Master Xehanort is the main antagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, at least up until his arc is wrapped up in Kingdom Hearts 3 considering it looks disturbingly likely more games are going to come out. An older man rather notoriously obsessed with the concept of darkness, Xehanort found himself reaching his old age without really seeing all darkness had to offer. His plan was ultimately to acquire the X-Blade, the tool to "unlocking" Kingdom Hearts and causing the same event that created the Kingdom Hearts universe to happen again out of sheer curiosity. This kind of scientific curiosity is, while a perfectly fine villain motive, not the reason Xehanort is famous.
No Master Xehanort is known for his plans which are, to put it bluntly, completely ridiculous. In his introductory plan in Birth by Sleep, he kept things mostly under control. His body was getting old, so he needed the darkness inside Terra's heart to overtake him, something he was able to accomplish by virtue of the fact that Terra is not a smart man. Meanwhile he made Ventus fight an evil dark clone of himself to try to make the two form the X-Blade by clashing light and darkness. It didn't work because he specifically needed SEVEN lights and THIRTEEN darknesses because it turns out the X-Blade has a surprisingly annoying crafting recipe that would haunt Master Xehanort for years to come. He came out of Birth By Sleep with a new, younger body to work with, but no X-Blade, proving himself a solid manipulator and evil scientist who happened to lack the necessary information to accomplish his goal.
Anyway, then he got that information, and his solution was... well. There's like an entire genre of youtube videos that are people trying to summarize the plot of Kingdom Hearts. This is the part of the summary where they usually go kind of insane. So Xehanort, in his new body, has amnesia, but he and a bunch of other people who end up studying darkness get interested in it, which results in Xehanort in Terra's body eventually getting split into his Heartless(Ansem) and his Nobody(Xemnas). Meanwhile, one of them also time travels to the past to find Xehanort's younger self, known as Young Xehanort, and gets him to join his evil plan. Young Xehanort proceeds to time travel all across the Kingdom Hearts continuity to assemble a team of 13 different Xehanorts(of which he already had a few, but needed to hit the magic number 13), including the Xehanort posessing Terra's body before he split himself, a bunch of former Organization XIII members who are,
in Xigbar's words, "already half-Xehanort", which is pretty nuts.
This new organization of 13 Xehanorts is called True Organization XIII. And with it assembled, he can start his keyblade war by clashing with 7 light-oriented heroes on the protagonist side, and basically win regardless of which side triumphs in combat. The heroes do end up beating all his Xehanorts, but becuase the game was rigged from the start he's able to get the X-Blade and unlock Kingdom Hearts, raining darkness down upon the world. But through the combined efforts of all the major protagonists he's eventually brought to his knees, and, for some ungodly reason, has a completely different motive now about wanting to prevent people from abusing the powers of light and darkness and keep the world in balance by being a strong leader. Considering all the evil he's done up until this point of basically causing every bad thing that happens in KH's world, it is kind of stupid when the combination of this motive and his old friend Eraqus' ghost showing up are enough for him to be considered redeemed and given a peaceful trip to the afterlife. But then again, Kingdom Hearts is completely stupid.
Despite everything I've said, I actually do kind of like Master Xehanort as a character. His plans do suffer from a bit of a case of "this sounds smarter on paper than it actually is when you think about it for five seconds" and he messes with some other villain arcs in unfortunate ways... but that doesn't mean he's not fun, is the thing. He's flashy, over the top, hammy as hell, and honestly I kind of appreciate how ludicrously ambitious his plans are. They're not necessarily the smartest or the most sensible, but you gotta appreciate someone creating a whole thirteen copies of himself through increasingly nonsensical means to meet the quota for a sword whose name is actually just a pun. Its the kind of crazy stuff you only really see with a franchise like Kingdom Hearts, and while I don't think its very
good, I honestly kind of respect and enjoy it regardless.
Stats
Compared to his fellow villains on the Smash roster, Xehanort is not quite as imposing in terms of size or weight. He's rather hunched over which actually makes him a tiny bit shorter than Marth, though he'd stand a bit taller than him if he bothered to straighten his back. His weight clocks in at 90, giving him below average durability. This is partially mitigated by his excellent jumps, both among the best in the game, and both a high top air speed(1.23, the fifth best in the game) and good aerial acceleration to further improve his movement through the air. His floatiness is a blessing and a curse however, while it keeps him in the air even longer this does mean Xehanort is fairly easy to juggle and KO off the top blast zone in combination with his low weight. His ground movement is fairly underwhelming, clocking in at a 1.62 run speed that only barely puts him in 50th place, one of the slower characters on the ground.
As an aside, Xehanort has a somewhat fancy roll animation, as he slides into the background holding out the X-Blade in front of him as a large keyhole appears in the air before him. He warps through the keyhole, appearing on the other side. This is also used for his air dodge. Xehanort's roll and air dodge frame data is about average for the cast so this isn't really a big effect on gameplay, it mostly is just there to look flashy on this fairly over the top villain. He won't bother to use it on his spot dodge or an air dodge in place, instead just swinging out of the way into the background with a cocky smirk on his face.
Specials
Neutral Special - Organization XIII
With a slightly delayed snap of his fingers, Xehanort causes a shadow to materialize behind him. This shadow is a vague immitation of one of the members of Organization XIII, but for this version of the move at least he will just summon a cloaked figure, in the standard Organization XIII robes. It will simply follow Xehanort around the stage, trailing about a Kirby width behind him at all times as it perfectly follows his movements. This is a representation of one of the many incarnations of Xehanort that have been merged into Master Xehanort, called into the battle to help him through the X-Blade. It does take a fairly hefty 28 frames to summon one, so you're going to need a bit of space, and you can only have one out at a time. That said, it does stick around indefinitely until you choose to use it, so once you've dealt with the lag you can keep it as long as you want. For the sake of simplicity, we'll call this being a Nobody, given that's what the members of Organization XIII are.
This Nobody serves a fairly useful function, however. If you input a follow up after any of your Standards/Smashes/Aerials, the Nobody will use its own attack to follow it up. This adds a set 5 frames of ending lag to whatever attack Xehanort was performing and uses up your Nobody, but in exchange the Nobody will perform its follow up over top of the original's ending lag, which will cover it up and frequently not just combo out of the current move more easily, but link into another attack better as well. This improves basically every aspect of Xehanort's offensive game, allowing him to pile on bigger combos, cover greater areas of space, or rip through shields and dodