond how they do well in furthering Roxas' game of constant pressure, combos and 50/50s.
I absolutely love Jab, it's a great spin on the concept and makes you and your opponent make deep, split second decisions even on the most basic move for most characters. D-Tilt complements it well-- maybe a bit too well. You can reliably get 25% off Jab at low/mid percents which seems like a lot for a move you can probably cover some of the active frames of with lens flare. Still, both are quite unique, fitting moves and Smash Ult has characters that can deal 70% in one strike so I'm probably overreacting.. Overall I really like how his tilts all have a secondary attack, makes sense considering he's a dual wielder. Would have maybe made F-Filt 1 technically a hitbox, just one that didn't deal damage or knockback but had trample. Might have fit better with the idea you were going for but also could be more OP so I'm unsure. Just a nitpick basically.
I enjoy F-Throw so much but the other throws don't really follow through with the idea of having basically 2 different sets of throws depending on if you have one blade or two. Would have been more work and more to consider as a Roxas player, but with such an excellent tease on the first throw, the rest feel a bit underwhelming to me personally.
Smashes are good, all fill a nice niche but I feel as if the lasers were frankly unnecessary. They seem tacked on, don't really add much to Roxas' playstyle and while they were unique ideas, I feel a set could be more designed around the idea of a secondary, entirely disjointed attack while charging moves rather than implementing them on a combo character who probably will only be using Smashes on hard reads, sans Up Smash which you'll probably use to make landing hell which also doesn't really make the lasers too integral.
Aerials are good, all serve a purpose in a combo whether its to extend with an autocancel, start one up, space while you've just gotten out of someone's combo, or try and catch someone who just got combo'd up into the sky. Nice, fun stuff that really lets us know Roxas is a combo fiend. While I'm iffy on Fair's range (you said it was just 'shorter than his other stuff' and not muh beyond that) thats the only real nit I can pick.
Overall, while you list Roxas as a simple, combo oriented character, I see him as anything but. Roxas players must make constant choices, space excellently, vary their Up Spec play, and use highly risky moves to secure a KO. This, however, is not overwhelming: Roxas does have some more normal options or ones that you can forgo some of the bonus effects or spacing on for more casual play and his set is quite cohesive; all his options make sense and with a bit of ingenuity and mindfulness one can do great things with him, especially with his more obviously good tools. Overall, great set and one I'm very sad isn't in Smash.
There are a few movesets I want to get to reading soon: Scratch, Chalis, Merasmus, and Velvet, and don't worry, they will have feedback posted next, but I promised Froy a Roxas comment last night and he deserves it, especially after previewing the moveset with me. I've been looking forward to this one, largely due to my rushed and weak Roxas set from the Org. XIII movement. After reading this Roxas, it's safe to say that you've finally done the character some much-needed justice. No tacky menu systems or rushed moves are to be seen here.
Roxas is a bread-and-butter combo character, which authors who write Kingdom Hearts movesets seem to be fixated on due to the playstyle of the games, but that's not a bad thing. Balancing a combo character is a tricky act yet you've done it pretty well. They don't look contrived at all (no generic and unexplained combo mechanics like Arle and Sora) and he has plenty of kill confirms that feel natural and fair. He's not oppressive like Peach, Inkling, or Chrom, but he can hold his own. Balancing kill percentages is the art of the combo, and his strongest kill move only kills at 90%, and is very risky. That's perfectly fair considering characters like Mii Swordfighter have kill confirms at 60%.
Some moves I think are stronger than you claim them to be. Up Aerial, for instance, could reasonably kill way earlier than what you claim when you factor in frame trapping, Strike Raids, and Roxas' floaty nature plus extra jumps. Strike Raid > Up Throw > Down Aerial > Up Aerial seems like an incredibly strong line of play. I've said it before but combo characters benefit from a good playstyle section detailing combo strings. Simply giving the reader the pieces of the combo and expecting them to figure it out doesn't go too well. Fortunately you mentioned several combos or lines of play within various attacks, but I feel like you haven't quite scratched the surface of what combos are possible.
I do like the Up Special, as I've told you before. I like the idea behind it, anyway. It reminds me of some of my own older mindgaming sets like Wiz and Great Tiger, and there are several other great movesets it is vaguely reminiscent of, but it's been so long since them I can't quite place which ones they are. I'm sure several were Warlord's. I would probably dislike playing against it, though. Even minor concealing effects in Ultimate I find very frustrating, such as the smoke from being launched and the smoke on Arena Ferox. Even when I can use them to my advantage, they're still irritating due to how my brain works. I often lose track of characters, especially on moving stages and in Spirit battles where multiple people are getting launched. That's just me personally but other people might share my condition. It's a smart move choice but I don't want it to be detrimental to a gameplay experience, but there's not much you can do about that.
Also, considering the move has average starting lag and at least some end lag, he doesn't disappear, and he moves slower than Pikachu, how gimpable is the Up Special? True, it has good recovery distance and can be covered by the Side Special, but if the opponent can hit Roxas before the end lag's FAF then it doesn't matter that he can attack out of it, or use a second one, or triple jump, or dash. Speaking of Roxas having four jumps, there's no presentable justification for Roxas having multiple jumps beyond his playstyle. He can't puff up into a balloon like Kirby, Jigglypuff, or King Dedede, and he doesn't have wings like Meta Knight, Charizard, or Ridley. The player who has no knowledge of Kingdom Hearts would look at Roxas and wonder why he has the ability to extend his aerial jumps, just from appearance alone. I like lightweights having good recovery but as floaty and higher-middleweight as Roxas is, he might have too good of a recovery if the Up Special isn't punishable.
Just as we used to talk about damage and range in relative and vague descriptors but now use harder units of measurements like exact percents and decimal percentages of Battlefield platforms, I think there will be a day when every MYM set refers to lag in exacting frame data to shore up any confusion. You switch up between frame data (3 frames) and relative descriptors (somewhat laggy, punishable, drastically reduced lag), and in the case of the Neutral Special do it in the same move. It gets especially confusing when you combine the two: "The keyblade teleporting to Roxas adds a few frames, about 3, of starting lag to whatever move he is using." If you're using exact frame data, I wouldn't proceed it with "a few" or "about". Furthermore, using so many variable descriptors to describe the same move muddles the reader's perception of what the lag means in relative terms.
Speaking of, an important property you left out on the Neutral Special is how fast the keyblade travels. You got distance and lag down but I don't know if it moves really fast so you can chain together Strike Raid tosses and combos or really slow to control the stage and set up some of his laggier moves? If the move's faster it would be much stronger, so it's necessary to know this to judge Roxas' overall strength. Furthermore, if Roxas cancels an Up Special dash by catching the keyblade, does he still get the lens flare? What happens if Roxas dodges the Keyblade on the return trip, or just moves from the spot it was headed for? Does it behave like Link's boomerang, does it disappear, or just go flying into oblivion? When you mention that the first hit deals knockback in the direction of it, I assume you mean the keyblade's hitbox, as in the opponent is knocked in the direction the Keyblade was relative to their hurtbox when they got hit. If not, does that mean the hitbox knocks them in the direction its traveling, meaning it can possibly chain initial hits of 8% and light-moderate knockback, depending on the foe?
I don't know what you mean by "tech situations" in some move descriptions, like the Down Tilt and Down Throw. Do you mean the opponent teching, or Roxas? Chalk it up to me not being that familiar with advanced Smash mechanics. Luckily you do a good job of explaining the subtleties of other aspects of Smash to the reader who might not be as familiar with them. Some of the moves are missing details, like the range of the keyblade, especially Neutral Special and Forward Smash. I'd normally say that you could remedy this with a relative comparison in the statistics description but Roxas has so many unconventional hitbox animations that I'd just go ahead and write it on every attack that uses a keyblade. Some attacks are also missing other types of range descriptions, like Forward Throw's throw distance and the amount of ground Dash Attack covers.
I'd also like to know exactly what spot landing from the air with side special cancels the ending lag with. Just saying there is a spot you can land on isn't quite as informative as describing where that spot is. You mention Roxas can punish a shielded Side Special with a grab, but unless the shield blocks the entire dash I don't think this is possible. Roxas would be facing away from the opponent when the move ends, so he'd have to turn around and grab. Even if that isn't the case and Roxas is stopped in his tracks by a shield, the bad ending lag and very little shieldstun it does means the opponent has a frame advantage over Roxas unless Roxas' grab is the fastest in the game. Link's new grab has 6 frames of lag and it's like the second-fastest in the game.
As for the rest of my complaints, it would be helpful to know how strong the knockback is on the hits of the Down Aerial. If you can combo Down Aerial into an Up Smash while factoring the lag into the moves, I can only imagine it does high upwards knockback. Why do the light rays on Forward Smash do 4% but the others do 6.5%? How can he have a Strike Raid Keyblade out if the move animation is dependent on him having two Keyblades in hand? How do you do a two-Keyblade attack with this throw if his grab animation forces him into a single-Keyblade state? I assume it's like his other throw where he resummons the Keyblade for it. Why, on the Forward Aerial, is the ending lag is "too long to combo" but Roxas ends up with small frame advantage- I thought that frame advantage is what combos are all about? And why does the Up Smash's sour spot only kill before 200%? Lastly, if Roxas does another Side Special before the first Side Special's light wound erupts, does it stack another one?
That's quite a lot of questions and concerns, so you might think my view of the set is pretty negative, but I actually quite like it outside of them. Combo characters are a dime a dozen but you pull it off well with Roxas. The attacks are flashy but functional and everything fits Roxas, likely due to your heavy reference of his boss fight. You did this in the other Organization sets as well, so you've got this formula nailed down. The Up Special's function is very clever and fitting, and I love me some mindgames. Strike Raid is a brilliant move with a myriad of applications that I can see applying seamlessly to Roxas' combo game. Nothing sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of the idea behind the move, even the throws which some may call generic. A strong grab game is an essential part of a combo character that many overlook, but you know exactly what it's for and why.
The smashes may be the flashiest moves but it's the light attacks in his kit that draw me in. The directional aerials, the Jab, and of course his tilts make for a compelling neutral game. Having the tilts deal two hits and be led into from the jab combo is pretty brilliant. One of the most clever way to mix up your ground combos that I've seen. The reason I'm not that fond of the smashes is because they seem like too much. Just thinking about Down Smash's hitbox, for instance, it's huge. I do understand you wanted to work in as much from his source as possible, but perhaps these could have been handled differently. I know it's heresy, but several of them send light beams to the background and foreground. Perhaps you could have made them hit people rolling? It would have added to his punishing options and prediction game.
Overall, Roxas is a great moveset. It's mechanically sound and tighter outside of what I pointed out, and those can easily be fixed. Ulrich is a much deeper set due to its nature but I found myself enjoying Roxas more ironically due to the simpler nature of it. It's easy to understand what Roxas does, and everything is cohesive. There's very little fat here, everything feels essential to his plan. Most importantly, it feels like a Smash moveset. Roxas is right for this era of MYM: the moveset is simple enough for a wide audience, including casuals; it's tight and competent enough to interest competitive players; and it services people who love his character due to taking heavy inspiration from his awesome boss fight. Well done, Froy. Consider my critique and I look forward to your feedback later.
I answered most of Khold's questions and/or misconceptions in private but I did also make some edits to address some stuff I did miss:
- Neutral Special now lists it's speed of travel (Link's boomerang). Also, it gains a bit of speed every extra toss. It now mentions what happens if the Keyblade fails to return to Roxas as well.
- Side Special now mentions that it can stack if you hit an opponent with it on you already.
- Forward Smash's light beam now deals 6.5% for consistency.
- Back Throw now mentions resummoning the Keyblade when used with two Keyblades.
Poliwag, the Tadpole Pokemon. Poliwag has a very thin skin. It is possible to see the Pokémon's spiral innards right through the skin. Despite its thinness, however, the skin is also very flexible. Even sharp fangs bounce right off it. The direction of the swirl on their stomachs differs depending on where they live. Poliwag aficionados can tell them apart at a glance. Despite the danger, it wants to come up on land. So it does its best to waddle along, but when an enemy finds it, it rushes back to the water.
Statistics
Poliwag is slow and light, not a great combination: At a dash speed equal to Jigglypuff Poliwag is none too fast on the ground, although the Link level walk speed means its walk is not much slower than its cute waddling dash. Its weight is no Jigglypuff...but only just, tied with Squirtle for the 3rd lightest character at 75 weight. Poliwag's size is also roughly equal to Squirtle, making him a small fighter, and he has low traction.
Aerially, Poliwag has slow air speed with slightly slower-than-average fall speed. Above average jumps give Poliwag some okay survivability in that regard, but it is still nothing impressive. With weak stats, Poliwag needs to make up for it with other means: The moveset itself!
Special Moves
Down Special: Belly Drum
Poliwag sticks out its nice l'il belly, tail flapping with wild excitement, for this counter move! If the opponent strikes said belly, it expands slightly while making a little "drum" noise as the opponent is bounced away with Poliwag taking no damage! With just a tail, Poliwag doesn't have much of a way to Belly Drum...so he's using the opponent to help him out! To finish with base information of the counter though, the ending lag is significantly faster than average for a counter while the starting lag is pretty average. So cute l'il Poliwag here is pretty adept at landing counters compared to the Smash cast! Must be a survival tactic. The counter does, however, have a pretty high duration of counter frames which can be pretty nice.
When Poliwag bounces the opponent away, they take 8% damage for their troubles, but what else does it do? Well it powers up Poliwag, it's belly shining lightly with power while it is buffed! The base buff of this attack is 1.3x damage (much like Incineroar, knockback is unaffected!), with Poliwag receiving a potentially larger boost based on the attack it counters: Most jabs won't boost it at all, while the strongest attacks can boost it to a maximum of 2.0x which is insane but if your opponent is Reverse Warlock Punching into a counter situation they frankly deserve it. And note that Incineroar, who has MUCH stronger base power than Poliwag, STARTS with a 1.5x buff and stacks/scales harder than Poliwag's. Poliwag does, however, also gain some other benefits from Belly Drum (mostly to Poliwag's belly based attacks) as well. Note that obviously Poliwag won't bounce away opponents if he is hit by a projectile: If Poliwag is hit from behind, it simply bounces off him harmlessly...if it hits his front, however, it gets reflected akin to King K. Rool's Gut Check! The projectile goes at 1.3x its normal speed and gets a very small power buff.
The duration of Poliwag's buff is variable, as it is based on the damage of the attack he countered: 2 seconds of buff for every 1% the attack would deal. So a 10% attack would give Poliwag 20 seconds of buff, for example. The exception to this is that Poliwag has a minimum duration of 6 seconds of buff, so an attack which deals 1%-3% buffs Poliwag for 6 seconds. If Poliwag counters a move while he is already buffed, it adds the duration of the new counter to the old one (so if you somehow countered a 10% damage move with 5 seconds of durarion left, it now has 15 seconds left) and uses the strongest buff he can have of the two (So if you counter something that would set you to 1.7x when you have 1.5x, your new value is 1.7x).
Side Special: Bubble
Poliwag inhales a little for it's starting lag, before blowing out bubbles! Poliwag blows out 3 bubbles: One that goes straight forward in front of it, one that has a light upwards trajectory in addition to going forward which makes it more covering a shorthop/low jump spot and one that goes sharply upwards and slightly forward which is more of an anti-air. Poliwag shoots them out one at a time in the same order described. The first bubble goes 2.5 Battlefield Platforms, the second bubble goes 2 Battlefield Platforms and the last bubble rises until it hits an opponent, the stage, a blast zone or what have you. Starting lag on the bubble blowing is a bit long, so you can't use it too close to someone especially since it has a bit of duration, but the ending lag is actually really short and so it is difficult to punish Poliwag if it gets the move off. Each of the bubbles are rather small individually.
The bubbles pop when they hit an opponent for 4% damage and very light knockback, but reasonable hitstun: If Poliwag is somewhat close when an opponent is hit by a bubble, he could get a move off of it. However, bubbles are more important for controlling space. The bubbles move fairly slow and on the ground cover both the grounded stage, shorthop range and aerial range, although with different timings (and the third bubble in particular tends to get too high to be super useful faster than the other two) and are generally integral to the slow and light Poliwag's playstyle. Throw out bubbles when opponents aren't in your face to limit their options and make your own better in turn! Oh, and if you launch someone off stage, throwing bubbles out before they get too close or before you begin an edgeguard is a pretty nice way to cover a lot of options, especially when it comes to recovering high!
Neutral Special: Hydro Pump
Poliwag sucks in air and its belly expands, before spraying out a strong stream of water ahead of it! It kind of looks like a more ferocius version of Water Gun, going about 2.5 Battlefield Platforms straight in front of Poliwag. There are three hitboxes on this move. Right in front of Poliwag's mouth is a quite small but powerful hitbox where the pumping water comes out, which deals 16% damage and kills at 120% as one of Poliwag's strongest attacks. Most of the hitbox deals 12% damage and kills at around 160%, which is reasonably strong, and finally the tail end of the watery blast is a sourspot that deals 8% damage and rather weak knockback. The starting lag of this is on the longer end, but Poliwag could use it as more of a hard read option as close ranges, especially with the first hitbox (but mess up and eat a meaty attack!), ending lag is a touch fast but not unpunishable.
In the air, the power of the water will push Poliwag back by about half a Battlefield Platform. This could be used to aid Poliwag recover by theory if he shot a Hydro Pump behind him, since you're pushed back faster than your normal air speed, but this would leave Poliwag extremely vulnerable since the only hitbox of the move is being sprayed away from the ledge. Poliwag can snap to the ledge during this, though, so you could use it to snap to the ledge faster than just moving over and mix up your ledge timing. You also could use this to shoot out water to edgeguard the foe and cancel some of the lag by grabbing the ledge. So that's useful.
The water falls to the ground for half of a Ganondorf of height after being blasted out, landing on the ground if there is any there or evaporating otherwise. It has no hitbox and does nothing while falling. The water remains on the ground for 8 seconds and has very little effect on opponents: It lowers their traction very slightly, slight enough it'd be easy to miss entirely, and that's it. The primary purpose is instead to buff up Poliwag. Poliwag moves faster while on wet land with a new animation on top of that, going from a waddle to more of an almost swimming-like back and forth walk. While the dash speed of Young Link (36th) is not blazing, it is waaay better than the normal Jigglypuff (75th) dash speed. Walk speed is unchanged and Poliwag doesn't have the traction loss either.
In addition, some of Poliwag's attacks get buffed while on water, his water based ones mostly. Using Bubble on top of water causes the bubbles to grow in size a good deal and now deal 6% damage with a very small increase in hitstun (but not in knockback). Using Hydro Pump on top of water generated by hydro pump eliminates the attack's sourspot, turning it into the 12% damage hitbox, and slightly expands the size of the near hitbox to include a bit more of the start of the water stream. Neither are extreme buffs, but they help give Poliwag that little extra edge!
Up Special: Jump Pump
Poliwag faces its mouth downwards and sprays a powerful jet of water under it, rocketting it into the air with powerful force! This actually sends Poliwag really high up, giving Poliwag a good recovery, although going into helpless after the big jump means not recovering low can be an issue. Poliwag shoots out a blast of water akin to Greninja's recovery, but rathe than being a water hitbox it is a singular hitbox that deals 13% and is actually a fairly powerful spike. It doesn't last for very long though and the starting lag is a touch long as Poliwag starts this move up, so it isn't especially easy to land with. Poliwag's body deals 10% damage on the way up and knockback away from Poliwag with only a little bit of vertical to it (which helps keep the opponent from just punishing the helpless Poliwag!).
Smashes
Forward Smash: Body Slam
Poliwag scrunches its body down, shutting its eyes as it does so, before leaping into the air and coming down just in front of it belly-first for a fierce belly slam! It won't impress heavyweights, but it is one of Poliwag's stronger moves, dealing 15%-21% damage that'll kill at 120%-90%. The starting knockback is slightly laggier than average, but where the move really suffers is ending lag as Poliwag bounces off the ground slightly and gets back to its feet. This means that Poliwag can be punished fairly hard if this strong attack is just thrown out.
Buffing up Poliwag can help out in two ways. A Belly Drum buff not only obviously powers the attack up, making it even better at its intended use as a powerful finisher (or at least damager), but Poliwag also gains armor on this attack on the belly akin to K. Rool's belly armor. Poliwag's can't break but in turn is only activate during a buffed state that Poliwag can't just active by itself. But it'll go through attacks and Poliwag will only take half damage, which given Poliwag is attacking belly-first can allow Poliwag to muscle through an attack to slam and jam the foe! Poliwrath would be proud.
If Poliwag body slams onto some water, it'll cause water to spray up to each side of Poliwag akin to Squirtle's Up Smash although only 3/4ths the size. They only deal 8% regardless of Poliwag's charge and have fairly high base knockback. They have two primary uses. First off, they are good for helping cover Poliwag's ending lag and make the move a bit safer. Secondly, the high almost entirely vertical base knockback is good for setting up a scenario where Poliwag can chase down their landing.
Down Smash: Bubblebeam
Poliwag points its mouth to the ground and shoots out a stream of bubbles, which hit the ground and float across it to the left and right of Poliwag. This fast to start move serves primarily as a panic button for Poliwag. It only deals 12%-16.8% damage, but the knockback is solid and it is good for getting foes off of you. It doesn't kill until 160%-125% though. The bubbles expanding to the left and right of Poliwag give it some decent range and being close to the ground allow Poliwag to potentially shield poke opponents with it. The ending lag on this is at the lower end for this kind of "clear out" moves. Not unpunishable, but Poliwag is more free to use this kind of move than a lot of characters, to help make up for the low weight and speed.
On top of water, the bubbles will spread across the water faster and further, the water making a little wave motion as the bubbles flow over them. This helps Poliwag punish from further away and control more space. Near the end of the move when used on water, the bubbles will float up slightly while still a hitbox. This is enough to potentially catch someone starting or near the end of a short hop, although if the opponent is past that point they'll be too far up to be hit by the bubbles before they just pop. Still, it can be useful!
Up Smash: Mud Bomb
Poliwag's tail dips into the ground and scoops up some dirt, plopping it into Poliwag's mouth as it sucks, and blows it out with water to create a big ol' ball of mud that shoots out of Poliwag's mouth: A mud bomb! And yes, Poliwag learns Mud Bomb. By level up, even! The mud bomb going up is a hitbox that deals 4% damage (regardless of charge) and pretty much exists to combo into the main hit, the mud bomb exploding for 13%-15.6% damage. This makes for a total damage amount of 17%-19.6%. The knockback's power is about between the F-Smash and D-Smash, killing at 140%-110%, making it an okay KO option for Poliwag but not really good in the overall context of Smash Ultimate. The little tail scoop makes the starting lag somewhat laggy, but the ending lag isn't too bad.
When the mud bomb explodes, it'll send mud exploding downwards and diagonally to the left and right. This mud is a multihit hitbox that deals 1%-1.4% damage and steadily pushes enemy to its outer edges, up to a maximum of 6 hits for a total damage of 6%-8.4% damage. Comboing from this is hard for Poliwag, although situationally possible. The closer the opponent is to Poliwag when they're hit by this, the easier it is to combo (since it pushes them to the outer edge, it'll keep them in longer). Even if it doesn't get many hits off, it usually protects Poliwag enough that Poliwag could shoot out a Bubble for pressure. Note that the Mud Bomb's mud does not go straight down, leaving enough of an area around Poliwag that if one is close to them it is very possible to punish this.
The ground will already be kinda muddy if water is over it, so it allows Poliwag to get a bit better and more mud when used over it. The Mud Bomb's size is increased slightly (it's about the size of a half charged charge shot), the range of the Mud Bomb's downward hits beinga bit higher (outwards from Poliwag) and the mud multihits now happen faster which adds two extra hits to it for a new maximum damage of 8%-11.2%. A nice trio of small buffs!
Standards
Jab: Water Blast
Poliwag leans back and then swiftly leans forward, closing its eyes and shooting out a short blast of water in front of it. The range isn't very far at all, but the blast has surprising power behind it: 9% damage and knockback that is good enough to reset neutral. This is actually one of Poliwag's most damaging standard attacks! The starting lag is fast which means it is Poliwag's premiere panic option along with Down Smash when it just wants the opponent out of its face. The ending lag, however, is punishable: It is not safe on shields.
If you're powered up by Belly Drum, the increased damage and knockback could turn this move into a fairly good option to get opponents off stage. This move's use is very straightforward, so there isn't much else to say about it.
Forward Tilt: Rolling Strike
Poliwag bends down and rolls forward to strike at the opponent, think Dedede's Down Tilt in terms of animation, coming to a stop right on its little feet. The damage on this attack is quite low, 7%, with low knockback as well. This makes it a really good combo starter, which can even potentially combo into itself once or twice when the opponent is low on damage. The starting lag and ending lag of this attack are both low, but it isn't necessarily super safe: The low damage provides little shieldstun/damage and Poliwag rolls right towards the opponent so it'll pretty much always be unsafe on shield. On a whiff, though, punishing it is very difficult.
Belly Drum grants Poliwag belly armor at the start and end of this attack, when Poliwag's belly is a good part of the attack. While they aren't very big windows they do potentially allow for Poliwag to tank an attack and start a combo with this and make the whiff punish window even more strict for the opponent lest they merely hit Poliwag's belly and get punished. Remember that the belly armor is only on, well, Poliwag's belly: Poliwag's backside is wide open to the opponent for example.
On water, Poliwag's roll goes slightly further, and could cross up the opponent at really close ranges depending on the situation for safety, but that also requires using Forward Tilt point blank which is obviously not a common situation. It also allows Poliwag to simply hit from a bit further away, always appreciated.
Up Tilt: Hopping Strike
Poliwag happily hops into the air head-first in an attempt to headbutt opponents, although the head going up is a hitbox too so it can hit opponents on the ground, before landing on the ground. This deals 7% damage and light vertical knockback. While Forward Tilt is more good for a grounded combo (for example Forward Tilt -> Jab to deal damage and reset neutral), Up Tilt is more about shorter aerial combos (Up Tilt -> Neutral Aerial for example). Nonetheless they both serve as combo starting moves. Poliwag scrunches down slightly to start the move, which can avoid some higher hitting attacks, and leaves the ground during the attack which can in turn avoid some lower hitting attacks. Starting lag and ending lag are both low, but are slightly higher than Forward Tilt. And this one also is not safe on shield. Poliwag's hop ends up with him ever-so-slightly forward from where he started, but it is quite small.
Down Tilt: Tail Slap
Poliwag quickly swipes its tail forward, slightly crouched down, to strike at the opponent. This swift attack deals 6% damage and lightly pops up the opponent up and forward. The tip of the tail is a "sweetspot" which has a 20% trip chance on it, not unlike other low hitting tilt attacks. The base knockback of this attackis another combo starter, but the Down Tilt is laggier on the end so it usually makes less damaging combos than Forward Tilt or Up Tilt. On the flipside it can easily combo into grounded OR aerial attacks, which grants Poliwag positioning flexibility, and the tail swipe is actually safe on shield as long as it isn't used point blank. This means it is Poliwag's safest but least damaging combo starter.
At low percents, Poliwag can combo a Down Tilt into a Forward Tilt or Up Tilt which then continues a combo and is a bread and butter way to deal damage early on. Generally speaking, continuing the combo with Forward Tilt vs. Up Tilt comes down to positioning: Do you want a grounded position with likely a bit of a neutral reset or an aerial position that could put Poliwag in a bit more advantage but usually has less damage off the bat.
If the OPPONENT is on water, then the sweetspot of this attack will trip 100% of the time, which can open up things for Poliwag quite a bit. In particular it opens up the possibility of Poliwag following the resulting tech chase situation with a stronger move, in particular Forward Smash if it powered by a Belly Drum can be good tech chase option because of the belly armor. For example, if you think the opponent is gonna get up attack? Body slam and power through it! Given Poliwag can struggle with killing, this is a pretty nice boon.
Dash Attack: Water Slide
Poliwag jumps up before sliding forward, skidding forward some before getting back to its feet. The amount of distance traveled is reasonable but nothing amazing, with the starting lag being pretty good on this attack. It deals 11% damage, making it pretty damaging for Poliwag, and can kill at about 132%. While fast and reasonably powerful, the ending lag of this move is pretty bad as Poliwag struggles to return to its feet after skidding along. This makes it quite the punishable move indeed. It is good at long distance punishing however and is a good choice for Poliwag to use as a grounded combo finisher. For example, Down Tilt -> Forward Tilt -> Dash Attack for a cool 22% and positioning. Just be careful with it, basically. Combined with the power, this can be a reasonable kill confirm at higher percents: This is particularly true with Belly Drum, but you usually want a LOWER Belly Drum power boost here. This is because you can still confirm Down Tilt -> Forward Tilt -> Dash Attack as a combo with lower Belly Drum power amounts while the foe is in a lower kill range, but with higher Belly Drum boosts they will be hit too far away.
Poliwag can slide much longer while on water, having a slightly longer base slide and being able to slide along it for as long as Poliwag holds down A or until it coms to a ledge or runs out of water (both of which cause the ending lag to trigger instantly). This can allow Poliwag to punish more effectively, as Poliwag travels at a faster pace while sliding on water as well, or make the move more safe since it allows Poliwag to pretty much always cross up a shield for example. Sliding behind a Bubble you shot out can make for a good approach that is difficult for the opponent to flatout punixh as long as Poliwag has proper water positioning, for example.
Aerials
Forward Aerial: Aqua Drill
Poliwag shoots water out of its mouth while turning on its side, sending it into a sideways drill animation that can be compared to Falco's forward aerial. This deals 5 hits of 1% each, followed by a last launching hit that deals 4% damage and mediocre knockback away from Poliwag. It could start off an edgeguard or be used to gain space but it doesn't usually lead into anything that's 100%. Starting lag on this is okay, on the slightly longer end of okay, while ending lag is pretty average as well.
If Poliwag lands while spinning, this move will create a landing hitbox like a Falco FAir, with water slightly splashing out around Poliwag. This landing hit deals 4% damage and is really good at starting off combos, as aided by the fact the lag of landing this way is pretty low. This makes it Poliwag's premiere short hop aerial, although Poliwag's small body does mean it has poor range as a note. The landing hitbox is usually enough to make this move safe on shield so as an approach option it is nice in that regard.
If Poliwag lands in water for the landing hitbox, the landing hitbox becomes larger as it splashes the water up and also deals 6% damage instead of 4%, a small buff but still fairly nice.
Down Aerial: Belly Flop
Poliwag aims its belly downwards before plummeting downwards in a classic stall than fall, flopping down belly first. Poliwag drops at a pretty fast rate downwards, which can make for a good way to get down/mix in landing options for the normally slower falling Poliwag, and deals 12% damage with fairly good knockback that hits opponents upwards as Poliwag plummets downwards. The vertical knockback kills at 140%, but of course will kill earlier from higher on the screen, and Belly Drum can make it a dangerous option! Starting lag is not too bad, but I wouldn't call it fast either. Ending lag, on the other hand, IS pretty bad since Poliwag needs to get back up from the fall. Not having arms is the hard life, huh Poliwag?
Belly Drum makes this attack quite good: Poliwag has belly armor all the way down, which means that Poliwag basically cannot be directly challenged while dropping downwards unless they want to get armored through. Poliwag can't really abuse it due to the heavy ending lag though, but it means trying to catch Poliwag landing is actually a dangerous preposition.
If Poliwag lands on water, he can help his ending lag out some by hitting or holding down A: This allows Poliwag to cancel the ending lag into a Dash Attack! Poliwag pushes forward with its tail and feet to get the necessary propulsion for the slide. The Dash Attack's own very long ending lag means this is still plenty punishable, but it can make Down Aerial safe on shield thanks to either shield poking the opponent after the Down Aerial's hit OR by crossing the opponent up. Assuming sufficient water, anyway.
Back Aerial: Double Tail Slap
Poliwag swipes its tail horizontally behind it twice, a very quick double strike that deals 3% and then 4% damage for a total of 7% damage. Fast to come out, the knockback is low enough that Poliwag can potentially do 50/50 chains with it (like a good amount of characters with aerials like this) or do some effective wall-of-paining, although Poliwag's tail is pretty small so the range on this ain't so grand. Ending lag is reasonably low, as is landing lag, so you could potentially use this as a bit of a combo move or in combos depending on the situation, and it is safe on shield if you space it right so it is an alternative to Forward Aerial as a short hop option.
Neutral Aerial: Swirling Strike
Poliwag curls into a ball and spins around, akin to the old school Pikachu Neutral Aerial, for a multihit move that deals a total of 9% damage over 6 hits. While the starting lag on this is slightly on the higher end, it is still low enough that it can be combo'd into, while the launching hit can combo until later percents and thus lead to a string such as Up Tilt -> Neutral Aerial -> Forward Aerial or Forward Tilt -> Neutral Aerial (drag down) -> Dash Attack. The ending and landing lag of this move are fairly short, thus how it enables further combos, and the multihit nature of it allows Poliwag to drag the opponent some, with a better dragging capability than Forward Aerial.
Something to note about Neutral Aerial, Back Aerial and Forward Aerial: They're all multi-hit moves, with varying amounts of duration, which makes them pretty good at keeping a hitbox out and controlling air dodges. So, sometimes, it can be better to just take a hit from Poliwag instead of potentially getting caught in a trap. And if that happens, Poliwag could hit with something riskier...
Up Aerial: Water Spray
Poliwag raises its face to the sky, puckers its lips and lets out a fountain-like spray of water upwards! This one has long starting lag and is Poliwag's risky power aerial: It deals 12% damage and can kill at 120%, but the long starting lag makes it difficult to hit with, usually best reserved for air dodge reads or what have you. This is one of Poliwag's strongest kill moves, though, especially with Belly Drum: Opponents are gonna be spooked if you're under them and buffed! The spray of water actually forces Poliwag down some ala ROB's DAir, so it can also be used as a movement option such as to avoid an attack from above. If you want to get the opponent high into the air, Up Tilt into Up Aerial is a mix up starting from higher mid percents! Ending lag is reasonably long but not horrid.
...Hey, if the opponent is too scared to air dodge thanks to your multihits, maybe you could surprise them by throwing out this attack or Down Aerial?
Throws
Grab: Capture Bubble
Poliwag blows a big bubble in front of itself, which at the end of the grab attempt's duration pops. If the bubble hits an opponent, they are sucked inside the bubble and enter a grab state while Poliwag decides what throw to use, each with their own unique "bubble escape" animation to boot! The bubble has solid range, and REALLY good range on water where it gets bigger, but it takes a moment to reach full size (with average starting lag overall) and has pretty punishable ending lag on top of it. Solid, but a tad(pole) risky.
Pummel: Squirt
Poliwag squirts a blast of water into the bubble, dealing 1.2% damage to the opponent in a pretty fast pummel that is good for damage racking.
Forward Throw: Burst Your Bubble
Poliwag turns around and wiggles its tail once before sticking it out forward, popping the bubble the opponent is in, which sends it flying away and blows the foe away. This deals 6% damage but is Poliwag's primary kill throw...which being Poliwag does not say much, killing at 175%. While it doesn't kill until later, you could totally use it to set up edge guards until then, and Poliwag has decent edgeguarding between his variety of aerials and Hydro Pump/Bubble. This move really has no utility outside of that, so it is a bit of a specific throw.
Back Throw: Pound
Poliwag moves behind the opponent fairly quickly and proceeds to jump its body into them and the bubble (which visually coats them in a bubbly film of water until the knockback ends), popping the bubble and knocking the opponent away while dealing 5% damage. While the damage is low, this move's knockback essentially forces the opponent to either tech or be proned. Poliwag doesn't get a huge amount off of a pure tech chase here since it doesn't get THAT many advantage frames, but if the opponent misses the tech this offers a lot of options for Poliwag's Hydro Pump, Forward Smash, Down Smash or what have you since he has a much better advantage state.
If the opponent is knocked into water with this, guess what: They can't tech it! Guess that watery film just makes it too slippery. This is pretty huge for Poliwag, as this throw now consistently puts the opponent in a tough bind of what they want to do next. Simply having the threat of a prone throw like this also means that, put simply, opponents need to be pretty waty of Poliwag's grab in general if he is on water. And if the opponent is taking less actions that could result in a grab, lets say shielding, then Poliwag can in turn take advantage of that by using something which normally is more risky due to options the foe wishes to avoid due to the grab.
Down Throw: Slam
Poliwag hops up and slams the opponent from above, popping the opponent as it does so, landing on the ground as the opponent bounces against the ground. This deals 3% damage from the tail slap and 4% from bouncing against the ground. The knockback of this attack is light, which makes it Poliwag's primary combo throw, usually into one of the tilts but it can also lead into a Forward Aerial or Neutral Aerial a lot of the time. At higher percents, Poliwag can go for 50/50s with Up Smash or potentially even Forward Smash which can be pretty spooky. You can combo into a Dash Attack on water, if you want, from pretty much any percent.
Up Throw: Pillar of Water
Poliwag rushes under the foe, before shooting out a pillar of water out from under the foe, carrying the opponent (still in a bubble) up into the air! This is Poliwag's strongest throw, 12% damage, and the knockback is enough to kill at 220%. This puts opponents high into the air usually, which can lead into aerial play (but not direct combos from this usually) and could be good for Poliwag to attempt to catch the opponent out. It is also good at gaining space, but vertically instead of horizontally.
The bubble pops just a moment after the knockback of this attack ends, and just a moment longer if this was used on water. The bubble causes the opponent's fall speed to be lowered quite a bit during that brief time, which makes landing just a touch harder, and gives Poliwag a brief advantage state in terms of options while going up to aggress the opponent. Not a huge thing, but it is nice!
Final Smash: Tadpole Trample
Poliwag rushes forward with a jet of water for a hit-for-cinematic Final Smash! Hit the opponent and a whole bunch of Poliwag's will pop out of water, taking turns shooting the opponent with water gun hits that do 5%, before a Poliwrath rises (menacingly) behind the opponent and delivers a finishing blow that deals 30% and sends opponents flying! Never mess with a Poliwrath's babies, that is for sure. This deals a total of 60% and kills at 90%. With Final Smash Meter, it deals 30% and kills at 125%.
Poliwag isn't the most complex set this MYM, but it FEELS very in-Smash. In fact, of all characters, Poliwag reminds me of Chrom, in that it's something of a patchwork of concepts from other characters woven into a new whole. Poliwag has variations on Incineroar's Revenge gimmick, Greninja's recovery, Inkling's ground coverage mechanic, K Rool's belly armor, Squirtle's Water Gun and USmash, the traditional heavyweight stall-and-fall, Dedede's D-Tilt... and it weaves all that into a set that revolves around clever use of a couple of major mechanics (Belly Drum and Hydro Pump's water) to make up for lackluster stats. It FEELS like Pichu in a way, a set that could be handwaved as a handicap or outright joke character, but has the potential to actually be quite competent if played well. Definitely a fun little set to mark the beginning of a new year for MYM.
Belly Drum is a brilliant centerpiece in my opinion, with fun characterization and a sort of "soft" function that beefs up Poliwag in small but meaningful ways. It's also fun to see a twist on K. Rool's belly armor utilized in MYM already! The water interactions are similarly subtle but useful in a very pleasantly In-Smash way. All in all, a well done set. Nice work!
The Bounty Hunter's marking mechanic is perfectly fine. It is correct to be careful around the 1.5x damage boost since it is quite large, but for the most part The Bounty Hunter does it well. Marking an opponent and then collecting the mark with a big attack pretty much fits the Bounty Hunter to a T in my limited play experience with them in DD, so that's good. And I would say you do solid stuff with it: Come Hither is again pretty fitting of the flavor of the original while also serving as a move to get the opponent in close for you, making a kind of poking almost Belmont-esque playstyle with the chain moves plays into the set not only by giving the Bounty Hunter a reasonable playstyle outside of the Mark but because this poking zoning tools can potentially "waste" the mark and thus give the Bounty Hunter more incentive to go in which is nice, and the way that the Bounty Hunter uses them to open up his grabs are all good stuff.
In general my favorite moves in that regard are the Up Tilt (I like it having a niche use that can hurt him with misuse as well), Down Tilt (Although I feel this should be a more pure combo move), Neutral Aerial, the grab + B-Throw and D-Throw, Side Special of course like I mentioned is good too. In some cases, I do feel like the moves could use some expositing, as there could be interesting application to combos in some spots. For a basic example that can apply to most any character, considering if they can end a combo with the opponent high in the air or close in the ground or if there is a combo good for carrying the opponent off stage and effectively communicating that to the reader. Having none of those is not a problem, especially since The Bounty Hunter is meant to be a low combo character, but it is general advice that helps add to combo moves.
I would also say the Bounty Hunter has an additional possibility combo-wise: Combos that can either end in a finishing hit OR by using the Mark to prepare for a hopeful (but non-confirming) finishing blow or what have you. This is especially true for any combo strings which would have a low damage finisher, as Marking the opponent for the 1.5x on the next blow may be worth more than a 6% damage finisher. In general combos would be a clever way to balance the Mark since they mean the "stronger" blow doesn't get a 1.5x boost from a Marked foe, save the Side Special of course, and so can allow a way to get the Bounty Hunter to a stronger blow without worrying as much about if it'd be too potent due to the Mark.
While the Bounty Hunter has good marks, it is also certainly not without flaws, so let me go over some: Up Throw's numbers simply do not work, a 150% killing throw dealing 1.5x damage won't just kill at 130%, it'd probably be closer to 100%. The entire Up Throw is completely redundant with Forward Throw it feels, as Forward Throw deals more damage and kills earlier with a mark anyway. I would make the initial KO percent higher if you want to kill at 130% or even completely re-do the throw if you get any ideas. Forward Smash is fun in concept but I feel like it goes a bit too far in not being safe on Marked targets: In my opinion, Forward Smash SHOULD ve safe on shield when the opponent is Marked and thus able to be used as a heavy threatening move that the opponent CAN shield but gets nothing off of and in general which forces the opponent to want to take different playstyle options. And then you can go into how the Bounty Hunter can take advantage of the opponent's other options, like catching out rolls with Side Special and just putting them right back into a horrible situation.
Dash Attack should go into more detail about how "This move is built to help BH to get in on an enemy and start using his more close ranged attacks like his aerials or F-Tilt." Is it just for movement in and it has really short ending lag, or does it combo into them? Personally I think this Dash Attack would be a good place to put another combo starter (still with the armor etc on it) and would help open up the Bounty Hunter's gameplan some. Down Special being out for only one frame seems kinda odd for that type of attack, although given there are one frame attacks for sure it is hardly WRONG per se, and as a smaller nitpick I feel like the Up Special might be a bit TOO bad for him. The Belmont's Up Special is 6.5 grids of vertical height with 2.5 blocks of horizontal movement (from stats I saw), which means this move is significantly worse than Belmont's Up Special which is already hot trash. I would add 1 grid of vertical movement and 0.5 grids of horizontal movement as a thought.
This one isn't a "problem" per se but a personal suggestion: I would make the Caltrops stay out as a trap once their duration ends rather than just disappearing, as I feel a basic trap could help the Bounty Hunter's overall strategy. An attack which could set the opponent up WITHOUT using up the Mark aside from the Side Special is helpful and it would grant the Bounty Hunter some true stage control that he can then take advantage of with his higher range attacks. It could be a simple light pop-up attack, or perhaps it trips opponents if they're moving over them on the ground?
Overall I left the Bounty Hunter with a slight positive impression, but I felt the Deltatrio did more with their concept and were generally a bit more of an interesting set. Still it's an enjoyable set, so good work!
Sweet Six Shooter (Bill Blastette @ProfessorLexicovermis)
First off, let me just say that this set has some really nice animations, which felt important for this kind of set since it is an OC with really no background or anything as a Super Crown -ette character and all. Getting across personality throughout the set is important to not just make it feel bland and generic due to that and this set does so admirably.
I do enjoy myself a well done ammo bank and Blastette does it pretty well: It is reasonably automatic in terms of reloading and rewards good decision making. Stuff like Up Smash is strong and potentially spammable but you run out of ammo fast doing so as a natural deterrent, which is fairly solid gameplay. The various forms of Bullet Bill are neat although the Sniper Bill could be a bit more cleanly explained. Allow Blastette to use her own body to interact with her fired Bills feels natural and clever and is intergrated reasonably well with moves like Side Special. Speaking of Side Special, I thought it was a really clever move, and allowing Blastette to rocket herself around like that, especially due to the Bill's interactions with her body (Bouncing esp), was pretty fun while being fairly simple. Down Special helped tie the Specials together by giving Blastette a potential way to fire off some various Bills to interact with without needing to do so herself.
One thing about Down Special, it was a bit unclear to me if the ammo is taken one time from when the Blaster is put down or continually drains ammo. I would assume the first, since otherwise it seems rather underpowered (tho perhaps it is a bit strong at low levels like that? But prooobably fine), but it would be nice if the move just spelled it out.
The standards were fairly solid. It was kind of amusing to see a Super Crown of an immobile character having mobility as a major part of it, but given her base is basically like a gun barrel it makes sense, and it creates a rather interesting playstyle since stuff like Down Tilt and Dash Attack is ammo-for-mindgames essentially: Blastette can certainly psyche the opponent out, but if she doesn't get something out of it fast she's gonna be out of resources, an interesting take. Up Tilt as a Command Grab is perhaps somewhat odd, but it didn't turn me off too much (especially since it is rather basic and not Basically A Special Grab) and the interaction with the Bills is simple but effective.
The grab game is easily the weakest part of Blastette, owing largely due to throws which are pretty eh to me. I was really expecting some kind of throw where she could do something akin to a Mewtwo F-Throw or Fox/Falco throws by firing off Bills (even as a mixup rather than comboing out of the throw) or something. It isn't HORRIBLE but little of the actual throws spoke to me here, also Down Throw could probably stand to go into some gameplay applications with the Blaster or something. The pummel mechanic is...interesting, but it does bring some balance worry in. Down Aerial doesn't send the foe down, but could Blastette just walk off the ledge if close and use DAir then Up Special back? Or barely go off, Up Special, grab ledge as opponent plummets? What makes this not too much of a balance issue is the fact that Blastette needs to get off SEVEN pummels for it, meaning it is basically impossible at low damage percents and just turns it into more of a psuedo-kill throw than any kin of cheese. So I didn't dock it too much, but I kept a bit of an eye on it.
The Smashes are all fairly good and serve their functions. Not amazing, perhaps, but I enjoyed them: Up Smash was pretty fun since it serves as a lag reduction technique along with mixing up how Blastette can fire off her Bills. Forward Smash also has one of the better uses of "foe as ammo" in the set. On that note, why would you ever bury the opponent with Down Tilt while they're ammo'd in you when Up tilt does so anyway w/ ammo? Down Aerial and Forward Aerial stand out in the air, I wonder if you could let Blastette move somewhat left/right during Down Aerial with ammo as well, with the other aerials being okay but not as impressive. Also, I would make it so NAir can only refresh on a Bill once per that air trip per Bill or something since otherwise I am worried of goofiness with the Bouncing Bill, especially since Blastette can reposition. Up Aerial is reasonably solid as a juggler and a fine move, Back Aerial is meh.
Overall, Blastette has a fairly fun playstyle based around movement, a variety of projectiles and nice ammo bank usage. A weak grab game limits the set some, and there's some general balance concerns, some unclear wording here and there. What I do like is still enough for me to give it a nice stamp of approval, though!
SCRATCHis a moveset that's thoughtfully and humorously presented, which is quite a boon for an original character. You don't provide any backstory at all which means the reader must infer from Shantae's presentation and characterization what she's all about. It's an approach that's different from the typical expository introductory paragraph and the corruption of a moveset we never get to see through bait-and-switch and the red text consuming Shantae's white makes for a far more memorable reading experience.
Shantae has a very clear design philosophy of four distinct special moves that drive the playstyle of the rest of the moves. You do a great job of building a set around them and working the very different mechanics of each move together into a whole. Down Special and Up Special seem the most relevant to the playstyle, with Side Special and Neutral Special coming in a close second. I was a little skeptical at first of an AI Clone Minion-based playstyle but you do quite a good job describing how the Forks interact with Shantae's individual moves, and I found myself looking forward to how Forks would behave as I read the moves.
The Side Special is actually my favorite move in the set, specifically the function of embedding in the foe and making Shantae's claw moves appear within immediate range. This is an interesting neutral and combo tool that has just the right amount of lag. The Neutral Special is pretty interesting as well, I'm a big fan of Vulnerability. I recognize the usefulness of the Up Special and Down Special as they are cornerstones of Shantae's kit, and they're just my kind of effects. I wouldn't turn down playing SCRATCH as they're pretty cool moves, especially the usage of Severity.
I love how much personality Shantae has in her various attack animations. This attention to character is something that original characters deliver on well, and you did a great job. I also love how much SCRATCH's characterization fills in the move descriptions rather than phrases like "Not much to say about this," or "This is just a simple attack," and so on. I appreciate your time and dedication to the moveset especially since you've taken it on as a pet project. Also, I'd love for some taunts and victory poses as you have an interesting character and I'm sure you could do some fun stuff with those.
The meat of the set is pretty competent at both damage racking and self-damage through Forks, and the knockback on some of Shantae's moves is either on the light side or weighted towards heavy, with very punishable lag on the heavy moves. Considering Shantae's size and range, I love that there are some medium-strength attacks to interact with Vulnerability, such as the tilts.I'm happy there's at least one claw Smash, as I think the choice between an uncharged Smash interrupting a Vulnerable foe for a weaker Process Kill or going for a riskier charged one as a call for a satisfying payoff. I do like that you prevented Forks from using Down Smash as freezing their hitbox in place with a Down Smash hitbox out could be problematic. Speaking of the Smashes, SCRATCH's Up Smash is just perfect and I don't have any questions about it.
The set keeps the reader's interest throughout the moveset, largely due to your writing and the really cool attack animations. There's a good amount of detail and excitement here. You have a lot of interesting mechanics in play with Shantae and a really cool character that's ripe with potential. I'm really glad you didn't opt for generic and uninspiring sex kicks and simple tosses near the end. You had a lot of potential with SCRATCH and didn't waste it at all! The moves are very servicable to SCRATCH's playstyle and it very rarely loses the wow factor. I'm satisfied that you integrated Severity into these moves so it can be used for more attacks, and the interaction between the grab game and the Side Special is awesome.
Lastly, I like the concept of sharing damage and attacking your own Forks, and SCRATCH being Marth's weight means she can survive long enough to take advantage of it, a perfectly reasonable build I'd want to self-damage myself for. Pichu does self damage but the pros can take advantage of Pichu's stats and power to top Pikachu in the competitive scene, and casuals come around to Pichu's strengths eventually, so imagine what they'd think of SCRATCH! Hidan got the idea right of having him being a heavyweight, but SCRATCH can utilize it just as efficiently. I understand that it's optional, but self-damage is such an important aspect of SCRATCH that it has to be what the playstyle is built around.
Shantae is your best work, I'd say. An enjoyable reading experience, and an excellent exposition on core ideas throughout, and probably the best set I've read this contest for the cause of "Specials Matter". You have a very effective kit of moves that services both playstyle and reader excitement, and a moveset that doesn't care if we like Shantae or not. I actually didn't have any balance or gameplay concerns, so the moveset itself is perfectly balanced, as all things should be. I think SCRATCH is truly awesome.
FrozenRoy
This set kind of fell through the cracks so I'll go ahead and pick up the slack in that regard. Another Pokeset, this time it's one of Gen 4's darling mons, Toxicroak. I'll get right into the more interesting parts of the moveset and the questions I have regarding it.
I'm unsure how Croak's poison refresh works. Does it increase an opponent's poison timer back to its highest state it's been that 'poisoning'? As in, if the opponent took two hits of poison jab (16 seconds) then 5 seconds passed and they hit you 4 times (reducing the poison timer down to 7) if you get a croak off, does the poisoning reset all the way back to 16? Speaking of, if Toxicroak gets hit with a projectile, does that still reduce Poison timer? If so, wouldn't opponents who know anything about Toxicroak and have a decent projectile mostly end up holding back and trying to wall him out? A final note on croak, Does Sucker Punch go through projectiles or provide any invincibility? The start of it is mentioned to but the actual animation I'm unsure on.
Down Smash's interaction with Goop seems… not forced but, definitely useless and tacked on. I could see the Goop release hitting occasionally, but the slightly increased range and Goop repositioning both seem intensely unneeded considering you can just spawn another Goop with side special; it's not the biggest commitment. Dash Attack's sliding seems a little better but to me sounds like complexity for complexity's sake considering the already very interesting (and not the best explained) poison stack mechanic. Same with Fair healing when sweetspotting a poisoned opponent: won't happen often, seems bizarre that it even can. The inverse sex kick is interesting, I like that interaction the most. It's basic, but still interesting wiithout being overbearing. The mentioned interactions with Dair are very stand-out and displays immense forethought and knowledge of the game that you can see sprinkles of in the rest of your sets, very cool.
Overall, the set is okay. I loved the specials and how they seemed to set up the rest of the set but it begins to be bogged down by random interactions with his mechanics on random moves that seem to like rhyme, reason, or purpose. I like crouch jumping but it mixed with crawl isn't brought up too much. When it is however, you get my favorite moves. D-Tilt and D-air. Things could also be explained a little better. F-Throw's halved refresh makes no sense to me, some animations (FSmash, Up tilt) could be explained a little better, how amplified poison interacts with base poison (IE if Toxi croaks, and the opponent is already poisoned, does the refresh amplify their poison? If not, does getting them poisoned in the next 8 seconds amplify all of their poison until it wears off?), and finally is there a limit on poison goops on the field?
I'm back again with another offering; this one significantly smaller, made for a limited word count challenge and undershooting the 5k limit by half. It's the finished version of a nearly completed set that would've been my first try at it last contest, but was lost in the shuffle of other things. I figured now was as good a time as any to finish it up and share it, even if it's downright skeletal compared to my usual fair.
I figured it's about time I made a set for my all-time favorite franchise, so here's a Kirby set! I'm super proud of this one; it might even be my best set yet!
For those wondering, when I hinted to a few characters awhile back, Arcade Rabbit was... none of them! The idea just came to me in December, and I did it. What I'm planning on doing next isn't one of those either. As for who it is, they come from a series that's had an uneXpected lack of content through MYM history.
The Flamebringer Special Inquisitor Mòrag and The Jewel of Mor Ardain Brighid
Mòrag Ladair, alongside her signature Blade Brighid, serve as both key antagonists and protagonists within the story of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. After Rex accepts a salvaging job for the terrorist group known as Torna, he and his compatriots become labelled as terrorists, which the Empire of the titan Mor Ardain has been tracking. Of the empire, no person holds more power than the Special Inquisitor, Mòrag, who also is the older sister to the Emperor, Niall. After Rex attacks a battleship to rescue Nia, knocks over a civilian water tower, and generally causes trouble for the Ardainian Army, he finds himself fighting Mòrag and Brighid on several occasions. As Mòrag investigates the situation further, and as Rex helps track Torna on Mor Ardain, Mòrag comes around to save the day and joins the party.
Mòrag is typically cool-headed and calculated, with one of the coolest accents in the game. Especially compared to the other four party Drivers, Mòrag has a dignified grace about her, acts as the voice of reason, and is shown to be the most respectful member of the party, even to fellow royal Zeke. In game Mòrag acts as one of the two intended tanks alongside Tora, herself serving as an evasion tank like Dunban in the original Xenoblade Chronicles. With her Blade Brighid, Mòrag has earned the title Flamebringer, and has a reputation across all titans in the Cloud Sea.
Brighid herself is one of the two treasures of the empire, the other being the Blade Aegaeon who is bonded to the Emperor. Brighid is refined and ethereal, enjoying luxury items like gemstones and perfumes. Brighid herself is considered the strongest Blade in the empire, and during the Aegis War 500 years prior she frequently sparred with Mythra, a testament to her strength. While Blades lose their memories after being recalled into their Core Crystals, which happens when their Driver dies, Brighid has special circumstances. As an imperial treasure, her Core Crystal, along with the diaries she has maintained for centuries, are recovered at all costs, giving her a sense of identity even after countless memory losses.
Stats
Mòrag may not be the tallest fighter in the cast, but she's tall enough to command the respect of her peers, and can be seen alongside the hero prince Marth in height (not including her hat!). Despite Mòrag's role as a tank, her weight is on the lower side in Smash, putting her right on the scale between Robin and Pit. Though agile, Mòrag'swalkis a slow, deliberate march forward, putting her all the way down by Ganondorf. Her agility truly shines in her dash, however, which puts her high up along Zero Suit Samus. Mòrag's movement continues to excel in her jumps, with a strong ground jump akin to Bayonetta and an air jump like Rosalina. She has high aerial speed, similar to Greninja, and she possesses a fast fall speed as well, shared with Cloud and Lucario.
The most immediately noticeable aspect of Mòrag is her Blade, Brighid, who will always be following close behind her driver. Brighid naturally has her own set of stats, but it is very important to note that she does not take damage, knockback, or stun from attacks, will not stop projectiles and attacks from connecting with Mòrag using her body, and she cannot be grabbed either. This is actually not horribly broken, as Brighid takes a non-combatant role for most of the fight. What few attacks Brighid will perform can be blocked and countered, however, though still won't damage her, and some special circumstances like Medea's Rule Breaker can still take effect.
Brighid shares a height with her driver, making them quite a pair to behold. Because of her functionality, Brighid doesn't really have a weight to speak of. Brighid's movement stats are actually a bit lower than Mòrag's; her walk speed matches, but her dash is slower, comparable to Yoshi. Brighid has the same jumps as Mòrag, but with an aerial speed like Shulk, and with a much floatier fall, like that of Mewtwo. Despite following Mòrag around the stage and through the air, should her driver be knocked off the stage Brighid will remain at the edge of the stage closest to her, waiting for her return. If, in spite of all safeguards, Brighid still manages to go off the blast zone, she will be absent for 10 seconds before reappearing in the fight, a massive nerf to Mòrag's game.
Affinity
As mentioned, Brighid will do her absolute best to follow Mòrag wherever she goes. As long as Brighid is within three gridsquares of Mòrag, she will hold her hands out in front of her as a stream of light connects the two. The light will slowly change from a dim, flickering blue to a vibrant and continuous gold as the duo perform more actions successfully. At its default stage, Mòrag's stats are as listed above. Here's where Brighid's stats truly make a difference, as Mòrag easily outpaces Brighid on the ground and in the air. Running around willy nilly will eventually create too large a gap between the two of them. Should Brighid be too far away from Mòrag this connection will vanish and Mòrag will actually see a 15% decrease in her speed and a 5% increase on her standards* starting and ending lag. Additionally, while this connection is broken Mòrag will be unable to use her Blade Specials, which will be described below.
This is somewhat dire, but on the flipside dealing 100% damage to foes or securing a KO will result in the highest affinity connection, which will increase Mòrag's speed by 15%, remove 5% of her starting and ending lag on her standards, and give a 3% increase on all of her standard damage. While connected through their affinity, Brighid will actually gain the same speed boost that Mòrag does, preventing the buff from making it harder to keep their affinity up. Mòrag loses affinity from being too far from Brighid, and results in a percentage lost per frame their connection is broken. If Mòrag or Brighid are ever KO'd, their affinity is brought back down to zero. When Mòrag is KO'd, Brighid will vanish in a small pillar of blue flames to reappear with her driver as she respawns.
*Standards include Standards, Aerials, and Smashes
Specials Side Special - Azure II: Blaze
Mòrag's blades extend rapidly into their whip forms as the Special Inquisitor leans forward, as if to start a race. Like before, the whipblades will catch with the same eerie blue fire during the startup of this attack. After this brief startup, a bit shorter than Fox Illusion, Mòrag will dash forward at high speed about four grids forward, before coming to a sharp halt in the same pose as before. This has obvious use as a strong horizontal recovery option, and as such ending this move in the air will leave Mòrag helpless. Of course, first and foremost this is an offensive option. Foes struck by Mòrag's body will take 4% damage and medium upwards knockback, KOing at the 165% range. As is, Mòrag will remain in this pose for 15 frames before standing upright and flicking her whips back into blades. While not the fastest move to end, it is certainly fair and doesn't give Mòrag too much issue.
Now, during this brief ending, the special input can be entered another time, revealing that Mòrag has left a trap in her wake. The Flamebringer lives up to her title as she flicks her wrists while holding this pose, shouting 'Break!', creating a small, quick wave in the whips she has left on the stage behind her. This will create a flame as high as Kirby along the stage, dealing 5% damage with higher vertical knockback, which can KO at 140% damage. While this can be predicted, this is a great option for Mòrag, as she can punish rolls and spot dodges with relative ease, either activating her trap or launching one of her fast attacks ahead of her. This both plays into and relies heavily on Mòrag's ability to control the pacing between her and her target.
If used in the air, Mòrag will not be able to perform the second part of this attack as she normally would. Instead, inputting a second time during the brief ending period will have Mòrag swing her whipblades in an overhead arc above her very quickly. The range on this isn't an insane four grids but still hits with a fair amount of disjoint above her and will crack two grids in front of Mòrag. Foes hit by the swinging of the blade will take 4% damage and moderate vertical knockback, KOing around 160%. However, should Mòrag sweetspot the foe with the tip of her whipblade at the end of the move, they will take a frightening 10% damage with a powerful spike. This is strong, but only hits at a precise point fairly ahead of Mòrag in the air, requiring a great player to land consistently.
If Mòrag and Brighid are close enough to have their affinity connection, Mòrag gains another option during the startup for this move. Pressing the special a second time during its opening will have Mòrag toss one sword to Brighid, who will imitate this move while lagging behind slightly. In terms of damage and knockback, this move is identical, but Brighid has no ability to activate the trap like Mòrag does. Depending on how strong the affinity is between the two will determine the length of the lag, and at lowest Brighid will perform this a second after Mòrag does. Covered greater in the standards section, this can sometimes be more of a hindrance than a help, and at higher affinities this becomes a half second of lag before the move activates for Brighid. There is actually a benefit to using this move at all affinity levels, letting Mòrag experiment with catching foes and covering with different lag options. Mòrag can call on Brighid to perform this while used in the air, and she will perform the action at whatever elevation she is at, including on the stage, which allows for some great stage control.
This can be taken to a greater extreme and Mòrag can fully cancel out of this move by pressing it twice during its start up, which will have Mòrag toss both swords to her blade, one by one. Though swordless, Mòrag is free to move around and attack while Brighid finishes out the full attack. Mòrag will have a fairly altered moveset without either of her blades, but will maintain similar but weakened moves with only one blade. Additionally, Mòrag is unable to use her Specials as long as Brighid has at least one of her blades, limiting her options a bit. However, this is a fair tradeoff for Mòrag's ability to have multiple attacks going off at once, especially her longer and riskier Specials being performed by her unphazable Blade.
One benefit to giving these specials to Brighid along with / instead of Mòrag is, as mentioned, this allows many more hitboxes to be out on the field at once, giving many more options for damaging and comboing the opponent, or generally for controlling the stage. Another advantage is that landing Specials using Brighid will increase the affinity between driver and Blade, and in gameplay terms will extend how far apart the two can be from each other by 5%, capping out at 50% increased range. This has a huge bonus of giving Mòrag far more mobility during her battle without risking breaking affinity. The final benefit this has is that every Special from Brighid that connects will charge up her Blade Specials, three powerful moves that are performed by Brighid that are well worth consideration. The number of Specials Brighid has to land in order to activate a Blade Special varies, and will be covered in a bit. For organizational purposes, Blade Specials and their mechanics will be listed under the rest of the Specials.
Up Special - Azure II: Judgement
Mòrag flicks her wrists as her blades turn to whips in an instant. Mòrag's body contorts ever so slightly, constituting the starting lag for this move, comparable to the start up on Blaze. Mòrag quickly twists her body in a complete circle, swinging her whips on either side of herself in a horizontal line, each reaching two gridsquares outwards. Because she twists in a full circle, this will have two active points when it can hit, though this is fast enough they aren't easily distinguishable. Getting hit by either whip will deal 6% damage with acceptable knockback at a Sakurai angle, which allows KOs at 155%. After the attack, Mòrag swings around and kneels close to the ground with her arms outstretched as her whips retract back into swords.
If used in the air, this becomes a more traditional Up Special, as Mòrag will leap upwards while spinning her whips around. Mòrag travels straight upwards, slashing her whips around in a cyclone, for a grand total of five gridsquares upwards. She doesn't gain any horizontal control during this, but does have a strong set of hitboxes. Unlike the grounded version Mòrag doesn't spin her whips in a horizontal line. Instead, she swings her whips in two rapid diagonals, the first going bottom right to upper left and the second doing the contrary. Damage here is the same on hit, though knockback acts more vertically and with a greater ability to kill, starting at 130%. Also unlike before, each attack is only performed with one of her swords. Upon ending the move, Mòrag will hold both hands above her as her whips return to swords with a brief moment of ending lag before going into helpless.
Like before, during the ending lag of either the grounded or aerial version of the move, Mòrag can extend her lag a bit further in able to extend the scope of the attack. Again, this involves Mòrag performing a quick sleight of hand to send a wave of flames where her whips were. This simply manifests as a trail of fire arcing from Mòrag's starting position to her ending position above her head. The fire deals less damage than the initial hit of the attack, striking for 4% with significantly decreased knockback. However, this can be a very useful tool following a recovery to create a safer descent, as Mòrag only pauses in the air following the activation of this and begins to fall once the flames travel up.
As expected and is to be expected for the Specials, Mòrag can use the brief window of time before the move actually activates in order to toss a sword to Brighid. The details behind this toss weren't explained in detail before, so they'll be mentioned here. The toss is a straight forward throw to wherever Brighid is, again, as long as they are still bound with affinity. The sword is intangible and does not act as a hitbox in any sense, and is thrown so fast it takes a matter of frames to arrive in Brighid's hand. At the end of the move Brighid will do the same toss back to Mòrag. No matter of barriers, pocket dimensions, or obstructions will stop this exchange, and while Mòrag can only toss her weapons to Brighid when connected by affinity, the opposite is not true. Additionally, if Mòrag is performing an attack when Brighid sends the blades back, Mòrag will seemlessly catch them without interrupting her attack.
Brighid performs this attack with the same lag equation as before, having higher lag the lower the two's affinity is at. As expected, Brighid will perform the attack in her place. However, Brighid will perform the second version of the move whether she is on the stage or on the ground, creating a much more expansive hitbox thanks to the diagonals of the move. Aside from an extra hitbox to have around, this gives Mòrag a very safe recovery game. While her actual recovery distance may not be great, she can protect herself through both activating her flames and with Brighid counter-guarding the edge for Mòrag to get back on. Additionally, this is the move Mòrag suffers loss of her swords the least, as she enters helpless after using the move anyways.
Down Special - Azure II: Hellfire
Mòrag sharply turns to face the camera as she lifts both swords above her head. After the brief, and at this point expected, startup, she plunges both her swords straight down into the stage below her. As she does so, her two whips shoot out of the ground some distance from her, which is dependent on the strength of the affinity between Mòrag and her Blade. At minimum affinity the whips will resurface a grid and a half on either side of Mòrag, and this expands to a full three grids on either side at full affinity. The whips stab outwards at a 60 degree angle outwards from Mòrag, and will reach up to her height. The whips deal a sharp 7% damage if they strike a foe right as they come out of the stage, with high vertical knockback that can KO at 145%. The whips linger a bit after the hit, where they act as hitboxes for a lessened 4% with much less knockback. Finally, the whips quickly retract through the stage as Mòrag pulls her swords back out of the stage.
Using this move in the air, Mòrag will act a bit differently. She still raises her blades above her head, but here the blades change to whips as she performs a downwards kick. Her whips rotate around in a helix above her as Mòrag launches herself downwards. Foes hit by her imperial boot take 7% damage with strong downwards knockback, though not quite a spike, while foes hit by her lingering whips will take 5% damage with weak knockback away from Mòrag. The kick will carry Mòrag a grid downwards, which can be useful for covering an aerial approach. Mòrag whips will briefly droop at the end of the move before quickly retracting back into swords.
Giving the same tell as before, Mòrag can use this move during its ending to ignite her weapons. This creates tall pillars of flame around the whips, expanding the hitbox a good deal. The flames deal 5% damage with specific knockback that knocks foes inwards towards Mòrag, regardless of which side of the whip they were struck by. This makes this useful for controlling the foe's positioning, but also puts Mòrag at the disadvantage of having a longer attack, more evident here than in previous moves. Mòrag can use this after the aerial version as well, which will instead leave a tall, thin spiral of flames where she passed through. These flames deal the same damage as the grounded, but will instead push opponents downwards towards Mòrag instead of to the side.
As is part and parcel, Mòrag can toss one sword to Brighid during affinity to allow them both to perform this move or to put the move off entirely to Brighid. Due to the mirrored nature of this move, Mòrag will toss which ever sword is closest to Brighid, and the two will stab their whips in opposite directions, still creating a 'V' formation. Naturally, there is a difference in time, as described before, which gives Mòrag a point to combo opponents into as Brighid's whip lingers. Additionally, this 'v' is much looser in terms of its center point, as Brighid can be in different horizontal and vertical positions to Mòrag.
Neutral Special - Azure II: Radiance
Mòrag swings her arms behind her dramatically, pointing both swords behind her as she lunges forward to brace herself for a familiar amount of starting lag on this move. This backwards stab occurs in the background and foreground, and itself isn't actually a hitbox. Following this, Mòrag brings her arms back forward forcefully, as the swords extend out into whips ahead of her. The whips strike ahead of Mòrag in a straight line, reaching two grids ahead. The whips deal 4% damage along the main body of the weapon with minor knockback, but the very tip of the blade has a sweetspot to deal 8% damage. Following this, Mòrag will yank her whips back into swords with great force, and foes hit on the sweetspot have different effects if they're in the air or on the ground. Grounded foes will suffer set knockback towards Mòrag, landing them about a grid and a half in front of her, while aerial opponents will receive a fairly strong spike down.
As expected, Mòrag can input this move a second time during its ending lag, before she pulls the swords back, in order to ignite her weapons. Flicking her wrists, ghastly flames will rapidly travel from her hands along the whips in almost no time. This will deal an additional 3% damage across the entirety of the attack, and adds a good deal of knockback to the move. On the main section of whip, foes will be knocked away from Mòrag at the Sakurai angle with force to KO at 165%, and at the sweetspot foes both aerial and grounded will take harsh mostly vertical knockback to kill as early as 125%. Naturally, this action gives more ending to this move, as seen with all the Specials, and so is not always the best option.
If Mòrag uses the input during the startup of the move, she will call out to Brighid as she tosses both swords to her if Brighid has a Blade Special charged up. There isn't a version of this move where Brighid performs Radiance, and instead this acts as the gateway into Brighid's Blade Specials.
Blade Specials
Brighid's Blade Specials easily outshine Mòrag's Specials, and at level 3 even surprass her Final Smash in power. Unlike other moves, Blade Specials are not directionally input, and instead are chosen sequentially, going through levels I, II, and III before repeating back to level I. In addition to a power increase, the Blade Specials take significantly longer than any of Mòrag's Specials, and lend themselves to being more predictable due to the startup from both Mòrag and Brighid. During this time, Mòrag cannot cancel the Blade Special, and is left with her unarmed moveset as Brighid performs these moves. Of course, Brighid is immune to battle, and though in a weakened state Mòrag has the tools to chase down the foe and position them to be struck by these powerful moves.
Each level's rank determines how many normal Specials Brighid must land in order to activate that Special, meaning 6 total for the whole combo. If Brighid has gone over the requirement, such as landing three normal Specials and then using her Level I, Heat Haze, the excess will not carry over, and she will need to hit two more afterwards to activate her Level II, Will o' the Wisps. Thankfully, this progress can never be lost, even between stocks.
Blade Special Level I - Heat Haze
After catching hold of her swords, Brighid holds them both outstretched to her sides as they light with flames. This is a fairly slow animation that takes the entirety of a second to perform. Following this, Brighid begins to spin in place rapidly, becoming a blur surrounded by a horizontal ring of blue flames. Initially, this ring has a diameter of one and a half gridsquares, but as Brighid spins around the swords extend into whips, giving the move an effective range of five grids across in a horizontal line. The move's hitbox extends and lasts over the course of two seconds, after which Brighid will slow down as the blades retract back into swords and lose their fire. With this final half second of ending lag, Brighid tosses the swords back into Mòrag's hands and the normal course of the battle returns.
This ring of fire which Brighid produces acts similar to a Smart Bomb's explosion; foes will be trapped if they make contact for the duration of the move, dealing damage over time that dishes out 25% damage if struck for the entirety of the two seconds. Following the move, foes take great knockback, killing around 85%, but still have a brief respite before Mòrag regains her weapons to fight with. This is a powerful way of dealing damage, but as its incredibly telegraphed and stationary, this requires Mòrag to take action to corral the foes into the attack, moreseo than the other two Blade Specials do. This means that the more vulnerable Mòrag must risk herself to make the attack worthwhile, even during the second and a half of inactivity this move sees. As an alternate use, Mòrag can use this as protection while recovering, completely shutting off the zone for edgeguarding foes. However, Mòrag will also not have access to either of her recoveries should she do this, so in many instances this is less than ideal. As this move is fully horizontal, Brighid cannot effectively use this to edgeguard on her own.
Blade Special Level II - Will-o'-the-Wisps
Gripping her whipblades, Brighid lifts one straight up into the air slow and deliberately. As she raises this sword up, roughly a dozen pale blue embers no larger than Ness' PK Fire float from the stage below and hover around Brighid in a loose cloud. After this second of startup, Brighid will lower her arm and point her sword forward, indicating the launching of this attack. For the next three seconds, these embers will fly ahead of Brighid in a randomized pattern, though following a general pattern. The embers will fill a circular range, expanding outwards from Brighid to form a circle five grids in diameter directly ahead of her. This is not a constant spherical hitbox but just the range in which the embers will fly, and hence the range which Mòrag wants to steer the foe into. After all the wisps have been sent, Brighid will give a brief bow at her waist, less ending lag than Heat Haze, before returning Mòrag the blades.
As for the effects Will-o'-the-Wisps, opponents hit by any of them will take 10% damage with a brief hitstun, and the wisps will pass through after hitting opponents to continue their trajectory. Unless a character is extremely large, it is very unlikely the foe will take all the wisps from the attack even with Mòrag's assistance. However, this is very effective for area denial thanks to its broad range of locations it can hit. Mòrag should absolutely be aware of abilities like Fox's Reflector or Ness' PSI Magnet, as this will feed in heavily to those moves. While this move overall leaves Mòrag weaponless for longer than Heat Haze, the lessened ending lag is a huge help, and the wisps can hurt opponents as they spawn up from the stage during the startup. This move has similar benefits to Heat Haze, and Blade Specials, as well as any Brighid controlled Specials, are great for forcing a shield to punish with Mòrag's grab.
Blade Special Level III - Whirling Dragon
Brighid's final, and most powerful, Special, Brighid will take her blades as she leans forward, similar to how Mòrag starts Blaze, constituting yet another second of starting animation. Brighid will then plunge forward, targeting any opponent within five grids in front of her and leaping in front of them. Brighid then releases an onslaught of burning whip strikes on the opponent, or in front of her should no opponent be within range. This flagellation will last for three seconds before Brighid leaps backwards. The move finishes with an explosion centered on Brighid's target. Brighid stands up straight as she tosses Mòrag's swords back to her.
Each time Brighid strikes with her whips, the foe will suffer a stinging hit of 5% damage. Over the course of three seconds, Brighid will lash out six times for a total potential damage of 30% damage before the explosion. Foes will be locked into this attack but will not take damage from Mòrag's own attacks while trapped like this. The final blast has approximately a Bob-omb's explosion range, though appears blue and fiery. This strikes for a further 15% damage, allowing Brighid to easily dish out 45% damage on the opponent. The knockback is killer as well, able to send foes off screen from 60% damage. The insane amount of power which Brighid can put out forces opponents to play defensively, trying to avoid allowing Brighid to land Mòrag's Specials consistently. As with Will-o'-the-Wisps, this has a lessened ending lag as well, making it a bit safer for Mòrag as time goes on.
Smashes
Unlike Mòrag's other standards, which will be covered when relevant, her smashes only have two forms; armed and unarmed. The attacks don't change whether Mòrag has possession of one or two of her blades, only if she is unarmed will the moves actually change at all.
Forward Smash - War Pyre
Mòrag leans forward with an aggressive pose, blades extended to her sides, as this move charges. Upon its release, she takes a strong step forward and pivots on her foot, leading into her performing a spin-attack like maneuver with her blades extended into whips. As Mòrag spins furiously, she creeps forward along the stage. While Mòrag is spinning, her weapons have their full range in front of her, with a bad sourspot with poor range behind her. As for the better half of this move, the whips reach a grid and a half ahead of the Special Inquisitor at the end of the move. Because Mòrag moves while performing this move, the attack's net reach forward doesn't change, which is nifty. What does change is Mòrag's weapons, as they stiffen from whips to swords as she reaches the end of the move, and the tips of the sword have a great sweetspot. Like a lot of Mòrag's moves this is a very specific point in the attack both spatially and temporally, so it takes some technique to pull off.
To start with, any foe hit behind Mòrag will take only 5 to 7% damage with garbage knockback, and since Mòrag moves away from them in the attack, this bad knockback can't be used to combo into another attack (unless it's Brighid's!) The front half of the attack will deal between 11 and 15.4% damage with horizontal knockback that can KO from 115%. This is decent for an attack, but not worth the generally unsafe approach it requires. However, the very tip of the attack at the end gives that powerful sweetspot mentioned before. Unlucky or careless foes will take between 15.7 and 22% damage with strong diagonal knockback capable of KOing from a scary 80%.
Should Mòrag find herself with no blades in hand, she will perform a similar action for her attack, but using her fists as they burn with spectral fire. While the move has obviously neutered hitboxes and diminished power, there are some benefits to using this move while unarmed; Mòrag's attacking speed increases a great deal, making this a much harder move to punish or avoid. Another distinction is the lack of any extreme sour or sweetspots, making this move much more consistent and uniform across. The move deals between 9 and 12.6% damage with weak knockback, starting to KO from over 160%. While this is hilarious for a fully charged smash, the real strength of this move is to position foes into Brighid's Specials, allowing Mòrag to more easily build up the level of Brighid's Blade Specials.
Up Smash - Spiral Upper
Mòrag crouches close to the ground as the tips of her swords scrape the stage to charge this move. Once released, Mòrag will straighten out as she jams both blades into the air and performs a spin. Following the initial stab, Mòrag's weapons will extend, creating a tall helix of burning whips three grids high. The move is quick on the startup but has a fairly punishable ending as she recalls her weapons. Similar to Corrin's Up Smash, Mòrag will point her weapons at a singularity above her head before they extend into a helix, and unlike above the sweetspot is at this point, towards the beginning of the attack.
The initial hit, on a sweetspot, can deal between 16 and 22.4% damage, a sharp reward for landing the move. This also does strong vertical knockback, which can KO at 85% and making this one of Mòrag's more reliable killing options. Even without the sweetspot, the first hit of the attack will still hit between 14 and 19.6%, and can KO in the low hundred percent range. The vertical helix has a much larger hitbox but functions entirely different, trapping foes with mutliple burning hits for 8 to 11.4% if all hits land. Foes who aren't pushed out of the attack by the end will be launched weakly, not KOing until nearly 200%. While the previous smash had good utility for positioning, this move is primarily for dealing damage and securing kills.
If Mòrag is unarmed, she will instead perform a spinning uppercut, hand once again engulfed in blue flames. This looks a little awkward but as before comes out and off much quicker than the armed variant. Of course, this comes at the cost of both damage and the entire helix hitbox above, so it's a major trade off. The actual uppercut is very localized to one hitbox above Mòrag, but is almost as fast as a decent tilt. As for damage, the hit will deal between 9.6 and 13.4%, and will start KOing around 140-150%, making it somewhat usable.
Down Smash - Dance of the Flames
As she charges this move, Mòrag lifts her blades over her head. Upon release, she drops close to the floor and performs a spinning attack along the ground with her whips extended. The whole animation is very similar to Shulk's Down Smash, but not quite as laggy as his. Instead of the Monado's flames, the whips of course produce blue fire, and have a better range as well, hitting three grids on either side of Mòrag. Like her other smashes, this leaves Mòrag vulnerable to punishment, but unlike the others this has more consistency with less need for precision. At any point during the attack, foes will be hit for 12.6 and 17.6% damage with vertical knockback, which allows Mòrag to KO enemies around the 125% range. The less laggy of her smashes, the vertical knockback lends the attack for quick follow ups on enemies hit at the end of the attack.
When unarmed, Mòrag will instead perform a spinning kick close to the ground, and as before this is essentially the same attack but with decreased range and power but increased speed. With her fiery foot extended, Mòrag will knock the feet out from under opponents, dealing between 8 and 11.2% damage. In addition to the damage, foes will take weak vertical knockback, starting to KO close to 200%. Combined with the speed of the attack, Mòrag can use this weak knockback to manipulate foes' positions, allowing her to hit with followups or trap them in one of Brighid's moves.
Standards
Mòrag's standards and aerial moves all feature her sword prominently, providing either multiple attacks or multiple hitboxes per attack, which allows her to rack damage up quickly. However, should Brighid have one of Mòrag's blades, the Inquisitor will only perform half of any given attack, either skipping out on a second attack or missing half the range. This applies to all moves in the next two sections, so this goes here at the beginning as a disclaimer. Likewise, while Brighid has both blades, Mòrag will see a drastic change to her moveset to adjust to not having her swords, and one which focuses far less on damage and knockback and more on speed and controlling the foe. Affinity will only effect the damage of the first hit of multi-hit moves, so moves that have two or three hits can't deal an additional 6-9%.
Jab - Punctuate
Mòrag leans forward, thrusting one of her blades in front of her into the gut of an unsuspecting enemy with each tap of the button. Mòrag keeps her blades closer to her than other attacks, trading off a bit of range for a pretty fast jab which she can continue using on loop. The stabs are weak, of course, starting out dealing 1.5% damage, but she can use them quick enough to make up the difference. Once the loop ends, Mòrag will perform a final upward slash with one of her swords. This last hit will hit for 3% damage with mostly vertical knockback, which starts KOing around 210%. This is one of Mòrag's faster moves, even more of a difference than most jabs given how laggy many of her ground moves are while armed. With only one of her blades armed, the only difference in this attack is the speed of the jab, which is slowed by only having one blade to attack with.
While unarmed this move changes quite a bit. The rapid part of the move becomes a quick two frame punch that deals little damage, but goes a bit faster than the normal version of the move. Because it's faster, foes will get pushed out of the attack quicker which can be useful for positioning foes into Brighid's Specials. Following the rapid jab, Mòrag can perform a two hit combo to end the move, starting with a knee strike which deals 3% damage with virtually no knockback. Another hit and Mòrag will perform a sharp elbow strike for 2% damage which hits opponents at a lower angle than the normal version of the move. For this move specifically, the damage buff from Affinity will only effect the last hit of the jab combo for both versions of the move.
Forward Tilt - Twin Dragons
Once pressed, Mòrag will stab one of her two blades forward with an aggressive grunt, piercing the gut of any unlucky foe in her path. This move comes off very fast, making it a move for foes to watch out for, though the range is shorter than many of her previous moves. Once skewered, foes will take a sharp 5% damage with minor knockback, allowing for followups or positioning into Brighid's attack range. Afterwards, Mòrag will pull her sword forcefully back, a little laggy but still fine enough to use.
However, should Mòrag be in possession of both her blades, she can input the move a second time to perform a second nearly identical stab with her other sword directly after the first. The general speed coming out is as fast as the first, though the second hit only deals 3.8% damage. After both stabbing attacks, Mòrag will instead slash both swords horizontally outwards, launching opponents at a low angle knockback that KOs around 170%+. While stronger, this also leaves Mòrag much more vulnerable than the single attack, and is only available with both her weapons on hand.
While unarmed, this move changes quite a bit, and Mòrag will perform a quick knee jab forward, which hits for 3% damage with negligible knockback. While the attack is weak, it comes out very fast, nearly as fast as some jabs, giving Mòrag a boon while unarmed. Like the armed version of this attack, Mòrag has the option to use the input a second time, performing a second attack at the cost of more significant recovery time. In this case, the Special Inquisitor performs a kick straight out in front of her, a longer range than her knee strike that can deal 4% damage with a bit more oomph to it, though the knockback still isn't anything to write home about.
Up Tilt - Twin Moonblade
Turning her body parallel to the camera, Mòrag takes one of her swords and performs a quick sweeping arc over her head. This is not as fast as her FTilt initially, but still a reasonable speed for a tilt, and more consistent than her USmash. As the sword rakes across her foe's body, they take 4% damage with a weak upwards bounce. Like all the weak knockback in the set, this can be useful for positioning foes to secure hits by Brighid, or for leading into an aerial. Filling the whole 180 degrees above her, the move ends as fast as it begins, not leaving Mòrag particularly open on the whole.
Of course, with both blades equipped Mòrag can use this move a second time, which will cause her to swipe her offhand sword in the opposite direction after the first attack ends. The move is obviously longer, completing the animation twice, and the second swipe has the same power as the first. There's less vulnerability in terms of recovery than the same trick on the FTilt, though, making it a little more reliable to pull off, and securing the first hit will usually guarantee the second for an easy 8% damage. Mòrag is committed, though, so exercise caution when button mashing.
Unarmed, this move changes entirely. Mòrag will still turn towards the camera as she takes both fists and spikes upwards, a stinging hit with her hands to deal 3% damage to foes. Mòrag then swings both arms downwards (think DK's Down Smash but weaker and faster), dealing an extra 2% damage and knocking foes to either side of her with weak force. One of her best positioning tools in her kit, this can serve as one of her staple moves while unarmed.
Down Tilt - Crown Splitter
When used, Mòrag will perform a vicious stab with one of her blades at the feet of the opponent, dealing a hot 7% damage while giving usefully lengthed hitsun. This is a pretty powerful effect for her attack, but unlike her other attacks this comes out with a chunk of lag as Mòrag raises her blade up by her shoulder with a flourish. This is less reliable of an attack than UTilt, but also gives Mòrag a very specific ability to control the opponent's movement, keeping them locked briefly in one place. With a second use of the move over its course, Mòrag will then bring her other sword down hilt-first, bashing in the head of her enemy for an additional 1% damage. It's weak but it comes out fast and is much less detrimental than her other attacks, though it's mostly there to add insult to injury.
Without her arms, Mòrag will instead give a hearty shout as she lifts one of her imperial boots into the air and performs an aggressive stomp downwards. Foes caught underfoot take 5% damage, which isn't particularly awful, and grounded foes will be bounced off the ground slightly into the air. While fast and fun to use, the main deal with this is that Mòrag can use this to send aerial foes to the ground should she land it, with the most obvious application spiking offstage foes to their deaths. On stages with platforms, however, Mòrag can knock foes hard downwards into Brighid's attacks should they be particularly evasive.
Dash Attack - Admiral Waltz
From her running animation, Mòrag will perform a potent knee-strike a la Captain Falcon, extending her stride by a bit. The knee deals 4% damage and pushes the foe back slightly, and as Mòrag leaps forward she holds her blades behind her in an edgy Naruto-running stance. The moment that her feet touch the ground again, Mòrag swings her arms forward, turning her swords into a giant pair of scissors which slash at the foe. Unlike the previous standards, the move only has one animation for one or both of the swords equipped, but the damage and knockback change depending on the number of blades equipped. With both blades, this move deals an additional 8% damage with enough knockback to actually kill opponents, starting around 140%, and with one blade this drops to another 4% damage with the standard poor knockback of her ground moves.
With her weapons previously engaged, Mòrag will still perform the running knee strike as before. However, upon landing with her feet Mòrag will whirl around on her frontmost foot and deliver a high roundhouse kick into the opponent. This leaves Mòrag open towards the end of the move, but is also one of the stronger unarmed attacks she has, dealing another 7% damage with good vertical knockback that can KO around 150%. This does require a running start so it's not the world's most reliable way of killing, especially with the high threshold, but it's one of the few, if not the only, killing moves Mòrag has unarmed.
Aerials Neutral Aerial - Inferno Wheel
Holding her blades to either side of her body, Mòrag performs two complimentary crescent slashes with her burning weapons, creating a full circle of flame briefly around her body. The start up is a bit on the slow side, similar to Corrin's NAir in both speed and animation. Opponents hit by the wheel of flame will take a nice 5% damage with inward knockback. This attack has a weak vacuum effect allowing Mòrag to draw opponents in towards her, allowing for a follow up from either another aerial or Brighid. The vacuum is only effective on the outer range of the attack, and foes who are right next to Mòrag will be pushed out of the attack to prevent a fiery infinite on opponents. With only one of her blades, this move just attacks the front arc of Mòrag, still with the pulling factor, but limiting her range significantly on the attack.
Unarmed, Mòrag's foot will alight with the ghostly fire as she performs a flipping bicycle kick. This essentially copies the default version, leaving a fiery ring around Mòrag for a brief moment, but as expected it comes out quicker but weaker. The attack only deals 3% damage but has a more exaggerated knockback effect, giving a stronger pull inward and more knockback out of the attack. Of course, without the length of the swords Mòrag loses a good amount of range on this attack, requiring a much more aggressive playstyle to utilize.
Forward Aerial - Imperial Pursuit
With a determined expression, Mòrag brings her swords together from both above and below, imitating something akin to a clapboard with her burning blades. Opponents caught at the beginning of the attack will be knocked away weakly either up or down, depending on where they were hit, and take 5% damage to boot. The real fun comes for Mòrag's enemies who find themselves between both blades as they come together, a strong sweetspot to deal 8% damage and good horizontal knockback that can kill at 125% damage, making this Mòrag's most reliable solo-kill move. The move is fairly fast, and following up after a NAir can make this a strong combo and one of Mòrag's best moves in general.
With only one blade, this move will perform the same animation but only with one blade, and Mòrag will even use her second hand to add oomph to the attack. While the move only has half the range (the overhead slash is the one which survives), it deals 6.5% damage with better knockback, though still not a particularly good move for killing. Again, more interestingly is the sweetspot at the end of the sword and attack, a forceful blow that deals 9% damage with a strong spike downwards. Actually less useful for positioning than the default version, but in general a better attack.
While unarmed, Mòrag will kick off the air and get a slight boost forward, not even a full grid, as she performs a flying downward hook in front of her. This isn't particularly faster than her default, which is unusual, but hits a bit weaker nonetheless, dealing 4% damage and a spike effect at the end of the attack, though again weaker than before. In addition to throwing foes to their deaths, this whole move can be used to knock foes down to the ground for Brighid to hit, and is more reliable in doing so than Mòrag's unarmed DTilt.
Up Aerial - Rising Dragon
Mòrag lifts her blades akimbo above her head as they catch fire while she performs an imperial pirouette, maintaining her momentum through the air. Corkscrewing any enemies above her, this move is definitely laggier than her previous aerials, but has good disjoint and coverage in the air. Enemies struck will take 5% damage as they're shredded and getpopped up with moderate knockback, able to kill foes around 145%. This isn't winning any awards, of course, but is better at killing than a good number of her attacks.
With only one weapon, Mòrag will instead perform an upward stab with her remaining sword. Foes will take 4% from this simple but effective attack, which comes out much faster than the default form of the attack. However, the range on this is incredibly diminished from the original, only attacking in a straight line above Mòrag rather than a cone. The forceful nature of the attack also gives the move more knockback, allowing it to KO her enemies at 130%.
While unarmed, Mòrag will instead perform a relatively quick bicycle kick, hitting in a broad arc above her. This makes this one of the select moves that has superior range unarmed over armed. Foes who are hit in the first half of the attack, before her foot hits the zenith of the attack, will take 3.5% damage and get weakly knocked at an up-and-outward angle away from Mòrag. Get stuck at the back half of the attack and foes will take the same damage with a very weak down-and-outward direction, mirroring the former. Sparks really fly at the sweetspot of the kick, the very middle of the attack, which hits for 4.5% damage with sharp upwards knockback that can KO from 120%.
Back Aerial - Aerial Slash
Mòrag cranes her head over her shoulder as the cue for this attack, then performs a quick spin in order to slash behind her twice in rapid succession. The attack is pretty fast, with the two slashes only frames apart. Of course, with one blade Mòrag will only be able to perform one of the slashes. Each slash hits for 4% damage with okay knockback, not killing until closer to 200% but still useful for making space between the Special Inquisitor and her foes. Since this is a fast move, Mòrag can use it quite a few times in one jump, which could be good defending against offstage foes.
Unarmed, Mòrag will grip one hand in the other and pull them to one side of her, again while scoping out behind her. She will then perform a sharp elbow blow, similar to her unarmed jab, but packing more power. Foes on the end of her royal elbow take 6% damage with high knockback away from her, KOing around 125%. While pretty powerful for one of her unarmed attacks, this is another where its slower than the default attack, but can still be good for securing kills.
Down Aerial - Mountain Crusher
Turning astride the camera, Mòrag takes both her blades in hand and brings them down hilt first on either side of her. Unlike most DAirs, this only hits to the sides of Mòrag, but does so in a downward motion so it's probably fine. Getting smacked by this hits for a paltry 4% damage, but the move comes out pretty fast to make up for it. Along with the damage, the hilts can spike if hit right at the end of the move, and otherwise will do weak outward knockback. With only one blade, Mòrag will put more strength behind performing this attack in front of her exclusively. This ups the damage to 6.5% damage with a higher spike effect, but otherwise functions the same on half the range.
Unarmed this move changes quite a bit, with Mòrag lifting both her feet up and performing a hefty stomp down with both boots. This is somewhat laggy, telegraphing the move a fair bit, but hits for 6% damage with an aggressive spiking effect for maximum disrespect. This move also ends leaving Mòrag more vulnerable than most of her others, so use in moderation or with total hubris.
Grab Game
Regardless of her collection of swords, Mòrag will perform a fairly standard grab with good speed but short range. For her pummel, Mòrag drives her knee into the foe's gut for 1.2% damage, and can do so at a moderate speed. More interesting is than, like her Specials, Mòrag can double tap the grab button to instead have Brighid perform a grab. Unlike Mòrag, Brighid will conjure a ring of blue fire directly in front of her to ensnare foes with, holding them at a grab strength of 1.2 times. Unfortunately, Mòrag herself has an animation for commanding this action as she tilts her hat menacingly and crosses one arm, but on a successful grab the utility can make up for it. Brighid herself has no pummel, though the initial grab deals 2% damage on a connect. Additionally, Brighid only has one throw, non-directional, which is activated through the special input. With this in place, Mòrag is still free to run around the stage and use her standard attacks. This leaves Mòrag the choice to perform said throw and try to follow up or just have Brighid hold the foe in place for her Standards and Smashes, and both have their merits.
Brighid's throw has her wave her hands ephemerally as the flames trapping the enemy grow and fully envelop. The agitated flames deal another 5% damage as they lick at the foe's body, before erupting and launching the foe straight up. This deals a final 3% damage, making the whole process deal 10% damage in total after the grab hit is considered. In addition to a good amount of damage, the launching upwards has a set distance of 5 grids straight up before the foe can react, which is a very strong combo starter for the duo. As for Mòrag's throws...
Forward Throw - Ardainian Impact
While holding the opponent up by their neck like a playground bully, Mòrag winds one fist back to deliver a powerful punch into the opponent's abdomen equivalent. Foes hit by this will take 7% damage as they're thrown backwards, and the force and angle they're thrown at depends on whether Mòrag has one of her blades or not. Armed and Mòrag will have the extra force from the sword's hilt to launch the foe's up in the air at about a 50 degree angle, though negligible killing potential, it still puts a distance between them. Without blade in hand, Mòrag's blow will actually launch opponents into the stage a few grids away, which while has less combo potential with her set will allow her to more directly influence where the foe is. This should make the throw appropriate for whatever gameplay state Mòrag currently is in, whether in her solo fighting state and looking for damage or manipulating the foe into Brighid's range.
Up Throw - Back Breaker
Mòrag lifts the foe over her head with both hands as she turns to face the camera, looking like she's taken lessons from a wrestling aficionado. She then throws the opponent down towards the ground while bringing her knee up to greet their back (bonus damage on Batman). Along with an audible crack, foes will take 8% damage as they are knocked very weakly upwards. After 50% damage, foes will start taking enough knockback that Mòrag will have to chase them for combos, rather than them being launched just in range. This is a good throw to use while inside of Brighid's range, allowing both the damage from the throw along with connecting a Special on the foe.
Back Throw - Inquisitor's Reversal
Mòrag grips the opponent with both hands and shouts out as she pivots on her feet. As she whirls behind her, Mòrag lifts the opponent and drives them back into the stage. As the foe hits the stage, they take 5% damage as they bounce up into the air. The knockback actually can start killing in the mid-hundred percent range, which makes the range of the attack a little tricky to follow up on or use to control the foe's position. Mòrag will be facing in the direction she threw the foe, which is cool.
Down Throw - The Flamebringer
While Mòrag grabs the foe, her hands glow with Brighid's ghastly fire. The Special Inquisitor performs a simple throw animation aside from that, lifting the foe further up in the air before hurling them down at the ground in front of her. Upon impact on the ground, foes take a a weak 4% damage and get knocked back a few grids in front of Mòrag. More so than this basic throw, however, the foe will have a glowing blue ember burning on their body. This will remain inactive for four seconds, and after this time the ember will burst in a small explosion of blue fire. This will deal an additional 5% damage to the opponent along with hitstun, which can be good for interrupting actions. Of course, foes can just shield the attack, but this gives Mòrag an opportunity to punish that. In addition to the four second timer, Mòrag can use her grab input to instigate this early, though it will only deal an additional 2.5% damage. Because Mòrag's grab will activate the flame, the foe can inherently only have one of these on them at a time (unless they're fighting multiple Mòrag's).
Final Smash Azure III: Soulfire
Mòrag strikes a dramatic pose as she gains invulnerability and tosses one of her swords to her Blade. Announced by a resounding "Brighid, form the third!", the two perform a pose like above before lunging forward and, if they make contact with an opponent, they will activate a cutscene for the rest of the Final Smash. Mòrag and Brighid surround the opponent with a tall ring of blue fire as they pull the swords back, and shift their blades into the whip form. The two step forward threateningly but are cut off midstride by a distant scream. The two look up into the sky, squinting at something off screen, before taking a single step backwards. Crashing from off screen and landing in a comically cool pose in between the duo and their victim comes...
Ozychlyrus Brounev Tantal von Genbu! Seeming unphazed by his landing, Thunderbolt Zeke steals the spotlight from Mòrag and Brighid as he swings his massive sword around, charged with electricity, as he shouts "Bringer of Chaos! Ultimate Lightning Fury Slash!" Zeke brings his sword above his head with both hands, shooting sparks, as he prepares to swing his blade downwards. However, the cutscene is interrupted yet again as a large boulder comes careening down from the top of the screen, crushing both Zeke and the opponent. The cutscene ends here as the foe takes 35% damage and high knockback, able to KO as low as 85% damage (25% and 120% with meter). Afterwards, the boulder, Zeke, and likely the opponent will all be missing from the stage.
Flavor
Entrance Animation - A cloud of blue flames appears on stage, and both Mòrag and Brighid emerge from the fire as it clears in the position at the top of the moveset. Boxing Ring Title - The Special Inquisitor Up Taunt - Mòrag points one of her swords forward, or points a finger if unarmed, as she states with vigor, 'This is the culmination of years of training!' Meanwhile, Brighid produces and sustains a small blue flame between her hands. Side Taunt - Mòrag crosses her arms and lifts her head as she shouts to the foe, 'Shall we dance?' As a response to this challenge, Brighid forms a circle of small embers in front of her which quickly disperse. Down Taunt - Mòrag lowers her hat over her eyes while crossing her other arm. Brighid points forward aggressively, shouting, 'You're not fit to tie Lady Mòrag's bootlaces!' Victory Animation A - The screen is filled with Brighid's blue flames, and they part as Mòrag and Brighid march onto the screen. Victory Animation B - Brighid takes point as she whirls her flaming whips around, then throws the blades into the air. Mòrag leaps over Brighid's head, grabbing the blades and performing a Very Cool Landing in front of her Blade. Victory Animation C - Mòrag and Brighid stand back-to-back as the Blade produces a cloud of will-o-wisps that swirl around the screen as the camera zooms on their faces. Defeat Animation - Mòrag holds her hat over her chest with her offhand held behind her back. Meanwhile, Brighid performs a polite clap. Victory Theme - 0:04 - 0:12 of Roaming the Wastes
I started making this moveset with a lot of inspiration back in May of this year, over 7 months ago. Since then, Smash Ultimate has been released and completely changed a lot of how I want to do my movesets, but the meat of this set had already been produced. I tried to convert what I'd written prior in order to preserve my work but some of it might not have gone well, so if something stands out as bad especially in the numbers then that's where that issue comes from. I think towards the aerials this set began to devolve into a kind of bad stance / weapon changing set, where a lot of the "meat" is just talking about three separate attacks. With that in mind, the intention here is that Mòrag can change stances pretty quickly by throwing her weapons to Brighid at basically any time, so there's ideally a lot of synergy between the stances. However, I'm aware that it became kind of procedural, but sometimes that's how it be.
Although he is rather large, think close to Ike, the warped and deformed nature of Aatrox's body makes him significantly less durable than one would imagine: At 83 weight, he is between Zelda and Rosalina in weight which puts him 63rd. This misshapen flesh also makes him not so fast, equalling the other swordsman Corrin in dash speed and placing him at 54th. His ominous walk is also equal to Corrin, although this places him right in the middle of walk speed, in the 26th-30th tie. He has high traction.
Aerially, Aatrox has mediocre aerial control along with mediocre air speed (equal to 24th place Shulk's) and is slightly floaty, in the massice 41th-44th place tie that includes Robin and Shulk for Fall Speed and equal to Corrin and Ike's Gravity for 22nd-25th. Both of Aatrox's jumps go fairly high, so Aatrox has reasonably good aerial combat. No other specialities to talk about.
As a flavor note, in addition to his default form and skins, Aatrox original design from before his rework (and alternate colors/skins for it) are also available, akin to other alternate costumes like Wario's two forms.
This mechanic is very simple to explain, but Aatrox's passive from the games makes an appearance. Every 6 seconds, Aatrox's next sword-based attack is empowered: By default, this increases the range of the attack by 1.2x due to the sword becoming enlarged, with specific bonuses occuring based on the move. In addition, the attack deals 1.2x shield damage (although no additional shieldpush!) and prevents shield regeneration for 3 seconds. This occurs even if the move is shielded! Note that if the move has no further bonuses, then all you get is some extra range and shield stuff. Deathbringer Stance is always used on the first sword-based attack that Aatrox uses, regardless of if it hits: Keep that in mind, and you can even time some attack delays or go in for combos with that in mind! Note that since it only works on sword-based attacks, that leaves you free to use non-sword attacks all you want...but they won't be getting any bonuses, either.
While Deathbringer Stance is ready, Aatrox's sword glows more powerfully and he holds the sword somewhat differently during animations such as idle and dash, which appear more fancy and formful.
Oh, and while Aatrox's pummel uses his sword hilt for his animation, it won't use up Deathbringer Stance either. So don't worry about accidentally using it up on a worthless pummel!
Aatrox's Shield Special ties into another of Aatrox's mechanics, which is centered around a 3-hit passive. Insert your own League of Legends related meme here! Every time Aatrox hits an opponent 3 times within a short time period (Say, 3 seconds), such as in a combo, he gains a bonus effect. While Blood Thirst is on, Aatrox will heal for half of the damage he deals, which if Aatrox uses a potent combo finisher can be quite a lot of healing. Aatrox's recovery is...unreliable, and he is quite light, so this is actually pretty important to keeping Aatrox from dying too soon!
Blood Price, on the other hand, causes 6% self-damage to Aatrox when he hits a third attack in three seconds, but causes his attack to deal 1.2x the damage (with knockback increasing accordingly): While obviously risky, this is potentially a great buff that allows Aatrox to kill significantly earlier, or to deal higher damage on a finisher.
So, why is this on Shield Special? Because Shield Special is what allows you to swap between them! By default, Aatrox begins in Blood Thirst, but you can click a little icon on his portrait to start in Blood Price if you so desire. Pressing Shield Special causes Aatrox to do a slight animation with his sword, switching which one he is using: This is relatively lagless, so you can do this on the fly. Depending on the frame advantage, you could do this before the last hit of a combo to switch which effect you get, you could use it while delaying an attack for frame traps or what have you, and in general it is just really easy to switch.
You can tell which Aatrox is in by either looking at the HUD, which shows the appropriate icon (seen above!) for which of these Aatrox is in, or you can look at Aatrox's sword: The sword's glow is red while Blood Thirst is on, while it has a heavily purple tint (especially on the edges) with some red mixed in while Blood Price is on. Keep them in mind no matter what you do!
Aatrox unleashes a mighty bellow as his body pulses and deforms, before it unleashes into a mighty and superior approximation of his true form. Although still limited by his crude flesh, taking this even superior form still provides Aatrox a multitude of buffs for 6 seconds, after which it enters a 12 second cooldown period. This is important because while strong, it IS Aatrox's primary form of recovery: Using it to go ham on the opponent means being without it to recover, a scary proposition indeed. This move's starting lag is rather long, but the ending lag allows Aatrox to move almost instantly after he gets it turned on. Anyway, let us get on to the buffs.
- Aatrox's weight is increased by 10 thanks to the bulkier form, putting him between Wolf/Lucario and Inkling/Lucas at 45th. Aatrox's size is increased and he grows true demonic wings rather than his more banner-like wings, making him size-wise kind of a mix of Ganondorf with Charizard's wings: Quite bulky. His ground speed and air speed improves to 1.1x it's previous amount as he glides around. Aatrox gains three additional midair jumps past his 2nd, all fairly meaty and stronger than, for example, Kirby or Jigglypuff: These allow Aatrox extremely good aerial mobility. Additionally, all 3 of these post-2nd jumps refresh if Aatrox is hit after using them with the same rules as an Up Special refreshing. Aatrox can thus become fiercely formidable in the air.
- Aatrox's Deathbringer Stance is always active during World Ender, granting its buffs to all of Aatrox's sword attacks. When Aatrox exits World Ender, Deathbringer Stance will become active for his next attack even if it would normally be on cooldown. The 3 second shield regeneration stopping does not stack during this time, but instead refreshes the duration (to prevent Aatrox from basically banning shields forever). Aatrox additionally gets a few other, specific bonuses during World Enter that his normal form simply cannot achieve.
- Perhaps the most unique part of this attack is Aatrox's Blood Well. Aatrox's Blood Well is a small bar below his damage percent that normally does nothing and remains unfilled: Aatrox's methods of filling it at all outside of World Enter are very limited and while outside of World Enter it drains at a rate of 1/5th of the bar per second in 10 frame increments...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
While in World Ender, the Blood Well passively fills up at a rate of 1/5th of the bar per second, being maxed out at the end of the 5th second of World Ender, leaving him full for the last second. It then drains at the rate described above when Aatrox is out of World Ender, going back down to 0. Some of the World Ender buffs that Aatrox gains are reliant on Aatrox's Blood Well to be used, but can be used outside of World Ender if Aatrox fills up his Blood Well outside of it with his limited tools.
If Aatrox dies while in World Ender, he will not die: Instead, he will respawn on the stage on the respawn platform with 2/3rds of the normal respawn invincibility, but with no loss of stock (or +/- in time, no coins flying out in Coin Match, w/e). Aatrox "revives" with either 100% damage or the amount of damage he had on him, whichever is lower...however, Aatrox has a way to lower this. You see, the reason the Blood Well fills up in the way it does (1/5th per second and all) is because each of the Blood Well bar "represents" 10% damage. For each bar of the Blood Well filled when Aatrox "dies" and is revived, Aatrox heals for that much when he revives. So if you died with a full Blood well and would be revived at 100%, you are instead revived at 50%! And if you would be revived at 50%, you're revived at 0%! This is, potentially, quite a boon. Note that partially filled Blood Well bits do still heal you: The blood Well fills every 10 frames, or in 2% chunks.
Oh, and a note about ways Aatrox can fill his Blood Well: Any self-damage, such as from Blood Price or even some items, fills the Blood Well for double the self-damage dealt and keeps it from draining for 1 second. So hitting a Blood Price activation fills it for 12% damage and allows him some limited Blood Well use on other moves for 2 seconds. Other attacks Aatrox has can also fill up the bar manually, for the same effect. Note that Aatrox ONLY revives when World Ender is up: He could have a full Blood Well outside of it and it means nothing. Only his superior form allows use of this technique.
This ability, however, is conditional and has downsides.
First off, Aatrox must be KO'd by an opponent, using the Smash KO system which has been much improved from before. If you activate World Ender and then just suicide like a coward, you get nothing except a loss of stock. Secondly, the attack that kills Aatrox MUST occur AFTER Aatrox activates World Ender: If you get knocked almost to the blast zone, activating World Ender and then drifting off to the side results in merely a stock loss. Given the opponent is fully in control of their actions, they can always choose not to attack Aatrox...which also means that they can't gimp him unless they want to risk it!
And when Aatrox revives, he doesn't come back at full power: After revival, Aatrox cannot activate World Ender for the rest of the stock. Not only does this keep Aatrox from reviving forever, it severely neuters his recovery to merely his normal jumps (and, in Smash Ultimate, a directional air dodge), plus the very small recovery of his Side Special we will get into. He no longer has access to his offense boosting buffs, and his Blood Well is disabled entirely (even if he fills it another way!). In fact, sometimes opponents will WANT to kill Aatrox and allow him to revive in order to disable World Ender: "Killing" him with 1 bar, after all, only heals him for 10%, but disables a lot more, and so it can be advantageous for the opponent to take. Aatrox needs to be very aware of this thought process when using World Ender to attempt to forestall demise, be it by gimping or flatout kill moves.
- Finally, and this is a minor and more flavorful use, Aatrox entering this form will fear nearby small minions for half a second, causing them to run away at half their normal speed and be unable to take other actions. This only works on small minions, such as King Dedede's Waddle Dees (may they rest in peace) or Gluth's zombies. Something like Ulrich Hetfield's Blood Puppet, Don Thousand's Numerronious and so on are entirely unaffected. It does work nicely on Smash Run enemies! It's basically a flavor thing.
Aatrox's Neutral Special is a 3-part attack which can be considered akin to Marth's Dancing Blade in concept, although the execution is rather different: Aatrox lacks directional options for his swings and so always takes the same three swing path. Another thing is that Aatrox doesn't have to execute them super fast or right after each other: After casting one part of the attack, Aatrox has 4 seconds to cast the next part, which allows Aatrox to be rather creative with its usage and to use each part of this attack into other combos potentially. This is important because each of these attacks are also more precise than Marth's Dancing Blade, with each having different sweetspots and sourspots. Let us begin!
The first of Aatrox's 3-part attack is a surprisingly fast overhead swing, with the sweetspot being the tip of the darkin blade. The rest of the sword is a sourspot, although this only affects the knockback of the move: No matter where Aatrox hits with the blade, it deals a paltry 4% damage. The knockback is the key factor. The tip of the blade deals higher hitstun than the rest and actually weakly hits opponent's inwards, serving as a combo starter past early damage percentages (where the hitstun is too small to reliably combo) and leading into the second hit of The Darkin Blade at various damage percents. It's a bit too variable to get HARDCORE INTO, but those percents usually start somewhere in mid percents, with the lighter and fastfallier you are the sooner you're vulnerable. The rest of the blade deals weaker hitstun and not very good knockback away from Aatrox, serving as a weak but fast attack to get people off you and to prep the second hit of your attack.
A note about Deathbringer Stance here: When Deathbringer Stance increases the range of the attack, if the attack has a sweetspot such as Aatrox's Neutral Special, the sweetspot is ALWAYS extended for all of the range. This makes it even more beneficial, getting more of that sweet, sweetspot power. This move is unsafe on shield unless Deathbringer Stance is used, although the shieldstun bonus is so small that if the opponent has a particularly fast out of shield option they might punish Aatrox anyway, and he still needs to use it at high range to do so.
The second cast of Q is a wide and horizontal slash: It has a bit more range than the first hit of the Neutral Special, but the sweetspot is actually more in the middle of the blade and thus closer to Aatrox than the first hit. The sweetspot of this attack deals 8% damage and once again brings opponents closer to Aatrox, with the hitstun and knockback being stronger than the first hit, to the point that it can be an issue for comboing at too high of percents as the opponent flies past Aatrox (although this could lead into a BAir). The rest of the blade is a sourspot that deals 6% damage and has mediocre knockback which is good for gaining space but not much else. The sweetspot of this move can combo from the sweetspot of the first hit at character specific percentages, forming a chain of strikes: Learning these percents is an important part of playing Aatrox at a high level.
This move is pretty fast to come out, although slightly laggier than the first strike, and the ending lag is mediocre and fast enough to get combos off the sweetspot. It can be a good move to weave in to your other attacks once prepped by the fast and difficult to punish first strike for example, offering him a combo tool to his arsenal that he can even use in the air! Keep all this in mind.
The final cast of The Darkin Blade is the strongest of them all, but also the laggy one. Aatrox leaps into the air, performing an over the top and fancy flip as his blade spins in the air, before he slams it down in a brutal strike that has a sweetspot RIGHT in front of Aatrox and a sourspot elsewhere as an explosion. Aatrox rises in the air high enough to dodge lower attacks, such as Down Tilts, before he slams back onto the ground. In the air, Aatrox rises up the same distance and then slams down where he started, losing height from his fall speed afterwards. The starting lag on this attack is on the high end, as is the ending lag: Fittingly, it is a combo finisher rather than a combo starter or extender.
The ideal situation for Aatrox is to combo all three hits of his Neutral Special together, but the damage percents that Aatrox can do this are very specific based on the character: Thing something like the Ding Dong's various percents. Know this, though, that Aatrox has ways to help himself out and change what percents work. Another thing to keep in mind is that Aatrox doesn't HAVE to combo it out of Neutral Special: Once he uses the 2nd hit of The Darkin Blade, he could add it in elsewhere as a combo finisher or a dodge-and-kill move.
The damage of the hitbox is strong, 16% damage but with knockback that kills at 95%, befitting given it is laggy and conditional on having used two different moves recently. The sourspot only deals 12%, but it does at least still kill at 135%, and the sourspot is reasonably range-y. Aatrox can use the slight vertical boost at the start to grab onto ledges, but he loses height overall so it isn't useful for recovery outside of that.
Another thing to note about comboing The Darkin Blade, be it with itself or other moves, is that the three hit nature of it makes it useful for activating Blood Price or Blood Thirst: Blood Price can turn the third hit into quite a brutal finisher, while Blood Thirst allows Aatrox stronger sustain, and he can mix and max how to utilize his combo pieces and when they fit into everything. Depending on the situation, Aatrox can even swap between which one in the middle of his combos which can fake the opponent out.
Overall, The Darkin Blade is a versatile and powerful multiple hit move that he can potentially use as a strong self-combo option or weave into his overall game in plenty of ways. Use it and don't feel bad crushing your foes beneath your heel.
Side Special: Umbral Dash
Aatrox's Side Special is an important part of his arsenal and his second mobility option and works on a charge system: Aatrox can store up to two charges of his SIde Special and each charge takes 6 seconds to come back, with them charging right after each other: So it takes 6 seconds for the first charge and then 6 more for the 2nd if you used them both rapid fire. The effect of the move is actually very simple: Aatrox dashes a short, and I mean VERY short, distance left or right. This has almost no lag, but Aatrox moves a very short distance, essentially a very short reposition. Aatrox does move faster than if he simply moved in that direction, however. Aatrox can use this in the air to gain a...pathetically small amount of horizontal movement, but if your Up Special is disabled, it could mean that little extra boost you need to return to the stage.
What really makes this a scary move is that Aatrox is free to use this during any move, allowing him to reposition in small increments on any attack. Remember all those sweetspots and how specific they can be? Well, now Aatrox can shift the sweetspots around by moving DURING the attacks, opening up new possibilities for how to combine them together and WHEN he can chain all of the attacks. Using his Side Special during this moves is essentially lagless, although Aatrox does need to actively travel during them...and he can be attacking while travelling, allowing him to do some funky stuff with spacial control. It works well together with many of Aatrox's attacks, but the actual effect is simple to explain, and so we move on in fast order.
Aatrox pounds the earth with his fist, shattering it and sending a red crack forward about one Battlefield Platform. Enemies struck by this crack take 9% damage and upwards knockback, the crack forming into a lava-like sphere and ethereal chain: The chain attaches to the foe, while the sphere remains where the foe was hit. The opponent has 2 seconds to leave the area they are tethered too, which is a Battlefield Platform to both sides and 1.5 Ganondorfs tall, or else they will be dragged back to where they were first hit and take 9% damage again, although with light hitstun (usually just eough for them to be dragged back to where they came). The starting lag on this move is reasonably interruptable, not super slow but you can't just throw it out at will, and the ending lag is...okay.
In the air, Aatrox will simply pound his fist down, a laggier move but it deals 12% damage and spikes opponents for moderate strength. If the opponent hits the ground before or right after hitstun ends, they get affected by the same tether effect as on the ground to where they landed, with the return hit now dealing 12% damage and in turn just a touch more hitstun. While stronger, this version of the move is laggier on both ends than the grounded version and as such is riskier. It also only works in the air, restricting usage.
Use this move to take advantage of the opponent's predictable positioning, either in trying to escape the chain or in it going off and returning the opponent to a well marked spot, especially for moves with specific sweetspots such as your Neutral Special. If you're on the receiving end of Infernal Chain, try to find ways to escape its grasp that might not seem obvious or which force the Aatrox player to guess which way you will go. Note that the returning hit can be shielded or dodged, but it will still drag you even if you do: This can be a good or bad thing. On one hand, you could potentially use this to advance on Aatrox while shielding if he gets too confident in merely hitting you with a strong attack on return. On the flipside, this is easily shieldgrabbed and dodges can be read for harder punishes than just taking the hitstun and so both options should be used sparingly and carefully. If you have a Counter, you CAN Counter the hit to avoid being dragged back, though!
Forward Smash: Blades of Torment
Aatrox swings his sword so it points forward, scraping against the ground as it does so, and sending out a blade beam forwards as a result. The slash itself is rather weak for a Smash Attack, dealing 13%-18.2% damage and mediocre knockback that will kill at around 140%-120%. Suffice to say, you don't use it to kill. The projectile travels a reasonable distance, about 1.25 Battlefield Platforms, and deals 10%-14% damage with even lower knockback which kills at 180%-140%. On the plus side, this attack isn't all that laggy: The ending lag is the longer of the two, but even it is more around average, and the starting lag is reasonably fast. The projectile travels rather slow, so it is better for spacial control or an approaching "wall" than anything. The projectile is decently wide and as tall as Mario.
Deathbringer Stance provides a flatout power buff to this move, making it an actually strong move, and adds a sweetspot to it. The sourspot is everything but the tip and only adds 3% damage to it, dealing 16%-22.4% and killing at 125%-105%. The sweetspot adds 6% instead, for 19%-26.6%, and makes it a fairly powerful kill move for the speed that kills at 105%-85%. This does rely on hitting a specific sweetspot with a timed buff on you, but perhaps your Side Special and Down Special could help you out here?
The beam is not powered up from the Deathbringer Stance, but it does get powered up with your Blood Well! For every 1/5th of your Blood Well filled, it won't work with less than a full bar, adds 2% damage and 0.25 Battlefield Platforms of range to it in addition to making it taller, although the speed remains the same. At maxmimum, the beam is slightly taller than Aatrox, goes 2.5 Battlefield Platforms and deals 20%-28% damage that kills at 115%-90%. Of course, you won't have full Blood Well often, but even the partial boost is a welcome addition. The one issue you may have is that you tend to want to be more proactive during World Ender, your biggest source of Blood Well obviously, while shooting off a long range projectile is not that. It DOES make an excellent approaching option, however...
Aatrox raises his sword skywards, drawing in blood and swirling blood outwards like a whirlwind around him. This is actually very fast and serves as Aatrox's primary "get off me" move, especially thanks to hitting to both sides like most Down Smashes, but has some bonus utility in the form of a "windbox" as Aatrox draws blood of enemies within half a Battlefield to either side of him (and a Ganondorf in height). This deals 8% damage with no hitstun and pulls people into Aatrox, where they will almost assuredly be hit by his Down Smash (although they may not at the edge of the range!). This won't interact enemy actions, so be careful if the opponent uses a move to just hit you and punish you. The actual attack deals 12%-16.8% damage and knocks opponents away with only enough strength to kill at 160%-135%. The ending lag on this isn't all that long, but it can definitely be punished, and it isn't useful for combos (although the high speed early makes it a good combo finisher!).
Aatrox draws in blood with this move and I bet you can guess what that's for: Yep, it fills up Aatrox's blood well, equal to twice the damage deal (which includes the blood pull!). Thus, Aatrox can gain a good bonus by reversing situations, or exchange somewhat more damaging combo finishers in order to gain Blood Well. It is also the strongest way for Aatrox to gain Blood well outside of World Ender, making it useful when combined with moves such as...say...Forward Smash. Note that since your Blood Well drains while outside World Ender, barring the 1 second delay like with Blood Price, you only have a little bit of time to take advantage of this. Push on in the heat of combat!
In World Ender, this allows you to hit max Blood Well much faster, which is useful in plenty of ways, especially since it won't drain: Hitting max Blood Well 1 second into World Ender, via a blood pull into Down Smash hit, is a lot better than hitting it 5 seconds in! This move's blood pull abilities also gain a slight boost in range and strength during World Ender, which is useful. No power boosts, though: This move is more about the utility and safety than being HIGH OCTANE DAMAGE. Use wisely!
Up Smash: Triple Threat
Aatrox thrusts his sword upwards in a manner akin to Roy's Up Smash. This is a single hitbox that deals okay but not especially amazing damage and knockback, 15%-21% damage and kills at 120%-100%. Not bad, but it isn't anything amazing. It comes out reasonably fast and the ending lag is nice too, making it a reasonably fast anti-air for the power. The starting lag is the laggier of the two. In general, this move is better for hitting opponents somewhat into the air and taking advantage of their position than a flatout kill.
When this move gets really interesting is during Deathbringer Stance, Aatrox's sword flaring larger and glowing with energy, the tip a deep crimson red while the base is a lighter blood red. While the middle of the blade remains the same boring and normal hitbox, the tip and base are now sweetspots with vastly different effects. The tip actually deals weaker damage, 12%-16.8%, and the knockback is a good deal weaker, although it retains good hitstun...which when considering the move's lower ending lag makes it pretty ideal for starting a combo. The base is the strong sweetspot, which deals 18%-25.2% damage and kills at 90%-70%. While this is good for killing, especially given the fact it is fairly speedy, it is rather small and close to Aatrox. This means Aatrox is unable to take advantage of his range for it and makes it riskier and more difficult to land. In turn, it is pretty reward!
Remember that during World Ender, Aatrox ALWAYS has Deathbringer Stance active, and so his Up Smash always has the 3-hitbox version to it. This allows Aatrox significantly more flexibility with the move than the more stringent requirements of Deathbringer Stance and so opens up plays to Aatrox that may otherwise be closed, such as for example comboing the opponent into the tipper hitbox (which could only happen normally if he got Deathbringer Stance after the first hit but before he started Up Smash, very difficult timing). Keep it in mind!
Jab: A-A-Atrox
Aatrox punches forward with a fist, dealing 2% damage and quite light knockback. Aatrox then knees forward, dealing 3% damage and knockback that is useful for resetting neutral but not much else. He can finish off the combo with a thrusting strike of his sword, akin to the thrusting attack he uses with Deathbringer Stance in League of Legends, which deals 6% damage and solid knockback, although being a jab it still won't kill until...lets say 240%. The starting lag on this is pretty fast and Aatrox's ending lag isn't too bad if he stops on one of the first two hits, but is somewhat longer after the third strike. None of them are safe on shield, although against opponents with slower or shorter ranged options a tip hit of the sword coooould be safe, and it requires fast action if max ranged anyway,
The first hit could potentially combo at very high percents, but unless you're linking into the second hits you are mostly hoping to catch your opponent napping or to mix the opponent up if they, say, try to dodge and you delay. The second hit is good for spacing the opponent and using the jab as a panic button: Importantly, it doesn't use Aatrox's sword and thus allows Aatrox to keep his Deathbringer Stance ready while knocking the opponent away or trying to do some trickery with combos/mixups. The third hit is for general damage addition to the second hit, since the second hit doesn't offer combos anyway.
Deathbringer Stance only affects the last hit of this attack, which turns into an even more fancy, fencer-like thrust animation-wise (no frame data or hitbox changes!). The effect of Deathbringer Stance on this move is twice as strong as normal: 1.4x range, 1.4x shield damage and shield regeneration is stopped for a devilish 6 seconds! The shield damage makes the third hit safer in a lot of situations and the range is nice for poking, but the last effect is the true best part of this: 3 seconds is low to take tons of advantage of, but already keeps opponents from shielding as muvh and extends how long your shield damage stays on. 6 seconds allows Aatrox to more truly threaten a shield break despite not having the purely strongest attacks and makes damage from even, say, a jab stick like mad. Aatrox not only can use this as a big chance to get aggressive, but the opponent is a lot more likely to do things like dodges as defensive options for obvious reasons and thus allows Aatrox to take advantage of being predictable. Note that during World Ender, this sets the Deathbringer Stance shield regeneration refresh rate to 6 seconds...which is super spooky!
Forward Tilt: Aatrox Spin Edge
Aatrox quickly slashes horizontally in front of himself, doing a kind of half-spin in doing so, dealing 10% damange and knockback that kills at 175%. This move is fast to come out but reasonably punishable on the back end, so Aatrox shouldn't spam it too much. At the same time it is one of his rangier normals and is still safe on shield when spaced near max range and so it is something Aatrox will want to look for uses and to make opponents respect his range. It also makes for a solid combo ender if stronger options will not come out fast enough or this move's longer range is required. It also can be a servicable killing move given the speed if Aatrox uses it with Blood Price, usually at the end of a combo.
A blood red sword trail will follow this attack when utilized with Deathbringer stance, which strikes with the exact same hitbox moments after the first finishes, quick enough this second hit will strike at the shield if the opponent shields it (and isn't so far max ranged that they are shieldpushed out). Note that it is the same hit, so it also deals additional shield damage, has the increased range and adds to the shield regeneration timer (or refreshes it during World Ender). The additional shield damage makes this move excellent for eating through shields, and depending on the situation you might be able to salvage a shielded combo by finishing with this. If the opponent is at lower damage, these hits can DEFINITELY combo into each other for a smooth 20% damage, or if you hit the opponent and your Infernal Chains activate or they are stuck in place. This won't hit most spot dodges, but if an opponent spot dodges too early they might come out and be hit by the 2nd hit: However, the second hit comes out fast out of the first and so the opponent can spot dodge without this relatively easily and it is more on them to mess up.
Down Tilt: Hell Slide
Aatrox performs a Dictatorial knee slide forward, dealing 9% damage and popping the opponent forward with knockback and hitstun that is pretty solid at comboing despite the move's worse than average ending lag. The starting lag is actually pretty good and Aatrox goes forward about half a Battlefield Platform. This move can be fun when utilized with the Side Special, allowing Aatrox to either come up a bit short or surge forward some with some "delaying" tactics. This move is generally a risky but rewarding approaching options, largely because it is pretty terribly unsafe on shield while approaching to make sure they are close enough to punish him. An ideal way around this if you have Side Special charges is to use 1 or even both of them to surge forward and cross the opponent up, using an important limited resource to avoid a strong/stronger punish. This itself requires certain spacing, so it never really becomes truly safe.
While Aatrox has Blood Well, a trail of blood will follow behind him as he slides forward, which ignites in a conflagration of boiling blood as the move ends. The horizontal size of the trail is equal to how far Aatrox traveled, so it can be slightly increased by Side Specialing forward, while the vertical size depends on the size of the Blood Well, starting at the height of Olimar with minimum Blood Well and maxing out at Aatrox's height with full Blood Well. The conflagration deals 7%-12% damage based on how full the Blood Well is, going into decimals with partially full Blood Well bars, with the knockback popping opponents up but never reaching KO percents. This helps add safety, especially when crossing up opponents where it gains additional shield pressure that Aatrox may be able to take advantage of, and Aatrox can additionally instead use it to cover a lot of ground in a hitbox. This adds additional utility to the move.
Up Tilt: Claw Rake
Aatrox swings his hand above himself in a claw-like sweeping motion, dealing 6% damage and popping opponents upwards if hit. This will usually lead into a combo at lower and mid percents, but from mid-high and on it leads more into 50/50s, frame traps or just putting the opponent in a bad aerial situation. The starting lag on this is fast and the ending lag is also pretty fast, making it rather safe to throw out, and it has a brief hitbox in front of Aatrox at the start and behind Aatrox at the back that give it some coverage...although these are really close to Aatrox and it is unsafe on shield.
While this move isn't super special, it is a good functioning "glue" move for Aatrox's playstyle: It is a basic combo starter that doesn't use up or require any resources, especially important here as it gives Aatrox an option against opponents above him without using up Deathbringer Stance, a solid bread and butter combo starter without the risk (nor the range) of Down Tilt, and so on.
Dash Attack: Bladestorm
Aatrox surges forward, spinning three times as he lunges and flies forward like a whirling specter of death, think of it kind of like one of the Link's spin attacks if he was moving forward and the spin was a lot messier. This move deals 3 hits of 4% damage each with the last hit knocking the opponent away at an angle that can cause percentage-depending tech situations. The starting lag on this is a bit faster than average, while the ending lag isn't all that fast but is not as bad as other laggy Dash Attacks. You're not going to be safe on shield unless you cross the opponent up with your reasonably long movement.
While Deathbringer Stance is ready, Aatrox will shed blood in a circle around him which deals 2 hits of 3% and a last hit of 8% for a total of 14% that kills at around 165%, extending the range of the move somewhat past the 1.2x range increase on the sword as it does so. Note that the sword itself still just deals its normal hitbox, although the opponent could be pushed into the blood hitbox from the multi-hits of the sword hitbox. Aatrox deals slight self-damage to himself with this move, 6% (1.5% on both of the first two hits and 3% on the last), which fills up the Blood Well by 12%. While the sword hit is not normally safe on shield, the last hit of the blood strike is strong enough to possibly push opponents away enough to make this safe.
Deathbringer Stance always being on in World Ender means that Aatrox always has access to thise variant, but also changes the attack slightly and makes it more powerful. The blood is now a single hitbox which bursts outwards like an explosion, akin to the Down Tilt actually in aesthetic, and deal 10% base damage + 3% for every full bar of Blood Well Aatrox has, making it deal a staggering 25% for those moments of full Blood Well. Knockback is middling at base, worse than the Deathbringer Stance multi-hit blood actually, kills at 130% with 2.5 bars and kills at 90% with full bars, being safe on shield situationally after 1 bar and fully safe after 2. Aatrox deals self-damage to himself equal to half of the damage this blood attack would deal, filling up his Blood Well by an equal amount.
Be it normal Deathbringer Stance or when bringing the apocalypse, Bladestorm allows Aatrox to build up Blood Well without hitting the opponent even outside of World Ender (albeit on a strict timer) which is rare. Aatrox could even go for a dash attack in World Ender simply to get more Blood Well faster, although he should be wary of the fact that the move IS fairly punishable, especially if you're predictable and spamming (or the opponent gets above you during the duration). Be careful not to be burned to ashes, basically.
Grab: Chains of Eternity
Aatrox extends his non-sword-wielding hand forward, sending forth a demonic chain akin to the one from his Down Special forward. This is a moderate length tether that has a bit of reversed lag compared to many tethers: The starting lag is kinda long, but then again Aatrox discourages shielding in other ways, but the ending lag is rather short and thus difficult to punish. This move is boosted by Aatrox's Blood Well: Every 1/5th of the bar increases its range by 1/5th, being slightly longer for partially filled bars as needed, so a full Blood Well grab actually has prety insane range at 2x its normal amount, but of course you don't get a lot of time like this.
Note that although Aatrox's pummel does not use up his Deathbringer Stance, Aatrox's throws that use his sword do.
Pummel: Punishment
Aatrox smacks the opponent with the handle of his sword for 2% damage. Bonk! Really average speed for its power. Goes slightly faster while in World Ender, but it is a small enough buff that at most you'll get like an extra 2% in and mostly is for flavor-feels.
Forward Throw: Bloodlust
Aatrox rips into the opponent with his non-sword-wielding hand, drawing blood from their chest and dealing 2% damage, before skewering them by plunging his sword into their chest for 10% damage and forward-upwards knockback that will kill at 190%. Aatrox's blade will suck in the blood of his opponent as he does so, causing his Blood Price or Blood Thirst to activate regardless of hit count (although this does not reset the count!): Aatrox can thus go for a bit more damage and scaling, 12% and killing at 165%, or he can get in some healing in exchange for knockback that is pretty mediocre in terms of advantage.
But we can do better! Deathbringer Stance allows this move to activate Blood Price or Thirst again, stacking the effects! You're getting 14% damage and killing at 145% with this, or healing for a pretty sick 10%. This is good on its own but is rather situational: Opponents should be aware when your Deathbringer Stance is up of this possibility. Perhaps, even, scaring them some with the possibility of this while it's up.
But wait, there's more! Deathbringer Stance is always on during your World Ender state, but the World Ender state adds a third proc of your Blood ability on top of it! This can either lead toquite the damaging kill throw, 16% that kills at 125%, or you can heal for quite a large 15%, especially useful if you've taken a beating or want to try and not recover so much when you've used World Ender to do so and want to be a little less vulnerable. It's also simply a very powerful technique that adds a lot of threat to a potential grab, so use it well.
Up Throw: Demonic Ascension
Aatrox wraps his arms around the opponent and takes to the skies for a large, Meta Knight/Kirby style suplex! It basically uses the same mechanic at those, dealing 9% damage and knockback that KOs at 170% when he lands, although if you landed on a higher platform you might kill a little earlier. Aatrox can move left and right a little during this move unlike those two, which allows Aatrox better repositioning options. While World Ender is active, Aatrox can move left and right slightly better.
Aatrox can also suicide off the sides with this: If Aatrox happened to get hit and quickly get a grab off, he could potentially revive during World Ender! This is very difficult to do. The other thing is that the opponent can mash out of this ala Ganondorf's Flame Choke, albeit with slightly more grab difficulty than that move, which can leave Aatrox and the foe in a frame neutral situation: Both of them are released upwards for this grab release, which keeps some goofy cheese out of it as well. Aatrox can still potentially get some good positioning out of this, however. So the suicide kills can be useful, but are pretty situational, most importantly you can't really cheese out early suicide kills with it.
Down Throw: Ground Pounding
A simple throw, Aatrox slams the opponent into the ground and sends them bouncing forward: This deals 6% damage and weak knockback forward, This is a combo throw for sure, leading into moves like Dash Attack, Forward Tilt, Neutral Aerial and so on. Some of these can be specifiv or require a Side Special, but they'll still lead into it. In particular, Neutral Special is very tricky: The first hit generally combos into the sweetspot at later percents, the 2nd hit is more iffy in general but more mid-hits, while the last hit is generally a bit laggy to combo but can lead into 50/50s at a lot of percents based on if the opponent dodges or waits.
Back Throw: Heartcatcher
Aatrox digs his claws deep into the opponent, causing them to bleed for a moment as they are dealt 6% damage, and then are savagely tossed behind him (think DK's Back Throw) for 5% damage. The knockback leaves Aatrox with a frame advantage but it's a bit high to combo, making it a spacing throw. The blood from the first hit is absorbed into Aatrox's sword, fueling his Blood Well for twice the damage dealt (12% without modifiers). This move has two general purposes: If Aatrox wants to space the opponent out, or if Aatrox wants a quick Blood Well refill. Outside of those situations, another throw is usually the superior option.
Neutral Aerial: Wheel of Misfortune
Aatrox extends his sword and spins in a circle 3 times, with two hitboxes on the move: The inner hitbox deals 2 hits of 2% damage and a final launching hit of 4% damage for a total of 8% damage. The knockback on this hit is weak, which can keep opponents close enough to continue a combo. The outer part of the blade is a single hit hitbox that deals 10% damage and knockback away from Aatrox that is mostly good for spacing but not good enough for realistic killing unless you're edgeguarding the opponent. The ending lag is fairly low which helps with the inner hitbox's combo properties. This move is versatile, but it pays for it in having some pretty long starting lag that can be fairly easy to interrupt.
The inner hitbox can drag opponents around some, which can work with Aatrox's Side Special which he can use during this move naturally. Depending on where the opponent is on the hitbox, you can either drag them left/right while keeping the multihit (if they are closer to you) or push them to the outer hitbox (if they are already on the further end of the multihit).
While Deathbringer Stance is up, the multihit has an additional 2% damage hitbox on it and has a minor suction effect to it, helping keep opponents in it and allowing Aatrox to open up his Side Special options. The outer hit now deals 3% damage and kills at 170% as a general power increase. Finally, the move now has some autocancel frames before the start of the 3rd hit, which allows slightly more uses when shorthopped (although the move's low ending lag makes it reasonably good at that anyway.
Forward Aerial: Death Thrust
Aatrox draws his arm back before thrusting it and his sword forward, dealing 9% damage and solid knockback away from Aatrox across the entire blade. This move has really nice horizontal range to it, but since it is a straight thrust it doesn't take advantage of the vertical space a slashing attack could: Aatrox can angle this attack up/down like a Forward Tilt which allows him to potentially cover a specific space better, but that'll open up another area for foes to slip through. The starting lag is a touch longer than average while the ending lag is pretty average in general.
With Deathbringer Stance on, the tip glows with blood red power and becomes a sweetspot that deals 13% damage and a good deal of stronger power, allowing it to kill at like 155%. It is a bit small, but given it is a good ranged move that gets even more range with the Deathbringer Stance that's fair enough. Something to note is that since this move is nice and range-y, it can be pretty good for poking at the opponent for the shield damage modifier and regeneration stoppage.
Up Aerial: Bloody Stream
Aatrox raises his hand to the sky and shoots out a streaming blast of blood above him, creating a blast above of him. This is laggy to start up, but it has fairly good range and is quite strong: 15% damage that kills at around 120%, making it a strong but risky punish and kill option. You're mostly going to want to use this as an air dodge prediction/punish, for some 50/50s or what have you. This move gets even stronger with each Blood Well level, adding 2% damage and killing 5% faster. Which could equal an extreme 25% that kills at 95%...but the times you'll have a totally full Blood Well are of course limited, let alone also having one with a laggy strong aerial. The ending lag is longer than average, but not as bad as the starting lag.
Down Aerial: Tormented Stab
Aatrox raises his sword to the sky before performing a strong downward thrust, looking akin to Link's Down Aerial in animation. This move has a few hitboxes. The very start of the hitbox is a very brief spike, dealing 12% damage and sending opponents plummeting with reasonable strength. The rest of the reasonably long, lingering hit is an attack that pops opponents up for 10% damage while popping Aatrox up with reduced ending lag. This can actually lead well into a Neutral Aerial or whatnot, thanks to the reduce ending lag, but it does get a bit more unreliable later on. The ending lag on this is fairly long, while the landing lag is longer still than that. The starting lag isn't too bad though, making it dependant on hitting the opponent really.
Deathbringer Stance adds a stronger hitbox to the hilt of the sword, which now glows with power. It deals 14% damage with radial knockback, that kills at like 135% but of course could kill a bit earlier with some good positioning. The lingering hitbox is useful versus air dodges, not much else to say.
Back Aerial: Wide Swipe
Aatrox leans his body back with a turn, performing a wide and sweeping down-to-up slash behind him. This move is in many ways opposite to his Forward Aerial: Aatrox's turning back along with holding the sword a bit close doesn't give it a ton of horizontal range, but it basically covers Aatrox's entire back vertically. This deals 11% damage and moderate damage, a boxing out move with low landing lag and knockback that doesn't lead into much of combos but is solid for ending combos or for setting up a good neutral situation. The starting lag on this is somewhat long, albeit not super long.
The ending lag is fairly low and it has even lower landing lag, so it is a really nice move in neutral, can be pretty good with Forward Aerial as well. This move does turn around Aatrox in the air, so do be a bit careful with neutral.
Final Smash: The Darkin Blade
Aatrox rushes forward for a cinematic activation hitbox akin to King K. Rool's or Ridley's, sending the opponent into a shrouded battlescape akin to Aatrox's rework reveal trailer, Aatrox only barely appearing in silhouette. Aatrox then becomes to crush, slash and stab the foe inside of the mist, only the outlines of the hits appearing repeatedly, before performing a giant double-handed sword slam that finishes the opponent off. This deals 60% damage (halved w/ FS meter) and works akin to Zelda or Ridley's for killing: It either leaves the opponent prone in front of Aatrox if they are below 100%, but kills them at 100% or higher.
Well. It's been a while. It took a while. But it's done.
Might add some more visual aids at a later date, but they're kind of hard to find and/or the moves their based on have been adapted to the point they're unrecognisable. So I might just leave it to the reader's imagination. I'll see how things go.
MOTHER BRAIN COUNTS DOWN TO SMASH!
Series: Metroid Debut: Metroid (NES, 1986)
Mother Brain is the organic supercomputer and AI that serves as leader of the Space Pirates, and a recurring antagonist in the Metroid series. As an AI, Mother Brain coordinates the Space Pirates' movements and tactics which the Space Pirates OTHER leader, Ridley, then puts into practice. While she has not appeared in every Metroid game, she has served as the final boss in two (three counting remakes) games and her concept of an AI inhabiting a brain-shaped organic machine has been re-used for the Aurora Units (Metroid Prime series), Security Robot B.O.X. (Metroid Fusion) and Master Brain (Metroid Prime: Federation Force), plus her AI was used as a basis for MB (Metroid: Other M). Thus while she hasn't appeared in as many games as Ridley has, she shares his position as "main antagonist" due to the far-reaching effects of her few appearances.
In most battles within the Metroid series, Mother Brain is a stationary figure that must rely on the artillery and traps built into the room she occupies due to either being defenseless (Metroid) or having minimal attacks (Metroid: Zero Mission). However, in Smash she instead has a slightly altered design in the form of her capsule being mounted onto a mobile weapons platform. This not only essentially allows her to bring the weapons in her room with her, but it also grants her six insectoid legs that allow movement in battle and more conventional attacks. Additionally, to represent her legacy she draws moves not only from her own battles, but from some of the enemies that were inspired by her listed above.
Gameplay Stats Size: Very large (Ridley) Weight: Very heavy (Bowser) Speed: Very slow (Incineroar)
Mother Brain is extremely large. Her capsule alone that holds her brain and serves as a "body" is slightly larger than Bowser's torso, but with the addition of her base's legs lifting her up and adding more width she is closer to Ridley in terms of size. Her weight is on par with Bowser, tying her for the heaviest character in the game, but this also makes her tie with Incineroar for the slowest in terms of both walking and dash speeds. Her heavy weight also gives her a low jump height and a fast fall speed.
Standard Attacks
Jab: Mother Wave Mother Brain releases a small blue burst of energy directly in front of her eyeball. If the button is pressed rapidly, Mother Brain releases multiples bursts as a chain straight ahead. This means that unlike most other fighters, her range increases the longer she performs her basic combo, making this great for forcing opponents back. Notably, her Jab combo has up to five hits instead of the standard three. -DMG: 2% per hit
Dash Attack: Lunge Mother Brain leaps forward, spreading her legs and crashing down on the ground before her in an approximation of a belly flop. With her large size, this is a dangerous move that deals heavy damage and forces the opponent prone if they are unfortunate enough to get caught underneath her. However there is a significant moment of end lag after the move as Mother Brain rights herself. -DMG: 13%
Forward Tilt: Ground Wave Mother Brain swings one of her forearms forward, releasing a series of miniature explosions along the ground in front of her. This has decent range, the explosions reaching roughly one again of Mother Brain's own body width and deal a lot of damage and knockback, and the wide spread makes it a good counter against dodging. The biggest flaw is a brief moment of lag as Mother Brain swings her leg before the explosions appear, telegraphing the move. This can be overcome by using the move at close range; the opponent will be hit my Mother Brain's limb, not only taking additional damage but will be forced back and left open for the explosions. Even if shielded against, the high damage and multiple hits will do a serious number on the recipients shield and more-than-likely break it open. -DMG: 14%
Up Tilt: Capsule Rise A simple move, Mother Brain plants her legs into the ground and thrusts her main body upwards, ramming the opponent with the top of her capsule. A straight-forward rising move designed to be used on a falling/airborne opponent, the rise itself is deceptively fast and her large body gives it a wide hitbox. However the range is also comparatively low compared to Mother Brain's projectiles, making it a more situational move and not one to be relied on. -DMG: 10%
Down Tilt: Foreleg Strike Mother Brain draws one of her front legs back and quickly stabs the ground in front of her, before repeating the motion with her other leg. This is one of Mother Brain's quickest attacks, even with the two individual strikes, but it is significantly weaker and has limited range. Much like her Capsule Rise it's more of a situational move, in this case intended to deal with aggressive rushdown fighters and catch opponents off-guard to set the up for other moves and strategies. -DMG: 4% per hit
Aerial Attacks
Neutral Air: Gyro Legs Mother Brain spins the lower segment of her base, causing her legs to rotate around her entire body. Like her Foreleg Strike it is a comparatively fast attack that can easily catch opponents off-guard while she's in the air, due to covering both her front and back, but at the cost of her usual range and power. As stated, it is best used to protect Mother Brain while she is in the air rather than used as a killing move. -DMG: 8%
Forward Air: Laser Shot Mother Brain leans forward and releases a thin yellow laser from her eyeball straight ahead. Though not as powerful as her other projectiles in terms of knockback the laser does good damage and stopping power. On top of this it has some of the best range of her projectiles, rivaling the Belmont's whip, and it comes out extremely fast. There is a moment of end lag upon firing the laser, but this is compensated for by the laser's impressive range. Correct usage of this move involves essentially "sniping" an opponent before the end lag can be a problem. -DMG: 10%
Back Air: Back Burn Mother Brain leans forward slightly and releases a blast of fire from her underside engines in the general area behind her. The blast has a large area, not much smaller than Mother Brain herself and essentially turns the entire area behind her into one large hurtbox. In addition to the high power and knockback of the attack, this makes this move very useful for killing approaching opponents, especially as it is one of Mother Brain's few moves that hit behind her for decent damage. This is counteracted by lag at both the start and end of the move, necessitating careful timing on Mother Brain's part. -DMG: 12%
Up Air: Exhaust Blast Mother Brain releases a burst of flame from her underside engines to propel her upwards slightly. On the surface, this is more or less an aerial version of her Capsule Rise and seems just as situational as that move i.e. only to be used against overhead opponents. However, Exhaust Blast comes with the addition of the blast from under her, which not only does solid damage but also acts as a Meteor Smash. Combine this with the way Exhaust Blast lifts her into the air and you have one of Mother Brain's most versatile moves; striking opponent's both above and below, causing consistent KO's if over pits and assisting her in escapes, movement and recovery. -DMG: 6% (capsule), 10% (fire)
Down Air: Laser Sweep Mother Brain's eye glows purple for a brief moment before she releases a thin purple laser to sweep underneath her. The sweep as expected gives this move a wide arc and much like Back Burn turns almost the entire area under her into a hurtbox, and has very good range. Though its fairly slow on startup it also does decent damage though with minor knockback. If the laser happens to touch any part of the ground while Mother Brain is in the air, it will also cause a very small explosion similar to her Ground Wave attack, which has far greater knockback. As such, in the air this move is best used for keeping opponents beneath Mother Brain at bay, while nearer the ground it is better suited to KOing opponents. -DMG: 4% (laser), 12% (explosions)
Smash Attacks
Forward Smash: Brain Blast Mother Brain's eye flashes for a moment before she releases a large purple fireball from it. This move is very similar to Mega Man's Forward Smash save for the colour and lack of charging; the fireball is of a similar size to the Charged Mega Buster and moves at the same speed. Lacking the charge needed means that the Brain Blast comes out somewhat quicker in practice. As such this is one of Mother Brain's best offensive moves. -DMG: 22%
Up Smash: Missile Quartet A panel opens up at the top of Mother Brain's capsule and releases four small missiles which move a short distance upwards before exploding. Unlike Mother Brain's other "Up" moves like Capsule Rise, this is one of Mother Brain's more devastating moves due to the range, power and wide hitbox of the missile explosions. The missiles come out shockingly fast considering their power with minor start-up lag. The only real flaws with this move are that the missiles only fly upwards and cannot be controlled like Samus or Snake's Side Specials, and that like those specials the missiles explode when they hit an opponent or a structure and therefore cannot be used effectively without substantial space above Mother Brain. If used effectively to overcome these flaws, Missile Quartet can be a deadly ant-air tool and an easy method of gaining Star KOs. -DMG: 24%
Down Smash: Grenade Mother Brain drops a grenade from her underside which after a split-second explodes, releasing a "wave" of explosions on either side. As with Missile Quartet, this does a lot of damage in a wide radius, acting as a more grounded version of Missile Quartet or a boosted version of Ground Wave. However like Ground Wave this move is also telegraphed and has noticeable lag at the start due to dropping the grenade, making it easy to see coming and shield or dodge. Unlike Ground Wave this is compensated for by allowing Mother Brain to move upon dropping the grenade, whether it has exploded or not. So while it is a powerful move, it is best used for terrain control or to cover Mother Brain's movements, forcing opponents into position for set-ups rather than outright KOs. -DMG: 25%
Grab & Throw
Grab: Cable Grab Mother Brain releases a claw-tipped cable from her base, firing it forward to grab and opponent and pull them closer. It is roughly the same length as Samus's grapple beam, but unlike most of Mother Brain's moves has little-to-no lag and the cable fires out very quickly, compensating for Mother Brain's own slow movement speed. If need be, she can tether recover with this.
Pummel: Electric Shock Mother Brain releases a shock of electricity through the cable, electrocuting the unfortunate opponent. Same as most pummels; minimal special properties aside from the electric effect, intended simply to wrack up damage. -DMG: 1.5% per hit
Forward Throw: Psycho Blast Mother Brain's eye glows white and she released a burst of energy at the opponent. Despite being a throw, this does almost no knockback to the unfortunate opponent. Instead, it has longer than average hit-stun to leave the opponent vulnerable. This means that rather than being used to toss opponents away or to gain KOs, this throw is better suited to set-ups and to open an opponent up to one of Mother Brain's projectiles. -DMG: 9%
Back Throw: Grab 'N' Slam Mother Brain grabs the opponent with one of her legs, turns, and slams them hard into the ground. Just like with Psycho Blast this lacks the knockback of most throws, instead leaving the opponent prone on the ground like Snake's Down Throw. It does this for the same reason as Psycho Blast; it leaves the opponent open to further attacks rather than serving as a launch move. -DMG: 10%
Up Throw: Overhead Fire Mother Brain tosses the opponent into the air above her head and releases a burst of energy at them from the top of her capsule. This is her only traditional throw, launching the opponent upwards with heavy knockback even at low damage and can both score Star KOs and serve as set-ups with Mother Brain's anti-air moves like Capsule Rise or Missile Quartet. -DMG: 8%
Down Throw: Engine Burner Mother Brain lifts herself up, placing the opponent under her before roasting them with her underside engines. Unlike Psycho Blast or Grab 'N' Slam this move does significant knockback, but at an odd angle for a down-throw as the blast launches the opponent diagonally up-and-forward. While this could be utilised by a savvy player, this is far less straight forward than her forward and back throws and doesn't launch the opponent as far as her Up Throw. Instead this throw is more suited as a damage dealer, increasing percentage more in comparison to her other throws. -DMG: 14%
Special Attacks
Neutral Special: Rinka Mother Brain releases a small glowing ring of energy from her capsule's base. The projectile is comparable in size to one of Samus's half-way charged Charge Shot, but it moves at a speed similar to Mega Man's Leaf Shield. Combined with the Rinka's lackluster damage and a moment's lag at both the beginning and end of firing, this move is lacking as an attacking move. However the Rinka has several unique properties. First and foremost, the Rinka will also bounce off any opponents, walls and structures that it collides with, going in the opposite angle that it was moving. In addition, during the starting lag the player can tilt the control stick to adjust the angle the Rinka is fired at; by default the Rinka will fire at a 45% angle, but akin to Ness's PK Thunder a small arrow appears when the control stick is moved. Finally and most notably, the Rinka can be destroyed by projectiles but doing so nullifies the projectile in the process. Thus while it is a poor offensive attack, Rinka is an excellent defensive move that can control an opponent's movements, strike from odd angles or ruin the opponent's set-ups. Rinka is best used to play mindgames with the opponents, keeping them constantly on their toes and distracting them from Mother Brain's other set-ups or projectiles. Mother Brain can release up to 5 Rinka at any one time; if the move is used again then the first Rinka will automatically disappear. If left alone the Rinka will dissipate on their own after 8 seconds. -DMG: 2%
Side Special: Zebitite Wall Mother Brain releases a small capsule along the ground in front of her (or at the lowest point of Mother Brain's model if performed in the air), which moves approximately one Mother Brain body-width ahead before expanding into a Zebitite Wall. The Zebitite Wall only does damage in capsule form; once formed it is entirely harmless to opponents. However the wall acts just as that; characters and projectiles cannot pass through the wall once it is in place. Once formed the wall has an unseen stamina meter of 20% that lowers as it takes attacks. Every 7% lost causes the wall to thin before shattering upon hitting 0%. Mother Brain can have up to four walls up at any one time. Notably, Mother Brain cannot move through the walls herself and is just as vulnerable to them as other players, and unlike with Rinka Mother Brain cannot spawn more walls once the limit is hit until a previous wall has been destroyed. Fortunately Mother Brain's attacks bypass the unseen stamina gauge and destroy the walls instantly. The exceptions are her Special Attacks, all of which can pass through the Zebitite Walls unimpeded. -DMG: 1%
Up Special: Rocket Boost Mother Brain activates the engines on her underside to launch herself into the air. This attack goes a decent distance, roughly one and a half again Mother Brain's height before putting her into Helpless. Rocket Boost resembles King Dedede's Super Dedede Jump as she simply leaps straight up into the air. Unlike Dedede she lacks a slam back down; instead the main offensive aspects of the attack come from Mother Brain either ramming an opponent on the way up or from the flames she releases under herself while rising. A straight-forward recovery move that is somewhat hampered by Mother Brain's heavy weight. -DMG: 4% (ram), 3% (fire)
Down Special: Sentry Cannon Mother Brain lowers her main body down to the ground, placing a Sentry Cannon onto the ground. Sentry Cannons are small turrets with a single gun that fires projectiles. These projectiles are small but fast yellow pellets, not unlike Mega Man's Jab, that do minimal damage. Sentry Cannons are very small, around half of Kirby's size, and opponents can pass through them unimpeded. They can be attacked and destroyed by the other players like Rinka and Zebitite Walls, and like Zebitite Walls they have an unseen stamina meter of 5%. Once placed a Sentry Cannon will attack once every second, automatically aiming at whichever opponent is nearest. Like Rinka, the low attack power means this move will not earn Mother Brain any KOs. However it adds more projectiles and attacks for the opponent to worry about, and the attacks are more frequent and focused than Rinka. This has the downside that it is more predictable than Rinka but it does its job of dividing the opponent's attention, especially when used in conjunction with Rinka and Mother Brain's other attacks. Mother Brain can place up to six Sentry Cannons at once, and like Zebitite Wall cannot place more until one is destroyed either by the opponent's or her own hand. -DMG: 1%
Final Smash: Final Conflict Mother Brain retracts her legs and focuses energy into her eye before firing a large laser beam straight ahead. Anyone hit by the beam is caught in a cinematic where the opponent(s) look up to see Mother Brain towering over them in her humanoid body from Super Metroid. Her eye glows brightly before she releases a multicoloured beam of light at the hapless opponent(s), dealing rapid damage before the cinematic ends and they are launched. -DMG: 5% (initial beam), 40% (cinematic beam)
Playstyle Summary
Mother Brain is a unique character in Smash as she is a heavyweight fighter like Bowser, Ganondorf and K. Rool, but unlike them she overcomes her slow speed through powerful projectiles rather than devastating close-range attacks. Thus, Mother Brain is at her strongest when she is at mid-range. If the opponent is out of Mother Brain's range, the player should use her Rinka and Sentry Cannons to annoy and distract the opponent while launching as many projectiles as possible to cover your approach. Once she is in position, utilise her Ground Wave and Brain Blast to try and KO the opponents. If they attempt to attack from above, her Missile Quartet is the best option unless platforms are in the way. Try to avoid engaging opponents in the air if possible; Mother Brain's weight makes aerial combat difficult for her. If it can't be avoided, take out opponents with her Laser Shot and Laser Sweep attacks, and if the opponent tries to get in close use Gyro Legs, Exhaust Blast or Back Burn to give yourself breathing room depending on the situation. If opponents are being fast and aggressive, and not giving you time to think, Zebitite Wall can be used to block them off and give you time to re-assess the situation. But if you get an opening, use Cable Grab to pull them to you and either Psycho Blast or Grab 'N' Slam to set them up for one of your more powerful Smash attacks.
Extras
Entrance Animation Mother Brain's capsule is already set on the stage. Upon the battle starting she opens her one eye, unfolds her legs from under it and enters her idle stance.
Boxing Ring Title Mad Overseer
Kirby Hat After inhaling Mother Brain, Kirby a single round eye on his forehead, between his own eyes, along with several grey spikes poking out of his head. He gains the ability to use Mother Brain's Rinka special, though rather than firing it he instead spits them out of his mouth.
Taunts
Mother Brain braces her legs before rotating her capsule to look behind her, then rotating back to her standard position, before doing a full 360 rotation.
Mother Brain's eye glows and she focuses energy into it, as if preparing for her Final Smash.
The glass on Mother Brain's capsule shatters and falls apart, only to quickly lower a new one around her.
Victory Theme:A frantic, menacing version of the usual Metroid win theme. Victory Animations
Mother Brain lowers her body and retracts her legs, her eye flashing menacingly.
Mother Brain rises up on her Super Metroid/Final Smash body, letting out a roar at the screen.
Mother Brain is blocked by several Zebitite Walls, but she destroys them all with one leg sweep and the camera zooms in on her eye.
Palutena's Guidance Pit:What's this thing? The Chaos Kin's big brother? Viridi:Oh, I wish. Palutena:That's Mother Brain, Samus's archenemy. Pit:I thought Ridley was her archenemy? Palutena:She... has a lot of archenemies. Viridi:Mother Brain is a living computer designed by the ancient Chozo that somehow gained self awareness, and now leads the Space Pirates alongside Ridley. It now seeks to bring total order and unity to the universe. Palutena:Wow, you certainly know a lot about her, Viridi. Viridi:I know a lot about IT, because IT is an ABOMINATION! It's an unholy mix of genetic tampering and machinery, a perversion of nature! Not to mention it's just gross to look at. Pit:Wait, if she's trying to bring about order, doesn't that mean she's on our side? Palutena:Not quite. Mother Brain's idea of "order and unity" is enslaving anything that isn't her, and destroying anyone that dares to stand in her way. You've seen the Metroids, right? She plans to use them as a weapon in her galactic conquest. Pit:That's horrible! She has to be stopped, right away! Palutena:That's the spirit, Pit! Thankfully, Mother Brain relies very heavily on projectiles. She'll try to distract you with her Rinka rings and Sentry Cannons, but just keep the focus on Mother Brain. Pit:Projectiles, huh? Time to bust out my Guardian Orbitars! Palutena:She may try to keep you back with her Zebitite Walls, so you'll have to destroy them to get to her. Pit:Hiding behind walls? What a coward! Viridi:Says the coward hiding behind his shields. Palutena:If you can get in close, don't let her scare you. Mother Brain is big and strong, but she's slow. So just keep your wits about you and you should be fine.
Round 1 - vs Mr. Game & Watch
[Stage: Flatzone 2] Round 2 - vs Pit
[Stage: Skyworld] Round 3 - vs Young Link
[Stage: Great Bay] Round 4 - vs Snake
[Stage: Shadow Moses Island] Round 5 - vs Mega Man
[Stage: Wily's Fortress] Round 6 - vs Fox & Wolf
[Stage: Lylat Cruise] Round 7 - Bonus Game
[Stage: Bonus Game] Round 8 - vs Galleom
[Stage: Galleom's Stage]
Nyea-he-he! Excellent! That pipsqueak pipe-cleaning Mario's here at this contest! This is my chance once and for all to end that nuisance! Master Bowser will be so proud he'll prob-
EH?? TH-TH-THREE MARIOS?? Oh no, this simply will not do! Master Bowser will throw a royal fit if he finds out about this! I'm going to have to take care of this on my own...
Kammy Koopa
Stats
With her already short species and her hunched back, the queen of Koopas stands just under the height of Ness, and with 75 weight units she is about as durable as expected. Kammy's gotten old, and on the ground she has trouble moving around, with one of the slower walk speeds in the game. Thankfully, Kammy is resourceful and pulls out her broomstick for her dash, which brings her up to Kirby's dash speed. Kammy's jumps are also poor, with a grounded jump that brings her off the ground a grid and a half and an aerial jump for two grids. Her speed in the air is much greater, comparable to Wario's, though her fall speed is more like Lucas on the floaty side.
The most useful aspect of Kammy's stats is her ability to float in the air, somewhat similar to the princesses' float. Activated by double tapping the jump input, Kammy will be able to fly freely left and right as her broomstick appears underneath her, allowing her to change direction while aerial. Additionally, Kammy can use her Aerials and Specials freely in this state. Kammy can perform this action for up to three seconds, after which her broomstick will disappear and leave her helpless. Kammy can also cancel this early with the dodge input, and reactivate this again, but can only use this for three seconds until landing on the ground.
Specials Side Special - Goomba
Ah, the simple Goomba, loyal pawn of Bowser's army across universes and arch-enemy of Mario's feet. Kammy will swing her magic rod in the air with little startup and a ball of crumpled paper appears in front of her. Pressing the input a second time will have her toss the paper wad in any forward-facing direction up to five grids away before the paper will succumb to gravity and land on the stage. Foes hit by the wad of paper will take an insulting 2% nonflinching damage as it bounces off them. At any rate, if the paper isn't thrown, or once it hits the ground, the paper will take 10 frames as it unfolds into the aforementioned enemy. Goomba, along with all of Kammy's summons and constructs, can't be destroyed just by securing a KO on Kammy, and her setup remains after a KO.
A Paper Goomba stands humbly a fifth of a grid shorter than Kirby, and although made of paper the Goomba actually avoids taking launching knockback from attacks (though he certainly flinches from attacks). Goomba has a surprisingly durable 20% stamina, but only one Goomba can be out per Kammy. Any more and the OG (Original Goomba) will crumple back up with a pained and betrayed expression on his face. This same animation plays once a Goomba loses all of its health through foe's attacks. Goomba is slow but tenacious, marching along dutifully at Marth's walk speed constantly towards his foes.
Just touching Goomba is enough to take damage, though it's a mere 3% flinching damage, this can still irritate an opponent and maybe they'll disconnect because of it. Goomba will bounce off foes slightly when doing this, though he himself won't take damage. If his contact attack doesn't quite cut it, Goomba can also prepare an iconic headbonk attack, which has Goomba stop moving, wiggle his big cute eyebrows as a tell, and leap up a grid in the air to nearby foe's location. This move is only performed within a two grid horizontal range of a foe and has some good homing properties as long as the foe stays within range, but this only does 5% flinching damage. Granted, this is still the strongest part of Goomba's kit, but certainly a far cry from great. Goomba himself cares far more about his job than his personal safety, and he will even headbonk offstage foes if they are within range, able to interrupt recoveries at great personal cost.
Neutral Special - Magikoopa Blast
An iconic spell learned by all Magikoopas at Bowser School, Kammy waves her scepter to produce a circle made from three geometric shapes (square, circle, triangle). When fired off immediately with a tap of the button, the spell with lackadaisically travel across the stage at Kirby's walk speed, spinning while it does so. This move can be charged up for a second, however, and this will cause Kammy to fire the spell at a greater speed, with full charge moving at the speed of Samus' Charge Shot. This can be aimed in any direction and it will travel in a straight line until it hits a target or a solid object. Kammy can have a grand two of these out at any given time, so go wild.
Blasting a foe with this magical attack will deal variable damage, depending on which shape they were hit by, with 4% for a circle, 5% for a triangle, and a jaw-dropping 6% for the square part of the spell. Foes take pretty poor knockback from this hit, which KO's above 200%, so don't anticipate landing any great kills with it. However, foes should be cautious as this attack does phenomenal shield damage, not destroying it in one shot but bringing it pretty close. If a foe attempts to shield a Goomba's headbonk or something similar, a fully charged Magikoopa Blast can punish them heavily. The different speeds of the spell allow for versatility, with slow spells to set up traps or fast ones to serve as active pressure.
If Kammy zaps one of her own Goombas, rather than an opponent, they will suddenly transform in a cloud of dust! As the dust clears, it is revealed that the Goomba has been changed into a small yellow block, a paper version of the spinning blocks from Super Mario World. About the size of Kirby's Stone move, these blocks are completely two dimensional and sit in the foreground rather than interacting with the fight directly.
These blocks act as external storage for Goombas, preserving any damage or buffs they have (more on that later), and allowing Kammy to place more without erasing others. Kammy can have quite a few blocks out at a time, up to seven, before the blocks will start erasing the oldest ones first. Hitting a block with this attack will perform the opposite action, bring the Goomba back into the fight where they will drop straight to the ground, and if another Goomba is out when this happens they will unfortunately be scrapped.
Up Special - Warp
A basic recovery that's a standard for Magikoopas, using this move will have Kammy warp to another spot within 5 grids of her. Unlike most warps, there's a bit of time between Kammy warping out and warping back in, giving her extra intangibility, but conversely the animation of startup is laggier than most. By default, Kammy will teleport the maximum distance away, but this changes if there's an opponent, a block, or one of Kammy's minions within range. Kammy can tap the special input to cursor through any of these targets rapidly, and whichever one she ends on will end up warping to where Kammy started the attack!
Foes who are warped in this manner have their aerial jump refreshed if they've used it but not their recovery, and because Kammy is in helpless this is actually has limited use for gimping foes outside of just getting them offstage. Maybe a lucky headbonk will win the fight? More useful is that Kammy can change the positions of her stage setup, moving blocks and minions around to any spot she can get to. Setting up an offstage block with a slow Magikoopa Blast to really gimp foes? If you can dream it, you can scheme it thanks to this move. Additionally, the ending lag when used on the ground isn't as bad as the startup, and this can be Kammy's more effective way of getting around the stage.
Down Special - Yellow Block
With three waves of her scepter, Kammy points in the air and above her will spawn a giant Yellow Block from the Paper Mario games. This block is three grids in all dimensions with a whopping 40 HP. Unlike the Goombas and smaller blocks, Kammy can't even summon another one with one out, so make sure you use it diligently. If used on the ground, the Yellow Block falls a short distance to the ground, only dealing damage to foes caught under it though they take a very good 11% damage with heavy horizontal knockback, which KOs around 135%. Used in the air, the block will also fall until it hits the stage or goes off screen, but does have an active hitbox when falling. This deals 6% damage with okay knockback, boosting the KO threshold to 165%. Foes caught underneath the block when it lands take the aforementioned hit. This prevents Kammy from simply standing on the edge of the screen and dropping blocks to gimp foes.
The Block lands as flat as possible, and if it lands on a slope it will try to match the best it can but won't slip down. Once the block is on stage, it acts as a semi-barrier. Fighters can't walk, dash, or jump through it, and it can be stood on but not dropped through. However, both ledge get-ups and rolls can pass through the block, and will have their range extended for no extra frames to do so. If placed directly on the edge of a platform, it does not prevent ledge grabs, and it itself has no ledges. Right now it's mostly just a hindrance, but it can be useful for keeping Kammy's Goombas from jumping off the screen like lemmings or putting a literal barrier between Kammy and her adversaries.
Unlike the small blocks, which will be referred to with lowercase to differentiate, the big Blocks can't be warped around with Kammy's Up Special. However, Kammy and her foes can press against the block to enter a pushing animation to move it around, which is cool. If Kammy hits her Yellow Block with her Magikoopa Blast, it will actually change! Turning into the far more durable Stone Block, its max HP is increased by over 50% to give it 65 health! If the Block already has damage than it will just gain the 25 health gain when it transforms. Additionally, while stone, the Block only takes 85% damage from attacks, making it much harder to destroy. Hitting it again will turn it back into a Yellow Block while also taking 25 health away from it, which can destroy it if its low on health. As a fun note, any time the Block is hit by an opponent's attack it will flash a pair of angry eyebrows.
Smashes Forward Smash - Spiny
Kammy's Smashes are a bit... odd. Charging up this attack has Kammy lift her arms up in the air as she begins casting a spell. While she does this, a wad of paper floats in front of her as with Goomba. Upon release, Kammy points her claws forward and the wad of paper will unfold into a Spiny Shell! The Spiny Shell will spin across the stage at a good pace, roughly Yoshi's dash, and will continue spinning across the stage until it falls off or is destroyed. The Spiny has 15 HP, making it easier to take out numbers-wise than a Goomba, but it does move much faster and presents more of a threat than the mushroom minion.
Depending on the charge, getting struck by the Spiny will deal between 11% and 15.4% damage, and can KO as low as 115% damage when hit. This is pretty underwhelming for a Smash attack, but given how long this can linger on the stage it certainly has its benefits. Like with Goomba, using this move a second time will crumple another on stage Spiny, and also like Goomba all Smash minions can be transferred into a block for later storing. Because of the fast movement and higher damage on Spiny, this is an even better block to leave offstage for gimping. The Spiny is obviously more effective on stages with walls as it will bounce off them, but thankfully Kammy can put her Yellow Block down to ricochet Spiny off of.
Up Smash - Piranha Plant
Kammy performs a different casting animation, her claws pointed behind her, as once again a crumpled piece of paper floats in front of her. Foes better keep track of her hands if they want to know what she's casting! Once released, the paper will fall to the ground as it unfolds quickly into a voracious Piranha Plant! Compared to all of Kammy’s other minions, Piranha Plant takes the most time to unfold, around 18 frames after the move is released, so some planning may help with this. The Piranha Plant initially grows out of the ground and bites upwards, which can hit between 14% and 19.6% damage with great vertical knockback, allowing KOs around 85%! Of course, this is a bit predictable and hard to spam, so it’s not just free damage.
After this first attack, Piranha Plant will retreat back into the stage. Peculiar, haven't the summons thus far all stayed on the stage after summoning? As foes might find out the hard way, the Piranha Plant indeed does remain in play after this move is used, but only reappears when a foe is within biting distance. When an opponent comes too close to the spot where Kammy last used this move, the Piranha Plant will quickly emerge facing them and give them a swift bite! This doesn't pack the same Piranha Plant power as the initial move, but will retain 80% of it's initial damage along with flinching knockback. It then quickly ducks back into the stage, safe from harm.
Of course, P. Plant can only have one copy of itself at a time, but will remain on the stage otherwise unless its wimpy 10 HP is depleted. A lot of moves can do this, but it does require the foe to bait and punish the plant, so this can be too off-focus for the foe to bother with. One fun piece of tech unique to this minion is that Kammy can actually place her Yellow Block on top of the plant. This seems inhumane, thankfully this is a flower and not a human, but the Piranha Plant will actually remain dormant while under the Block. If a foe's close range attack destroys the Yellow Block, the Piranha Plant will then pop out, regardless of where they started, and give a nice chomp on them as punishment. Of course Piranha Plant can be placed in a block, but this is tricky since they'll only come out for attacks. Piranha Plant also can't change spots with Kammy, even in block form.
Down Smash - Bob-Omb
While casting this move, Kammy holds one hand in front of her, rotating her outstretched palm as the crumpled ball of paper spins in front of her. Once released, the paper unfolds to reveal the cutout of a Bob-omb! Bob-omb will land on the ground briefly before marching forward one and a half grid. At the end of the range, Bob-omb will pause in place and abruptly explode! This gives less warning than a standard Bob-omb, and as a consequence of exploding Bob-omb spends the least time on the stage of any of Kammy's creatures. Bob-omb will explode prematurely if it hits an opponent or object as well. This explosion deals between 16% and 22.4% damage with great knockback, which allows KOs from 85%. This is a strong move, and the most direct attack in Kammy's arsenal.
Of course, this comes at the cost of functionality. Unlike Goomba, Spiny, or Piranha Plant, Bob-omb spends very little time on stage organically, and either requires a very quick Magikoopa Blast to preserve it in block form (very powerful for offstage plays) or Kammy's grab to be used (which we'll get to directly after this). Because Bob-omb in this form just walks forward and explodes, it won't be a constant threat despite its power. It does have one very important use within Kammy's stage control in its vanilla form, and that is that Bob-omb is the attack in Kammy's set which allows her to destroy her own Yellow and Stone Blocks. Kammy should be careful, as even an uncharged Bob-omb will break the Block to pieces.
Grab Game
Kammy points her wand forward as she cackles, and with a fairly quick animation a ring of magic appears from the ground in front of her. With good range but bad lag on a miss, foes will be ensnared in rings of magic as they float off the stage. Kammy's pummel is slow, swirling the opponent around as she waves her scepter, and they take 2.5% a hit per pummel.
As mentioned in the last move, Kammy's grab game allows her to interact with her minions directly. In addition to her active minions, Kammy can bewitch the blocked minions as well, and while they won't move around they can still receive covert buffs without the opponents necessarily knowing who gets what. While grabbed, Kammy can use any of her throws to apply various buffs to her partners, and her pummel will actually change the very nature of the minion in question by altering who they are. A minion can only have one buff applied at a time, and putting a different one on it will make rewrite it.
Pummel transformations will change the minion for as long as they remain alive or until they are pummeled again, which will return them to their original. After a pummel, Goombas become much more lethal with the addition of a cool spiked helmet which poofs on their head. This both extends the range of their headbonk as well as giving it more impact (8% damage) and hitstun, and will literally spike offstage opponents during a headbonk. In exchange, Goomba will be weighed down and moves a bit slower than normal, something to keep in mind. The Spiny shell will instead become a Spike Top shell, which will actually roll along the stage like a Hothead rather than bouncing around and off the stage, making this more persistent. However, this comes at a cost of less spikes and therefore less damage, decreasing to 75% of its original damage.
Piranha Plant will become a Putrid Piranha, a noxious plant that will poison foes when it bites them, dealing 1% damage every 20 frames for four seconds for a total of 12% damage. Unfortunately, Putrid Piranha deals half the damage of a regular Piranha Plant on impact. Finally, the Bob-omb will look unchanged with the exception of the key on his back turning. This turning extends his range greatly, allowing him to walk up to six grids before exploding, but when he does so he will also only deal 75% of his original damage. Switching up can be good but has its drawbacks, so trying to shuffle your blocks around so opponents have trouble keeping track of who is where is essential.
Forward Throw - Magikoopa Toss
Kammy gives a diabolical snicker as she waves her scepter. The ensnared foe then finds themselves battered around for 7% damage, swung around like a magically controlled rag doll, before they are thrown in front of Kammy. Foes are thrown with pretty unremarkable knockback almost entirely horizontally, with this move not really intended for killing on its own. While this move seems rather basic and generic for a throw, that's very much the intention. Kammy's other throws tend to be less traditional, so having a standard throw is useful. Also, having a simple positioning throw like this goes hand-in-hand with Kammy's stage control, allowing her to toss foes into the hungry maws of a Piranha Plant or within range of a Spiked Goomba headbonk.
Used on one of her partners or blocks, Kammy will cast a yellow spell over them, which they will flash with for a few frames before returning to normally. This becomes immediately obvious in application as minions will now move 50% faster on the ground. Piranha Plant unfortunately benefits the least from this, as it doesn't move in the traditional sense, but to make up for it its biting attack is less laggy making it harder to both react and attack. Obviously being faster is generally more useful, though with Goombas and Spiny Shells having them move faster can just have them leave the stage faster. This can be great for applying more aggressive pressure on foes and is really good on Spike Tops or Time Bob-ombs since they likely don't have to worry about falling off the stage. With all of Kammy's buffing spells a regular Bob-omb will have its fuse reset, so it only gains a little bit of use from buffs. This is probably the most usable buff for a regular Bob-omb since it will give it more effective range, but it is a significant amount of setup for a very short life-span.
Up Throw - Size Doesn't Matter
With a comically sadistic wave of her scepter, Kammy zaps the foe with her Magikoopa magic! The foe suddenly shrinks down to tiny size as Kammy smacks them with her wand. Foes take 8% damage and are launched a good distance upwards, which can KO from 145%. The foe remains small until they exit their launch / hitstun or they hit the ground, after which they will regrow back to their full size without interrupting further actions. Kammy herself is unable to effectively act on this, as she is so pleased she covers her mouth and laughs as the foe is launched with some not great ending lag. While tricky to use into minions, as all of her summons are grounded. However, if a Piranha Plant is planted on top of a Yellow or Stone Block, for instance, it can stretch out as the foe is thrown past them and bite them hard, giving extra knockback with the foe's small size.
Used on one of her summons, this casts a blue spell over them, and after a few flashing frames of animation the target will grow to insane sizes! Well, they'll grow bigger anyways. Any of Kammy's troops will have their size doubled. Of course, this means they are easier to hit but more intentionally they have an easier time hitting foes as well! There isn't much else to say about this, all enemies when boosted like this are harder for the foe to avoid, but they don't gain any more health to compensate. Timed Bob-ombs are one of the better enemies to use this on, since making contact with an opponent will cause them to explode so any melee hits will be hard to avoid the punishment for. Additionally, offstage blocked enemies are good to make giant, as their ability to gimp will be very amplified by their size. Just keep in mind that the other three buffs from Kammy's grab game can't be stacked with being giant, so choose carefully.
Back Throw - Warp Sickness
Kammy waves her magic rod and the opponent vanishes before warping behind her, still in the grip of this throw. The main difference is that they've take 2% damage. Impressive! Of course there's more to this, and Kammy will actually do this in rapid succession five times, dealing 10% total damage over the course of the move. Afterwards, the foe is weakly launched backwards at a horizontal angle, much weaker than the forward throw. This can be used for some setups but is generally too close to Kammy for comfort on that front, but the foe will soon find that this damage is not all they've received. For the following three seconds after exiting hitstun, foes will have their movement speed cut by 25% on both the ground and in the air. This is just generically useful, but especially in the context of the setups Kammy has to work with, and makes utilizing her blocked minions easier. This can't be refreshed with more uses of this, and foes are immune to this for the following three seconds after this wears off.
With a suspicious "Nyea-hea-hea!", Kammy casts a red spell over her allied target. Of course, after brief flashing of red, the minion she has hexed will now have greater attack! This increases the damage and knockback of any of their attacks by 50%, which can be incredibly devastating! Obviously, this is Kammy's go-to buff and will always be the most useful, especially on Spinies or Time Bob-ombs, but that also makes it predictable and is well advertised as something for them to watch out for. Of course, more knockback also makes it harder for Kammy to perform combos off of her minions, so that's another aspect of the move to be cautious about.
Down Throw - Rejuvenation
Kammy swings her scepter as she holds the foe in the air by their feet or feet-equivalent using her magic. Once suspended like this, Kammy will slam the foe against the ground with great speed over and over again, a very slapstick throw which ends up dealing 8% damage over its course. But wait! Every damage the opponent takes through this throw, Kammy gains back to her health! Without any staling, this move can gain Kammy back 8% damage, which while it isn't the greatest sustainability in the world can make a difference. After bouncing the foe weakly off the ground, Kammy will pat her face to examine her newfound youth and beauty. I'm sure she could have done this without slamming the opponent, but where's the fun in that? Kammy can't gain health off this attack for another three seconds, however.
Minions are healed "I'll fix you right up, you lout!" Kammy scolds her minions for taking damage (even if they haven't yet) as she casts a white spell on them. After flashing, the mook will find its wounds all patched up and is released with full health! Unlike the other throws, this full heal can be used in tandem with other buffs, which does make it her most staple throw. This is particularly strong since Kammy can use this on the blocked minions who can't be attacked by opponents. That being said, if Kammy uses this on a minion who is already at full health, she can actually overheal them by 15 HP! This isn't a ton but it can make it much more annoying to kill her precious children, especially on something like Piranha Plant which only has brief windows to be attacked in. Overhealing does act like her other buffs, however, and will overwrite if input.
Aerials Neutral Aerial - Veil
Kammy points her wand forward as she looks downward in the air. As she does so, a veil of changing color falls under her along with sparkles, as seen above, and will travel down a grid and a half below Kammy before dissipating. Uniquely, Kammy can hold this input to continue using this attack which can be especially useful while floating on her broom, giving this move a wide coverage. This move also has very little start up or lag, making it a pretty great move for people afraid of commitment. As for its use against foes, the veil will deal rapid hits of damage starting at 1.5% every third of a second the foe finds themselves in the spell. Additionally, they are constantly pushed downwards with these weak flinching hits, which can be very oppressive on offstage foes. Of course, this doesn't fully gimp them as every hit restores the foe's ability to recover, but this can be great for forcing the opponent to take a decent amount of damage. Additionally, Kammy can use this to stall foes until one of minions can get offstage to gimp them properly.
More situationally, Kammy can use this veil on her summons as well, and as seen above they will glow with a rainbow spectrum. In addition to supporting her partners' pride, this leaves them immune to damage as long as they are within the veil, which is a great defense against them being camped out. Of course, foes can target Kammy instead to prevent this, but then the minions are free to target the foe back! This can be extremely oppressive to grounded foes, pushing them against the stage if Kammy flies low enough while also bringing her unkillable minions to deal real damage and knockback.
Forward Aerial - Fireball
Kammy waves her wand around in front of her for her startup on this attack. After a handful of frames, she points her staff ahead of her as a cartoon-y fireball manifests in front of her. This lingers, staying in front of her, as Kammy holds this out for just around 15 frames, giving this some good disjoint, after which it will fizzle out and Kammy will put her scepter away. The fireball deals 9% damage with moderate knockback, and KOs around 130%. While this isn't winning any awards, this is one of Kammy's most direct attacks and ways of securing a kill outside of gimping. Of course this can be used while Kammy flies on her broomstick, making good use of its lengthy hitbox.
Since the fireball lingers for a bit after being summoned, Kammy can actually utilize it more than simply holding it out! Pressing the move a second time will have Kammy cast the fireball as a projectile, adding even more to her stage control. This causes the fireball to move about as fast as Luigi's Fireball in a downward angle up to five grids away from Kammy. Outside of this range, this is basically unchanged in terms of damage or knockback, but does make it a bit more useful on offstage foes.
Up Aerial - Rider's Block
With a press of the input, Kammy waves her wand above here back and forth and magic sparkles at it's gemstone in the meanwhile. After a few frames of this conjuring, she does one final wave in an arc overhead. As she does so, paper blocks similar to those that she stores her minions in (but smaller), flip into existence. These blocks deal 9% damage when they first flip into existence with okay vertical knockback, KOing around 145% from middle stage, and once flipped in they linger for a dozen or so frames before vanishing again. The lingering blocks only deal 3% damage and weak upwards hitstun. Afterwards, the blocks flip out of existence again. Essentially, this acts like NAir but for above Kammy.
Much like her NAir Kammy can continue to hold this move to move, which has a different effect depending on whether she is free-falling or riding her broomstick. While simply moving normally through the air, holding this down will have Kammy sustain the blocks that she produced until she releases, gets hit, or lands, which could weakly juggle unfortunate foes. While properly flying, Kammy will essentially draw in a horizontal line these blocks. This gives massive potential for a hitbox, but as mentioned it kills from high percentages and will mostly just have an easier time juggling opponents. The other important bit of knowledge about this move is that Kammy, her summons, and opponents can't pass through blocks for the short period of time they're active. Thankfully, Kammy's recovery lets her teleport past them if she gets in a pinch, but still good info to know.
Back Aerial - Spin Out
Kammy tilts her head back as best she can for a few frames of start up before pulling out her broomstick with both hands. As a quick aside, this is the only aerial she can't use while flying on her broom, as she turns around in the air while floating. Because of this, Kammy has to go through this fairly lengthy animation, making this a predictable move. After securing herself better, she falls back in the air, reversing her momentum as she slows down and begins spinning backwards and downwards. This seems like a weird attack, and it sure is, but in addition to the 8% damage and okay knockback it deals this move changes Kammy's hitbox wildly thanks to her two-dimensional nature. Combined with its backwards motion, this gives Kammy a weird mobility in the air, though has pretty awful landing lag.
By just pressing this, Kammy will spin three times, moving her a grid and a half diagonally behind her, before she goes into her moderate ending lag of putting her broom away (this can actually be cancelled into her special float to help alleviate the lag). Like several of Kammy's aerials, this one can also be held, which will cause her to keep careening downward like a maple seed, though holding it for any length of extra time will give extra ending and landing lag. Combined with her broomstick float and warp, Kammy is a difficult character to follow and predict in the air.
Down Aerial - Broomstick Bash
Kammy pulls her broomstick out of hammerspace, gripping it with both her scaly paper hands. She then forcefully pokes it under her, bristle-side down, bashing opponents underneath her. This isn't a particularly strong attack and comes off with decent amount of lag from her normal aerial state, but in addition to the 5% damage this deals foes hit will be spiked as one might expect from this action. Like much of Kammy's set, this move specializes at capitalizing on off-stage foes, but can be pretty easily predicted and punished given it's relatively long startup and small hitbox. However, foes occupied by other things, such as being attacked off stage by minions, will have a much harder time at countering this, so with good offstage set up it can be a strong killing move.
Kammy can, of course, use this while on her broomstick already, and in this instance she will do a... wheelie?... leaning back on her broomstick so the bristles are facing down. She then hops down, giving this attack an almost identical hitbox as the first version, but with less startup and ending lag, which makes this a far more dangerous version. However, given that Kammy only has left and right control on her broomstick, this can make it tricky to hit like this, so she should use her best judgement based on what elements she has offstage.
Standards Jab - Scepter Smackdown
Kammy lifts her mystical scepter above her head before slamming down, smacking the foe sharply for 3% damage. This essentially just does hitstun outside of very high percentages, and like so many jabs Kammy has a combo! After this head smack, Kammy swings her offhand out to smack the foe with a basic hit, which deals another weak 2% damage hit. Finally, Kammy jabs her scepter in front of her, dealing a final 2% damage with okay knockback, though not enough to KO and too much for her to effectively combo or stage control. After the first hit of the jab Kammy can instead perform an infinite jab as she holds her wand forward, conjuring short magical blasts that deal 1% and lower on each hit.
Forward Tilt - Pocket Pokey
Kammy reaches into her... robes?... as she pulls out a disembodied Pokey head with a goofy grin on its face (paper, of course). Once in hand, Kammy performs an overhead throw, giving this move unfortunate starting lag, and hurls Pokey's head in an arc about three grids forward on a level surface. Like Simon's Axe, Pokey's head will go through pesky elements like other fighters, obstacles, the stage, and is not storable or intractable as a minion. When Pokey hits foes, they take 9% damage with weak knockback, which can be irritating to offstage opponents (almost like it's a theme at this point). On onstage opponents Kammy herself doesn't have the ground resources to really combo and follow up on this, but like the rest of her set she can find some stage setups to capitalize off this move. This move actually gives Kammy some trouble, as this is her basic forward-facing attack but can actually be thrown over a lot of close-up foes.
Up Tilt - Spelling Bee
Kammy lifts her staff above her head, waving it back and forth as it sparkles with vile Koopa magic. The best way to imagine this move is a faster version of Zelda's USmash animation. This move has pretty fast starting and ending lag, especially compared to a lot of the moves in this set, as well as a lingering hitbox. Speaking of, foes hit above Kammy take rapid and weak hits of 3%, with all hits connecting for 12% damage. The final hit of the move will launch foes with surprising strength vertically, and can KO from 105%. Of course, this only hits foes above Kammy, but an important tenant of being an aerially focused character is being able to deal with other aerial characters. Along with her Smashes, this move is one of the few reasons Kammy would prefer to be on the ground rather than in the air.
Down Tilt - Clean Sweep
Kammy holds her broom in front of her as she grabs it with both hands, pointed at a slant so the hitbox extends in front of her. After a fairly quick startup, Kammy performs two quick sweeping motions with her broomstick, actually using it for its intended purpose?? In addition to aesthetic dust clouds this kicks up, foes hit by this take 7% damage per hit and are knocked weakly up, which can allow it to combo into itself for 14%. Kammy then quickly puts her broom away, constituting a low ending lag for this move. It's a sweeping move, and it's also definitely the last move being written for this set, so... oops.
Dash Attack - Low Rider
Definitely not just a move name and concept ripped from Sucy, Kammy will quickly conjure her broomstick under her as she leaps off the ground. This will continue to carry her at an increased speed for two grids before skidding to a stop as her broom vanishes again. Foes hit by Kammy during this will take 8% damage with okay upwards knockback, though KOs aren't a big priority for this move. The ending lag is pretty bad, and like a lot of Dash Attacks this can be pretty punishable, but with good stage setup or good use of Magikoopa Blast, Kammy can cover her approach with this. Why would she care about actually using this move? Well, since Kammy is already on her broomstick, she can actually cancel this move out to use an aerial instead! The use of this varies, and more often than not this is just a novelty since the moves don't have the range they really need to be effective. However, moves like FAir or UAir can have situational uses, and NAir can be used to save one of Kammy's minions in a pinch if she really needs to. Keep in mind that Kammy won't be actually going into the air after this, and will suffer worse landing lag than just ending the dash normally for basically all aerials.
Final Smash Star Rod
Nyea-he-he! I'm sure Master Bowser won't mind if I borrow this...
Kammy Koopa pulls out the legendary Star Rod! As she swings it forward, a big 'ol star, about the size of a Warp Star, is thrown in a straight line at Kirby's dash speed until it leaves the screen. If it hits any opponent directly, they will be whisked away into a cutscene in a cavern with Kammy. Kammy casts a spell off in the distance with the Star Rod, cackling as she cries out "Let's see you deal with this!" As she finishes her sentence, behind the foe(s) will emerge a massive hulking plant...
It's the Lava Piranha! This massive plant will bite the foes with each of its smaller buds to rack up 10% a hit while the larger plant grins evilly. After the side plants attack, the larger bud goes in with a big final bite, dealing another 25% damage and launching foes with enough force to KO from 45% damage! Of course, this is only for meter-off hits, and with that balancing the numbers are 10%, 20%, and 85% damage respectively.
Flavor
Entrance Animation - Kammy swoops down on her broomstick before standing on her feet like a normal fighter. Boxing Ring Title - The Mistress of Magikoopas Up Taunt - Kammy swings the Star Rod around as she cackles, flexing on the foes with her sweet merch. Side Taunt - Kammy holds her arms out as her broomstick floats magically around her body one full rotation. Down Taunt - Kammy levitates several wads of paper above her head in tight circles before they vanish magically. Victory Animation A - Kammy flies in on her broomstick, waving her scepter while she does so. Victory Animation B- Kammy reclines on top of several Goombas who march her onto the victory screen. Victory Animation C - Kammy is shown nonchalantly using her magic to grow and shrink a Goomba, whose expression shows discomfort. Defeat Animation- Kammy waves her arms awkwardly in an attempt to perform a clapping animation with her paper arms. Victory Theme - 0:08 - 0:13 ofKammy Koopa
Phew, finally finished Rex's revision. Would have had it done sooner, but was just burned out from school. Hopefully it turned out good this time. Like I said before, I completely did away with his old Neutral Special, instead opting for a new one that is useful not only for Rex, but Kirby as well. Also ditched Foresight and Swordbash, in favour of something more original. Lastly, his grab game (I hope) is a lot more solid now.
As usual, I would benefit more from critical feedback.
Rex is all about standing his ground. Like Little Mac, he is a terror on-stage--but unlike Little Mac, he has more options in the air. The focus of Rex's playstyle is to cancel one move into another, rush the enemy off the ledge as quickly as he can, then keep them off the ledge. Ironically, if Rex himself is knocked off the stage, he'll have a hard time getting back on. He has a long-ranged tether recovery with a slow startup, and a weak vertical recovery.
Rex is roughly a head shorter than Shulk. His sword has a long reach, matching that of Shulk's Monado beam. He runs roughly as fast a Shulk, but his jump height is low; roughly the same as Shulk's in Speed mode. Even worse, he falls roughly as fast as Roy. Thanks to his heavy salvager's suit, Rex can survive lots of hits, even at higher percentages, but once he's off-stage, the player has to act quickly, or it's game over. Bluntly put, he's a short heavyweight.
Like Shulk, Rex's sword is always worn on his back, and he only holds it when attacking. When Rex spot-dodges, he comically bounces on one foot with his hands up, eyes wide, and mouth open. He has a similar-looking air dodge.
In the character select menu, Rex can switch between Pyra and Mythra, similar to how Pokémon Trainer can switch between Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard. Switching between the two doesn't affect his gameplay; it merely changes the appearance of his sword, the animation of his neutral special, and victory dialogue. Ergo, it is only a matter of preference.
2). Specials:
• Neutral Special (Elemental Orb/Burst):
Near Rex's damage percent is a diamond-shaped gauge. This gauge can only be filled by landing attacks, or using Rex's down-special. How much an attack fills the gauge depends on its damage output. Completely filling the gauge will cause a Roman numeral to appear inside the diamond. Filling the gauge once will result in the Roman numeral "I". After that is "II", then "III". After gaining any level of charge, Rex can use Elemental Orb, in which he attaches an orb to the opponent. Using this move again on the opponent with a Level-0 charge will cause Rex to use Elemental Burst, in which he shatters the orb. When this happens, the camera zooms in on Rex similar to how it zooms in on a kill move. Afterward, he can immediately follow up with a different attack.
For Elemental Orb, Pyra/Mythra appears behind Rex, then with telekinetic force spins the Aegis Sword in front of him like a windmill. Whilst the sword is spinning, Rex can still run and jump around, but he won't be able to use any attacks involving his sword. The enemy is damaged multiple times before being blown away 45 degrees by an explosion of fire/light. At Level-I, the first 8 hits deal 0.7% damage, while the last hit deals 6% damage. At Level-II, the first 8 hits deal 0.8% damage, while the last hit deals 7% damage. At Level-III, the first 8 hits deal 0.9% damage, while the last hit deals 8% damage. Afterwards, the enemy will have an orb circling around them. If Pyra was selected before the match, the orb will be red. If Mythra was selected, the orb will be yellow. To avoid confusion, each orb will be outlined with the player's colour (for example: player-2's orb will have a blue outlining). Furthermore, the enemy will have an icon of that player's orb near their damage %. Up to three orbs can be attached on one enemy, and attaching an orb to a different enemy will erase the orbs attached to the previous enemy. Regardless of the level of charge, the first use of Elemental Orb will result in one orb circling the opponent. Afterwards, if Rex hits the enemy with a Level-II or Level-III Elemental Orb, the enemy will have two orbs circling them. Finally, if Rex hits the enemy with a Level-III Elemental Orb while two orbs are circling the enemy, the enemy will have three orbs circling them. If Rex is KO'ed, the enemy will still be tagged by his orbs. Conversely, if the enemy is KO'ed, all the orbs circling him/her will disappear.
For Elemental Burst, Rex shatters one of the orbs circling his enemy, dealing 3% damage and inducing high hitstun. Rex can immediately cancel into this move during his combos and multi-hit moves, allowing him to chain more attacks. Depending on how many orbs were circling the opponent, Rex can use Elemental Burst up to three times, resulting in lenghthy, deadly combos. So while building up the gauge can be tedius, it can also be extremely rewarding.
• Side Special (Anchor Shot):
A grab-based special. Rex points his left arm forward, then with his right hand presses a button on the left arm, shooting a miniature anchor. If the anchor connects, the enemy is immediately pulled toward him. This tether grab has a very long range, reaching half the length of Final Destination. Like Isabelle's fishing rod, however, this move can be blocked. This move is slow to start, but covers the distance almost instantly. However, it also has high endlag. As a result, this move should not be used predictably, especially if the enemy is up close. If the enemy sees it coming, all they have to do is shield or jump over it. Instead, it's designed to punish laggy moves. Once the enemy is anchored, Rex has four throw options--but no pummel. Just like Isabelle's fishing rod, Rex can even grab opponents whilst airborne. So if you want to suicide-KO, this is an excellent option.
- Forward Throw: Rex calls for Poppi, whom then appears behind him and flies foward, ramming the enemy with her Drill Shield. Deals 7 hits. The fist 6 hits deal 1% damage, while the final hit deals 9% damage. The enemy is then launched at 20 degrees. At the centre of Final Destination, this throw is guaranteed to kill at 100%.
- Back Throw: Rex spins in a full circle, launching the enemy behind him at 30 degrees. Deals 17% damage. This move's main purpose is to get the enemy off-stage, but it can also be used to suicide-KO. For instance, if Rex is off-stage, then he can Anchor Shot a pursuing enemy, then back-throw.
- Up Throw: Rex calls for Poppi, whom then appears behind him and uppercuts the enemy whilst flying upward. Deals 18% damage, launching the enemy at 85 degrees. Obviously, this move's main purpose is to get the enemy in the air. Though there are no guaranteed follow-ups, if you're good at reading then you can either juggle the opponent or trick them into air-dodging. On Final Destination, this move is guaranteed to Star-KO at 100%.
- Down Throw: Rex yanks the anchor from under the opponent's feet, force-tripping them. Afterward, Rex is guaranteed a follow-up attack, which can be almost anything. Deals absolutely no damage. The main purpose of this move is to set up an Elemental Burst combo, after attaching three orbs.
This move is Rex's best recovery option, as it has a longer range than any other tether grab. It is able to latch onto the ledge, even in the blast zone. However, if Rex is too low, this move will not work. The range at which he can tether recover is between 50 and -50 degrees.
To prevent chain-grabbing, Rex cannot use his regular grab right after using this move. And of course, he can't Anchor Shot a force-tripped enemy.
• Up Special (Vortex Edge):
A 10-hit move. Rex attaches a pair of Dual Scythes together, then spins them above him, slashing the enemy multiple times before sending them flying with a final slash. Whilst spinning, a vortex of wind draws in any nearby opponent. The first 9 hits deal 1.5% damage, and the final hit deals 3% damage, sending the opponent flying at 20 degrees. If this move is used in the air, Rex will be propelled upward. He travels slightly lower than Toon Link's up-special, and the horizontal distance can be altered slightly. Using this move in the air will also increase the damage output of each hit by 0.5%, and the enemy will be knocked slightly further. Quick startup, but noticeable endlag.
Recovery aside, this move is best used as an anti-air attack. It has roughly the same range as Link's spin attack--and if used in the air, the angle will tilt slightly. A great way to use this move is to bait the enemy into air-dodging, then punish them with Vortex Edge. If this move is cancelled with Elemental Burst, Rex can follow up with either an aerial or another Vortex Edge.
• Down Special (Salvager's Flight): Rex raises his damage percent by 25%, and in return gets a Level-III Elemental Orb charge. In addition, he will briefly gain a boost in defense, taking less damage and knockback. Similar to Wii Fit Trainer, a transparent circle will appear in front of Rex, along with a circular line that shrinks. If the special button is pressed at the right time, where the shrinking circle is in line with the transparent circle's border, Rex will instead take 20% damage, and will have boosted defense for roughly fifteen seconds. Otherwise, his buff will last for ten seconds. During the move, Rex will have super armour frames. If the move is executed perfectly, the enemy will be knocked away by a weak burst of energy. Aside from the buff and fully charging Rex's Elemental gauge, this move can be used a get-away-from-me move, as well as a save-me move. For instance, if the opponent is about to kill Rex with a Smash attack, Rex can quickly use this move to survive it. He'll still take damage, but he won't be launched by the attack.
3). Jab & Dash:
• Jab (Knuckle Claws):
A five-hit move. (1) Rex performs a quick hook punch with his right hand, dealing 2.5% damage. (2) Rex follows up with another hook punch with his left hand, dealing 2.5% damage. (3) Rex performs a straight punch with his right hand, dealing 2.7% damage. (4) Rex follows up with an uppercut punch with his left hand, dealing 2.3% damage. (5) Rex finishes with a front kick of his right foot, dealing 3% damage and knocking the enemy a short distance at zero degrees. A total of 13% damage. Quick startup, almost no endlag.
This move's main purpose is to get the opponent off of Rex, and/or set them up for a combo. At any point during this move, sans the fifth hit, Rex can cancel into a Neutral Special, Dash, Tilt, or Smash. All of his jabs have fairly high hitstun, making this easy to do.
• Dash Attack (Iron Wall):
Holding a Shield Hammer in guard mode, Rex charges forward a short distance, bashing any opponent he collides with. Similar to Little Mac, Rex will shrug off any attack during this move, and the enemy's attack will do significantly less damage than it normally would. Deals 10% damage on the early hitbox, but 6% damage on the late hitbox. The opponent is launched 30 degrees, and the distance at which they are launched depends on the hitbox. Quick startup, but high endlag.
Obviously, this move is best used defensively. If you're cornered and see a powerful attack coming, don't hesitate to use this move, as it can be life-saving. For instance, if Rex is recovering and gets pulled in by Ganondorf's up-tilt, he can quickly use this move--and whether he gets hit or not, will send Ganondorf flying.
4). Tilts:
• Forward Tilt:
Rex raises his sword with both hands, leaning backward, then deals a quick descending slash. This move covers Rex from 70 degrees to zero degrees. If the blow connects, the enemy is launched at 45 degrees. The blade of the sword deals 12.5% damage, while the beam deals 9.5% damage. This is fairly powerful for a tilt, killing near the ledge at 100%. Slightly slow startup.
Due to its slightly slow startup, landing this move requires accurate reads. It is best used to fend off an off-stage enemy. Otherwise, if used up close the enemy can quickly grab Rex before the move executes.
• Up Tilt: With both hands, Rex swings his sword above him in an arc. The swing starts from behind him, and ends in front of him. The opponent is knocked straight upwards. This move has very little knockback, but can be used in succession, making it great for juggling enemies. Fast fallers will have the hardest time escaping this move. Quick startup. The blade of the sword deals 8% damage, while the beam deals 6% damage.
As stated before, this move is meant for juggling. It is best used as an anti-air move, and works best on enemies behind Rex.
• Down Tilt:
With both hands, Rex sweeps his sword along the ground, launching the enemy in the air at 80 degrees. Afterward, he can follow up with a f-air or n-air. The blade of the sword deals 11% damage, while the beam deals 7%. Quick startup.
This move's main purpose is to set up the enemy for an aerial, effectively pushing them away from Rex. Its quick startup and long reach make it an efficient defensive move that should be used often--though of course, not predictably.
5). Smashes:
• Forward Smash (Rolling Smash):
Rex performs a front flip, then with both hands brings his sword down with bone-crushing force. This move has a long reach that covers Rex from above and in front. If the above hitbox connects, it will drag the enemy into the second hitbox. The frontal hitbox, where the sword actually connects with the ground, sends the enemy flying at 50 degrees, or spikes the enemy if they're off-stage or hanging on the ledge with no invincibility frames. Above hitbox deals 10% damage, while frontal hitbox deals 12% damage. Slow startup, and noticeable endlag.
This move is best used to punish a laggy move. Otherwise, landing it requires accurate reads. It can also be used to smite off-stage enemies while they're recovering, especially if their up-special doesn't immediately snap them on the ledge.
• Up Smash (Grenade Launcher):
A two-hit move. Rex slams the butt of an Ether Cannon on the ground, aiming upwards, then unleashes sphere-shaped blast of energy. The first hit comes from Rex slamming the Ether Cannon, which deals 6% damage whilst knocking the enemy upwards, just above the Ether Cannon's barrel. The second hit comes from the sphere-shaped blast, the range of which is roughly Electrode's size, dealing 13% damage and knocking the enemy straight upwards. At the centre of Final Destination, this move is guaranteed to kill at 90%.
This move should not be used predictably, as it is punishable if missed or shielded. Instead, it's best used to punish dodges and laggy moves. If you're good at reading opponents, then you can use the energy blast as an anti-air move. It can also be used for ledge-guarding. For instance, if an enemy without invincible frames is holding onto the ledge, or if an enemy like Cloud uses a recovery that doesn't snap them into the ledge, Rex can get them with the first hit of this move, then the second.
• Down Smash (Axe Twist): Rex pulls out a Great Axe, then with both hands spins around twice, slashing any unlucky enemy. The axe has a very long reach, exceeding even the range of Shulk's down-smash. The blade of the axe deals 20% damage, while the pole deals 5% damage. If the pole of the first hit connects, the enemy will be pushed into the blade of the second hit. Very slow startup, but once Rex is in motion, he won't flinch when being hit. At the centre of Final Destination, this move is guaranteed to kill at 80%.
Obviously, this move should not be used predictably, due to its slow startup. Instead, it's best used as a trap, or to finish off an enemy you force-tripped. It can also be cancelled into via Elemental Burst, or to guard the ledge.
6). Aerials:
• Neutral Air: Rex somersaults, performing a circular slash around him. The speed at which the sword travels is slightly lower than Cloud's n-air. Any nearby opponent is knocked away at 15 degrees. Quick startup. The blade of the sword deals 7.5% damage, while the beam deals 5% damage.
Like most n-airs, this move's main purpose is to get the enemy away from Rex. It can be used as an advancing move, a retreating move, or a vertically offensive move. Thanks to Rex's fall speed, he can use this move repeatedly to keep the enemy at bay. Though of course, you don't want to become predictable.
• Forward Air: Rex raises his sword with both hands, then deals a quick and powerful crescent slash, launching the enemy at 25 degrees. The hitbox covers his entire front, from 90 degrees to -70 degrees. Quick startup, little endlag. The blade of the sword deals 11% damage, while the beam deals 8% damage.
This move's main purpose is to keep the enemy at bay, but it can also be used to set up a combo. It can be used an advancing move, or a retreating move. Thanks to Rex's fall speed, if done right, Rex can do a fast fall version of this move, then follow up with a jab.
• Back Air: Similar to Shulk, Rex thrusts his sword out behind him, launching the enemy at 10 degrees. Unlike Shulk, Rex's sword comes out at zero degrees. It has a slightly slower startup than Shulk's back air, but higher kill power. The blade of the sword deals 13.5% damage, while the beam deals 8.5% damage.
The move's main purpose is to kill an off-stage enemy whom is recovering. However, due to its slow startup, it is hard to land. Furthermore, the enemy will be expecting the move. Ergo, landing this move requires accurate reads. On-stage, if the enemy air-dodges this move, Rex can fast-fall, then punish them with a grounded move.
• Up Air: Rex thrusts his sword straight upwards with both hands, sending them flying straight upward a short distance. This move has high vertical distance, and little horizontal distance. Quick startup. The blade of the sword deals 7.5% damage, while the beam deals 4.5% damage.
This move is not meant for Star KO'ing, but for juggling. Thanks to this move's high hitstun, and thanks to Rex's high fall speed, he can continue to jump and jab the enemy with this move until they fly too far for him to reach.
• Down Air: Facing the screen, Rex raises his sword with both hands then slams it downward, spiking the enemy. This move has high vertical distance, but next to no horizontal distance. The spike box covers the bottom half of the sword. Slightly slow startup, and slight endlag. The blade of the sword deals 14% damage, while the beam deals 9% damage.
Obviously, this move is designed for Meteor KO's. However, Rex's fall speed makes this move risky. Even worse, a recovering enemy will naturally expect it. The best way to use this move is to jump off the stage, spike the enemy, then land back on the stage. If the enemy is smart, then you'll have to condition them. If a spiked enemy hits the ground, they'll bounce upward 80 degrees, and will have enough hitstun for Rex to fast-fall, then follow up with a f-air.
7). Grab & Throws:
• Grab: Rex clumsily lunges forward, grabbing at the opponent with both hands. Quick startup. Due to having deadly throws, this grab has high endlag if missed. Ergo, it is best used as a punisher.
• Pummel: Rex pummels the enemy with a Bitball. Slightly slower than Pit's pummel. Deals 2.5% damage.
• Forward Throw: Rex hurls the opponent away at 10 degrees, and as they're flying throws his Bitball at them with all his strength. Afterwards, he can follow up with Anchorshot. The throw deals 4% damage, while the Bitball deals 8% electrical damage.
• Backward Throw: Rex hurls the opponent behind him a short distance at 35 degrees, and as they're flying kicks his Bitball at them. The throw deals 5% damage, while the Bitball deals 9% electrical damage. Afterwards, Rex can use Elemental Burst, then chain into an aerial.
• Upward Throw (Launch): With his sword, Rex launches the enemy in the air with a rising vertical slash. The enemy hovers just above Rex, spinning in place--fast at first, but slower as time passes. The enemy spins for roughly one second, before falling on the ground. Whilst the enemy is spinning, Rex has more than enough time to either run away or follow up with an aerial, an upward or forward smash, an upward or forward tilt, or a short-hop special.
• Downward Throw (Grand Smash): Rex slams the enemy into the ground, jumps, then plunges his Bitball into them. Deals 6 electrical hits. The first hits deal 1% damage, while the final hit deals 6% damage, launching the enemy upward a short distance. Afterwards, Rex can follow up with a Neutral Special, Up-Special, Jab, F-tilt, or a short-hop Neutral or Forward Air.
8). Author's Notes:
• I had originally planned to avoid using other Blades for Rex's moveset, so as to not drag attention away from his main weapon, the Aegis Sword. However, this barrier greatly hindered mine imagination. In the end, I decided that the more tools I have to work with, the better things I can build. So I restarted the moveset from scratch, this time first deciding the focus of Rex's playstyle: ground control. After that, it became much easier for me to devise unique moves that would chain into each other.
• Originally, Elemental Orb/Burst caused the enemy to take more damage and knockback while the orb was circling them. But since that overlapped with Inkling's gimmick, I came up with a different approach. Instead, I decided that breaking the Elemental Orb would allow Rex to continue his true combos. Since that's how Chain Attacks basicallty work in Xenoblade 2 and its spinoff, Torna the Golden Country, I found it to be rather fitting.
• Anchor Shot was originally Rex's grab, but I decided to make it into his side special, which was originally Sword Bash. Like Shulk's Back Slash, Sword Bash is a move that deals more damage from behind. Since Rex's playstyle is about chaining attacks, I thought it would be best to give him as many combo options as possible. Plus, I didn't want Rex's kill options to be dependent on hitting the enemy from behind. In Xenoblade 2, Anchor Shot has the ability to topple enemies, so I gave it a force-trip function. This gives Rex an easy way to begin his combos. Lastly, the Poppi attacks were inspired by the cutscenes in which Poppi helps Rex pull large things with her superhuman strength.
• I struggled to find a unique down-special for Rex. Originally, it was Foresight, but in the end I decided we already have enough generic counter moves. I then thought of "Pyra/Mythra Switch", which would affect the damage and knockback of his sword attacks, but since he doesn't use his sword for every attack, I found that to be a waste of a move. In the end, I followed Sakurai's example and sought inspiration from other characters' abilities. I immediately recalled the Talent Arts used by characters in Xenoblade 2: Torna the Golden Country, and after looking through them decided to use Lora's Swallow's Flight, in which she sacrifices half her health to recharge all her Arts. The only difference with Rex's Salvager's Flight is that he takes 25% damage, and in return gets a buff along with a Level III Elemental Orb charge.
There's still a few "old heads" around but I think the new blood outnumbers us now... which is a good thing. Stop by the Discord and chat if you want to! I do actually remember you, as I was reading some of MYM7 earlier today actually. Welcome back!
This contest is still going until Feb 10th, yeah. And then there will be more contests past that, of course! There's definitely some oldies still stomping around, so feel free to say hi.
UNENLIGHTENED FOOLS! WITNESS THE BRILLIANCE OF THE MAD SCIENTIST AND FOUNDER OF THE FUTURE GADGET LAB HOUOUIN KYOUMA! I AM AN AGENT OF CHAOS, CLEARING THE STAGE OF THE NON-BELIEVERS AND THE ORGANIZATION'S SPIES. SPACE IS MY PLAYGROUND, TIME IS MY TOY, AND I ALONE SHALL UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF STEINS;GATE!
STATS
Height: Ike Weight: Sheik Walk Speed: Charizard Run Speed: Toon Link Ground Jump: Olimar Air Jump: Bowser Air Speed: Mii Brawler Fall Speed: Ridley
MY STATS MAY NOT SEEM SPECTACULAR, BUT THIS IS BUT A RUSE TO DECEIVE THE ORGANIZATION OF MY TRUE POWER! NONE CAN MATCH THE MAD BRILLIANCE OF THE MIND OF HOUOUIN KYOUMA!
SPECIALS NEUTRAL SPECIAL FUTURE GADGET #1: BIT PARTICLE CANNON
Okabe whips out his first ever future gadget, the Bit Particle Cannon, as he drops to his knee and aims it forward an a clear imitation of ZSS. The BPC can be charged before fired off or simply shot dry, and the charge actually has a profound impact on the move. Thankfully, this charge is storable, because max charge takes a whole two seconds to pull off. Once stored, Okabe can actually only fire the shot, not charge it any further. Firing the toy blaster with a comical alien pew sound effect, a slow moving blue pulse of energy is fired out. This is best pictured as three rings of energy close to each other, as wide as a Pikmin and about as tall. When I say slow I mean slow, as these move at Link's walk speed, so foes can pretty easily avoid these. If Okabe chooses not to charge the move, he can fire these out pretty quickly, somewhere just under Fox's Blaster speed. Okabe can only have three of these out at once, and they have infinite horizontal range, so they're decent for taking up space if nothing else.
As mentioned, the effects this shot have depend on how long the move was charged, and this works in steps rather than on a spectrum. If Okabe has charged the move less than a second or not at all, this is a very weak projectile, dealing 2% damage without any hitstun. Hey, this is a kid's toy designed to change TV channels after all. Charging it at least a second but under the maximum charge will up the power a slight bit, dealing 3% damage and actually giving some hitstun to interrupt foes. With the ability to fire two more uncharged shots quickly after, this actually can be useful for racking some damage on foes. Of course, the speed of the projectiles leaves this to be desired. Finally, at a full two second charge, the power bumps up to 5% damage and the projectile gains a wildly new property: hitting an unshielded foe will force their shield up for 30 frames, and hitting a shielded foe will deactivate and deny the shield for the same amount of time. This allows Okabe a free 'read' by forcing the foe's action, but only works on grounded foes, and will simply deal damage and hitstun to aerial foes.
ISN'T IT OBVIOUS? THE BRILLIANT APPLICATION OF FUTURE GADGET NUMBER 1! IT MAY SEEM WEAK, BUT IT STRATEGICALLY BRINGS DOWN YOUR TARGETS DEFENSES! LEAVE THESE OUT AS A TRAP IN THE AIR THAT ONLY FOOLS WOULD FALL FOR!
SIDE SPECIAL FUTURE GADGET #8: PHONE MICROWAVE (name subject to change)
Okabe pulls out the Future Gadget #8: Phone Microwave (name subject to change), and simply holds it out in front of him, door open, as long as the move is held. This takes a bit of startup so it isn't instant, but still comes out relatively fast. When putting away the Phonewave, there's a bit more endlag, which can make this move risky to rely on constantly. While open, the phonewave will simply absorb any projectiles that enter it. It has a bit of leeway, with the move covering about the height of Okabe despite the actual phonewave only being half the size of Kirby or so. Like other absorbing moves, there's a fun particle effect which occurs when the phonewave eats something. Unlike many other absorbing moves, however, this works on essentially any projectile, energy based or not, giving it a lot of defensive use. Kyouma can use this not just on enemy projectiles, but his own as well, and with how slow the blasts from the Bit Particle Cannon move, he can do this pretty easily. There's also no limits on how many he can store in phonewave, though everything is lost between stocks. As for where the projectiles go? They are lost in time and space, never to be seen again... for the rest of this move anyways.
FUTURE GADGET LAB'S GREATEST DISCOVERY, THE ONE WHICH WILL UNVEIL THE PATH TO STEINS;GATE! NOTHING AND NOBODY IS SAFE FROM THE INESCAPABLE JAWS OF TIME, NOBODY EXCEPT I, THE CONQUEROR OF THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE!
DOWN SPECIAL D-MAIL DELIVERY
Okabe quickly pulls out his cell phone and begins frantically typing a message for up to five seconds, however long the move is held. Once released, Kyouma tucks his phone away with gusto as he gives a well-practiced evil laugh! Afterwards, a static effect occurs over the screen, though not obscuring the battle, and the fighters, among other things, have seen some changes. First off, the damage, move staling, ammo, and any special timed effects on players, are all restored to their amounts from before the move being started. This is double the time Okabe spent writing this D-Mail, so he can return numbers back to where they were up to 10 seconds before. If Okabe is knocked out of this move, he will simply send the D-Mail at the point of impact, so foes can shorten this if they see it happening and probably should to keep from losing advantage.
This is only half of what this move does, however. The delivery of the D-Mail will also effect any projectiles Okabe has collected with the Phonewave. Any projectiles will be returned to the position on stage and state they were in X seconds before being collected by the Phonewave, where X is equal to how long this move is used. However, the projectiles have become agents of chaos, losing any player loyalty and able to hurt anyone now. However, if X exceeds the lifespan of the projectile before being contained by the Phonewave...
The projectile will return to its starting position, but will be made of a sickly green gel. This is unstable, and will explode in a small burst of gel filling a quarter of a grid. This will deal a sticky 4% damage and deal some weak knockback, and on its own might not make itself very useful, but with patience Kyouma will fill the stage with projectiles lost in time.
SEE ME AND TREMBLE WITH FEAR, MORTALS, FOR I HOLD THE SECRETS TO TIME IN THE PALM OF MY HAND. I HAVE ESCAPED THE CLUTCHES OF THE ORGANIZATION AND EVEN DEATH ITSELF, AND I WILL IRON OUT THE WRINKLES IN TIME LIKE A GREAT COSMIC TAILOR!
UP SPECIAL FUTURE GADGET #23: HYPER JET REPULSOR
Kyouma puts on a jury-rigged jetpack of his own design, which takes a fair bit of startup, before activating it. When activated, blue flames shoot out the back of it, giving a weak hitbox that hits for 4% damage. Similar to R.O.B., this jetpack has fuel, and will only run for four seconds before it needs to recharge, which takes another four seconds of nonuse to refill from empty. The jetpack moves a bit faster than R.O.B.'s, but this also makes it more unwieldy, and Okabe will have trouble steering this move, essentially 'sliding' through the air with little traction. After using it for any amount of time in the air, Okabe will keep the jetpack on his back until he lands again, but can stop using the move without entering helpless. This allows him to use his aerials, a second jump, or even send a D-Mail to get a little bit of his fuel back.
BEHOLD! NOT EVEN GRAVITY ITSELF CAN PLAY ITS GAMES WITH ME! THE SKY IS MY DOMAIN, AND I AM ITS MASTER!
SMASHES SIDE SMASH FUTURE GADGET #6 - CYALUME SABER
Kyouma pulls out another Future Gadget, the lightsaber-esque Cyalume Saber. Filled with fake blood, the plastic blade glows red as it's pulled out and used for attacks. In this particular move, Okabe holds the saber over his shoulder, as if stepping up to bat. After the charge is released, he follows through with a horizontal swing that smacks foes between 11% and 15.4% damage. Foes will be cracked like a baseball, KOing around 120%. Well, maybe this attack isn't great, but Okabe spends all his time in the lab and never hits the gym. Besides, it comes out quick and the Cyalume Saber gives it a decent range. At least, it does while it's whole.
The Cyalume Saber can actually break if Okabe's too rough with it, it is just a plastic sword after all. If Okabe lands three attacks with the sword within a stock, there will be a shattering sound effect after the third hit lands and a spray of fake blood will rush from the sword. This isn't all terrible for Kyouma, though. While the broken sword has about half as much reach, the broken tip actually causes the weapon to deal more damage to opponents. Any attack that uses this weapon will be effected in the same way, and will see damage increased by 1.5 times and knockback increased by 1.2 times. Unfortunately, once the sword is broken it will stay like that for the rest of the stock, unless the player can somehow change time? Not only can saber be restored by sending a D-Mail, but its individual countdown for breaking can also be restored, important to keep in mind.
UP SMASH CYALUME OVERHEAD
While charging this, Okabe will lean down as he grips the Cyalume Saber with both hands. Upon release, he springs into action, swinging the sword in an arc over his head while still staying fairly low to the ground. This move is a good deal slower than the FSmash, though not horrible by any means, but Okabe keeping low to the ground does give him a slightly smaller target for punishment. Foes struck by this take between 13% and 18.2% damage, and suffer outward knockback that can KO around 130%. In terms of damage, this is one of the more solid options Okabe has, especially since this can deal 27.3% damage at full charge on a broken saber.
DOWN SMASH FUTURE GADGET #4: MOAD SNAKE
Kyouma pulls out yet another Future Gadget, the Moad Snake. Disguised as a claymore mine, Okabe kneels to the ground while holding this humidifier in both hands above his head. Once the charge is released, Okabe stabs the mind down into the ground, dealing a weak hit of 4% to 5.6% damage. After the mine has been in the stage for a few more frames, the mine will release a thick cloud of steam in front of it, covering a range the size of Bowser as Okabe stands up and is free to fight. This steam scalds foes for 12% - 16.8% damage with pretty bad knockback that starts KOing around 160%. After the initial attack, the steam remains on stage for up to five seconds. This obscuring mist will show billowy silhouettes of what's happening, enough that it's clear there are fighters or projectiles, but not necessarily what they're doing. Okabe can use this to lure foes; they won't be able to easily tell if he is sending a D-Mail or not, and reading that wrong can result in either punishment or the incitement of temporal chaos.
BEHOLD THE BRILLIANCE OF THE FUTURE GADGET LAB! EACH INVENTION SURPASSES THE LAST IN ITS POWER AND TACTICAL GENIUS! TRULY A SMASHING COLLECTION!
STANDARDS JAB MAD SCIENTIST
A three hit jab combo, Okabe performs a straight punch forward with one hand for 1.5% damage as he curls his other fist by his side. He then follows up with an uppercut for 3% damage as he locks his fingers together in the air. He then brings both together down on the opponent for a further 3% damage. The initial jab is very fast, but the second jab has a little too much knockback, preventing it from comboing into the third at higher percentages. The last part of the jab also has a fair bit of ending lag.
FORWARD TILT EN GARDE
Kyouma pulls out the Cyalume Saber in a sword-drawing motion as he thrusts it forward ahead of him. In addition to the good disjoint, this attack by default does 9% damage with good knockback, allowing KOs from 115%. Unfortunately, however, this move has both chunky startup and endlag, making it particularly risky up close. Good for chasing after his own NSpec projectiles, however.
UP TILT SHINING CHAOS BLADE
Imitating Marth's USmash, Okabe faces the camera and thrusts the Cyalume Saber straight in the air above him. This has pretty decent range, assuming the blade's unbroken, but is moderately slow on both the startup and ending of the move. By default, this move can deal 8% damage and KO around 135%.
DOWN TILT METAL UPA
Okabe pulls out an incredibly valuable metal Upa toy as he kneels on the ground, before he rolls it in front of him like a small bowling ball. The Upa is a little larger than a Pokeball and moves at a fast speed along the ground. It will travel until it either falls off the stage or hits an obstacle, including an opponent, and will deal 4% damage with weak hitstun. After hitting an obstacle, the Upa will bounce off of it and vanish after it hits the ground again. This bounce is enough for Kyouma to rush in with the Phonewave and snag it if he wants to. This move has pretty bad startup for the actual damage it deals, but ends pretty quick.
DASH SHOULDER BASH
Okabe leans forward as he dashes, putting all his strength behind his stringy shoulder. This carries him forward a little over a grid before he comes to a jarring halt, and any foes struck by this will take 8% damage. Foes are launched horizontally with surprising force, and can be KO'd as low as 105% which makes this one of Kyouma's better killing moves. Of course, he's very open to counterattack on a miss with some bad endlag as would be expected on a dash, but its use can be good following a DTilt or a D-Mail send.
THOUGH THEY ARE CALLED STANDARDS, EACH OF THESE MOVES HAVE BEEN MASTERFULLY CRAFTED TO CRACK THROUGH BOTH MY NAYSAYERS AND THE SHELL OF THE UNIVERSE'S SECRETS!
AERIALS NEUTRAL AERIAL CYALUME CYCLONE
Kyouma pulls out his saber and performs a spinning slash around him with quick speed (Okabe even does a fast flip to pull this move off). This move has slightly less range than his other saber moves, but still covers a great area with this attack, great as a panic button. Foes hit by the weapon take 7% damage with pretty poor knockback, though this move becomes more dangerous after shattering the sword, naturally.
FORWARD AERIAL SOARING EAGLE SLASH
Okabe pulls out the Cyalume Saber and performs a downwards slash in front of him, covering about a 60 degree range straight ahead. This has pretty good startup and ending, but suffers particularly bad landing lag. Foes hit by this take 9% damage with good knockback, KOing around 120%, before the weapon is broken.
UP AERIAL FUTURE GADGET #2 - BAMBOO-COPTER CAMERA
Okabe quickly pulls out yet another Future Gadget, the Bamboo-copter Camera, and spins it between both his palms. Like Mega Man's UAir, the Bamboo-copter will spiral up into the air above Okabe, but unlike Mega Man's it neither carries foes up or leaves the screen. The Copter itself is small, about the size of one Pikmin, and will launch upwards three grids at high speed before slowly descending diagonally downwards. The initial part of the attack deals a weak 4% damage with just some hitstun, while the descending portion simply has no hitbox. The Bamboo-copter will disappear after it hits the stage or is struck.
BACK AERIAL FATE DEFYING BLOW
Similar to Shulk, Kyouma takes his Cyalume Saber and twists half way around, stabbing it behind him. Unlike most of his sword moves, this is pretty slow all around, on start up, ending, and landing lag, which leaves him pretty open. The actual attack itself deals 10% and can KO from 110% unbroken, however, which does give it a bit of strength to back up its faults especially with a broken sword.
DOWN AERIAL IBN 5100
Kyouma pulls out the IBN 5100, an ancient computer not only essential for unlocking the path to Steins;Gate but also incredibly heavy! With a good amount of startup, Okabe hurls the half-a-grid sized computer down under him. This moves at a fairly slow pace for a projectile, which allows Okabe to pass it in the air after a fast fall. Foes hit by the clunky computer take a pretty great 12% damage and high knockback, allowing KOs around 95%. The IBN will linger after hitting the stage, after which any character can pick it up and throw it as if it were a crate, but will vanish after five seconds or if another is made. These are rare, after all!
EVEN IN THE AIR, DOMAIN OF THE GODS, HOUOUIN KYOUMA STILL REIGNS AS SUPREME RULER OF THE UNIVERSE!
GRAB GAME
Kyouma performs a simple grab forward, given decent range due to his long arms. After grabbed, Okabe spins the opponent around and holds them hostage while shoving the Bit Particle Cannon into their back. Each pummel comes out slow, but deals 2.5% damage on the first pummel as the mad scientist shoots the foe directly into their back.
FORWARD THROW TAKE DOWN
Kyouma grabs the back of the opponent's head (if applicable) and forcefully throws them towards the ground in front of him. Upon hitting the stage, foes will take 7% damage as they're slammed against the ground, lacking KO knockback. On low percentages, this throw can allow follow-ups from moves like DSmash.
UP THROW PULL!
Taking a lesson from his sci-fi animal heroes, Okabe throws the opponent above himself for 3% damage as he points the Particle Cannon above him. He then fires a single shot from the gun which will deal 5% more damage if it hits. Because the projectile moves so slowly, this only combos into itself at very low percentages, but the projectile will keep traveling anyways, allowing it to catch foes later on or be grabbed by the Phonewave.
BACK THROW SMACK DOWN
Kyomua throws the foe on the stage behind him, bouncing them off the ground for 2% damage. Okabe then swings the Cyalume Saber like a golf club, smacking foes for a further 5% damage with surprisingly good knockback, allowing KOs around 130% damage. More so than other sword-based moves, the broken Cyalume Saber hinders this greatly as the lowered range will only land the second hit at very low percentages.
DOWN THROW EXCALIBUR REVERSAL
Okabe drops the foe on the stage prone and lifts the Cyalume Saber above them with both hands. Okabe then stabs the weapon straight into their body, dealing a decent 6% damage as he does so. Okabe then draws the blade with great force from the foe's body, dealing okay horizontal knockback that can KO around 150%. This, of course, becomes more grisly with the shattered Cyalume Saber.
EVEN A MAD SCIENTIST MUST GET HIS HANDS DIRTY SOMETIMES, AND THOSE WHO TANGLE WITH THE ORGANIZATION ARE BOUND TO GET DIRTY!
FINAL SMASH THE ORGANIZATION
After this is activated, Kyouma finds himself in possession of the IBN 5100 once more, though he has a panicked look on his face. Kyouma gains invulnerability and must make contact with a foe within three seconds, otherwise the move will simply end as the computer warps out of existence. If Kyouma can make contact with a foe, a cutscene will activate, as Okabe thrusts the computer onto their person and dashes away, happening on a nighttime rooftop. As the target wonders what they should do with this relic, an attack helicopter buzzes into sight and opens fire on the opponent. The foe takes 45% damage from this assault (30% metered). Afterwards...
...A time machine materializes on top of the opponent! This crushes them, dealing impressive knockback that KOs from 60% damage (85% metered). Afterwards, the machine vanishes from existence and the battle continues.
TO ALL THOSE WHO DOUBTED ME, SEE WITH YOUR EYES! THE ORGANIZATION DRAWS NEAR, PULLED BY THE IRRESISTIBLE ALLURE OF THE FUTURE GADGET LAB'S FINDINGS!
FLAVOR
Entrance: Okabe walks nonchalantly onto the stage while checking his phone. Suddenly, he looks as though he were hit hard before looking around the stage frantically and getting ready to fightl Boxing Ring Title: Future Gadget Lab Founder Up Taunt: Kyouma pulls the same pose from the start of the set, laughing maniacally as he does so. Side Taunt: Kyouma whips out a bottle of Dk Pepper, chugging it all down before wiping his face with his sleeve. Down Taunt: This. Victory Pose A: The camera focuses on Okabe's phone screen as he texts with incredible speed. Okabe smashes the send button with vigor as the camera pans to his smirk. Victory Pose B: Kyouma is shown hunched over, as if sad, though a low laugh can be heard. This increases in madness as Kyouma lifts his head and stretches his hands above him. Victory Pose C: Okabe stands in front of the Phonewave as it seems to be cooking something. As he opens it, the camera pans to reveal it is empty as Okabe gasps with shock. Losing Pose: Okabe laughs in a surprisingly polite manner. Victory Theme: 0:54 - 1:01 of Hacking to the Gate
DECEIVE YOUR OTHER SELF. DECEIVE THE WORLD. THAT IS WHAT YOU MUCH DO TO REACH THE STEINS;GATE. GOOD LUCK.
Another XC2 character even though everyone in the chat hates that game, interesting. I certainly appreciate more Xenoblade stuff, no matter which game it comes from, and the Affinity system has a very strong base as a smash concept, which I see you've used here. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start the moveset. I'm new to this whole comment thing so as before, I'm just going to list what I find interesting, be it good bad or hard to understand.
So, first off, I believe what you refer to as gridsquares are grids. I'm not 100% sure on that, but those in chat seemed to be in agreement and you confirmed that you meant the larger training mode stage blocks. That's good, I feel that's a pretty fair distance, but Affinity diminishes too quickly once you leave that 3 grid space (1% a frame means spending even a second away from Brigihd means you've lost more than half a full tank of affinity.) Also, uses for Affinity besides the minor buff you get for having it at 100% aren't mentioned in this dedicated section, which seems odd. One final thing to bring up here is that while its mentioned in S-Spec that Affinity Range increases with each special performed, stuff like that, I feel, should be mentioned in the Affinity section.
Side Spec is alright, I feel like damage that only does 10% isn't exactly frightening, but that's simply a nitpick to a pretty cool move. A hybrid frame trap/combo starter move is very interesting, especially considering you don't even have to be the one performing it, Brighid can. The aerial version also fits and makes sense, I can see Morag mains performing some sick edge guards with it.
An issue I have with Up Spec though, is if you use the grounded variant you don't actually GO anywhere, despite the secondary trap effect mentioning the flames always trail your movement during the move. It also goes almost nowhere, less than even Belmont's U-Spec, can you combine the Brighid version with your side spec? Also, I feel as if these specials are quite weak in terms of damage, I'd buff them all at least 3% even though the kill percents seem entirely fine.
D-Spec is where I got confused and… you seemed to as well, at least in the chat. Over all things need to be better explained and less wrapped into the move explanation when talking about mechanics unique to Morag. Sharing you sword with Brighid forces both of you to perform the move, while passing both swords just makes Brighid do it. This is only explained in the latter half of one move, and is kind of hard to parse at that. I'd make a third paragraph in affinity that explains these concepts, as well as what a "Blade Special" is instead of leaving it for after the final Special input. Speaking of the final special input, it's okay. A bit generic but this character doesn't seem to have too expansive of a powerset. Onto the Blade Specials.
Before I get into any specifically, is there any HUD gauge that shows us when or which Blade Special is in stock? It's never mentioned, but I really do feel there should be one, especially since Affinity is shown without needing any kind of HUD element freeing up that space for you Blade Special gauge. Also, I know there's no eloquent way to do this, and it isn't even completely accurate to the games, but I feel as if there should be some way to allow yourself to use the Level 1 again after passing it in the "1, 2, 3" rotation. I won't dock points for it because I have no idea how to do so myself, but if you somehow edit that in gracefully, I'll up whatever vote I'm going to give this to a Plus.
Blade-Spec 1 already seems massively overpowered. I know you won't always get the 25%, but covering 5 grids in a hitbox that can kill at 85% as a reward for hitting ONE special is massive overkill. It's even better considering you can still move and attack during this and even shove the opponent INTO the massive killbox. Specials don't seem particularly hard to hit with if you give Brighid both blades and play around her a little bit since most of the Specials have quite large hitboxes (D-Spec not included, I feel that move honestly just kinda sucks). Maybe that was the intention given how weak Specials are on the damage side but that just seems like poor balancing.
Will O' Wisp seems so much weaker than Heat Haze; Iit covers the same general area and, while it will probably do more damage, doesn't kill at 85% like Blade-Spec 1. Seriously, please nerf that. Finally, Blade-Spec level 3 is just Omnislash, which is fine in terms of flavor and stuff. 6 Specials that you kinda have to work on getting is a fair price but with how much insane power you get for it (you need to hit the opponent twice, and then hit them with this and then they're dead, guaranteed) is maybe too generous? Like maybe really too generous?
Forward Smash, both variants, seem exceedingly useless. Armed is an INCREDIBLY laggy attack that you're trapped in for literal seconds with your reward being a kill option that will never, ever hit considering you can't use Brighid to even combo into it. Unarmed, even if it's fully charged it deals 12.5%. Thats a full second of charging at least, for just 12.5%. Just make that move an F-Tilt, please.
Up Smash, on the other hand, is quite good. While I find it a bit odd that every single attack up to this point has had a sweetspot, Up Smash works. It's a great-ranged move with good damage when sweetspotted and decent stuff even when it doesn't. Up Smash unarmed is also functional, but weak, while not being literally unusable like the F Smash. Same with D-Smash, but a 6 grid wide hitbox is a bit much, even if it's very low to the ground.
Onto Tilts. Jab seems fine (though it's kind of hard to tell if it's a rapid jab) and Unarmed Jab also seems relatively fine, though I fail to see how a moving that does no real knockback is good for 'positioning' (maybe you meant holding the opponent in one place? If so, Grab works much better for that right?) Also I'm really not sure how the other 2 strikes after Jab work, do you let go of A to do that? Or are the first rapid hits done by hitting A rapidly and you have to like, wait for the endlag of the punches before hitting A again to start the next two strikes? Clarifying stuff like that is important as it helps a person imagine really playing as the character more fully.
F-Tilt is alright, nothing to write home about on either front there. Honestly a major issue I see in this set is how every move Morag has besides her smashes and the Blade Specials is just so damn weak. Having massive range but weak hits can work, but it's tweaked way to hard to the range side here so everything feels simultaneously weak and ineffectual, but way to big. U-Tilt and D-Tilt are way too laggy for how little damage they do, and the long endlag makes it sound like the long hitstun is almost entirely neutral on hit. Really, skimming through the rest of the set, that's my issue. It's just balanced in an extreme way I can't get behind. One final note I will make though, I appreciate how Brighid can grab, but doesn't have a full set of grabs to make her overly complex.
Katapultar
Hidan's the first of two blood-bending sets on the opening page, and he does it in a surprisingly different yet still great way from Ulrich. The main star of the set is the blood circle from DSpec, which is a cool concept just on its own of allowing Hidan to share his damage with the foe's. Not only is this great for making up for a lot of Hidan's low damage attacks throughout the set, but is a pretty unique yet consistent way of dealing damage for a fighter. Naturally, most of Hidan's moves revolve around staying within the circle, encompassed with moves like the dash attack, forward throw, and the Reaper's Chain allowing him to pretty safely find a way back to his circle. The balance of the lengthy set up of the circle but fairly generous lingering time after he leaves is pretty good, and the set of course lends itself to a lot of self-damage attacks to inflict on cursed opponents. Given that most of these inflict knockback (including a great concept for recovery that also ended up used for Alolan Golem serendipitously), this makes it more of a thing to stay within the circle, rather than just standing in place and whittling away the foe's health from a distance.
There's also just a general good understanding of gameplay which leads to a lot of synergy in the set that's cool to think about. Chasing down a SSpec with a dashing grab is fun, and coupled with some worthwhile throws that have important effects within the set, as with the aforementioned FThrow. The addition of being able to stab foes with the lingering scythe isn't just a random lucky effect either, giving that the SSpec which can lead into the grab nicely has the lingering hitbox already out, making an effective combo on a correct read. Other situations are well thought out, like the encouragement of landing aerials in Hidan's circle in order to deal damage to the opponent indirectly. This in particular seems pretty powerful given the greater range of aerials compared to grounded moves in terms of getting to the circle.
While I really like the playstyle, I think there is some inherent issues with having a fairly hard to set up 'base' where Hidan wants to remain. Given how much of his set revolves around staying in the circle and taking damage there, its difficult to imagine the gameplay really amping past this 'stay in one place' mentality, which is a shame because Hidan has some cool moves that seem like they would be fun on approaches. I think a change that could be made would be for the circle of blood to remain on the stage until KO'd or something similar, rather than a five second timer, because it would be less restrictive to how Hidan plays. Otherwise, the set takes a cool concept of self-damage and ties it up with a very extravagant and amusing Final Smash, though the set might encourage a campy playstyle that it doesn't necessitate.
4.0 / 5.0
Rychu
Wrecking Ball is a set with a lot of cool concepts that unfortunately struggle to meld well together. The main trait of Wrecking Ball is his ability to swap between walking form and ball form, which trades the majority of Wrecking Ball's attacks for much better speed. I think this is workable on its own, but having Hammond only switch on certain attacks can be problematic, and adding a Shield Special would help alleviate and allow him to switch more freely. The Specials themselves are pretty cool and actually do form a really solid playstyle, with Hammond wanting to get in close and fast with his foes despite his size. Grappling Hook is handled well, Adaptive Shield makes him pretty durable, and the Proximity Mine has an essential role with Wrecking Ball's mobility and range control. Piledriver actually makes itself pretty convincing as a Special instead of a DAir, with the set knockback up being very useful for the perceived playstyle up to this point. I like Wrecking Ball pretty well up through the Specials.
Unfortunately, going into the melee oriented portion of the set, Wrecking Ball seems horribly underpowered. Most of his moves in the standards and aerials consist of either relatively weak melee hits or very weak projectile attacks from his machine guns. These aren't entirely useless, since a big part of Hammond's gameplay is getting close to foes and keeping them close, but when all of his attacks outside his Smashes are designed around keeping the foes close it becomes very limited on how Wrecking Ball can handle securing kills. He has his Smashes and his Grappling Hook, but outside of that Hammond relies on dealing damage in small doses. In addtion to the power issue, having Wrecking Ball add 12 frames of starting lag to any move where he's transitioning out of his ball form means he's going to have a difficult time actually following up his main approach with Grappling Hook. All in all, the basis of the set and the concept behind the playstyle is pretty cool, but the actual execution leaves Wrecking Ball very vulnerable with little firepower.
2.5 / 5.0
Bionichute
The Black Knight is probably one of the more fun sets I can remember in recent just in terms of both ambition and concept. Unfortunately a Real Life Pinball character gets out-ridiculoused by the entire planet of Jupiter, but it really is a neat set. The Black Knight is a really fun take on a projectile character who's got pretty solid standards and a desire to keep his projectiles alive. Unlike a lot of ways of doing a set like this, I'm very impressed by the minimalism of Black Knight's setup. The Black Knight gets a lot of mileage out of three hard stage setups; the clones, drawbridge, and the balls themselves. Especially for a retro pinball set, it would be very easy to fall into leaving a ton of stage constructions around as inputs, with flippers, barricades, and bumpers. Instead the Black Knight fills those positions very nicely with his own moveset, which gives great synergy because Black Knight can essentially "attack" his projectiles just like he would an opponent. The gameplay is very not disruptive in a way I wouldn't expect from a character like this. The relative simplicity compliments the fun animations the Black Knight has, and the mechanics of the set seem really fun to play around and even against.
There are a few issues within the set, including most prominently the lackluster grab game. Of course, it's a grab game for a character who doesn't have great grabbing abilities, but some more direct interactions between the foe and the Electro-Balls might have helped flesh it out a bit. On a different note, Magna-Save seems incredibly powerful, pulling up to three fast hitboxes at long range with potentially lethal power straight towards him. I'm not sure the best solution to this, since Magna-Save has a very important role in the set that couldn't really be removed, but perhaps deactivating the hitboxes, or otherwise dampening them in some way, could do that. As one more nitpicky thing, the set lists Black Knight as having two Down Specials, whereas I think that Drawbridge is supposed to be on Side Special.
Jupiter is a set that gleefully rides on the novelty of its character choice, and that is not a bad thing at all! Your writing doesn't address the inherent absurdity of an entire planet entering Smash as a combatant, and honestly that adds to the underlying humor to me. Beyond the character choice, you've got some simple, but flexible, mechanics that come together in a nice package that really befits the idea of controlling a celestial body that decided to crack some skulls in Smash. The Ring System is a very nice passive mechanic that can become active at a moment's notice, making it a neat key point in any match involving Jupiter; everyone present would be wise to keep an eye focused on that asteroid ring! Capture is probably my favorite of the specials; it's a neat take on the Pocket move, and the way it ties into Jupiter's Smashes makes it just flexible enough to be even scarier than Pocket itself. Asteroid Shot is simple at a glance, but you've clearly got some interesting mechanics under the surface here; the gravity assist mechanic is really cool, and I appreciate the illustration that summarizes it. With a partner that can manipulate projectiles, I feel like Jupiter could make this humble projectile something nightmarish! The recovery is interesting as well, using Jupiter's physical mass as a fuel gauge, but in this move lies my sole complaint with the set: the dynamic of shrinking Jupiter's body isn't addressed any more after Up Special! Granted, said dynamic is simple and well-explained, but it could be interesting to have some descriptions of how certain moves' uses change with tiny Jupiter; for example, is it possible for the planet's tilts to knock people into its rings, now that there's a gap between its surface and the belt? Beyond the specials, the rest of the set is straightforward, but enjoyable. Jupiter's animations are all handled very well, and actually lend a strange amount of character to the inanimate planet! All in all, excellent work, bubbyboytoo
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Y'know, Simon Spelled Backwards Is "Nomis", Which Seems Pretty Ironic Given How Spammy He Can Be 7/10
Alucard does a fairly good job representing the famed dhampyr's SotN appearance, with his stats and animations lovingly ported over for the most part. There's not really a ton to say here, really, because the set is very straightforward and In-Smash barring arguably the Down Special. Not to say that's a bad thing! I could very easily see this Alucard in a canon Smash title. You've done a very nice job making sure the moves are explained well, with one exception: Down Special leaves a lot of questions unanswered regarding how the familiars work. The base is there, but there are some vagueries that make it a bit difficult to sniff out exactly how the balance is here. Thankfully, that's my only real major complaint here. Alucard is otherwise very solid, if simple and very straightforward. Nice work, KafkaKomedy
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Serious Monlight
(Rating withheld until the end)
First of all, I want to congratulate you again for getting this set out, JamietheAuraUser
. I know it was a long process, and I admire your sheer tenacity in finishing Sylvia. I also want to say that this set was worth every bit of your hard work: Sylvia is a fantastic set, and my personal favorite of MYM21 so far! From the outset, you do an amazing job of balancing very detailed technical descriptions and very clear-cut characterization, and both of these trends continue through the entire set. Your writing style is masterful, leaving me with absolutely no doubts as to how even a single element of Sylvia works. Even the most mundane inputs have very clear uses in Sylvia's gameplan, and she, to me, appears to be the apex of the MYM Grappler genre. Every single command grab has a different use, and even her least useful throw still has a purpose. Sylvia as a set is a well-oiled machine, every move working as another piece in the overall picture to create a simply immaculate package. Bottom line, if you have any intentions of voting this contest, you owe it to yourself to read Sylvia. You would be missing a true treasure if you don't.
Finally, I reappear from the gravemy basement procrastination with a moveset!
^ Click the image to go to the moveset.
Continuing the unreasonable OC invasion we have going on here, here's a Sylveon + Kirlia fusionmon I guess.
Jergingha is the main villain of The Wonderful 101 and is the main mind behind the Guild of Evil Aliens Terrorizing Humans with Jiggawatt bombs, Energy beams, Ray guns, and Killer lasers (GEATHJERK). He is only referenced halfway through the game, and like a proper Super Sentai villain, the heroes never encounter him until the absolute end. He starts off as a massive brain in a tube, controlling the entire GEATHJERK mothership by himself. He then dons his own version of the Wonderful Ones’ Wonder-Mask and proceeds to use their own powers against them, becoming Wonder-Jergingha.
Once his brain is destroyed, you would assume that all is over… but instead, Jergingha pulls a Unicron, revealing that his true body is the entirety of the mothership, and transforming into his final Planet Destruction mode. This form is larger than the moon and heavier than any known object but is still incredibly mobile and incredibly dangerous.
In actuality, Jergingha was a supercomputer created by the mechanical GEATHJERK society (presumably the acronym came later), intended to keep the peace of the galaxy. However, that came to an end when the Greater Galactic Coalition appeared. Led by one-hundred demons from the planet Chi-Q, they ravaged the GEATHJERK, and with him out of the way they moved on to conquering the rest of the universe, plunging it into an age of darkness.
Jergingha, however, had a subroutine in his system, he Space History Revision Project, that allowed him to travel back in time. He slowly gathered the forces of the new GEATHJERK and destroyed the planets of every member of the GGC before they could form. Now only one remained: Planet Earth.
You can watch his epic boss fight Here and listen to his epic theme Here, or in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
GEATH-Stats
Weight – 135
Walk Speed – 0.8
Run Speed – 1.7
Air Speed – 1.1
Fall Speed – 1.8
Jergingha joins the fight in his Planetary Destruction form, which is the single largest character in Ultimate’s cast, as shown in the above image. Unlike the image, Jergingha stands with his arms crossed, body or back pointing towards the screen depending on the direction, and he floats slightly above the stage. His size may be imposing, but that’s the least of it.
As one might expect, Jergingha is insanely heavy, as heavy as Bowser. Also, as one might expect, Jergingha isn’t exactly that fast on his feet, even while floating in the air. He walks at a gingerly pace, still with his arms crossed. His run has him uncrossing his arms, and is much faster than his walk, though far less intimidating. His air speed is better than one would expect, and his fall speed is very high, allowing him to crash to Earth with no issues, as long as the Wonderful Ones don’t get in the way.
His jump is average, able to reach 4 Blocks high with his first, but only a rather terrible 2.5 Blocks on his second. He does have the ability to float, much like Peach does, where he moves at his walk speed. This isn’t incredibly necessary when he already has a very good recovery move, but that’s for later. It just looks cool.
Jergingha also comes with a special gimmick, though not a unique one. During some moves, Jergingha is protected from attacks by projecting a barrier. This works exactly like K. Rool’s belly armor, but with the added catch of these ones being far more difficult to spot than K. Rool’s, as they aren’t directly attached to a big, fat part of his body. When the barrier is broken, it will put Jergingha into shield break stun, which acts like K. Rool’s special shield break stun as well.
GEATH-Specials Neutral Special – Blackhole
Jergingha somewhat slowly slams his palms together in front of himself, before pulling them apart. Energy will course between his hands, which creates a black hole between them, which very quickly begins to gather rubble. This attack is multiple things all at once, the first being a move with a suction effect. It isn’t a very large area that it covers, roughly a 2x3 area of Blocks on all four sides of him, with a diagonal block between each of the areas, though it will only actually hit if the opponent is in front of Jergingha.
However, despite this suction effect, an opponent will surprisingly NOT be sucked in. They will instead take 6% damage and be flung back with heavy hitstun. Odd thing for a black hole to do. However, the suction effect has the unique property of also being able to trap items, props and minions – including KOable Assist Trophies, anything with either a timer or a hitbox. The suction effects these things experience is exactly the same as a normal suction effect on a character, though obviously AI minions are much stupider than players, and items are just simply pulled in without any efforts.
Now, what happens when something gets trapped? Simple, Jergingha will create a special pink forcefield around them, branded with the GEATHJERK logo. This bubble will then move to the middle of the stage and remain there for the next 15 seconds. This completely immobilizes the object captured, functionally removing them from battle for an unreasonably long amount of time. Jergingha can actually trap multiple things in there, as many objects as he collects while the button is held down. This can easily clear out the stage and is especially good against prop or minion heavy characters. This, obviously, does not apply to any of Jergingha’s associated minions/props.
There are two upsides for the opponent, however. The first is that, if the object collected has a timer, it will pause where it was before being captured, letting them resume once freed. The second is that the opponent can break the forcefield, as it’s a rather large circular hitbox (A circumference of 2 blocks), and only has 30% HP. This can be a pain to deal with, as Jergingha will most likely be after you during all this. Also, since the items/minions are still technically in gameplay, if you’ve hit a limit you will not be able to create any more. Jergingha can straight up absorb the number of items that can be on stage at once. It just all fits in that orb.
As a final note, don’t think about punishing this, as the animation for Jergingha creating the orb prison is both very short (He’s able to move the moment the orb starts to move towards the center, the creation itself takes less than half a second) AND he’s granted his super armor during it. In short, you’ll be on the end of pain if you attempt to prevent him from creating the orb.
We’re only just getting started with this move, however, as it has a second functionality. Its also a chargeable projectile, only usable if Jergingha doesn’t collect anything while using the blackhole. On release, Jergingha will use the aesthetic rubble he has been collecting to form a large asteroid that glows with a purple energy. He’ll then toss it forward as a projectile. The size and strength of this asteroid depends on how long the attack was held, with the maximum charge being at 7 seconds. The sizes of the asteroid are equal to around the sizes of Samus’ charge shot.
The asteroid itself is fast at any size, and will deal between 8-15% damage, with knockback that can KO in the mid-100%s. No matter the size, it will travel 10 Blocks before (cosmetically) exploding. It’s a rather simple projectile, but a very powerful one. Even more when you consider that Jergingha can add onto the thing.
See, the blackhole can also absorb projectiles. This won’t trap them like minions/items (Only projectiles exempt from this are ones that act like items once fired, like R.O.B.’s gyromite), but it will instead add it to the asteroid. Each projectile collected will grant it 1.5% damage onto the charge of the asteroid when thrown, capping out at 5 projectiles collected and a total damage of 25% added. Jergingha can still collect as many projectiles as he pleases, however. The collected projectiles will also not add anything to the size of the asteroid.
Despite all this, the attack doesn’t work as a reflect or shield primarily well. The main issue is that it has some slow start-up, taking roughly the amount of time it takes Samus to fire her SSpec just to start it. In addition to that, once inputted you have to wait a third of a second before it finishes, and if you didn’t collect any items or minions, you’ll be locked into the asteroid toss, which has more mediocre than bad endlag, but is still unfortunate. Jergingha’s super armor is only active in this move during the orb creation animation, leaving him fairly open during most of it.
This attack is mainly two things. One, it’s a heavy projectile attack that can nullify other projectiles, and two, it’s a trap specifically to inconvenience prop-heavy characters. The asteroid has its obvious uses, and Jergingha’s slow speed and large frame can leave him particularly open to a lot of things spammy characters enjoy doing, making the orb prison a very tempting attack on those Voregis and other minion filled sets.
Its slow speed might seem like it makes the move simply not worth using, but that isn’t the case, as you’ll soon see why.
Up Special – GEATH-Claw: Reality Tear
Jergingha quickly looks upwards as his arms gain a white glow and transform into three pronged claws. He then leaps upwards and impales his claws on the air above him. This will rip open a purple portal in space and time, which he will vanish into. After a short while, another portal will appear 7 Blocks away from where the original was torn open (it can be aimed in any of the 8 directions), and Jergingha will leap out of it with a slashing strike of his claws.
First, the opening of the move. Jergingha’s initial leap (Only present when grounded) will boost him up 1 Block high, though the portal will be created 3.5 Blocks from where he was originally standing. The claws cover the rest of the distance, obviously, though remain slightly shorter outside of this. When used in the air, the opening animation will move Jergingha down a bit before he starts to open the portal.
Anyway, the claws here act as a hitbox, reaching out to Jergingha’s sides after the portal is created. This is a very fast attack, but this speed and the hitbox’s awkward placement makes it tough to hit with. The hitbox hits a full Block on either side of Jergingha, as well as a bit in the Block below that and acts as an effective swatting attack for getting opponents away, the tail end of the hitbox even having diagonal knockback. Here, the claws will deal 8% damage, but have low knockback potential on or above the stage.
The second part of the attack is Jergingha actually going through the portal. The portal itself takes up the exact distance of 2 Blocks, allowing him to squeeze through it completely. Once Jegringha has entered, the portal will vanish, and remain vanished for the next third of a second, before another portal will appear. The area this portal is created in is chosen by the player, as inputting any direction during the down time will cause it to be created in that direction. The portal will be created exactly 7 Blocks from it originally was.
However, something to note is how the portal is created. Only the up and down inputs will cause the portal to appear horizontal, allowing Jergingha to recover up or down. Any other direction, including diagonals, will cause the portal to be created vertically, allowing for a sideways recovery. This gives him six points where he can use a sideways recovery, and a damn good one at that.
This leads up into the final part of the move, the final slash as Jergingha exits the portal. Upon exit, Jergingha will fly an extra two Blocks forward as he slashes with his claws. The claws are, obviously, the main hitbox of the move, slashing in an arc and reaching out an extra Block, dealing 13% damage and decent knockback. The animation of the slash changes depending on the direction inputted, but always acts the same, with the one change of hitting both sides for the up and down inputs, as Jergingha will use both claws there. In the air, the sideways strikes will suspend Jergingha in the air as he performs the slash, then make him enter special fall.
This functions similarly to a general teleport special, and has the same physics as well, as Jergingha cannot create a portal through solid ground, meaning that in some cases the first thing he’ll be met with is the bottom of Battlefield. However, the portal will always give enough clearance for Jergingha’s full model to appear before hitting something solid. For example, if the attack is used on the ground and the down input is used, the portal will appear exactly where it was originally created, causing Jergingha to almost instantly enter ending lag upon exiting.
Lag wise, the opening of the move is very fast, taking less than half a second, but the last part is a bit odder. The portal will be created and remain open for 10 frames before Jergingha leaps out to attack. He’s invincible during this period, but it makes it very laggy. On top of this, the endlag of the final slash (Whether it be on the ground, landing lag, or even air lag) is mediocre at best, and can potentially be punished if it misses its initial hit.
This is a great recovery for such a heavy character, as it gives him a lot of space to recover, only complimented by his large body. However, it comes with the downsides of most teleport recoveries in that, if the opponent knows it, it can very easily be countered, and its also very imprecise if you’re aiming for specific spots like a ledge. Using Jergingha’s float to position yourself before use is highly recommended.
Side Special – Apocalypse Impact
In a move similar to Ganondorf’s SSpec, Jergingha dashes forward with his hand outstretched, after a bit of windup. Jergingha will gain a meteor-esque circle of flame around him, though this has no effect on the actual attack and is purely cosmetic. Jergingha’s large hand is the hitbox of the attack, much like with Ganon, but it has far more range to it thanks to it being much larger.
On contact with Jergingha’s hand, he will grab onto the opponent and lift them up, also similar to Ganondorf. However, instead of choking them, Jergingha will let out a metallic laugh and fire two red eyebeams at them. This will deal 18% damage, with knockback that sends the opponent flying forward and being able to KO in the early 100%s. Jergingha will then enter a brief endlag animation after this.
While Ganondorf’s SSpec’s hitbox only lasts for 4 Blocks of travel, pushing him forward an extra block, Jergingha’s dash moves him forward 5.5 Blocks forward with an extra block of reach thanks to his huge hands. The dash itself is faster than Ganon’s by a bit. In exchange for this extra dash distance and speed, the endlag is a bit worse than Ganon’s dash. The start-up of the move is also slower than Ganondorf’s as well, giving it otherwise the same utilities as Ganondorf’s attack, but with some extra downsides.
One thing it cannot do, however, is help recover… sort of. When the attack is used in the air, as implied by the name of the move, Jergingha will instead dash downwards at a diagonal angle. This is now very similar to Incineroar’s USpec, except you can control when you want to suicide dive. It behaves almost exactly the same, but in an inverse of the ground dash, moves slightly slower. Not too much slower, as it still lasts a very short time. The move changes the functions in the air a bit, instead turning it into a hitbox, like Incineroar’s.
This will hit opponents at a slightly upwards and forwards direction, dealing 22% damage and KOing at 90-95%. Jergingha will also have his superarmor active during the entire move, which can be both an upside and a downside, for reasons that should be probably pretty obvious if you’ve ever played Incineroar. This has around the same trajectory, only now traveling 8 Blocks before entering special fall. So yes, while this could be used to help recover, but it isn’t a very useful one compared to Jergingha’s actual recovery.
Finally, instead of bouncing off of the ground like Incineroar, it will instead cause a “small” explosion around Jergingha’s body as he impacts, with him mimicking a superhero landing. The explosion will cover a circumference of 0.5 Blocks around him and will deal 7% damage to anyone within the range, though it has very minor knockback.
Down Special – Guardian Tentacle
Jergingha curls into a ball for a moment, before thrusting his limbs out and letting out a roar. As he does this, a large tentacle will burst from his back. The tentacle will be tipped with one of four different ends, chosen based on a directional input during the starting animation. Before we get to what this entails, the details on the start-up animation itself. Its fairly slow, mostly to give the player enough time to input a direction. Jergingha is unfortunately vulnerable during this time. The roaring part of the animation acts as a pseudo-hitbox that will knock opponents away but deals no damage. Jergingha will also have his superarmor active during this animation, but only during this one part.
So, the tentacle, taken from the first phase of his fight, has multiple different tips that it can be summoned with. These consist of a chainsaw (no input), a mace (Down), a tesla coil-esque gun (Side), and the head of Diekuu Ohrowchee (Up). Each head acts differently, but they all have a very similar thing in common: None of them are controlled by the player.
The tentacle acts independently from the player controlled Jergingha, doing its best to protect him. The tentacles will curl up into an S-shaped position once the initial creation, meaning that they don’t extend Jergingha’s hitbox by too much, only taking up 4 Blocks, two of which Jergingha is also taking space in. The tentacles have their own hurtbox as well, and a health bar as well, though fairly low at only 30%. This gives them the ability to protect Jergingha’s backside decently well, covering up one of Jergingha’s major weakspots.
In terms of AI, the tentacles will only attack every 3.5 seconds, and will quickly move from Jergingha’s back to his chest if they need to attack in the front, though this takes a few frames to pull off, and they will automatically move to the back again afterwards. In fact, each tentacle has one move that can be used in any of the 8 cardinal directions, giving them impressive range. Each tentacle behaves differently and has a unique set of attacks, complete with different situations they will use them in.
The chainsaw tentacle is a fairly basic melee unit, striking 2.5 Blocks forward. If it hits, the chainsaw will deal 4 hits of 3% to the opponent, ending with weak knockback that won’t KO until the late 100%s. The chainsaw will use this move the most, and mostly against opponents with low percents, as it can wrack up some decent damage early on. This move can reach in any of the 8 directions.
Its second attack has it slashing upwards (Reaching forward 2 Blocks, upwards 3 Blocks), which deals 8% damage and can knock opponents into the air, potentially killing them at 160%, or leaving them open for Jergingha’s aerial assault. The tentacle will use this on opponents at higher percents, making them more susceptible to KOs.
The mace tentacle’s main attack is a downwards strike that reaches forward 3.5 Blocks, but the hitbox only exists on the actual mace, which is attached to a string, which gives it the extra reach. The mace is large enough to nearly take up an entire Block on its own. It will deal a heavy 16%, with knockback that can KO near 135%. The tentacle will use this on opponents that are far away most of the time, but it is unfortunately fairly slow. It can be used in any of the 8 directions, but its slow speed prevents it from being as good as it could be.
The second attack has the tentacle spin the mace around, giving it a short distance of 0.5 Blocks but it covers the entirety of Jergingha’s backside. It has a quick start-up, and deals 9% damage with weak knockback, but can only be used while on Jergingha’s back, usually using it only when an opponent is using projectiles while behind Jergingha. The mace acts as a defensive option for Jergingha, specifically being used for ending set ups or simply as a defensive wall.
The lightning gun/tesla coil tentacle’s main attack is to simply shoot out a ball of electricity in the direction of the nearest opponent. This electric ball is fast and will travel 6 Blocks before it disappears, functionally acting similar to a mid charged Charge Shot. It deals 6% damage and light knockback. Unlike other tentacle attacks, this can be used twice in a row before the tentacle has to “recharge”. It can even switch directions for the second one! It will only use this on far away opponents, usually to counter other projectiles or spam out melee exclusive characters.
The second lighting attack has it firing a beam of electricity in a single direction. This takes up 3 entire Blocks and can be used in any direction. It will deal 8 hits of 3% over its lifespan, with the final hit dealing knockback that can KO at 120%. This is used on higher percent opponents as a major KO move. The lightning tentacle is mainly used for, as you might expect, ranged attacks, something that Jergingha lacks most of the time.
Finally, the tentacle armed with the head of the dreaded beast Diekuu Ohrowchee. Ohrowchee’s first attack has him snapping in the direction of an opponent that is nearby. This has 2.5 Blocks of reach to it, and is lighting fast, but only does 3% damage. Ohrowchee will use this attack three times in a row before recharge, always aiming towards the opponent with each snap. Ohrowchee will obviously use this when an opponent is in snapping range
Ohrowchee’s second attack has him shooting a large fireball in the direction of an opponent. The fireball is slower than the lightning orbs, but is also a bit larger, and deals 10% damage on contact with an opponent. The fireball will travel 10 Blocks before vanishing. The Ohrowchee tentacle will use this when the opponent is far away. Ohrowchee is the most versatile of the tentacles because of this but is worse at both melee and projectile attacks than the dedicated tentacles, making him a jack of all trades.
Finally, as an important note, the distances here are only calculated from Jergingha standing still. Jergingha can still move around while the tentacle is attacking, with the tentacle’s hitbox and animation still being performed, giving them even more versatility. The tentacles will also not be active during a handful of moves, specifically during Throws, and Jergingha’s USPec, where they will not act until the attack has fully completed. The tentacles are mainly here for projection during some of Jergingha’s slower attacks (foreshadowed by the NSpec), but they can easily boost a lot of Jergingha’s shortcomings as well.
GEATH-Standards Jab – GEATH-Hand: Meteor Combo
Jergingha performs a rather basic combo, a right hook, a left hook, and then a straight punch. The big difference between this Jab and others is how slow it is. The first two hits are about as slow as Dedede’s, each coming out at frame 10. This makes them about as difficult to use as Dedede’s jab as well, which is unfortunate. Both hits, however, will also deal 8% damage, though they have very little knockback and mainly combo into each other.
However, it’s the last hit that makes this a very unique jab. The straight punch is the slowest Jab hit in the game, taking until frame 18 to come out. However, it makes up for this in multiple aspects. The first is that this deals a ridiculous 15% damage, with knockback that can actually KO in the early 100%s, making it the most powerful jab in the game as well. The second is that Jergingha will have his superarmor up during the ending 10 frames of the start-up animation, making it far easier to hit with.
However, that ease is more difficult as the second hit will only combo in at high percents. When not at those percents, the third hit will mostly be used on its own. Finally, the range of the hits. The first two hits will reach forward 1 Block, while the straight will hit 1.5 Blocks forward, giving them excellent range for pure melee-based attacks. This is an incredible bruiser jab, one of the strongest in the game, but also one that requires a lot of skill to fully use.
Forward Tilt – GEATH-Whip: Lashing Out
Jergingha pulls his arm back as it gains a pinkish hue, he then lashes forward, his arm quickly transforming into a spiked ball tipped whip. The whip has a bit of start-up lag to it, but it comes out faster than some of Jergingha’s other attacks and is actually one of his faster start-ups… though that’s not saying anything really impressive. The whip reaches out decently far, 3 Blocks ahead of Jergingha, giving it some of the best range of his purely melee attacks.
The whip itself will deal a relatively standard 8% damage, with low knockback. However, this is only the hitbox for the whip itself, as the spiked ball has different properties. The spiked ball will deal 11% damage and decent knockback. but is active for less time than the rest of the whip, and only hits at the farthest point. It requires good timing to use. Finally, the whip has bad endlag to it, as Jergingha will pull his arm back as it turns back to normal. This can make it punishable on a whiff. This tilt, given its quick start up, can help with approach, and makes up for some of Jergingha’s lack of range.
Up Tilt – GEATH-Gun: Double Impact
Jergingha whips his arms upwards as they quickly transform into guns that resemble the Super Scope. He then fires two shots from both arms, which explode midair. First and foremost, Jergingha flicking his arms upwards acts as a weak but fast hitbox, dealing 4% damage and popping opponents into the air if it manages to hit. This has very little range to it, only stretching out 0.5 Blocks in front of him. While this is Jergingha’s fastest hitbox, it only lasts a short while and segues into the rest of the move.
The second part has Jergingha firing the two super scope guns, shooting out one bullet each which quickly explode 2 Blocks away from him and 4 Blocks above the ground. The bullets aren’t shot at the same time, rather they will be shot sequentially, with one coming out right before the other. The bullets themselves are a hitbox, but only prematurely create the final explosion hitbox upon contact with an opponent. The bullets are large-ish, but they’re fast enough for it to not really matter. The explosion is the part you want to hit with.
Each of the two explosions created by the bullets, one exploding before the other, covers about 1 Block of space, but the two explosions overlap, meaning that it only covers 2 Blocks of space diagonally. The explosions will deal a hefty 12% damage, and knockback that can kill at 130%. This is Jergingha’s strongest tilt, and the speed of the initial hit makes it very useful. Unfortunately, the attack also has bad endlag to it, meaning that a whiff can be punished easily.
Down Tilt – Missile Barrage
From his crouching position, which has Jergingha kneeling and placing one hand on the ground, the GEATHJERK Overlord will open up multiple sections of his body, revealing tons of missile pods that will then fire their entire artillery forward. This manifests as the missiles being extremely tiny, but still creating a large explosion in front of him. The pods opening has a very lengthy start-up period, one of the slowest of Jergingha’s tilts, but the missiles themselves fly out lightning fast, and the attack has very low endlag, with the FAF being shortly before the explosion’s VFX vanishes. During the start-up, Jergingha will gain superarmor until the missiles fire.
The explosion itself acts as a distended hitbox, the missiles simply being an aesthetic flair. The explosion itself is nearly as large as Jergingha is while crouching, which is to say still very large as crouching Jergingha still takes up just under 4 Blocks worth of space, which means it isn’t a very good crouch but that’s besides the point. The explosion will be created 1.5 Blocks ahead of Jergingha and is 1.5 Blocks tall and 1 Block wide.
The attack is powerful, though dealing less than UTilt or FTilt’s sweet spot at only 10% damage. However, it has the greatest launching power of any of them, being able to KO at 100%, with forward launching knockback. While this move is hard to hit during the start-up lag, hitting with it can be rewarding.
Dash Attack – GEATH-Sword: Wheel of Pain
As he dashes, Jergingha moves into a shoulder charge-type movement, as rubble begins to form around him. The rubble quickly forms into five blue-tinted swords that start to quickly circle around him. The animation of the attack is visually similar to the Belmont’s dashing attack, as one might expect. For the actual dashing part of this Dash Attack, Jergingha will move forward 3 Blocks automatically before stopping, but does not have a hitbox tied directly to his body.
The swords act as the actual hitbox for the move, and create, as the name might suggest, a wheel of pain around Jergingha. However, unlike with the Belmonts, the swords have ridiculous range thanks to how big Jergingha is. The swords will cover an area of 9 Blocks, aka a circle around Jergingha himself, with him in the middle, with the hitbox being active at all points during the move’s lifespan.
The attack has minor start-up, which results in the swords only being active for around 2.5 Blocks of travel out of the attack’s usual 3, but their size makes up for it. When hit by the attack, an opponent will take 5 hits of 2% damage, with the fifth hit dealing decent knockback. Once Jergingha stops, he will enter some hefty endlag as he returns to his usual floating position. This is one of the largest Dash Attacks in the game, if not the largest, which gives it a lot of potential utility, but it has relatively low damage to counteract it, but still makes it great for approaching.
Jergingha raises his arms above his head as they transform and combine into a single, large, yellow-tinted hammer. He then slams the hammer to the ground, which shortly causes a purple spire of flame to burst from the ground in front of where the hammer hit. As one might expect, this attack is slow, the slowest of Jergingha’s Smashes, but not the absolute slowest Smash in the game. Jergingha gains his superarmor as the hammer is being brought down, making the attack near impossible to stop.
The hammer is very large, reaching forward 2 Blocks ahead, taking up just over 1 of those blocks, and being 1.5 Blocks tall. Being so large and so slow, this means it does a heavy amount of damage, which ranges between 13-28% damage, with knockback that can KO well before 100%. The big downside is the starting lag, which is slow enough to make the attack very difficult to accurately hit with. On the other end, the endlag is relatively good, meaning that it can’t be punished easily.
Now, after all this is the purple flame spire, which only appears a few frames after the endlag animation starts. This spire is roughly 1 Block in size, and is 3.3 Blocks tall, making it a large potential wall. The spire will deal a set 11% damage with upwards, mediocre knockback, but it will linger for a few moments before it peters out. The flame will linger for well after Jergingha has regained control but won’t last long enough for him to make any real use out of it unless the opponent is really close by.
The spire helps increase the attack’s hit chance, with how slow the start-up is, granting it an extra block of distance, as well as the lingering effect. FSmash is a very powerful attack, and is the very obvious kill Smash of Jergingha’s set, making it very useful if you can manage to hit with it.
Up Smash – GEATH-Sword: Energy Discharge
Jergingha curls up as red electricity starts to spark throughout him, and as the five swords from his Dash Attack form together and quickly rotate around him. Once the charge is released, the swords flip inwards in front of Jergingha, as Jergingha unfurls himself, sending the electricity through the swords and launching it upwards as a massive orb of electricity above him. This is a very elaborate animation but takes less time to pull off than you’d expect, as it actually has a very short start-up period.
The start-up period also technically has a hitbox of its own, as when the charge is released the swords will perform one more rotation before flipping inwards that acts as a weak hitbox that deals 5% and knocks opponents upwards, directly into the electrical ball that is created only a few frames afterwards. As one might expect, this is a fast motion, and exists mainly to help knock grounded opponents into the main hitbox.
The main hitbox itself manifests as a large, red orb of electricity that takes up just over 4 Blocks worth of space, and even covers up a bit of Jergingha himself. This is a ridiculously large hitbox, and it will deal 10 hits of 1.5-2.5% damage, totalling to either 15% or 25% depending on the charge. The final hit deals the knockback, which launches trapped opponents upwards, and is capable of KOing at 165%, making it decent for KO usage, but not too amazing. It is an excellent damage causer, however, and its large hitbox means that it can very easily hit multiple opponents at once.
The attack’s endlag is fairly bad, unfortunately, as Jergingha will fall back to the ground as the swords crumble to rubble. He’ll then re-enter his idle stance. It’s got a very bad amount of endlag, some of the worst in the game, meaning that whiffing it can very easily lead to very bad punishes. In general, if you’re going for this, you want to make sure it absolutely, 100% hits.
Down Smash – GEATH-Bomb: Dead Zone
Jergingha turns to face the screen and holds both of his hands above his head. Both shift and combine into a large cartoon bomb with a slight purple tint to it. He then slams the bomb down to the ground, creating a large, red force field-style explosion, which quickly expands out and then stays on the stage for a few seconds. The initial downwards slam acts as one of the attack’s few hitboxes, dealing 14-23% damage based on charge, with decent knockback that can kill at 190%. This initial hit is good enough but isn’t all the move has to offer.
The explosion expands outwards, the size changing depending on how much the move was charged. At no charge, the field will only reach slightly past 2 Blocks on the ground and reaches 1.5 Blocks upwards. At maximum charge, the field will be just over 4 Blocks in width, and 3 Blocks tall, doubling its size from no charge. The explosion is an active hitbox as it expands out, dealing 10% damage and decent knockback with heavy hitstun.
While the endlag of the move is the same no matter how much you charge it, it feels different depending on your charge. The endlag will always end as soon as the minimum charge version of the explosion is finished being created, which is some pretty hefty endlag, but is nearly impregnable due to the explosion traveling fast. With this endlag, it can make the charged version feel faster than it is, even though it is always the same.
Once the explosion has been created, the explosion will remain on stage for a while. Here, it will deal the same amount of damage and knockback when touched. This functionally creates a dead zone on the stage, where no one but Jergingha can enter. This allows him to section off the stage as he wishes, though only one can be created at a time. Attempting to use the attack while a field is already out will simply result in the slam, with all of the endlag and such still attached. The field will only last 3 seconds before it vanishes, not including the time it takes to fully expand.
This can be used for effective edgeguarding in some cases, but the attack has some high starting lag. This prevents it from any real quick usage, and its 3 second timer is sometimes not enough to really help with mind games. The attack is mostly to be used as a special wall to help bounce opponents off of and continue combos. Its best use is with attacks like FTilt and BThrow, attacks that can fling the opponent in a certain direction.
GEATH-Aerials Neutral Aerial – Galaxy Roundhouse
Jergingha performs a roundhouse kick in front of himself. Despite his legs seeming tiny, the kick reaches forward a decent 1.5 Blocks, and hits all around him, giving it a fairly standard function as a NAir. However, the kick also has a very slow start-up, only giving it barely enough time to be used out of short hop. It still can, however, and has low endlag to make up for it.
At the start of the move, when the kick is moving forwards, it will deal 15% damage and knockback that can KO at 120%. As soon as the kick passes that threshold and starts to move backwards, it will only deal 10% and knockback that can KO at 180%. The sweet spot here only lasts for a short bit, making it difficult to hit with when combined with the heavy starting lag. Overall, this fills the standard quota of a usual NAir, but can be quite powerful if used correctly.
Forward Aerial – GEATH-Hammer: Jiggawatt Smash
Jergingha pulls his arm up, and transforms it into a hammer, similar to FSmash, but smaller due to it only being formed by one arm instead of two. He then quickly swings it downward in a motion similar to K. Rool’s BAir, but backhanded due to the direction. This attack, like the aforementioned one, is very slow to pull off, actually being slightly slower than the crocodile king’s similar attack. It has mediocre endlag as well, also comparable to K. Rool’s BAir.
The hammer reaches decently far out, just passing the 1 Block threshold but not hitting 1.5. It hits in an arc, covering a space of 3 Blocks vertically. On hit, the hammer will deal 15% damage, and sharp downwards knockback. If the hammer hits at the apex of the swing, it will have a meteor smash effect given to it, making it hit even harder than normal, though this is difficult. This has the utilities of a usual heavyweight aerial, giving them more KO potential in the air in order to balance out lackluster airgame, and to feel really good when you hit with it.
Up Aerial – GEATH-Whip: Strato-Whip
Jergingha turns his arm into a whip, and then lashes it upwards above his head in an arc. This is a relatively fast move, one of Jergingha’s faster aerials, meaning it can be used out of shorthop effectively. The attack’s range, as one might expect for a whip-based attack, is good, hitting 1.5 Blocks from Jergingha at the side, and a max height of 2.5 Blocks above him. This means it covers a tremendous amount of area for an Aerial, something only a handful of characters can say.
On hit, the attack will deal upwards knockback that can KO at around 150% (earlier if near the top) and deals a decent 11% damage. This makes it a very useful “get away” attack, especially in tandem with NAir and the tentacles, and can also be used for combo play. The attack also has light endlag to it, making it a decent move all around.
Back Aerial – GEATH-Claw: Fury Strikes
Jergingha quickly turns around as his hands transform into claws, and then starts to rapidly slash behind him. The attack is one of Jergingha’s fastest, in both start-up and actual attack speed, and it has a fairly standard reach of 1.5 Blocks behind Jergingha, giving it decent reach on top of that. The endlag, however, is a bit bad, as Jergingha will turn back around, though it isn’t anywhere near the worst endlag in his kit.
Jergingha throws out 5 quick strikes with this, each attack only taking a handful of frames to both start AND finish, giving it some insane speed that the Wonderful Ones’ Unite Claw is well known for. Each strike will deal 2.5% damage, equalling up to 12.5% if all five hits manage to connect. The final hit deals knockback, though it is rather weak, even compared to Jergingha’s other “weak” attacks. It can only kill past 160%, but its speed is fast enough to efficiently use out of shorthop consistently. It is one of Jergingha’s only fast, high damage dealing attacks, making it decent for a potential combo starter, or just as an aerial counter.
Down Aerial – GEATH-Gun: Laser Blast
Jergingha transforms his arms into the guns as seen in his UTilt, but this time swings them downwards, and fires a red laser with blue rings orbiting around it. Unlike the UTilt, the downwards swing is merely starting lag rather than a hitbox, with the only hitbox really being the actual laser itself. This is functionally just a disjointed hitbox, with the beam manifesting as a large red orb diagonally below Jergingha, which takes up nearly 1 Block worth of space.
The laser beam acts as a heavy spike on hit, dealing 14% damage as well. The start-up of the move is nowhere near as fast as it is on UTilt, but it has slightly less endlag to make up for it. It also has superarmor during the starting lag as well, making it a bit easier to land. This makes it mostly what you would expect for a heavy spiking attack, slow but powerful. This makes it primarily used for off-stage play, as it can’t be used out of shorthop.
GEATH-Grabs Grab & Pummel – GEATH-Hand: No Escape
Jergingha pulls his arm back, before thrusting it forward. As he thrusts his arm, it quickly grows in size, debris adding onto it very quickly. With this boost in size, what would be a normal grab has been boosted to something terrifying, as Jergingha’s giant arm will be what grabs the opponent. The arm is massive, taking up a full 2.3 Blocks in front of him, giving him one of the best grab ranges in the game. Fortunately, it is one of the slower grabs, and lacks super armor, making it more difficult to connect. It has bad end lag if it misses as well, but not as bad as Pac’s.
If Jergingha manages to grab onto the opponent, he will basically wrap his entire hand around them, no matter their size (Note: previous sentence may only apply to in-smash characters). From here, his pummel becomes a rather simple squeeze that deals 3% damage and is rather slow. While the opponent is grabbed, any tentacles attached to Jergingha’s back will not attack the trapped foe, as they are not a threat at the moment.
They will, however, still attack other opponents or minions if there are any. For all of Jergingha’s throws, however, the heads will remain inactive as Jergingha performs the animation, as to not get in the way of the throws themselves. They will not even attack other players during this time.
Forward Throw – Marble Buster 25%
Jergingha’s hand shrinks down, while still holding the captive player, as he quickly slams the opponent into his chest. A large cannon then emerges from his chest, pointing directly at the opponent’s body. It then fires, launching the opponent off at an upwards diagonal direction. This is a rather long throw animation, though it is still relatively fast to support its spot in the set. This is a very strong throw as well, dealing 16% damage and being able to kill at 175%, making it Jergingha’s go to kill throw.
Up Throw – Exoatmospheric Drop
Jergingha quickly wraps the opponent into a bear hug, and then activates his rocket boosters, launching him and the opponent up into the air. After travelling upwards about 8 Blocks from the ground, Jergingha will quickly turn the jump into a piledriver, slamming the opponent into the ground and launching them upwards. This is a long animation, but it lasts only slightly longer than some of the longer throws, and Jergingha remains invincible during this time.
While Jergingha will always travel up the initial 8 Blocks, the downward slam is a hitbox that can be interrupted by either hitting a platform or another opponent. The properties change somewhat depending on what the piledriver hits, with its stopping suddenly and dealing 8% damage and light knockback if it hits another opponent or a platform above the starting point and dealing 11% with much better knockback.
If it comes in contact with an opponent (Something shockingly easy to do given Jergingha’s huge size), the piledrive will also deal 8% to them, alongside spiking knockback, though making effective use of it can be difficult. When the full drop is completed, the initial impact will gain a brief hitbox around it, which deals weak, radial knockback and 8% damage as well.
Back Throw – Invading Swarm
Jergingha quickly tosses the opponent backwards, turning around himself, before he holds his hands out and unleashes a bunch of tiny… somethings. Oh, they’re actually tiny Gah-Goojins (Because Jergingha is still the size of a planet, you see), which fly at the thrown opponent and crash into them, causing an explosion that launches them off for real. The initial toss will throw the opponent a set distance of 2 Blocks forward and 1.5 Blocks above the ground, which gives it the ability for basic positioning, and makes it very useful in tandem with DSmash.
The initial throw also deals 2% damage, while the Gah-Goojin will deal 9% damage and launch the opponent directly forwards as well, helping even more with basic positioning. This isn’t a very powerful throw, but as mentioned it has positioning uses. If the opponent is hit, or interrupted from the initial throw in general, before the tiny Gah-Goojins swarm them, the throw will cancel out, which adds to its utility, as it has low endlag when that happens.
Down Throw – Galactic Slam
In an incredibly simple move, Jergingha simply lifts the opponent up in his giant hand, and then slams them into the ground in front of him, causing them to hit the ground and be bounced back upwards. This move has a slightly long start-up before the actual slam, which deals a good 9% damage with downwards knockback that is surprisingly weak. However, the main use of the move comes with how quickly it ends. It ends almost as soon as the actual slam hits, with Jergingha’s large arm splitting off into pieces as it does so. This incredible endlag allows Jergingha to combo from the throw directly into a Jab or other forward attack (Not another grab, as the grab has a slightly off hitbox that will prevent it from being able to grab the opponent again), making this Jergingha’s combo throw, and a dang good one at that.
Final Smash
CHI-Q Marble Buster
“Such a beautiful world, this Chi-Q… I had hoped to avoid its destruction. But at this range, our ultimate weapon can only have one result!”
Jergingha has the Smash Ball! Upon its use, he activates the thrusters on his back, boosting forward 10 Blocks at an insane speed. This acts functionally identical to how K. Rool or Ridley’s Final Smash does, as any opponent that comes into contact with Jergingha while he is charging forward will be sucked into a cinematic Final Smash.
In it, the opponent will be flung into space, directly in front of the Earth itself. Meanwhile, Jergingha is off in the inky blackness of the stars and unleashes the full power of the Marble Buster cannon stored within his chest. He then fires the massive laser directly at Earth (and by extension, the opponent). Unlike in the game, the beam actually hits the planet, causing it to explode and for the Final Smash to roll back into gameplay. The beam itself deals 30% damage and can KO well before 100%.
The unique twist here is that, once the animation ends, a massive explosion hitbox will be created as well, emanating from the center of the stage and being large enough to take up almost the entirety of Battlefield. The hitbox itself becomes active very quickly, functionally on frame 1, but also only lasts a short time. This gives it the power to harm far more than whatever characters Jergingha hit, though other characters will only face harsh knockback and 20% damage. This makes it far more dangerous to land than K. Ridley’s.
“Now I finish my task and end our nightmare FOREVER!”
GEATH-Extras
Classic Mode: The Alien Invasion of Earth
1. Dedede (Green alt) & Kirby (Yellow alt) who likes to spam SSpec on Moray Heights
2. Inkling (Green alt) & Fox (Green alt) who like to spam NSpec on Corneria
3. Ridley (Grey alt) & Bowser (Grey alt) on Big Blue
4. Simon (Purple alt) & Richter (Purple alt) on Norfair
5. Young Link (Black alt) who spams DSpec & Snake (black alt) that spams NSpec on Summit
6. Marth (Blue alt) & Cloud (Blue alt) on Fourside
Boss. Captain Falcon (Red alt) & 6 Villagers on Final Destination, finishes with fight against Master Hand & Crazy Hand
Spirits
Note: not all spirits may accurately represent what they would hypothetically look like in game. Every enemy in Wonderful 101 has official artwork but barely any of it was released publicly and the game hasn't been datamined to find it all because nobody cares about the game
Gah-Goojin Type: Primary Rank: Advanced Class: Grab Trait: N/A Slots: 2 Max Power: 5862 Fight: Giant Samus (Black alt) on Saffron City. After a while, 3 Warios (Blue alt) will spawn in. Defeat main fighter to win.
Laambo Type: Primary Rank: Novice Class: Power Trait: N/A Slots: 3 Max Power: 4382 Fight: DK (Black alt) with Killing Edge & 2 small Charizards (Blue alt) on Prism Tower. After a while, Giant Bowser (Yellow alt) will spawn in. Defeat main fighter to win.
Prince Vorkken
Type: Primary Rank: Legendary Class: Grab Trait: Critical Health Healing Slots: 1 Max Power: 9666 Fight: Richter (Red alt), Dark Samus (Black alt) with Death’s Scythe, and 4 Villagers (Purple alt) with 3 stocks each on Big Blue. Richter spams SSpec, other enemies are more aggressive. Defeat main fighter to win. Stamina match
Chewgi
Type: Support Rank: Advanced Class: Shield Effect: Death’s Scythe Equipped Cost: 1 Fight: Dark Samus (Black alt) with Death’s Scythe & 3 Villagers (Purple alt) on Brinstar.
Wanna Type: Support Rank: Novice Class: Shield Effect: Floaty Jumps Cost: 1 Fight: Small Roy (Koopaling) & Giant Piranha Plant (Blue alt) on Halberd Battlefield. Roy stays away from the fight. Defeat main fighter to win.
Vijounne
Type: Primary Rank: Ace Class: Shield Effect: Water/Ice Attack ^ Slots: 2 Max Power: 8206 Fight: Palutena (Blue alt) & Mr. Game & Watch (Red alt) on Kalos Pokemon League (Water phase). Game & Watch will get his Final Smash occasionally.
Walltha
Type: Support Rank: Ace Class: Power Effect: Unflinching Charged Smashes
Cost: 2 Fight: DK (Blue alt) with Killing Edge & Giant Metal Little Mac on Norfair. Defeat main fighter to win. Stamina match
Heyourgah
Type: Primary Rank: Novice Class: Shield Trait: N/A Slots: 3 Max Power: 3052 Fight: Greninja (Grey alt) on Summit Battlefield. Player is allied with Richter (Red alt) and Dark Samus (Black alt). Greninja will have 999% damage once the match begins.
Gimme
Type: Support Rank: Legendary Class: Neutral Effect: Super Armor Cost: 3 Fight: Ganondorf on Fourside Final Destination. Ganondorf has improved speed. On KO, Giant Metal Ganondorf with superarmor will spawn. Stamina match.
Machine World Jergingha Type: Primary Rank: Ace Class: Neutral Trait: N/A Slots: 1 Max Power: 6408 Fight: Dedede (green alt), Simon (Purple alt), Ridley (White alt), Fox (Green alt), Marth (Blue alt), Captain Falcon (Red alt), and Jergingha on Lylat Cruise Battlefield. One will spawn after another, going in the order listed, ending with Jergingha. Stamina battle.
Wonder-Jergingha Type: Primary Rank: Legendary Class: Neutral Trait: Metal & Giant Slots: 1 Max Power: 10,100
Evolves from Machine World Jergingha.
There are seven Shinobus! Can you find the real Shinobu hiding inside a Google document?
Did Hidan ask for a ninja companion? Looks like someone made their way back to MYM after generations of wandering, eager to demonstrate her new skills. Too bad they're outdated! Seek out Shinobu for a skillset of questionable quality, and you can judge whether she's gotten (a bit) better or dumber.
It's Yui! She's the protagonist of K-ON! and an overall airhead who joins the Light Music Club because she thinks that the music they play is easy. So it comes as a shock when Yui finds out otherwise, but she joins anyway because they have lots of tea and snacks! Yui then picks up the guitar that she named Giita and becomes friends with the other members Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi, as well as Azu-nyan later on. They all form the band Afterschool/Ho-kago Tea Time, but they don't get much practice in when there are sweets to temp them!
Yui is lazy and dependent on her lil' twin sis Ui for everything, as well as her childhood friend Nodaka. Though seemingly bad at everything, Yui can actually do anything she puts her mind to, even participate in a fighting game! You think this silly schoolgirl wouldn't stand a chance? Her powers of moe and lack of fear are so great that not even the likes of Freiza can resist!
You can find out more trivia about Yui here and here.
Yui's attacks start out weak given she's just a schoolgirl, but a little focus will fix that - instead of getting weaker when spammed, Yui's attacks will actually grow stronger! This works like a reverse staling mechanic, encouraging Yui to spam her attacks like a mindless grade schooler. Her attacks will always stale when they hit something, even an intangible opponents, another hitbox or a construct that wouldn't normally stale moves. You know what they say: practice makes perfect!
For those who aren't Yui and can handle more technical terms, the way staling normally works means that if she lands a move while it's in que 1, it'll deal 1.2x as much damage and roughly 1.35x as much damage while it's in que 1 and 2 and so on, gradually getting weaker if it gets pushed back by other moves. If a move takes up all 9 spaces in the que, it'll essentially deal twice as much damage! These moves pack serious punch, but they compromise the rest of Yui's moveset and make her predictable in a way. Perhaps there's a way for her to get around this?
Above Yui's percentage is a circular speaker.
a musical staff with a treble clef. As Yui stales moves, they will appear on the staff as notes to visually represent her stale que. Each move type is represented by a different type of note:
Specials - Wholenote
Standards - Half note
Smashes - Quarter note
Aerials - Eighth note
Items - Sixteenth note
Neutral inputs are positioned on the centre line; forward and backward inputs on top and bottom centre lines respectively; and up and down inputs on the topmost and bottom lines respectively. The first note bobbles lively to represent the first que offering the most power, each note after appearing less animated up until the 9th note which doesn't move at all. The more staled a move, the more animated the notes representing it will be. If the same notes on the staff all lined up because the same move was fully staled, the notes will glow and dance around! So pretty.
Like real music, the sheet can be tricky to grasp, and if you're a casual like Yui you might not bother incorporating it into your gameplan. But if you're aiming for the Budokai, you'll want to get a full house to get the most out of your music!
Neutral Special ~ Guitar Practice!
Yui strums her beloved Giita! This releases a small and transcendent musical note on frame 3 that deals a non-flinching 2% close-up or 1.35% farther away. It starts out fast, but quickly slows and undulates so it travels in a squiggly, conical formation. After going 1.15 platforms, the note will only deal 0.75% as it slows down to Ganon's dashing speed and undulates to Yui's height. The note can and will bounce off the ground (or ceiling) to undulate prematurely, typically going higher when strung on the ground or when at the ledge. Each 0.55 platforms of travel will cause the note to undulate an extra Yui height and slow a little, right down to a crawl after going 3 platforms. Notes last for 12 seconds if they don't hover off-screen first, and there can be up to 15 of them out at once. Consecutive notes are produced every 6 frames, which is quicker than using the move in bursts due to the end lag (22 frames while grounded or 17 frames in midair).
Notes are easy to stale when each one contributes to the que. Better yet, they linger for more than long enough to knock opponents into! Yui can also hit the notes to stale her attacks, but this will only stale the move once no matter how many notes she hit at once. For best results, fire off a bunch of fully-staled notes high-up (or over an opponent) so that they're staleness can be stored while you tend to staling Yui's other moves.
By holding B, Yui will raise her hand and strum down hard over 42 frames to produce a big, beating musical note! This bad boy deals an electric 7.5% on contact and curves up all the while, missing opponents 1.4 platforms ahead of Yui and slowing to a walk after going twice as far. The note deals 10% close-up and doesn't seem worth it for the lag, except the knockback is shallow and the note won't dissipate on contact this way - letting you hit with it again! At the right percentage, 25-50% or 110%+, the foe will be knocked into the note for 17.5-35% and back towards Yui for a (quick) true combo! Time for an encore!
The combo requires opponents to be at 25-110%, depending on their size, weight and how staled this move is. The higher the damage, the "fresher" the move needs to be. A staled hit deals massive damage and can start combos, but will almost never KO due to the required percentage and the fact that Yui's other attacks will be at their weakest. Meanwhile, a fresh hit is weaker, but can more easily transition into a KO. If you don't follow-up on the ground however, the foe will be knocked into prone and this can follow into a hard read with a Smash or encore big note - the latter working well against opponents who roll away with good timing. But you can't use the combo multiple times in a row, due to the large increase of the foe's percentage. Yui can move back and forth in midair at any point in the big note variation, making it easier to land and less punishable for its lag.
Side Special ~ Amp it Up!
Yui drops a guitar amp that’s nearly as tall as her. This is quick over ground where no hitbox is produced, but if there was no ground over the amp Yui will drop it hesitantly and it will plummet! The falling amp deals 12% with mostly-upwards knockback that KOs at 170%, which is quite strong for a fresh attack and decently fast. It can potentially start combos by knocking foes up and in front of Yui (lower percentage, drop the amp closer), but as their percentage rises this gets more and more difficult to pull off. Upon landing, the amp will produce a reasonably wide shockwave to either side of it that deals 6% and trips opponents.
The amp is connected to Yui’s guitar by a 1.5 platform (4.5 grids) long cord. If the amp goes any further than 1.5 platforms from Yui, the cord will get unplugged from the amp and the amp will disappear when it hits the ground. When the amp gets unplugged, it will produce a deafening blare, something Yui learned the hard way when she joined the Light Music Club! This is a short-ranged wind hitbox that deals 5% and strong mostly-horizontal knockback that KOs at 150%, but very little hitstun. It can act as a hitbox extension to the falling amp and is dangerous offstage for its high knockback and low trajectory - but it is very, very difficult to land, due to its short reach and requiring precise spacing.
If the amp goes offstage or gets unplugged during the drop, Yui will have to wait 3 seconds to spawn a new one so she can’t just spam this offstage - the club doesn’t have a huge budget, you know! If Yui had no amp to drop she’ll overbalance clumsily and the move will do nothing, but she’s not left open for too long. You can tell you’ve got the amp back when Yui’s character model flashes.
If the amp was placed over ground, or plummeted a short enough distance for the cord to remain in-tact, the amp will stay out as a construct! All of Yui’s sound-based attacks are projected from the amp instead of her guitar while it is out, and get their damage boosted by 1.3x given how amps amplify sound (this only affects the damage output, not the knockback or hitstun). The hitbox distribution can leave Yui more open close-up, but if she moves more than 4.5 grids away from the amp it will get unplugged, blare and all, and disappear. This limits the space Yui can work with the amp - but if Yui unplugs the amp manually while it's an active construct (not if it would get unplugged from falling when being dropped), you'll only have to wait 1 second to spawn a new amp instead of 3 seconds. This makes it easy and actually practical to move away if you want to put it somewhere else. Note that Yui’s first jump covers 3.6 grids, so she can safely use that without accidentally unplugging the amp.
The amp can be damaged by opponents. It can soak up projectiles for the lazy Yui, but it receives knockback 0.7x as strongly as a barrel after 3 frames of additional hitlag (if the move was a melee attack) from enemy attacks, potentially getting knocked into you! Worse yet, the amp can only sustain 9% before it vanishes after receiving its knockback, preventing Yui from bringing out another amp for 8 seconds. It did get damaged pretty bad, after all! This further encourages Yui to unplug the amp with movement if necessary, as one second of cooldown is much better than 8 seconds.
The blare can potentially hit and counter opponents who launched Yui into unplugging range, but it is very unlikely given its poor range - and even if foes did get into range, their attacks will probably reach the amp before its blare does. The blare is better suited from being unplugged with movement where it’s sudden and you can act. Better yet, if the blared foe got knocked towards you, this can actually start a true combo at low-mid percents where the knockback of a quick/decent hit would be enough to stop the blare’s knockback - or you can grab them from a dash grab with really, really good timing. As powerful as this sounds, a foe foolish enough to be that close to the and not have attacked it deserves to be comboed if you can position yourself for it.
You can hold B when placing the amp on the ground to have Yui kneel down and push it 1.5 platforms forwards, not going off the ledge this way. This doesn’t take long and positions the amp from the most convenient distance so you can unplug it just by moving back an inch. It could be trouble if the foe got between you and your amp, but that’s an easy fix: just tap B with the amp out, and Yui will jerk her guitar sideways to whip the cord out and spin the amp the other way! This only takes 2 frames and easily adjusts the amp from any distance, like in case you end up knocking the foe behind the amp.
By holding B, Yui will jerk her guitar back protectively to yank the cord out of the amp. The yank takes 10 frames, but the blare is delayed by 5 frames where Yui is free to act. This isn’t very practical for landing the blare on opponents, but it serves another purpose in proximity to Yui: it acts as a strong wind hitbox that pushes her forwards! This is great given a number of Yui’s attacks are short-reaching, the blare delay helping you to prepare for this, but you have to be careful as foes can still snuff you out with a defensive move. The amp blare lacks the reach to hit more than one regular-sized character, but if it could you could hypothetically score a true combo against opponents around mid-percents as you’re pushed along with them.
Yui can drop/place the amp face-up or face-down by tilting the control stick up or down. The falling amp only deals 9.5% that KOs at 188%, due to its weight being distributed horizontally, but the knockback is purely upwards and more convenient for comboing out of. The amp also has a wider hitbox, but the landing shockwave doesn’t scale to match its greater width and thus covers less area.
Placing the amp horizontally naturally lets you project your sound attacks vertically instead of horizontally. This is less useful for stage control and dealing with opponents ahead of you, but the amp’s horizontal position is great for avoiding the majority of projectiles (providing they don’t hit close to the ground) that could otherwise shut down your amp easily. The blare has its knockback adjusted to match the direction the amp was facing, but if it was faceplanted on solid ground it obviously won’t be able to blare anyone. Instead, the force of the sound pushes the amp 1 grid upwards before it disappears, dealing the same amount of damage and knockback as when dropped upright and being somewhat easier to hit with - and potentially combo off of! Spinning a horizontal amp will instead cause it to flip over, which can be tricky for mix-ups against opponents above the amp as a face-up and face-down amp have different implications on solid ground.
Yui can rotate the amp when she’s next to it, by tilting the control stick down to set it down (horizontally) or tilting the control stick upwards to prop it back up. This takes a moment, as Yui bends down and holds the sides of the amp to sit it down or pull it back up with a surprisingly brisk but gentle motion. You could get away with rotating the amp once at mid-range, but it’s not something you can do nearly as casually as spinning/flipping the amp. In fact, it’s actually more practical to unplug the amp and then drop it again in the new position you want.
The amp can be picked up and held like a “semi-heavy” item off the ground and with some lag. This functions like holding a crate, but with a bit more freedom in movement given amps are much lighter than crates. The holder can walk, run, jump, move sideways in the air and shield or dodge. Shielding or dodging will cause the holder to drop the amp, which deals 4% and light horizontal knockback on the way down.
The amp is held in the same position it was in when picked up. If the amp was upright, it will be held in front of the holder by the sides, while a horizontal amp is held above the holder because it would be too awkward to hold out in front of you from that position. This affects how the amp is thrown; an upright amp gets thrown ahead of the thrower horizontally, but when thrown vertically it is thrown up towards the space in front of you due to the position it was held in. A horizontal amp works in reverse: it is thrown directly above/below the thrower when thrown vertically, but when thrown horizontally it is thrown forwards above the thrower. The amp is laggier to throw directly ahead of the thrower - throwing the upright amp forwards or the horizontal amp vertically - while throwing the upright amp vertically and the horizontal amp forwards is very quick, but this does not cover the space directly ahead of you. Throwing the horizontal amp forwards, for instance, presents a blind spot ahead of the thrower as the amp goes forwards on a low arc, leaving them open to projectiles or being rushed down. Yui and other fighters holding the amp can instantly rotate it towards them by 45 degrees for every tap of B. This is much quicker than rotating the amp manually, but picking up the amp does have some lag. You can drop the amp when holding it upright, but not when holding it horizontally.
The amp has different applications based on whether it was thrown with a strong throw or a smash throw. If strong thrown or lobbed by pressing A, the amp will sail at moderately slow speeds and land exactly 4.5 grids ahead of Yui, just short of getting unplugged. Thrown upwards, the amp will travel exactly 4.5 grids above Yui and stall at its peak before coming back down, giving her time to exploit the amp’s unique airborne position as she act quickly out of the strong throw overall. The thrown amp deals 10% with set knockback that typically sets up for the front of the amp when hitting close-up, having decent shield damage, the knockback varying based on the direction the amp was facing. Hitting with the amp near the end of its travel nets you 6% and light knockback that also sets up into an amp follow-up. Yui can act out of the throw very quickly, enough so that she can exploit the amp even while it’s flying forwards.
The amp deals 15% and strong upwards or mostly-horizontal knockback (appropriate to the thrown direction) when smash thrown close-up, able to KO at a generous 136%. Hitting from farther away nets you 12.5% and diagonal knockback that KOs at 160% and good shield damage. And it’s not even that laggy for our spirited Yui! Do note, however, that the amp flies farther than the cord’s length, and will inevitably get unplugged upon covering 4.5 grids and disappear right there. The cord gets yanked out with such force here that the blare gets enhanced: dealing 10% that KOs at 125% and and having slightly better horizontal range. You could even use the blare to gimp opponents, but this still requires very fine spacing and precision that Yui may or may not be capable of. If the amp was smash-thrown into the ground, it will recreate the plummeting shockwave which deals slightly more hitstun here, and will knock any grounded foe hit by the amp itself into prone.
The amp is a very powerful throwing item when you consider its speed, but it’s not perfect. Opponents can still hit the flying amp to knock it away or just outright destroy it, so it’s not always a good idea to throw it at them. This also leaves Yui vulnerable while she’s holding the amp, especially close up where she has to contend with the lag of picking up the amp, as foes can easily hit Yui and the amp at the same time or just knock the amp into her. You can drop the amp as a defensive measure and great combo-starter (especially close to the ground where you can do an amp follow-up), but as you can only drop the amp down in front of you foes can avoid this by staying directly below or behind Yui. If they attack Yui from this position, however, they might miss hitting the amp altogether if their move didn’t cover a wide area.
NSpec notes have their trajectory adjusted when fired from a vertical amp. If you fired a big note upwards, for instance, it will go up and curve back horizontally instead of rising to the top of the screen. The big note also gets its knockback trajectory adjusted so it can still combo into itself, potentially knocking foes down into the amp if it was fired upwards and so on. If a note hits a surface, it will bounce back in the opposite direction. This can be triggered by something as simple as firing a note down through a platform, or by throwing the amp into the air face-down, even forwards over an opponent so you can pepper the stage with notes. The higher up you threw the amp forwards, the longer the notes will take to bounce off the ground and they’ll stick around for longer, but as you have to fall through the air to throw it from a height you won’t be able to produce as many notes. If the amp was face-down and on solid ground, firing a note will caused it to get pushed back upright by the force of that note, giving Yui a way to adjust its positioning from a distance.
The amp blare affects any notes and potential sound attacks 2.8 grids ahead of it, this range represented by a wind that ruffles the hair and clothes of Yui (and other characters) in range for it, but it’s not strong enough to damage or push them back. The note gets pushed 6 grids ahead of the amp’s direction, retaining its current hitbox and having its distance cap paused and what not, effectively extending its range. This can indeed be used to extend the range of a big note and its sweetspot if you unplugged the amp with good timing (remember, you can move sideways in midair when playing the big note). It can also be used to perform the bounce combo of the big note when staled and at later percentages than normally possible, if your positioning was really good. This can actually be used to KO from a solid fresh hit! You can also bounce the big note off the ground by firing it downwards, using weakened bounce on foes (as the sweetspot deals downwards knockback when fired downwards) to pop them up into the big note’s sourspot that can knock them back down.
One last thing. This move stales like any other attack, but it does not get stronger from being in the cue and will not show up on the stale meter. Instead, this acts as “filler” in the stale que that pushes out other moves, which is only fair given the falling amp is a fast and strong hitbox and how the shockwave is great for set-ups. Throwing the amp also counts as hitting with the Side Special, but the wind hitbox does not fortunately. This demerit further encourages Yui not to hit with the amp so her other attacks don’t get weaker, like if she strong-threw it towards and above an opponent!
Side Special ~ Amp it Up!
Yui drops a guitar amp that's almost as tall as her. This only takes 6 frames to complete if there was ground to place the amp over. If not, Yui will drop the amp more hesitantly as it damages opponents on the way down! Dealing 12% and mostly-upwards knockback that KOs at 149%, this is one of Yui's strongest fresh attacks, but it does not get stronger when staled and acts as "filler" in the que, represented by a dull grey note. Only 1 guitar amp can exist onstage, and if it disappears or goes offstage Yui will have to wait 3.5 seconds to spawn a new one. The club doesn't have a huge budget, you know!
If the amp made it to the floor and was within 1.5 platforms (approximately 4.5 grids) of Yui, it will remain as a construct that's connected to her Giita by a 1.5 platform long plug. All sound-based attacks are projected from the amp instead of Yui - sacrificing coverage in exchange for camping and funky tricks! Enemy attacks will send the amp flying 0.7x as far as a barrel after 3 frames of extended hitlag, a hitbox that deals anywhere between 4-12% based on the strength of the attack. The amp can only take 9% before it disappears at the apex of its knockback. It can potentially sponge projectiles for the lazy Yui, but beware - stronger projectiles can send the amp flying into Yui, and if it was destroyed Yui will have to wait 8 seconds to spawn a new amp. Hitting with the amp will add it to the que.
If Yui goes any farther than the cord's length, she'll pull the plug and the amp will produce a deafening blare - something Yui learned the hard way when she first joined the club! The blare is a short-ranged hitbox in front of the amp that deals 5% (no hitstun) to opponents and doesn't stale, with strong horizontal pushback if they were grounded or upwards pushback if they were airborne that can in fact KO at 200%. This will push notes within 2.8 grids of the amp at high speeds, 6 grids forwards and keeping their prior damage output all the while. Large notes especially benefit and the same "stale" note can bounce opponents forwards and then back to Yui, but you have to unplug the amp as soon as the note is produced. The push is strong enough that it can send opponents towards Yui, something she could exploit by dashing away from the amp and then back to hit the foe, potentially by wavedashing. The amp only has one second of cooldown if unplugged, which is much better than normal.
Yui can alter the direction her amp faces when spawning it: facing her, facing up or facing down by quickly making a backwards input or angling the move, the latter taking an extra 3 frames to set-up. You can also re-position the amp manually by using this move in front of it. This only takes 2 frames, but it's not very feasible in the middle of a fight. A face-down or face-up is typically less convenient as your sound hitboxes will come out vertically, and projectiles are now able to fly over the amp to hit Yui - but this can be convenient for preserving its limited lifespan against more trigger-happy opponents. A face-up amp is self-explanatory in that NSpec notes will fly up, but a face-down amp will get pushed upright when Yui produces a sound hitbox. Useful for dodging projectiles without sacrificing the ability to attack horizontally. If the amp was placed face-down on a platform however, the sound hitboxes will continue down and through the platform.
If Yui was grounded and knocked a foe past her amp, the amp will automatically turn to face them! Sure, it's not realistic, but it means Yui doesn't have to tinker with the amp every time she knocks her opponent past it. What's more, you can hold B when spawning or adjusting the amp on the ground to have Yui kneel and push it with great effort! This pushes the amp 1.5 platforms forwards and without sending it offstage, only taking an extra 4 frames to pull off and can be done in combination with turning it around. I don't need to tell you why this is useful, not only to get the max range from your amp but also to be in the most optimal position to unplug anytime you please - a godsend given that using the amp is a commitment. The amp has no hitbox when pushed this way, but if it goes past an opponent it will automatically spin to face them. This effectively sets up the foe to be sandwiched between Yui and her amp!
Yui can unplug her amp manually when not facing it close-up. This takes her 12 frames as she hesitates a little (the blare is scary!), but the push is much stronger at 1.75 platforms along the ground. Yui can even buffer an attack out of this to perform it while moving! It's can't be spammed, but being able to move while attacking is a powerful asset.
The amp can be picked as a "semi-heavy item" that allows the holder to jump once and walk and run unimpeded, given its light weight compared to other heavy items such as barrels. It is still relatively laggy to throw and travels more slowly than you'd expect, able to be smacked out of the holder's grasp to knock it into them, but it goes far - a strong-throw from a weakling like Yui would conveniently position it exactly 1.5 platforms above her - and deals 15% close-up from a smash throw. This is a good way to generically launch the amp upwards without damaging it and staling your moves unnecessarily, though it is much slower than knocking it around. The amp is held upright, but retains its prior position when thrown: should it get unplugged from a smash throw, the blare will be a much stronger, Bowser-sized hitbox that deals 8% and high hitstun that typically sets-up for the immediate amp hitbox. Note that both this specific blare hitbox and the thrown amp will appear as filler on the que. Opponents can use the amp against Yui, but they need to be more careful: characters hold the amp upright from the side they picked it up from, so if an opponent handles it from the front they might get a face full of Yui's music!
Up Special ~ Joyous Leap!
Yui squats before doing a vigorous leap! This is a fast recovery that covers 5.5 grids and can be aimed upwards, diagonally upwards or forwards in which case Yui will leap on a low arc. You can also aim downwards to have Yui leap up slowly and only cover 3 grids, but her gravity is drastically cut to the point where she practically floats in place for a moment. Leaping diagonally will give Yui a decent momentum boost, while leaping forwards gives her a strong momentum boost. The leap has a hitbox 4/5ths of the way in that deals 3% and very low radial knockback. A low leap can be ledge cancelled with good spacing.
The leap is not a remarkable recovery, though Yui does have a decent second jump and good air speed to supplement her recovery. If Yui had at least one move on her stale list however, she can cancel the leap's end lag into an attack! This works even if you had no moves in your que but hit with the leap's apex hitbox, which is able to combo into most of Yui's aerials. Yui won't enter helpless if she cancelled into an attack other than another Up Special, but be warned: though you can cancel the end lag of a second leap into another attack, Yui will enter helpless afterwards and she can only leap twice per air trip anyway. Leaping twice in a row is most efficient for recovery, but the momentum boost from a forwards leap can be quite useful offensively. If Yui was quick enough when leaping along the ground, she can quickly cancel into an attack right off the ground instead of experiencing landing lag or needing to rely on the ledge for ledge cancelling. She can also cancel into her crouch.
Cancelling the leap comes with a price: the 5 earliest moves from Yui's stale que! That's because the leap is fun and causes her to lose focus. The removal is applied after the cancelled attack takes effect or if it was interrupted - so while the leap can act as a combo extender, it will make Yui's attacks weaker. Likewise, the ability to perform a second leap greatly enhances Yui's recovery and makes her more difficult to gimp. Yui's stale moves effectively act as ammo for her enhanced recovery, but she only needs to land one hit to restore it. While cornering Yui, foes might want to avoid her attacks (including shielding them) and even her NSpec projectiles so she can't get any moves on her stale list. The apex hitbox can also be a slight gimping deterrent, but it is not easy to land.
The stale removal can be exploited if you're smarter than Yui. As it removes earlier inputs, you could use it to erase recent "dud inputs" like tilts or aerials you weren't going to commit to (or just a Side Special), and potentially shift a move in the back of the que multiple times to the front where it'll deal more damage. Remember Yui, it's a reverse staling mechanic!
Down Special ~ Tea Time!
Yui sits down and munches on a tasty sweet that Mugi brought into the club over 28 frames, OR chew through it like a squirrel over 8 frames if she was over 100% and/or had been deprived of sweets for 10 seconds. She must have sweets for energy! This heals Yui 1% of her total percentage for each move in her que or 10% if her que was full, so that she heals more the higher her percentage was. Afterwards, Yui's que empties because she was distracted by the sweets!
Sweets bolster Yui's mobility; her ground speed to a 8.5 (2.3), jumps to a 10 and air speed to 9.5 (1.32) on top of rolling faster (she usually rolls slowly). Better yet, each hit will contribute twice to her stale que! This actually makes her "fresh" moves that combo into themselves more powerful - dealing 1.35x-ish from being in the first 2 queues instead of 1.2x from just the first. The sugar rush lasts for 7 seconds and can be reapplied freely, but it takes 22-9 frames longer for her to consume (longer the sooner she ate again) and she won't get any healing if she eats within 10 seconds of having done so before.
Jab ~ Fight On!
Expecting some piddly punches? No! Yui steps out with a spirited palm thrust (dossun!) that acts as a basic jab hit, dealing 1.9% and hitstun on her palm or 2.6% and set knockback towards her palm if her arm connects. This comes out at average speeds on frame 3, and like most Jabs in Ultimate it can be used to jab-lock a foe up to 2 times before they can tech - useful for building up hits! The damage is nothing to scoff at either, and can actually be quite powerful when fully staled.
The second hit? A faux kung-fu pose as Yui lifts a leg off the ground and karate chops upwards! That's 2.2% and surprisingly decent mostly-upwards knockback that only gets better with staling. This keeps opponents close to Yui at lower percents and/or when fresh, where you can possibly start up another Jab! At higher percents or when staled this can be used to start air combos easily enough, a useful application out of a quick Jab.
The final hit has Yui strum her guitar while maintaining her weird pose! A small cluster of colourful wavy notes spawn over the victim - or barely below them if they were knocked upwards - a multi-hitter that starts out with below-average damage, but gets a bit stronger after one second. At full power, this can be a very reliable way of damage-racking. The attack ends with Yui spinning and giving a sharp strum with her legs spread out in a slightly uncomfortable pose, the notes pulsing and detonating. This deals decent knockback on a somewhat low angle that can be especially strong at full power, KO'ing at 125%, though it doesn't really benefit from the prior upwards knockback. The centre of the cluster has a sweetspot however, which deals 5% and strong mostly-upwards knockback that can KO at around 95% at full power and when taking the prior knockback into account.
Foes can DI sideways or downwards (if airborne) to escape the note cluster - but the hitbox is notably longer than it is tall. You'll take less damage from the cluster and can potentially punish Yui's lag if you go down, but you'll have to go down through the centre where Yui can potentially detonate the notes to deal you high knockback. Even at KO percentages for this, Yui still appreciates further damage racking for her weaker moves. And so if you DI to the side, you'll take extra damage, though you can still potentially punish Yui by DI towards her. Jabbing a shielding opponent essentially treats the move like a regular multi-hitting Jab, dealing somewhat decent shield damage, but a punishable move no matter the range to make up for this move's utility. You might be able to catch out an opponent who drops their shield too early, but the second hit is relatively long and punishable enough on shields that you can't do mix-ups to get a deceptive shield drop.
Similar to Jabs like K. Rool's, Yui can delay successive hits of her Jab, giving opponents a brief window where they can shield, dodge or just smack you with their own Jab, This won't do you much good with the second hit, but it can with the third hit. Delaying this will typically leave opponents at the centre of the note cluster from their fall, leaving them open to the sweetspot without having to commit to guessing their DI. Foes can avoid this by fastfalling, air dodging or doing a midair jump with no delay on the ascension (meaning Ness and Mewtwo's jumps won't work), but this is a 50/50 if Yui ends it on the second hit to start an air combo that foes can end up leaving themselves vulnerable too. Be warned: the technique will outright fail against opponents with combination of high gravity and high falling speed, but Yui has an easy time juggling with her fast aerials and Up special.
As this sound attack targets foes, it is naturally not affected by having an amp out. The sound is still coming from the amp, however, as the sound waves do get the damage boost. The amp also gets an extra hitbox as it produces the sound, a short-ranged multi-hit hitbox that deals the third hit's sweetspotted knockback if it connects, but this is easier said than done when the foe can DI out of it easily even they get hit. Not to mention the Jab doesn't really flow into the amp's hitbox unless it just so happened to be positioned precisely for this at the time. Hitting with both Yui and the amp's sound hitboxes will give you twice as much damage and shield damage, which is very powerful, but the knockback doesn't get any stronger.
The two hits of the Jab won't connect if Yui went sliding forward from the amp's wind hitbox, but she only needs to hit with one of the hits to have the third hit target a foe, no matter how far apart they were. By sliding far enough past the foe, it is possible for the note cluster's sourspot to knock opponents forwards towards Yui and for a true combo!
Yui's palm thrust has a hard interaction with big notes under her ownership, causing them to be get pushed forwards and keep going that way for the remainder of their life. This requires an amp and for Yui to be a reasonable distance from it. If the note was moving towards the front of Yui, it'll get pushed back with 1.4x more power but 0.7x its regular speed, with 5 frames of hitlag as fair warning to opponents. If the note was moving in the direction Yui was facing, it'll get pushed back with 2.2x its power and 1.6x its speed and has no hitlag, dealing a fair amount of knockback on contact that's seriously powerful when fully staled - more than 30%! As obscene as that sounds, it requires Yui to not only set up the amp behind her where she loses protection, but also commit to the big note which has starting lag in itself - not to mention the whole set-up is very telegraphed. If the note hits someone and Yui committed to her Jab however, the third hit will target the foe that got hit by the note, even if they shielded! Done quickly enough, it'll trap opponents right after the knockback from the note, where the Jab finisher's knockback can potentially finish foes if the note failed to.
Dash Attack ~ Hugging Time!
Yui stops in place, only to run extra fast with her arms out to give a hug! This goes 1.15 platforms in a burst that drags opponents along for 10 hits of 0.6%, followed by a shove dealing 2.5% and surprisingly high base knockback even when fresh. While the scaling is low, it can still be quite scary near the ledge, able to KO as early as 66% under ideal conditions.
This move has some starting lag, but it pushes shielding opponents and is unpunishable against them due to the final shove dealing good shield push. As Yui stops prior, it can be a useful mix-up or fake-out against opponents expecting something like a smash attack from her Dash. Catching a shield can be more ideal for positioning when going towards an amp, or moving away from one to unplug it so Yui can follow-up with her music attacks close-up. A fresh shove puts her in a position to fire projectiles, rush in with a follow-up or edgeguard with fair warning, oftentimes being more useful than a staled shove. That is difficult to achieve anyway, hence this move's very high damage and knockback cap.
The shoving Yui normally passes her amp given its short height, but you can hold A anytime during the move to have Yui unrealistically push the amp forwards without being slowed down. If she shoves the amp, it will go 1 platform forwards but not have a hitbox or go off the stage.
F-tilt ~ Rump Bump!
Yui totters 0.35 platforms forward rump-first! This unorthodox attack slams opponents behind Yui for 6% on a shallow angle, but deals 4% with lesser shallow knockback midway and 2.8% with low mostly-upwards knockback near the end. The last hit creates follow-up opportunities as this move starts and ends very quickly, hampered only by its slight duration and notable lack of reach that make it predictable. That being said, Yui actually has a very high walking speed (1.48 or 1.72 with sweets!) to make the move more usable, and it works very well out of an amp push! It also covers more distance when used out of a pivot cancel, which is especially beneficial from a sugar rush.
The first hit forces low recoveries and techs at higher percents or with staling. It is Yui's most difficult Standard to stale, but used at full power it can KO at the ledge at 65%! The first hit is also rather punishable, as each hit deals a strangely high amount of shield push and the rest of the attack acts as "end lag". Mid-hit gives foes very little time to punish though, while the late-mid and last hits are safe on block but are easy enough for foes to out-range. The attack leaves Yui with her back to the foe, which is notable on the later hits as it lets her follow-up more easily with a B-air or pivot grab. It also lets Yui avoid eye contact-based attacks like Mewtwo's Disable, but makes her more punishable to backstabbing hitboxes like those from Ghostface, being the eccentric highschooler she is!
Yui can knock foes into an amp behind her to start combos and still have enough time to react to a get-up or tech-chase. This only works at low percentages when staled and higher percents when fresh, the latter more preferable for finishers - a follow-up move from the amp might be reasonably staled - and as such this can be a good move to keep fresh. Even the lower knockback that wouldn't suffice for the tech can still work, especially if Yui was closer to her amp. Just make sure you weren't too far from the amp though, as Yui's tottering can potentially unplug the cord and make the amp unusable as it disappears. On the other hand, if your spacing was really good you could knock the foe to the front of the amp and time the totter so the unplugging causes the victim to get pushed back towards Yui!
U-tilt ~ Air Guitar!
Yui does an overhead wave like she's playing air guitar! This frame 5 attack deals 2.3% in front of Yui with low upwards knockback, 4.3% from directly above and 5% with inwards diagonal knockback from behind. The wave is just slow enough to be slightly punishable when whiffed from the front, and to make the back hit good for punishing rolls as Yui suffers little end lag - great against opponents trying to avoid your amp! The frontal hit has low scaling and can combo into itself easily from reasonable percentages, making this one of Yui's easiest attacks to stale. The overhead and back hit have low base knockback but scale extremely well - greatly benefiting from staling - and can set-up into air combos or allow Yui time to camp at higher percentages, otherwise KO'ing at 115-107% from full power.
While the move's range isn't terrific compared to overhead attacks like Toon Link's U-tilt, Yui can use her high walking speed to position herself easily enough for which hitbox she wants to connect. It is highly effective at racking up hits when fresh, especially at lower percentages where the damage is more needed - if the knockback gets too high for your combo liking, it can be a great move to follow into the Down Special to empty your que and refresh its combo potential - while doubling up as a way to build up its power for a KO more quickly - or go into another move. If you've got time, you can rack up to 4 hits on your amp via the sourspot without needing to hit the foe, staling it 4 or 8 times with sugar.
D-tilt ~ Don't Say Lazy!
Lazy Yui has a crouch above all, or should I say beneath all because it flattens and compacts her hurtbox as much as physically possible for a human in a 2D fighting game. She lays lethargically towards the screen, and can even crawl hesitantly as she rolls along the ground - though this does erratically raise her hurtbox when she rolls onto her shoulder. This is ironically one of the best crouches in the game, and can be used to bait projectile characters who can't hit Yui from this position - both useful if she's looking for an opportunity to hit with one of her staled moves. You can also use it to camp against projectiles behind the amp like a truly lazy individual, providing you don't mind loosing it.
For her D-tilt, Yui will roll along the ground! She covers 1.05 platforms at relatively high speeds, dealing 3% with rather low mostly-upwards knockback. Hitting close-up deals 5% with high base knockback but low scaling, which can combo into itself reliably at mid-percents when fresh - or low percents when staled, but this is fairly impractical. The end of the roll can start combos effectively, even going into the sweetspot around its weakest. Just make sure you have enough stage to roll over! The roll is highly spammable and difficult to punish through shielding - it can shield poke slightly weakened shields! - unless the end was whiffed, but it can be beaten out with just about any low attack; the hitbox is right at the centre of Yui's hurtbox and will fail to clash with just about any attack, being transcendent anyway. Don't fool around too predictably or you'll get a scolding!
This move is great for exploiting mid-ranged openings like landings, lag, weak shields or higher hitboxes, especially in tandem with an amp. A crouch can bait approaches and low attacks, though Yui's out-of-shield punish is fairly limited due to her extremely low traction and most of her fast attacks being short-ranged. She can also fake-out an aerial approach by fast-falling into the D-tilt, which can be spaced in midair for greater effectiveness when combined with a sugar rush.
If Yui had an amp out, cord will coil around her at a rate of 0.5 platforms' length with every 0.3 platforms she rolls. The cord will inevitably be unplugged sooner or later depending on Yui's positioning, blaring sound and able to catch out opponents and/or Yui during the attack. This can be used to push opponents towards where Yui rolls so she can follow-up more easily, or give Yui a push to extend - triple - the distance she rolls! The downside is that you'll lose the amp if you use this attack at all, but if you're using this move to combo and/or knock the opponent towards you then it can actually be useful for letting Yui use her sound-based attacks close-up. You can also buffer the D-tilt when unplugging manually to extend the distance Yui rolls.
F-Smash ~ Rock Out!
Tuning her guitar, Yui gets an uncharacteristically serious look as she plays 3 rocking soundwaves that reach an audience 1.15 platforms ahead of her! Maybe she suddenly developed a fever? These waves are conical, starting out 0.5 grids tall and expanding to be 2.2 grids tall at max range. The first wave deals 5-6.4% and has a short duration. The second wave deals an electric 11-13.6% with very high base knockback and lingers a little, moderately good for KO'ing. The third and final wave deals 14-16.8% (also electric) and is the strongest move in Yui's set, able to KO at 60% when fully staled! The waves go on an upwards slant so they can't 2-frame opponents at max range, but the third wave has extra range and can 2-frame if you have fuwa fuwa timing. This move has significant starting lag however (29 frames), but very little end lag.
The knockback of the first hit varies based on where it hit from. At max range (1 grid at the end), it deals no knockback and confirms into the second hit. At mid-range, you get low upwards knockback that confirms into the second hit at low percents and/or when fresh - failing at higher percents, but able to confirm into the third hit at rather specific percents based on the move's staleness. This is unreliable however. But if you hit close-up with the first hit, foes will get knocked forwards on such an angle that it always confirms into the third hit! There's a decent leeway to hitting with the sweetspots at either end, and even if you do land the sourspot and don't confirm into another hit Yui will not get punished for it.
This move traps shields for all 3 hits that deal high damage to them overall, able to break a full shield when almost fully staled! It is safe on block and actually gives Yui a slight frame advantage close-up, but it's not a guaranteed hit. Foes can roll, spot dodge or jump away immediately to avoid getting grabbed, or K-ON forbid attempt a risky parry. This acts as a risky tech that leaves opponents with a weakened shield, something Yui can exploit with her D-tilt to shield poke if they roll back. The shield stun is actually stronger at max range, forcing foes to pick a shield option quickly if Yui had a speed boost from sweets - but with good spacing you might even shield poke the foe and land the big hit! By landing the max ranged hitbox on a shield close-up with your amp, you'll get a free hit or grab on the foe! Just be careful: all 3 hits can be parried with masterful timing. Failure to parry follow-up hits can leave opponents taking shield damage per usual, but foes only need to parry the first hit close-up to punish Yui with a very quick attack, typically their Jab.
All 3 hits on this move add to the stale que, so it's easier to stale than you'd expect and more punishing against shields for it. When a hit connects, the staleness gained is factored into the next hit's power: this makes the second or third hits stronger if the first hit connected and so on, especially if Yui was empowered by her sweets to make each hit count as two.
With its great reach and duration, this move can stuff reckless approaches and catch landings. It can pressure foes into rushing at Yui or backing off, which she can exploit with her low end lag. This is especially useful when you consider the low range on most of Yui's attacks, and how the F-tilt and D-tilt can be stuffed by attacks - if foes swing out an attack expecting one of those quick options, they may leave themselves open to a F-Smash. It's also fantastic for edge-guarding, where the third hit at max range can KO fairly early even when fresh.
This move can make amps very threatening for its power, should you commit to it. Hitting an amp won't interrupt Yui's move, so if the attack's knockback was unsatisfactory foes will just get downright punished as the soundwaves can still potentially reach them. A face-up amp tends to be situational and not particularly effective, except against foes above you. If the amp was face-down on solid ground however, it will get shot up 1.15 platforms into the air by the force of the sound, dealing 5% and slight downwards knockback while counting as an extra hit for the F-Smash. This delays the main attack somewhat, whereby the amp stays airborne as the waves fire out downwards before the amp drops harmlessly. The amp hitbox sets up into the first hit at max range, which confirms into the second hit. While not the desirable third hit, you do get 3 hits added to the que so it typically works out to be stronger than normal. Though the horizontal distance is reduced, the amp can now cover both sides this way as well as above. If Yui was far enough from the amp that it would be unplugged from being shot up, the waves will come out of her guitar instead and the attack will typically proceed as normal.
U-Smash ~ Fuwa Fuwa Time!
Yui spins into a crouch towards the screen and quivers in anticipation. She then does three vigorous hops at sugar-powered breakneck speeds, swinging her hands up and over her head like she’s doing a star jump! So enthusiastic she is that her first swing deals 10-14% and strong upwards knockback that KOs at 175-152% - pretty weak until you consider that this is only the fresh damage! Yui hops high enough that her arms hit slightly above where she was standing, missing opponents next to her but having a deceptively wide hitbox - 2 grids wide - for good horizontal coverage. This only deals 0.85x as much damage when hitting from either end, however. The first hop has a rising hitbox close to either side of Yui that deals 1-1.5% and knocks foes above her to set-up for the first swing - the hitbox in front of Yui is decent-sized, but the hitbox behind her is extremely small and requires foes to be right next to her. Like the F-Smash, each hit on this move contributes to the stale que and will contribute to the power of the next attack. This can make landing the rising hitbox worthwhile, especially if you had a sugar rush.
The second and third swing are deceptively one hitbox that deals 8.6-11.4% with surprisingly good hitstun and decent base radial knockback in one of 4 directions - with very low scaling, so the (base) knockback is only really affected by staling. Hitting from above or the centre nets you upwards knockback, while the horizontal knockback requires you to hit from either horizontal end and is harder to connect with. If you somehow hit with the bottom of the swing, like because an opponent jumped at you, they will receive a weakened but still dangerous diagonal downwards knockback that will put them into prone onstage. The third swing essentially acts as a late hitbox that is easier for Yui to capitalise on for follow-ups.
Yui gains invincibility during the attack! She is invulnerable from the waist up when she first hops. Better yet, this move has very low start-up and end lag! All this works with the star jump to form an amazing anti-air that makes trading with Yui from above very dangerous, countering opponents who jump to avoid her D-tilt, F-Smash and above all the amp. It’s also a great mix-up with the U-tilt that can deter opponents from attacking her from above out of it.
This move is not perfect. It does not hit to either side of Yui beyond the rising hitbox and has a slight duration to it, leaving her open from the sides if she throws the move out carelessly or predictably. It also leaves her open to punishment if she whiffs the rising hitbox. While Yui can avoid low attacks by hopping (good out of her crouch, maybe?), she can’t punish opponents next to her and may expose herself for their own anti-air that works well against opponents diagonally above them. Yui also loses her invincibility when she lands from the second hop, and can be now be punished by aerial attacks that she could normally plough through (laggy, delayed aerials and stall-then-falls can potentially throw Yui off). This makes the late hit trickier to land in exchange for being able to capitalise on it very easily with your low end lag, being something of a trade-off. For all its speed, this move is vulnerable to being baited, but if you want the potentially powerful sweetspot you’ll need to land the move early where you’re most predictable.
If Yui uses this move out of a dash, she’ll slide 4 grids forwards at high speeds! This makes landing the rising hitbox easier, and for the sake of connecting with the main hitbox Yui will stop moving as soon as the rising hitbox comes out, so you’ll need to charge the smash to slide the full length (be careful not to get rushed at and hit while you’re charging or you’ll take extra damage!). This can work very well out of a wavedash to keep re-starting your dash, and potentially slide towards airborne opponents who were out of range for the swinging hitboxes. If you’re really good, you can use this to pressure opponents into landing and being exposed to your strong grounded options like the F-Smash and amp.
This move has a second part that can be activated any point into the end lag. This has Yui hop up again, but this time she throws one hand up behind her (it’s in the background, so it’s not a hitbox) and holds her guitar with the other. What follows is a stylish crouched landing and a powerful strum that shoots a powerful spiral of blue sound above her! This starts with two thin tendrils from the foreground and background that meet directly above Yui and twist around each other. The spiral starts out thin but branches out like a tree the higher it goes, hitting to either side of Yui roughly 2.5 grids above her. After covering 5 grids - yes, it’s that long! - the tendrils will split and scatter out into smaller tendrils that cover a considerably large 3x3 grid area that lingers for a good moment, nearly 20 frames. This sound spiral does nothing to cover Yui from the sides under normal circumstances - in fact, the landing pose actually makes her a wider target! - but it is absolutely useful in other situations. Be warned that this does have some notable end lag to it.
The sound spiral typically deals 9-13% with solid upwards knockback that KOs at 170-140%. This is guaranteed to hit out of the late swing if it dealt upwards knockback, was not too staled and you started it early out of the first part’s end lag. This actually nets you more damage and base knockback than hitting with the first swing, as well as an extra hit! You can still get the combo around max staling if you delay the second part, but in that case you may be better off landing the first hit for its raw speed and power. As the spiral is guaranteed from a late swing, you could use this as a sort of mix-up if the foe was expecting the spiral hit and didn’t react, leaving them open for the follow-up of another attack you go into - like another U-Smash to further power this move. The first swing will put foes into range of the spiraling hitbox at low percents and low staling, but by then they will be able to act.
The spiral has a very powerful sweetspot directly over Yui and 1 grid above her. This deals 12.5-16.4% that KOs at 160-130%, but it is nearly impossible to connect with. Foes literally have to be overlapping with Yui to get hit over her, and none of the hitboxes on the first part will connect into this - you have to read this by timing it so that the third swing will miss a falling foe above you so they’re knocked out of range. It is possible to connect against a shielding opponent above you, but the swings don’t deal much shield damage - and as the second swing and third swing are treated as one hitbox, the foe can actually act before you can throw the sound out.
The other, more feasible hitbox is when the spiral scatters, which deals 1% with no hitstun to opponents caught during the scatter and another 1% to anyone who touches it an instant after it forms, both these hits able to hit the same target if they stay in the spiral for more than an instant. Each of these hits count towards the stale que. The hits might not seem like a big deal, but they make your next U-Smash stronger, and with a sugar rush Yui can potentially fully stale this move in one go. This is a huge deal, given this is an U-Smash with anti-air properties that naturally positions opponents for another potential U-air if you can get the read. The sound spiral is guaranteed to knock opponents pass the scatter hitbox when its spawns and potentially deal its second hit as well if they weren’t knocked past it. If the first swing didn’t launch too high, the foe can easily fall into the scatter hitbox and take both hits. It can be avoided with a well-timed air dodge or midair jump, but both of these take defensive options away from the foe and arguably put them in a worse position.
This move massively benefits from an amp, especially if it was horizontal and facing Yui. The sound spiral deals diagonal knockback from the sides, and now serves to cover Yui horizontally should opponents land in response to this move. Note that the foe can interrupt Yui before she generates the sound spiral, but if they acted too late and had to block the spiral it will be safe on shields around mid-range or even close-up on the sweetspot. The spiral is 9 grids long overall: the first two grids are the sweetspot, starting out spiralled as they no longer have to go around Yui, while the next 4 grids has the main hitbox and the last 3 grids gets you the scatter. The range is such that the main hitboxes can easily reach Yui and then some no matter how far away she was from her amp. The horizontal coverage can pressure opponents into dealing with Yui’s amp, especially in range of the sweetspot, but from that range they won’t have difficulty accessing either Yui or her amp or both. You can also not go through with the sound spiral and instead act into something else as a mix-up. If the foe jumped around the amp so it wasn’t facing them, you can spin it around to face them easily, but take care that they do not exploit that time to hit the amp.
The sound spiral can be used as a standalone projectile - coming out pretty fast even when you factor Yui’s hits, but still telegraphed if you just use the spiral for the sake of it. Instead, the amp works well when you have it behind you and can still take advantage of its range and use Yui’s hitboxes to pressure foes. Remember that the sound spiral scatters out the farther it goes, covering more area, and can actually be used to 2-frame opponents (like if they were trying to avoid the later hits of Yui’s swinging that could semi-spike or spike them) from the right distance. This is a good edge-guarding tactic if you were at the ledge - but the amp was closer to the centre of the stage - especially given you’ll be limited to some of the ways you can edge-guard on demand like not having access to your F-Smash.
Firing the sound spiral upwards doesn’t offer much that you can’t do by projecting them from your guitar, but they can offer stage control by limiting the foe’s movement depending on where they were placed, possibly leading into another U-Smash. If the amp was placed on a platform above you, however, you could knock the foe up into it with your swings to potentially land the spiral’s sweetspot, or just score a KO earlier near the top of the screen.
If the sound spiral fired down into solid floor, it will split into two spirals that bounce away 30 degrees to either side. These deal identical damage to the usual spiral, with knockback on the same angle they fire off at, covering more area (albeit more awkward to hit with) but the scatter hitbox is only half as large. This is another variation of stage control that can work with Yui’s U-Smash swings, like not going into the second part to take advantage of the foe’s reaction, and can potentially lead to opponents taking refuge above the amp - where you can then flip it over and hit them with sound!
The downwards spiral can work especially well by throwing the amp forwards, as the spiral goes straight down and then bounces back up to either sides to cover a large area, but you absolutely have to watch out for opponents horizontally ahead of you. The other option is to just throw the amp above you; Yui’s swings can even knock foes into the amp, which can even set up into the ricocheting spirals for considerable damage. These spirals that bounce off the floor can even catch out opponents who attempt to avoid Yui’s attacks or the falling amp.
If the blare comes out at the same time as the spiral, the blare will propel the spiral to go twice as far, extending its sweetspot appropriately. This only really works if the amp was thrown, and even then it’s pretty difficult to time and needs to be done early out of the throw. There is another solution, however: Yui swinging her hands up has a hard interaction with the falling amp that pushes it as though you smash-threw it … and inevitably unplugs it. If you do this on the first or second swing, the amp will unplug before Yui can play the song and it’ll be too late - though you could use this as a fake-out for foes expecting the following interaction. If Yui pushes the amp up on the third swing, the blare and sound spiral will come out at the same time and this is your best way to pull off the interaction, as the range boost comes in quite handy if the amp was fired to the floor so you can send the two spirals higher up. All of these vertical hitboxes and Yui’s ability to time the amp push or just not go through with the sound spiral make it very risky for foes to air dodge a flying amp above Yui, making their evasive options eaiser to read.
U-Smash ~ Fuwa Fuwa Time!
Clenching her fist, Yui crouches from a spin and quivers in anticipation. She then shoots upright, legs spread out, and holds her open palm to the sky that reveals a cluster of tiny musical notes - almost like little musical pixies! This is a flat hitbox (0.5 grids tall, 2 grids wide) slightly above Yui's palm, but it's at its strongest here at 11-15% with above-average knockback that KOs at 175-152% fresh from the centre, or only 0.85x as much damage from the sides. There's a rising hitbox close in front of Yui and extremely close behind her which deal 1-1.5% and set up into the sweetspot. Like the F-Smash, each hit contributes to the stale que and will contribute to the power of the next hit in the attack.
The charging animation can be used as a pseudo-crouch, but it's obviously nowhere as good as Yui's actual crouch. But once Yui goes upright, her upper-half becomes invincible while the notes are out! Past the main hitbox, the cluster will quickly gather into a more spherical grid-sized hitbox (which isn't that large), now dealing 8.6-11.4% and below-average electric knockback on contact. The knockback is typically radial in one of 4 directions, but opponents who are somehow hit from above will receive low but dangerous diagonal downwards knockback. This attack has a decent duration and relatively low lag, giving foes only a small window to counter attack from above. It also lets Yui follow up on the sourspot surprisingly easily, especially if it hit late.
Between the invincibility, duration and initial shape of the hitbox, this is an ideal anti-air that covers enemy attempts to get around Yui's D-tilt, general amp camping or her feared F-Smash - especially close-up where the waves are at their shortest. It is better for trading blows above Yui given the hitbox's short staring height, a great mix-up with the U-tilt or aerial follow-ups. Watch out though: the note hitbox won't hit grounded opponents, leaving the rising hitbox very punishable if whiffed. Opponents can fall past, dodge through or jump and then fall to punish Yui for attempting the bar hitbox, making it weak against evasive manoeuvres. On the other hand, these are easy enough for Yui to punish if she reads them anyway!
If Yui uses this move from the start of a dash, she'll slide 3.5 grids forwards! At reasonable speeds, that is, but it can potentially make landing the rising hitbox easier. This is more effective from a wavedash where Yui can mix up whether she wants to keep the amp or unplug it, as well as giving her that little extra boost to catch out falling foes before they land (if she wants to).
The amp interactions are truly bizarre and tacky, justified only by the power of moe running through Yui. The notes are gone, but the initial hitbox from the bar is still above Yui - only invisible! Such is the power of her enthusiasm. Even stranger is the amp which tilts back Yui so its 'back' is almost touching the ground, which is in fact a veeery short-ranged hitbox that deals 2% with low upwards knockback and stales. Also maybe the amp can dodge attacks as it tilts. It is here that the amp projects the notes above where it was previously facing (backwards if it was face-up and so on), only this time the hitbox is reversed: the notes start out in their grid-sized compact form with even less knockback than before and always knocking foes upwards. But then they flatten out into the stronger bar hitbox that will follow up on this hit. Nail with the original tilting hitbox and you're looking at 3 hits and 3 staleness or 6 if you've got sugar.
By the way, the amp too is invincible (not intangible, it can soak up projectiles) while projectile notes, which can of course function as an indirect counter. In any case, being able to project a hitbox from another angle gives the amp more protection and prevents foes from being able to wreck it from above. Yui does lose hitboxes on herself for this however, so opponents might be better off just attacking her instead of the amp.
D-Smash ~ J-Pop!
Posing confidently, Yui spins strums her guitar for an upbeat note as she points to the floor - and like magic (or the power of KyoAni's animation quality), a colourful wave of music rushes out from her feet! This is a low hitbox that goes 2 grids ahead of Yui, but don't be fooled by its lack of height: the wave deals 10.5-14% and solid knockback on a low angle, able to KO at 171-148% or earlier against opponents with a hard time recovering low. And that's just when it's fresh! Coming out on frame 9, this is an excellent out-of-shield punish, as it has the reach to reach opponents who whiffed more mediocre attacks. The amp also benefits from this, as a way to punish opponents who rush at it to take it down in one hit to give Yui the max respawning cooldown.
Did I mention that the wave inflicts (reasonable) ZSS paralyzer stun before launching the opponent? Such is the power of KyoAni's sound quality. But Yui can't really exploit this, because the first note is followed by a second note behind her! She'll spin and splay her hand to send out a wave that undulates before it explodes into a 2 grid tall and 1 grid wide pillar of music at the end of its life, leaving her facing the other way. This deals 1 hit of 2-3.8% that knocks opponents into the pillar, which deals 12.4-16.2% and strong mostly-upwards knockback behind Yui - almost as strong as her F-Smash! No hits on the second wave deal paralyzer stun. Like Yui's other Smashes, each hit counts as a stale hit and will contribute to the power of the next hit. There's even a sourspot on the first hit right in front of Yui which deals 1.5-3% and knockback that sets up into the second hit, to the point where hitting at full power will land Yui a massive amount of damage - 46% for one Smash!
This move doesn't have too much end lag, but there's a very notable gap between the first and second hits as Yui has to turn around and pose. So while the first hit is punishing and can shield poke, it essentially has loads of end lag that prevents Yui from capitalising on the stun or the potential prone situations at higher percents onstage. This gap also gives the second hit a good deal of "starting lag" in exchange for not being as punishable.
If Yui had her back to a ledge however, something peculiar will happen as Yui turns and proceeds to fire the second wave: the attack will get ledge-cancelled! This sounds strong, but there are few things to note: A) Yui has to go through the turning lag before and is still punishable, B) it is position reliant and C) the knockback won't be as effective for KO'ing for obvious reasons, as well as putting Yui in a relatively risky position. Yui can still get a tech chase in however, which is only fair when the stun gives foes time to comprehend a tech (though the timing can be a bit tricky due to Ultimate's fast knockback). This works with the amp, which is good because if Yui is using to camp she will typically be doing so from the ledge.
Both waves are projected ahead the amp and always go forwards, even if it was face-up or face-down and without pushing it upright in the latter case. The stun of the first wave can barely trap foes for the second wave: this is typically bonus damage as the second wave's sourspot won't knock foes out of the stun, except at max range where the pillar will hit for massive damage and override the knockback from the first wave. Overall, the amp trades coverage for pressure and greater punishing capabilities, able to shield poke foes and take advantage of the F-Smash's shield damage.
If the first wave reached Yui because she released it from an amp, it will spin her around and quickly push her along until she reaches a ledge or is 5 grids ahead her amp, more than enough to unplug it. Yui is carried along the centre of the wave so it has a hitbox to either side of her; leaving her more vulnerable to being poked in exchange for greater results if the wave connects. For one, Yui will push a stunned foe along so they start their knockback closer to the ledge! And unlike running into a foe, pushing a foe this way won't slow Yui down.
If Yui reaches the ledge from her push, she can get the ledge cancel from her turning and actually follow-up on the knockback. If Yui didn't reach the ledge, she'll unplug the amp and can connect with the second wave head-on, which is able to hit shielding opponents! This is all pretty strong and gives Yui a reason to stay reasonably close in front of her amp, given her NSpec + Jab combo rewards her from being far away from it. You can also use this technique to retreat, and if you're particularly skilled near the ledge even catch out opponents with the second wave of the amp by starting out with your back to the ledge.
N-air ~ Synchowaves!
Yui faces the screen and plays air guitar - literally! Sound waves surround her like a spherical barrier and drag opponents for 4 hits of 2%, finishing with low base knockback but high scaling that KOs at 128% at full power - and if all the hits connected. The knockback scaling worsens with less hits, but the knockback will be on a low angle and completely horizontal if just one hit connected. The starting lag is notable and the duration isn't that long, but the end lag is very low and Yui can still drag opponents around nicely, especially with a sugar rush. Furthermore, Yui gets 2 frames of invincibility when the hitbox comes out! If Yui lands while dragging an opponent, they'll be at frame-neutral with her or put into prone if they were horizontally level to or beneath her.
When Yui faces the screen with amp out, the cord gets tugged just enough to spin the amp to face the screen for the duration of this attack. The sound waves now projecting from the amp are one of Yui's few ways to cover it and provide her with some nice stage control. Yui is not defenceless either: with the waves gone from her, her body is revealed to be a dragging hitbox that deal 1.6% and identical knockback to the soundwave, but with notably worse scaling for logic reasons. This has a slight invisible hitbox like some attacks in Smash, so the range isn't as bad as you'd expect - but it's not too difficult for foes to outrange with Aerials, should they come after you when the defensive hitbox around the amp proves a difficulty. It is even possible to drag opponents into the amp's hitbox for extra damage, in which case the amp's dragging will take priority over Yui's. This means you can't easily combine the damage of both hitboxes, but if you hit with both of them it will treat the move as though it twice for staling purposes.
The amp can use the soundwave for basic comboing depending on your positioning and how late you hit into the attack. You can also land early to cut off the hitbox and throw off opponents. Opponents trapped in the sound will be put in frame-neutral if they were airborne or into prone if they were grounded, which can start some a very scary tech-chasing situation where Yui can intercept the foe if they roll towards her or get them with a sound hitbox, giving them even less options if she gets them at the ledge. The threat of the omnidirectional waves can goad foes into knocking the amp away during the starting lag, or just staying away from it and giving Yui some breathing room. Yui can take advantage of either behaviour.
The range and duration of the soundwaves make it a powerful edge-guarding option when the amp is placed at the ledge - especially if you go offstage yourself and mix it up with your other sound-producing aerials. You can even use the late hit of the wave to deal horizontal knockback and force low recoveries or set-up into another attack. One note about these soundwaves, however: they will not pass solid ground below the source (Yui or the amp) and therefore cannot hit foes at the ledge while they were grounded. This makes the ledge a safe option for foes if they can't jump over the amp and prevents you from getting easy 2-frames.
The dragging aspect of the wave can be exploited by throwing the amp, which will cause opponents to get dragged along as it flies. By landing to cancel the wave, you can choose to position the foe there, where they will either get hit by the amp if they were in its path or set up into another amp attack. This doesn't work if you threw the amp upwards unless you landed on a platform above where you threw the amp from, however, as the fact that you need to use the N-air afterwards and will inevitably fall farther than where you threw the amp from means that it will get unplugged. It works if you threw the amp forwards, but you will need to move forwards with the amp to make sure it doesn't get unplugged. You could also throw the amp downwards, and drag foes down to get hit by the amp itself or the shockwave.
If the amp blared during this attack, the next soundwave will get enhanced by the blare. It becomes 1.4x bigger, lasts for a decent while - sightly longer than the main attack - and deals a flat 5% with knockback equal to the blare's knockback. The hitbox will end early if Yui lands. As the amp faces the screen during this move, the knockback is diagonal instead of being based on the (generally more convenient) direction the amp was facing prior, but that's only fair given this has a lot more range than the blare. The blare will in fact get triggered even if Yui was knocked out of this move and the cord got unplugged as a result, which can act as a counter or a trap if opponents were in range of the amp or would fall towards it. You can also use the hitbox in tandem with offstage edgeguarding to catch out opponents who were barely in range of the regular soundwave hitbox, potentially knocking them back offstage. Unlike the usual sound variant of this attack, the knockback is more consistent so that can be an incentive to use it. Do watch out however: this blare leaves the amp more exposed than normal before it disappears, which can be spell trouble if opponents had a projectile or move with a lot of range. They can also shield the amp hits and then drop their shield after the single blare hit to quickly hit the amp, so don't use it on opponents in that situation.
F-air ~ Vibes!
Yui grins as she strums her guitar down through the middle, only to swing her strumming hand back up with a flourishing swipe! The strumming releases a thin, strawberry coloured ring of sound that covers 3 grids at moderately high speeds. This ring starts out strong and compact, only 2/5ths as tall as Yui, but it expands to 3/5ths of her height over the first 2 grids of its travel and fragments the rest of the way. And yet this move is quite fast for its range, with low lag in all areas! (though it does have a slight duration due to firing a projectile) The sound ring has the curious property of moving independently to Yui like a projectile, but it’s treated as a disjointed hitbox and will disappear early if Yui landed or the move got interrupted. The ring has transcendent priority, so it won’t clash with projectiles.
The ring hits hardest relatively close-up (the sweetspot here is rather generous) for 4.8% and decent, somewhat low-angled knockback that can combo into itself and carry foes along at low percents and when fresh. It gets a bit harder to combo with this hitbox when the knockback scales at around 100% or the move was occupying the first two queues of the stale list or so, but Yui can easily land the other hitboxes on the ring. It can KO at 140% at full power, which is not huge but fairly easy to land and stale. The sweetspot deals electric damage, which means more hitstun that helps to cover the duration of the ring - and no added hitlag for Yui! (the ring isn’t apart of her body) For some odd reason, the electric property isn’t triggered on shields, which are effective against this move and can be used to punish it.
Past the sweetspot, the ring deals 3.5% and low mostly-upwards knockback, with very low scaling and is barely affected by staling. This makes the hitbox very consistent, so it can easily juggle foes and combo into itself! You can even exploit the ring’s “projectile” properties to set it as you ascend or descend to vary your positioning. One neat trick is to throw out this move as soon as you jump: you’ll end up above the foe and can easily do another F-air or drop your amp on them if you close the gap a little. Even if they blocked the ring, you can still dump the amp on them! The ring can also act as a “trap” to pop opponents back up into the air as you fall, affording you just the right spacing to set up the amp or follow-up.
Past the previous hitbox, around the 1.6-2 grid mark, the ring deals 2% and reasonable hitstun that actually gets stronger as the move stales, which is not a property in all of Yui’s attacks. This can be used for similar purposes to the previous hitbox, but with Yui’s air speed and a short hop it can help close the space between you and the opponent. Hitstun from a fresh blow isn’t hugely impressive, but the difference between a fresh hit and a hit on the first que is actually quite notable! On the first two queues, easy enough if you landed one hit on a sugar rush, this can actually pressure and open up opponents for a follow-up if you’re quick to close the space - though you can’t just F-air them again given you’ll land before you can start up another close to the ground.
The soundwave only deals 1.4% and no hitstun on the last grid of its travel, but this contributes towards staling in a questionably safe manner nonetheless. However! Like the stunning hitbox, the hitstun here improves as the move stales - and will actually deal hitstun if the F-air was occupying the first que! (or equivalent power if it was later in the que, if those hits made up at least the same amount of power that the first move in the que offers) This can downright catch opponents off-guard, and can actually pressure opponents into holding up their shield for this otherwise “safe” portion of the move. This is what makes the move dangerous to keep shielding, despite the fact that the wave is weak against shields. You essentially have to earn the full range of this fast attack by staling it, but once you’re there you’ll have a powerful baiting and pressure tool.
Yui can have a tough time approaching, because while she has movement (air speed, Up Special, D-tilt) most of her options are easily snuffed out by attacks. The F-air covers that with its range, and if foes use projectiles Yui can potentially crouch down instead of committing to her song. When the F-air can stun at max range, it can be good at baiting movement given it will just keep getting stronger if the foe shields it (the sweetspot isn’t too fearsome at max power, but the stunning hitboxes are something foes should watch out for). Thrown out in midair, foes might get pressured into fastfalling so they can fall past the ring which doesn’t move with Yui. If you can read this, you might be able to close the gap or fastfall into a F-Smash or D-tilt! If you don’t read it however, you’ll get left open for a short time. This is a drawback to the sound ring’s properties. You can get past this by short-hopping, but you’ll need to commit to the attack asap to get its max range or else you’ll end up landing too soon.
The ring provides great stage control from an amp and can start up basic combos, like bouncing the foe up towards Yui. With the ring on the amp, Yui’s upwards swipe is revealed to be a hitbox in the place of the sweetspot, This deals 3.4% and similar base knockback to the ring’s sweetspot, but with barely any scaling so it can combo more consistently. Right up-close, this will knock foes behind Yui instead of forwards even though the non-amp version can’t do this, but here it works with the fact that you might have the amp behind you. The range is not terrific but still perfectly usable - especially with Yui’s air speed! It is even possible to hit with both the arm swipe and the amp ring, like if you knocked the foe past your amp along the ground, in which case it will count as hitting with the move twice.
The sound ring gets great mileage out of the amp blare! This works identically to NSpec notes being blared, that being the ring gets shot out 6 grids forwards with its current hitbox in-tact before it continues the rest of its journey normally, greatly extending its range. It is easy enough to unplug the amp just by moving past the cord’s length with the right timing and spacing - something foes have to watch out for when Yui has the optimal spacing for this, especially if she had the amp behind her and foes thought they were out of the ring’s range. By unplugging at the right time, you can essentially choose any of the four hitboxes to hit the foe with! Most of the hitboxes (practically all of them) work really well if you were close to the foe so you can combo off of them, but with good staling the sweetspot can be a solid KO option. In fact, even if the F-air wasn’t that staled, it can still KO decently early if you threw the amp upwards - or forwards - and timed it so the sweetspot gets shot out, potentially hitting opponents closer to the blast zone.
If the sound ring was fired from an amp faced against the floor, it will travel to either side as a shockwave with half of its usual range, but not weakening the hitbox. This actually enables the ring to hit opponents at the ledge, as it doesn’t normally hit low enough from Yui or the amp. The ring will also become a shockwave if it hits the ground from being fired downwards from an airborne amp, expanding outwards for the remainder of its life. This can used to catch out opponents if you threw the amp towards and over them, hitting with the shockwave if you failed to connect with the ring itself. The ring-to-shockwave naturally benefits from the range boost of the blare, going out farther to either side and letting you hit with the sweetspot more easily if you want to.
F-air ~ Bow!
Yui does just that! This comes out fast on frame 4, dealing 4.8% with very low mostly-upwards knockback at the head or 3.5% with Sakurai knockback close-up. Yui's bread-and-butter combo and aerial move, it packs surprising reach and has very little lag, making it safe on shields at the head. This too makes it a great approaching move or cross-up with her air speed, but it has a short duration and her head remains bowed for most of the end lag. The sourspot can be used to juggle opponents and pop them off the ground to open them up, having very little knockback scaling and staling doing very little to affect its self-comboing potential. The sweetspot can easily push opponents along as a wall-of-pain, but will begin to scale past 100% or when occupying the first 2 queues to the point where it'll start to push foes back just a bit too far. Instead, it can be used to space snugly for Yui's camping game! The sweetspot can KO at 140% when fully staled, and this is one of Yui's easier moves to fully stale as the sourspot can always be used to keep opponents close.
B-air ~ Lazy Down!
Yui lays back in midair! Or more like she throws herself out like she’s reaching for something, and hits with force to match. This is a sex kick that deals 6.5% and solid knockback at the start, launching foes behind Yui on a low angle. It also deals surprisingly good shield damage, like the foe got hit by the hammer of moe! But hitting with Yui’s legs gets you 5.9% and slightly less forwards knockback. Hitting late gets you 4% and Sakurai knockback to either side depending on where you hit like with the sweetspot, able to trip grounded opponents at low percents. It might sound normal, but if you hit right near the end you’ll actually drag the foe for an extra 1% before knocking them away with the sourspot. This will not hit on the same foe if they were hit by the move earlier into it.
The sweetspot can combo into itself at lower percents and when not staled, scaling to KO near the ledge at around 158%. The sourspot keeps foes close to you at low percents and fresh, which is good because this move has very low end lag in midair - but there’s a small amount of starting lag on this move as Yui sits before throwing herself back, not the best position to follow with another B-air. At higher percents, a fresh sourspot will scale to combo into itself where the sweetspot will fail, but you can do this at lower percents just by having this move on the first que of the stale list. The sourspot can combo into the sweetspot to KO, but this does leave Yui’s attack pattern a bit predictable.
As Yui swings herself back for this move, she gets a small burst of mobility or a decent burst if she was moving backwards or downwards. If Yui used this move early into a jump, she’ll get more backwards movement, even more if she did this out of her midair jump. This lets Yui launch herself into foes behind her and land the sweetspot from surprisingly far away, or do the same with the sourspot from even farther away. The closer you launched yourself into an opponent, the farther you’ll go behind them and won’t get punished if they shielded, which is only fair when this move’s starting lag adds a risk factor to that strategy. On the other hand, launching yourself into a foe from a distance can leave you close to them for punishment, and they can take advantage of Yui’s exposed hurtboxes anyway. Launching becomes more rewarding when the B-air hitboxes stop comboing into themselves; you can combo the sweetspot into itself from higher percents/staling this way, or connect with the sourspot as early as possible to knock the foe towards your new position for a combo. This works better at higher percents where you don’t have the B-air staled, and can instead combo into other, more staled moves.
If Yui lands during the sweetspot, the slamming of her back into the ground will generate a small shockwave that deals identical damage and reaches notably farther than Yui. This has the same staling properties of the smash attacks, in that it counts as a separate B-air for the que and gets stronger if the sweetspot connected beforehand (most likely on a shield) - like Yui and the shockwave are separate entities, which they are. Better yet, the shockwave hits low enough that it can shield poke weakened shields and works out of the sweetspot’s shield damage, which makes shielding this attack even more dangerous. Your chances of shield poking are better from a distance around the max range of the shockwave, but you won’t be in range to hit with the sweetspot. The downside is that Yui suffers a lot of landing lag out of the sweetspot - she does go spread-eagled and giggle and has to get up off her back, after all! This leaves her punishable unless she landed the shockwave, making this a high-risk option from the fastfall for the most part.
Yui suffers less landing lag if she lands out of the sourspot as she gets up without a fuss, like she’s content with the amount of time she laid back for. This isn’t too noteworthy unless Yui dragged a foe on the late hit of the sweetspot, in which case she will slide back a short distance and the foe will get knocked into prone. Rolling behind Yui is not the safest option given she can just throw out another B-air, but if they roll away from you you might be able to do a bit of set-up if they weren’t rolling into the amp’s range. Just be careful not to eat a get-up attack!
This move has many uses. For one, it is a great burst and punish option against foes who roll behind you. This is a pretty common situation when you consider that they might be avoiding an amp set-up, or going around you to get to it, and that your U-Smash makes aerial approaches tricky. It helps that this move doesn’t rely on the amp, unlike some of Yui’s other pressure and stage-control options. You can also burst yourself into opponents standing on platforms to avoid your amp below. Another option is to take advantage of this move’s potential forwards knockback to knock foes back towards your amp.
Being a wide-hitting sex kick, this is a good walling move and edge-guarding tool to use against opponents who are avoiding your amp. It is deadly below the ledge where opponents might be hanging to avoid an amp placed on the ledge. This move can stage-spike if you hit foes towards the ledge, and the sweetspot deals knockback on a low angle so it is quite a capable gimping move. Just be careful on this one: Yui does have her fall speed increased too during the B-air. She has to launch herself and use a jump to get the best from the sweetspot, but as she flattens herself precision is required or else she’ll pass opponents. This leaves B-air gimping somewhat predictable despite its potency.
One more thing: Yui’s recovery is strong at full throttle and lets her make it back to the stage from afar, but if she ends up too far below the ledge line she might not make it back. Even if she does make it back, you just lost moves in your stale list, weakening your B-air and leaving you more vulnerable to a respawning foe who can potentially gimp you. When gimping a foe, it is better not to outright KO them but instead let them fall for the KO, as it will take longer for them to respawn and this increases your chances of making it back safely.
B-air ~ Lazy Down!
Yui lays back in midair! This comes out on frame 6 and acts as a two-hit sex kick, dealing 3% with surprisingly good hitstun for most of it (slightly more when hitting earlier). The second part deals 6.5% with good knockback, diagonally away from Yui's head or legs, or upwards knockback if she hits with her body. This part is only active for 1 frame, but will always connect from the first hit if Yui was still in contact with her opponent and has very low end lag. At full power, this can KO at 110%!
Laying back gives Yui a momentum boost during the attack (because it's fun for her!), which can make chaining the two hits together a bit tricky. On the other hand, Yui's high air speed makes this good for escapes and ploughing through foes like a moe missile! It can be used as a pseudo D-air, and oftentimes the sourspot can be better to hit with as it keeps foes in place for camping or air combos. The landing lag is harsh though, and being a jointed hitbox it can easily be intercepted with disjointed and farther-reaching attacks if Yui gets too predictable with it.
U-air ~ Fun Things Are Fun!
Yui faces the screen with her legs spread as she plays a brief high note and waves that hand overhead! This is a fast attack that deals 4% with low base knockback that’s suited to juggling, and a sweetspot above the waving hand that deals 2% and decent hitstun that can lock foes in place to have the move combo into itself. This move actually scales decently and stops juggling reliably at around 60% at full power, but at that strength it can KO near the top of the screen at 90%. If necessary, you can use your Up Special as a third jump to finish the foe if you’re out of range. This move can juggle foes until considerably higher percents than staled when fresh, making it useful when not staled and having good synergy with the Up Special’s stale removal effect.
When Yui strums on frame 2, she produces a faint soundwave that almost covers her entire body, lingering before and for the entire duration of waving hitbox. This deals 6% with high base upwards knockback but fairly low scaling, opposite to the wave. What’s more, it actually functions as a reverse sex kick as the wave gets accompanied by two more waves like an echo - dealing 7.5% and even more knockback if you hit right at the end! You can only hit from below or from the sides however, given the wave above you prevents it from hitting opponents from above.
This soundwave could hypothetically work as a combo breaker, but that is extremely unlikely given how easy it is to outrange. It could work against an attack that deals very, very low knockback, or you could just throw it out aggressively as a pseudo Side Aerial or D-air. If you do hit, the wave accompanies your Up Special quite well due to putting distance between you and your opponent, and can be a great option to cancel into if you got right above your opponent. In fact, the late sweetspot can actually KO at 115% near the top of the screen when fresh, while the sourspot of the soundwave can KO at 155% in the same situation, making it a legitimately good KO option from a fresh juggle at high percents - though remember that using this move to juggle will make the sweetspots KO earlier!
The soundwave is a safe landing option against shields if you can drift away from the foe, but the sweetspot at the end is completely safe (unless it was parried). In fact, this actually gives Yui a 1 frame advantage that can open up opportunities for her short-ranged melee game or a grab. This can pressure opponents into attacking Yui if she was close instead of shielding - but if Yui had her second jump, she could bait this out and instead go for her amp or D-air during the foe’s end lag! This attack also has baiting properties when you’re attacking and juggling the foe, which is helped by the wave being a jointed hitbox. All you have to do is land - short-hopping this move or landing on a platform you passed as you juggled the foe - and then go into your U-Smash to beat out that attack! Juggling the foe past a platform is the more likely situation this will occur, because there Yui can refresh her jumps and the soundwave on the U-air can KO at lower percentages from that high up.
The soundwave naturally gets distributed to the amp when you have one out. The wave barely has any range here, only as much as the blare, so it’s not easy to hit with in spite of its speed and duration. It can catch opponents moving past the amp or if you throw the amp towards them, however, potentially connecting with the late sweetspot with good timing, or as a very quick option if you trip opponents with the amp shockwave. The latter option can set up foes to get knocked up into Yui and to get hit by her hand wave for extra damage, treating this move as though it hit twice for staleness. Foes hit by the U-air soundwave on Yui herself (non-amped) will pass her hand waving hitbox when hit late - these are not separate hitboxes when they are both on Yui, but they are when they are distributed between herself and the amp. Due to the way knockback works on foes taking knockback, the hand wave typically won’t knock foes out of the soundwave’s knockback due to its base knockback being superior, which can help set up into another U-air - possibly without needing to use your jump! - if you knocked the foe up from high enough (near max range for the amp’s cord). If the foe’s percentage was high enough and the U-air was staled enough however, and you didn’t land the late sweetspot of the soundwave, the hand wave’s own knockback will be strong enough to overwrite the soundwave’s knockback, potentially resulting in foes being knocked up higher than usual. Losing your soundwave hitbox to the amp can be a real bummer given it enhances the melee aspects of this attack, but remember: it’s not hard to unplug the cord and give the soundwave back to Yui!
If the soundwave was active when the blare occurred, the soundwave will overwrite the blare’s wind hitbox and get its range extended to a more reasonable amount. The blared wave now deals an enhanced 9% with even greater base knockback (though the scaling doesn’t really improve), or 13.5% if you connected with the late sweetspot! You can trigger this by pulling the cord via movement, or use it more offensively by strong-throwing the amp forwards just off the ground or so, so that you are spaced enough that the amp will unplug instead of landing ahead of Yui. But as the knockback here is always upwards no matter the amp’s direction, it is better utilised by throwing the amp upwards so that the blared victim will be closer to the top of the screen. Worse yet, if you throw the amp upwards and land the late sweetspot while the U-air was fully staled, the sheer base knockback will cause it to KO at an astonishingly low 30%! The amp throw’s hitbox can even set up for this, but there are two things to note: hitting with the amp will stale the Side Special and make the U-air weaker, and that if you’re going for the sweetspot foes will have more time to dodge or just attack the amp.
U-air ~ Fun Things Are Fun!
Yui holds up a hairdryer beneath her chin and turns it to full blast! Her hair gets ruffled up while foes get juggled up for 5%, in a blast of wind that hits in a slight arch arc above Yui. The knockback doesn't scale well, but there's a sweetspot directly above Yui which deals 7% and solid knockback that can KO at 90% near the top of the screen at full power. Needless to say, this can juggle quite effectively combined with Yui's air speed and Up Special.
This move has a wind hitbox directly above the main hitbox that's actually more effective than the sourspot and can KO near the top of the screen at 160%. It typically pushes opponents straight up, but if you hit on the sides you'll push the foe on a 30* angle and with slightly less force. And being a wind hitbox, this doesn't count as connecting with the main attack and thus it won't stale! It is not even affected by the move's strength, for that matter. This lets Yui juggle foes without staling this move, but at the obvious cost of not dealing them damage. While not always convenient, the wind can be used to position opponents or stall them as Yui glides past to land, setting up into a more desirable option. The wind can also be used to redirect notes straight up if Yui prefers; as well as the amp hilariously enough, in which case it loses its hitbox if it had one but will briefly hover at its apex before falling at a slightly slower rate.
D-air ~ Downtime!
Yui whirls towards the screen, tucks her knees in and closes her eyes as she holds a guitar peg above her, holding this pose for dramatic effect. She then bends forwards and brings down the peg onto her guitar, kicking out with her feet as she belts out the facemelter! Maybe she’s trying to imitate Sawa-chan in her Death Devil days? It might seem intense for Yui’s standards, but it does do this attack justice as you will see.
The facemelter produces a somewhat conical soundwave that reaches 2.5 grids below Yui, but the real murder happens right beneath her at the base of the wave: this deals an electrifying 11.5% with a spike that’s even stronger than Ganon’s D-air when staled! The middle of the wave deals 8.5% and solid mostly-upwards knockback that can KO at 120% near the top of the screen, but can also combo nicely into the F-air or U-air at lower percents. The bottom of the wave gets you 5.7% with low upwards knockback more suited to comboing, potentially setting up for the U-air’s sweetspot, while the tips of the wave to either side deal 4% with hitstun in midair (good for resets) or tripping against grounded opponents. The latter hitbox lingers for a bit longer than the rest of the hitbox, and can potentially be used to tech chase opponents so you can hit them with another D-air or just drop the amp on them.
The facemelter is very slow to come out given all that posing, but it has very low end lag and landing lag that make it easy to capitalise on all of the sourspots. You can even combo with the sweetspot off the ground, and use it to tech chase into your other aerials like the F-air or B-air or set up the amp if you knock a foe down into the ground, or potentially land another D-air. As far as landing the hit goes, it is more of a hard read against opponents who dodge your other aerials like your F-air and U-air, especially if you had a stale chain going, because they will generally expect you to follow up with that same aerial. It helps that this move has plenty of power and utility when fresh - the middle of the wave can potentially KO in the place of a relatively staled U-air, for instance.
The knockback of the sweetspot is adjusted to match the amp, but the rest of the hitboxes retain their knockback trajectory. This serves as a deadly semi-spike near the ledge if the amp was horizontal, but it’s still useful onstage as you can knock foes into prone. Upwards knockback from the sweetspot is enhanced slightly to make it more rewarding. The D-air is a hard read as usual that can intercept foes who avoid Yui’s other aerials, and while the F-air might seem like a better option for stage control the D-air is safe on shields, keeping foes in a position to pressure with the low lag, and the majority of the knockback lends itself into combos into your other aerials. The shield safety also lets Yui land safely after dropping the amp close to a foe, even land close to them.
With the amp out, Yui kicking downwards is revealed to be a hitbox that deals half the damage (including shield damage) of the soundwaves and 0.8x their knockback, with a slight invisible hitbox beneath her. The top half of the hitbox is the spike while the bottom half is the midbox for the mostly-upwards knockback, the sourspots being entirely absent. The range cut makes this a poor aerial on its own, but you do have the amp’s hitbox which foes have to be wary of. This can prove useful with an amp edge-guard, where Yui might be able to spike a foe with good timing. Like the NSpec notes, the amp will get pushed back upright by the soundwave if it was facedown.
It is perfectly possible for both the soundwaves and Yui’s kicks to land on the same target, treating this move as though it hit twice. This nets you extra shield damage, but no more shield stun given it is already safe on hit. The amp’s knockback normally takes precedence over Yui’s knockback, unless the amp hit on the sourspot in which case the foe will receive Yui’s knockback. As the sourspot edges linger for a bit longer than the other hitboxes, it is possible to hang over them and catch out opponents whom Yui’s own D-air might have missed,
A neat trick with the amp? Start up this move, but unplug the cord during the starting lag to suddenly give the soundwave hitbox back to Yui! This can be used to intercept foes who roll/move away from the amp and beneath Yui, or who just go after Yui herself. It helps that, while she does have her own D-air, it is far less reliable than the soundwaves themselves and does leave her vulnerable from below with the amp out to some degree. Another trick is to have the amp upright and be high above it, where you can cover practically the entire vertical space between you and the amp within the cord’s range. The amp blare doesn’t offer anything unique to these soundwaves should you time them to hit at the same time (which is difficult here), but their hitboxes can hit a foe at the same time, in which case the sweetspot’s knockback will get enhanced somewhat.
This is arguably the most difficult move to stale in Yui’s set, let alone actually hit with at full power - you can land the tripping hitbox or knock a foe into prone to tech chase into another D-air, but they will be expecting it, and this move is very slow and predictable if you just throw it out for the sake of it. Landing this move at full power is more of a bonus than anything.
D-air ~ Downtime!
Facing the screen and legs spread out in a sitting pose, Yui preps her guitar for another song! It's slow to start (frame 20), but it makes up with some nice reach 2.5 grids below Yui in a somewhat conical wave, as well as very low end lag and landing lag. This deals an electric 11.5% if it hits below Yui, spiking opponents and being even stronger than Ganon's D-air when well-staled. The middle of the wave deals 8.5% and solid mostly-upwards knockback with good KO potential near the top of the screen (120% when fresh), while below that you get 5.7% and low upwards knockback that's more suited to comboing. The tips of the waves to either side 4% with tripping or hitstun in midair (good for resets) and linger for slightly longer than the rest of the hitbox, able to start techs that can result in another D-air being landed. Due to its range and starting lag, this can be an ideal move for catching out opponents who dodge your U-air.
This move is fairly difficult to power up due to its starting lag, but it's more usable and versatile than some of Yui's other Aerials even when fresh. It can combo into itself or other Aerials with the midbox at lower percents and from the bottom at higher percents, while the tippers can also combo at any percent. The sweetspot combos off the ground at low-mid percents when fresh, and if you knock a foe into the ground you potentially get a quick follow-up if they tech or tech chase them if they're knocked into prone. Your B-air, N-air and particularly the amp are great follow-ups out of this, the latter coming out slightly faster than the D-air as a good mix-up tool.
This move's soundwave can be exploited with an amp, projected from the direction the amp was facing, but it can be predictable and difficult to pull off given the starting lag and the cord's limited length. The soundwave can be used to threaten grounded opponents while Yui is in midair and can't use her Smashes, like intercepting a landing against those attempting to escape a combo string. With good positioning, you can even intercept opponents who land outside of the wave's range: just move towards and over them (with your high air speed or an Up Special) so you're far enough to unplug the cord, giving Yui her D-air hitbox back to nail them! But landing the amp wave can be useful in itself, as it will mostly knock opponents upwards and potentially towards Yui for a combo. The D-air is safe on shields and can potentially cover Yui's landing with an amp. Foes can knock the amp away if need-by, but they have to be careful about Yui throwing out her quicker N-air waves if they get too close.
Between her N-air and D-air, Yui actually becomes more vulnerable in midair while she has an amp out. This move does at least have a spiking hitbox below Yui as she plays, but it less range and is not very threatening on its own. Losing two hitboxes essentially adds a price to dropping the amp willy-nilly, and gives foes more incentive to break through her defences as she can easily be juggled with her loss of hitboxes.
Being an innocent schoolgirl, Yui grapples in the way she knows best: by wrapping her arms around the target to hug them! She'll hug anyone, even if they're a big scary man or a monster or Pennywise or are just trying to kill her. This is a surprisingly amazing grab that comes out faster than most on frame 5. It is fairly low-reaching however, and Yui's poor traction makes it harder for her to shield grab than you'd expect. Her dash grab and pivot grab go quite far however - the latter a great follow-up from the sourspotted F-tilt or if you wavedash to unplug an amp to push an opponent close to it towards you.
Yui's grab game is almost as harmless as her intentions! Rather than damage, it is more designed to set-up - Yui's pummels and throws cannot actually enter her stale que, making them her only way to set-up while preserving a desired que. A sugar boost makes grabs easier to pull off due to enhancing Yui's dash, but just using the Down Special ironically leaves Yui with almost no moves on her que to preserve in the first place.
It can be hard to notice, but opponents go through a certain animation when mashing out of Yui's hugging grab, based on what input was made. By moving, they'll push or pull in the chosen direction. By attacking, they'll push at Yui or do something else distinctive, while shielding will make them wriggle or something along those lines. Multiple animations can occur if multiple buttons were pressed, even though pressing multiple buttons is ineffective for escaping. Perhaps this knowledge could be exploited? But if you're a casual like Yui, it'll go right over your head!
Pummel ~ Free Hugs!
Yui nuzzles and ruffles the hugged affectionately! This somehow deals 0.1% to opponents, possibly because most characters would find all of that pampering uncomfortable, and doesn't interrupt their escape animation. It's pretty fast, and each use charges Yui with scientifically proven hugging energy - increasing her focus and causing her next non-grab attack that hits to be added to the que once more! This is represented by transparent blinking notes that undulate on her stale meter, starting from the 1st que all the way to the 9th as you stack pummels.
The player is encouraged to get lots of hugs in - just the way Yui would like it - because with enough of them you can fully stale an attack in one hit! (Just don't use the Side Special) You can typically get 3-4 pummels in at reasonable percents, so you'll need to get multiple grabs in for max staleness - unless Yui had a sugar boost, in which case each hug she gets in during that time count as two! Grab like this at around 85%, and you can max out your hugging power from just one grab (recommended, because grabbing the foe multiple times without using any other attack is reeeally predictable), but foes will generally escape and you won't get a throw follow-up until around 118%. At lower percents, you may have to settle with less hugs to get a throw in, as not maxing your staleness isn't too bad when getting 5-6 or so will still give you a big power boost.
The benefits of hugging are incredible and work for most of Yui's attacks. Her F-Smash and U-Smash become downright deadly as they will apply that extra staleness for the attack. Meanwhile, many of her attacks can combo into themselves when fresh, giving Yui many KO confirms on attacks with the potential to skyrocket like her Jab. This can make the Down Special's stale deletion beneficial so that comboing is easier. And even if Yui needs to mix-up another attack to create an opening for a staled follow-up, her super attack will still be sufficiently powerful. Each stale addition only counts as one extra hit on moves that can stale multiple times in one go, like Yui's F-Smash and U-Smash. Hugging power lasts for a generous 16 seconds, and is refreshed if Yui hugs - or even just grabs - within that time.
F-throw ~ Weee!
Apparently Yui absorbed too much hugging energy from the foe, because this throw causes her to spin inhumanly fast! She knocks the foe away for 1.8% and decent knockback on a low angle, but not quite low enough to start techs. If the foe doesn't act before they hit the ground however, they will get knocked down from disorientation! That's because Yui's spin puts the foe in a weird upright spinning animation, which lasts for 60 frames and needs to be cancelled into a jump, attack or dodge to be removed.
This throw is extremely fast and allows both fighters to act almost immediately. In fact, it's so fast that a mashing foe might accidentally use the input they were using to escape! This is why reading the foe's mashing habits can be advantageous to Yui, so they perform an input that puts them at a disadvantage (the reading aspect might be beyond Yui's ability, however!). In this case, wriggling the control stick will almost certainly get the foe knocked down, which can be very punishing given Yui's low lag and the Jab-locking opportunity it provides her, especially if she had a sugar boost. It is not as effective against players who "wobble" (run their fingers along the jump and attack buttons) as they'll avoid being downed, but Yui can still take advantage of their lag or use of their midair jump, depending on their input. Foes need to be careful near the ledge, however: a sudden jump or aerial can leave them more open to being edgeguarded given this move's fairly low knockback angle. Thus it may be better for them to rotate the control stick to escape instead!
If Yui doesn't act out of this throw, she will keep spinning in place for what is essentially a flashy taunt for a good 2.5 seconds, a pink and red sparkling tornado of raw anime power. This can be cancelled anytime. But its worth is revealed if a projectile would hit Yui, causing it to be deflected strongly - with 1.7x as much speed, 1.6x as much power and its lifetime multiplied by 1.15x! This basically deters foes from just throwing out a strong projectile to stuff a potential Yui approach, especially when she can act upon the deflecting immediately - but she does need to be spinning to reflect any projectiles, and can end up wasting precious follow-up time if she spins there in anticipation. By the way, Yui can only do something so ridiculous because of the moe energy she absorbed, which is why she can't casually do this with her regular moves.
If an amp was up and Yui kept spinning beyond the main attack, she'll get tangled up in the cords and spin towards the amp at high speeds! Even faster than if she dashed under the influence of sugar, and with the bonus of maintaining her projectile reflecting properties. You can stop spinning and moving towards the amp by doing anything. Depending on which side of the amp Yui was on, she can either be pulled towards a foe or away from them. The former is preferable for the follow-up options, and can be accomplished easily enough by having the foe sandwiched between yourself and the amp. Even better is that the tangled cord becomes taut between Yui and the amp, so that if Yui moves even an inch away from the amp the cord will unplug. This lets Yui easily exploit the amp's unplugged wind hitbox, by spinning it to whichever side she chooses. It is certainly faster than unplugging the amp manually, and gives you a lot more distance than usual as you can actually dash forwards. It's also useful in tandem with the D-Smash. If Yui wants to untangle herself from a taut position, she needs only to crouch or use a taunt, or just do anything out of the throw if she doesn't want to be drawn towards the amp.
B-throw ~ Tribute Song!
Yui spins and lets go of the foe playfully as she starts up a song dedicated to them! This produces a very small soundwave over the opponent, as well as the amp if Yui had one out. The soundwave's colour and density actually vary between targets, typically matching their colour scheme, but foes have no time to wonder as the wave that spawns over them deals them 1% and sharp horizontal knockback. Yui then plays another note that delivers another 1% and solid upwards knockback, followed by one last note that deals 1% and minor diagonal knockback. Overall, this has a long duration and launches opponents far, typically KO'ing at 144% at the ledge. The soundwave hitboxes deal sharp upwards knockback to outsiders struck by them.
Each soundwave deals extra damage for each move on Yui's stale que, 1% or 1.5% with Smashes or the D-air. It also deals an extra 1-2% for every additional 2 times a move was listed, plus another 2-2.5% if one move filled the stale list! This can deal up to 18% if a regular attack filled the que, while having the F-Smash filled nets Yui an impressive 25%. Rocking out requires great focus however, and empties Yui's stale que afterwards! This is detrimental to the Down Special, but it might not be so bad if you use your fresh aerials to better gimp the target, not to mention you can set-up the amp and notes leisurely with them recovering or high-up. The knockback of this throw is 0.8x weaker with no moves in Yui's stale que.
Yui's vigorous playing grants a hitbox on her with identical range and damaging properties to the soundwaves, but it will not hit the thrown foe under normal circumstances. Yui, however, will actually play her second and third notes prematurely if you tap A. This essentially results in less knockback, significantly so if you mashed A, but it's especially useful when used in conjunction with an amp. Overlapping two of the 3 potential hitboxes (Yui, the soundwave on the foe, and on the amp) will result in 1.3x more damage and 1.15x more knockback, or 1.5x and 1.225x respectively if a foe is somehow hit by all 3 sound hitboxes at the same time. If a foe was hit by the amp's hitbox, typically with the second note as you throw them towards one behind you, they will be knocked in the direction the amp was facing. If the foe was knocked back towards Yui because the amp was facing her, she can then use her own soundwave hitbox to enhance the third note with precise timing. To make things easier for the player, holding A or the control stick when the victim would collide with another sound source will have Yui automatically perform the next note. Depending on the position of the amp and when Yui fires off the third note, she can potentially end up with foes close to or directly above her. This gives the throw the potential to start combos like her other throws, but the raw damage output lends itself better into a KO set-up.
If a foe collides with the amp during their knockback (this won't occur if you held the input), the knockback will be interrupted momentarily and the amp will be knocked face-down in the process. The knockback will then resume, but if you play the next note during the interruption you can overlap with the amp and exploit its new position to launch foes higher than usual with the second hit (even if the amp was face-down), or even launch them upwards with the first hit if you had the amp right behind you when throwing the opponent. Both cases cause the throw to star KO earlier, between 135% or even 110%, which is especially scary when you don't even have to be at the ledge for these.
U-throw ~ Moe Boost!
Yui hugs the foe so tightly that they immediately pop out above her! They take 2% and consistently low upwards knockback (barely scales) that's great for starting air combos - excellent if you've got hugging power and a fresh F-air or U-air. Like the F-throw, this comes out super fast and both fighters can act out of it quickly, giving the foe fairly little time to react. The same options from the F-throw can save them, being to jump or throw out an aerial (typically their N-air), but this throw's knockback and trajectory make both easier for Yui to exploit. A sudden aerial from the foe can intercept Yui, but if she reads this she can just throw out an U-Smash!
Hugging the foe like she does gives Yui an energy boost! This gives her a faint pink glow that lasts for 7.5 seconds and increases her damage output by 3%, applied to the first hit of multi-hitting moves - including a continuous NSpec stream. This encourages a quantity over quality that Yui can easily achieve with a string of fresh air combos, giving her something out of the throw even if she didn't or couldn't get much hugs in. In fact, this is useful on healthy opponents who are more resistant to hugs, but easier to combo. It helps compensate for the overall lack of damage on Yui's pummel and throws, potentially dealing a lot more than your average throw if Yui can land a multitude of hits - especially by Jab-locking, though it's more difficult for her to utilise her grounded attacks for this due to the effect being on an U-throw.
D-throw ~ Ooh!
Yui pushes the foe down for 3.4%! This knocks both fighters down, and leaves Yui on top playing with an interesting part of the foe's body like their hair or their finger. Like the F-throw and U-throw, this comes out so fast that it's effectively instant and both fighters recover quickly. The foe can get up like normal and can actually act a few frames before Yui - but as Yui is enjoying herself she gets some unique get-up options from this throw! Be warned: the vigour gained from such intimacy makes Yui surprisingly powerful from this stance.
Get up normally. This is faster than normal and will give Yui a 1 frame advantage over her opponent if they both get up at the same time.
Press A to do a get-up attack. This deals an abnormally high 12.5% (get-up attacks typically deal 7%) and pops opponents up to the same effect of using a regular D-throw on them to start combos, only more damaging and more difficult to pull off. If opponents don't expect this option, they might not react in time to a Yui follow-up!
Press B to have Yui cheer and release a pink wave of moe energy! This is fast and has a fairly long duration, dealing 14% with solid knockback that KOs at a rather scary 128%. It is generally more useful at higher percents, as the long duration prevents Yui from following up nearly as well as her other D-throw options. This beats out every prone option except for rolls, in which foes can act moments before Yui recovers and pressure her. KO'ing with this can leave Yui free to stale up another move for the foe's next stock.
Tap left or right for an energetic roll! This is faster than a regular get-up roll, goes slightly farther and deals 6% with low Sakurai knockback on contact, popping opponents off the ground starting at 90%. It lacks invincibility however, and can be intercepted by an immediate get-up attack from the foe when they can act before Yui, or just with a good read.
The foe can act before Yui does. If you both roll in the same direction as soon as you can act, the foe will roll first, but the timing of Yui's roll is such that she will catch out the foe when their invincibility has expired and hit them with her roll. This is easier to time if the foe delays their get-up for long enough that you can act at the same time as them, pressuring them into making a snap decision. If you both roll in the same direction around the same time, the foe's invincibility will protect them from Yui's roll, but she gets up slightly ahead of her opponent (she rolls a little farther than fighters do when they get up) and gets a slight frame advantage over them. This is better for follow-ups than intercepting the foe's roll as it keeps you close to them, but it is more difficult to time. Rolling forwards will leave you with your back to the foe, making the F-tilt or U-tilt your only really effective follow-up options, but if you rolled backwards you'll be facing the foe and can use your Jab or D-tilt. This is especially useful at higher percents where your Standards can potentially KO and the roll becomes harder to combo off of, not to mention a wary foe will be inclined to roll to avoid the KO moe wave.
The get-up nature of this throw has implications on Yui's F-throw and U-throw; by making the foe hesitant to perform any input that would result in getting up in a prone situation where the D-throw moe wave would KO them, potentially causing them to get knocked down through the F-throw or not react to a combo follow-up on the U-throw. This can all be avoided if the foe presses the jump button (X or Y depending on their control scheme, not up on the control stick), which will prevent them getting punished by a follow-up and won't make them get up out of prone, but they'll be left open from having used their midair jump, especially offstage. Not to mention only pressing the jump button will slow their grab escape and give Yui more time for hugs.
This throw is absolutely deadly in the right situation, especially near the ledge where it's basically a 50/50 between Yui using her moe wave or rolling into the one direction the foe can roll. If you don't have an ideal set-up however, this throw is significantly less rewarding than Yui's other throws, not to mention all of her get-up options can be countered by a foe using a get-up attack. There is a hidden reward to using this throw however: the newfound vigour gained from playing with the foe (for generally a microsecond, imagine what Yui could do with more playtime!) fully restores Yui's shield and dodges! This is more of a bonus and something the average player will only find out through datamining or crazy observation skills. Even if you know, the average player won't use this throw just for the effect (Smash is a fast-paced game, your defences will get restored over time anyway), but for what it's worth it can potentially save Yui when you consider the follow-up possibilities of the D-throw. Just in case, you know, foes do a reversal on her.
K-ON!!
The screen blacks out and then back in as Yui takes centre stage (literally) in the background with the rest of her bandmates! Featuring bassist Mio Akiyama, pianist Tsumugi Kotobuki (or just Mugi for short), drummer Ritsu Tainaka and their underclassman Azusa Nakano, not to mention Yui herself, the spotlights all on them as the rest of the screen is stuck in darkness. The group play like it's their last performance, playing one of their hits from the anime, creating gigantic waves of sound that embrace all those within a 4 platform radius of them for anywhere between 2-8% every second. For those lucky enough to get a front row seat, they'll instead be trapped for 15% over the course of 1.5 seconds before blasted back by the sheer volume for knockback that can KO at 140% - the crowd roaring wildly should this actually KO! The song plays for 10 seconds, after which the curtain conceals the band and Yui will return to where she was before. If Mio, Mugi, Ritsu or Azusa were allied with and near Yui when she activated the Final Smash (because let's face it they're all gonna get sets), they'll join in and each member will add 20% more damage and cause the sound blast to KO 20% earlier - lethal stuff if you can get all 5 members together in an 8-player Smash!
This isn't the strongest Final Smash, but it does come with a neat little bonus afterwards. You see, the concert leaves Yui on such a high that it causes the next move she lands to automatically fill the stale move que - and hit just as hard! That's absolutely lethal given how powerful most of Yui's attacks can become, and helps her get that KO in if the concert failed to do so. With no time limit to cashing the move in, a foe's only options are to KO Yui or force her to recover as the Up Special will take from the future que - in turn increasing the number of times she can leap in a row to a potential 4. She can also squander it if she's stupid enough to use her Down Special beforehand, which will increase the amount of healing she gets to a decent 16%. Not bad for some variety.
Boss Set!
A mere schoolgirl being a 3v1? But if the likes of Toxinrail and Edgar in Disney Rumble (yes really) can get their own boss sets, why not the queen of Kyoani moe? While the scenario would only make sense if Yui was fighting against Keronians or somehow became a super sayain god, she can still be pit against 3 characters of any canonical power levels or fought as a special 1v1 boss with the following changes:
All her moves start out at max power! But they now stale normally, and moves are added to the list twice on contact.
Weight is boosted to a 7 (108) and her stats are boosted like the DSpec was constantly active. The weight boost is minor compared to old boss sets because being a 30/10 would be like having 390 weight units and you'd essentially have super armour. As hilarious as that would look on a schoolgirl, it would be ludicrously overpowered!
Her air speed is boosted to a 12 (1.4) beyond any Smash character, which boosts her offensive but this is also vitally important for escapes and not being intercepted as easily when 3 opponents can cover a lot of stage. Her air speed is also pretty easy to control. This massive increases her combo potential.
Notes pierce through opponents.
Amp is twice as large and acts as a solid like Pac Man's Fire Hydrant to opponents. Notes that come from the amp are 1.35x bigger than normal but no stronger. Amp can take 33% before being destroyed, and yes it can still be thrown and deals the same amount of damage despite being bigger. Yui must have been working out!
Up Special no longer takes moves off the que, as that would be too powerful and there would be nothing stopping Yui from casually using to keep her moves fresh! Instead, it can always be used up to twice in a row and never puts Yui into helpless.
Down Special heals Yui 20% of her total percentage regardless of her que, or 20% if she's eaten in the last 5 seconds. Takes 10 frames to eat when she's hungry, 30 frames if she's not and 60 frames if she's eaten over the last 5 seconds, but the latter can be cancelled out of during the first half as it's not worth pulling off. Boosts Yui's mobility by a small amount compared to her 1v1 set, which is only fair as her moves are refreshed.
Yui gains temporary invincibility during her attacks if one of them connects, but only against targets not struck by the attack and she can still be punished for her end lag. The power of moe protects her!
Pummel heals Yui 1.5% and deals opponents 2% because she's lovin' it, and because the 1v1 effect would be stupidly detrimental to her.
B-throw removes the first 3 moves from Yui's que, which contribute 4-5% apiece. The pre-guitar animation takes a bit longer to complete, but grounded opponents within 1.5 platforms of her will be automatically launched if not airborne while Yui plays due to her awesome music causing vibrations in the ground. Also so other characters can't easily do whatever they want during the long animation.
Yui rushes through a (dimensional?) door, only to slip and fall on her butt! This is based on the opening scene from the K-ON! anime that wasn't in the manga, except her guitar case is strapped to her back. But Yui has no time to sit there and rub her head bashfully, so she gets up on the double and whips out Giita from his case. How surprisingly active of her!
Up Taunt
A proud pose with a confident look, well-earned for scoring KOs or looking more sagely than Yui really is. The guitar is mightier than the sword!
Side Taunt
Where would Yui be without her classic untan meme? This one's your more casual party taunt, short and especially fun when cancelled into itself over and over. KyoAni bless Smash Ultimate.
Yui pulls her teammate in for a hug and shouts "We did it!" before giving a V sign to the camera with one hand. Ally reactions typically range from embarrassment, annoyance or even being in sync with Yui! This works with:
Banette
Shedinja
Sarisa
Volcarona
Keldeo
Charlotte (in plush form)
Ayano Minegishi
Chun
Hellmaster Fibrizo
Yutaka Kobayakawa
Kirika Ueno
Medusa Gorgon (child form)
Cherry
Keroro Platoon
Sakurako and Himawari
Emi Ibarazaki
Madolche Majeleine
Putata
Tabitha Orleans
Mistelteinn
Nisa
Leviathan
Jormungandr
Chou-Chou Infinite (all forms except Sadist)
Bahamut
Tamaki Kawazoe
Syrup
Syrma
Abnes
Doppelganger Tsukika
Doppelganger Welsh
Liz Eird (Yui thought a tough girl was cute in the manga)
Ohana Matsumae
Marion Quinn
Ziz
Shallotte Elminus
Aromage Rosemary
Himiko Toga
Loss
Yui claps and cheers and cries tears of joy for the winner! It's almost like she won and not the opponent! Ditzy Yui is the farthest thing from a sore loser, having congratulated a rival band in the K-ON! College manga in the same way. While she doesn't make any sounds this way (it would be rude to cut out the winner's speech, after all!), Yui's over-the-top performance is sure to stand out among fighters!
Sleeping
Yui gently falls asleep with Giita at her side, sleeping with it like she always does. She looks so peaceful, you'd think she'll never wake up! Yui always oversleeps if she doesn't have someone to wake her up, but in Smash she stays asleep for just as long as any other fighter - though she seems reluctant to get up. Maybe the foe would be kind enough to give her a rude awakening?
Classic Path - The Power Of Cute Compels You!
KATVERSE EDITION
Only the following Assist Trophies will spawn: Dengakuman, Akira Kogami, Hequet, Dark Keroro, Tour Guide From The Underworld, Gust, Grimace, Nagisa Momoe, Horned Lizard (one of the strongest ATs in the game!), Georgie Saikawa, Sawako Yamanaka (25% chance of spawning). Opponents will not pick up Assist Trophies, but each match involves fighting multiple opponents; the dependent Yui will need all the help she can get! Items and Assist Trophies spawn frequently and near Yui.
BOSS: Deified Vorgis. The all-powerful final boss of Mugen Souls, fought in the vast reaches of outer space. It is bizarre that an ordinary schoolgirl has the power to go up against a planet-destroying god, but stranger things have happened! BGM: Utauyo Miracle!
Smash Ultimate Edition
Assist Trophies spawn
Only the following items will spawn: Bomber, Mr. Saturn, Sandbag, Super Mushroom, Super Star, Bob-omb, Bombchu, Ramblin' Evil Mushroom, Hothead, Super Leaf and Cucoo.
Assist Trophies frequently spawn these characters: Klaptrap, Midna, Metroid, Starman, Ashley, Riki, Flies and Hand, Prince of Sable, Sukapon, Starfy, Nintendogs (1% chance of spawning), Nikki, Ghosts
The AI is programmed to never pick up items - but they make up for it in numbers!
- Tiny R.O.B x6 (Mario Bros., Fruit Basket)
- Bowser Jr., Isabelle (Mushroom Kingdom, Plucky Pass Beginnings)
- Inkling x3 (Hanenbow, Ebb & Flow)
- Toon Link, Ness, Ice Climbers, Yoshi (Super Happy Tree, Wildlands)
- Kirby x3 (Dream Land GB, Planet Popstar)
- Pichu x2, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Squirtle (Windy Hill Zone, Battle! (Wild Pokemon) - Pokemon Sun and Moon)
- Bonus
- Marx (he's the cutest-looking boss!)
Spirits!
Mio Akiyama****
Greatly enhance speed and jumps for a while at 100%. (OOO) High defence, low attack. VS Leviathan (black-haired alt) as main target and Yui Hirasawa on Sakuragaoka Auditorium. Leviathan avoids conflict, but charges her Final Smash meter very quickly and becomes aggressive when it's full.
Ritsu Tainaka***
Greatly increase shield damage to opponents. Take slightly more shield damage. (OOO) High attack, low defence. VS Shallotte Elminus (brown-haired alt) on Sakuragaoka Auditorium. Enemy's melee attacks are enhanced. You occasionally take sudden shield damage, even if you weren't shielding.
Tsumugi Kotobuki***
Items spawn closer to you so long as you do not use Specials. (OOO) Very high attack, very low defence. VS Doppelganger Tsukika on Sakuragaoka Auditorium. Enemy heals occasionally, and has enhanced melee attacks and throwing power. Favours grabs.
Azusa Nakano****
Slightly increase the power of music and sound-based attacks (This makes Azu-nyan the perfect equip for any K-ON! character!). (OOO) Good attack, balanced defence.
Sawako Yamanaka**
Change the opponent's costume and deal damage (6%) when grabbing them. Damage dealt is affected by damage multipliers. (-) VS Miss Kobayashi (brown-haired alt) on Sakuragaoka Auditorium. Is always drunk and favours Side Special. Increased speed and damage while you're in a maid costume.
Ui Hirasawa***
Draws in food and increases speed for a while after eating. (-)
Giita**
Increases the power of sound-based attacks. Further increase the power of sound-based attacks when equipped by Yui Hiarasawa. (-) VS Yui Hirasawa on Sakuragaoka Auditorium. Power of sound-based attacks is increased.
Nodaka Manabe **
Somewhat high defence, balanced attack. (OO)
Jun Suzuki**
Slightly increase the power of goofy attacks (attacks that aren't proper attacks like Yui's D-tilt, or even Luigi's Green Missile). (OO) Balanced stats.
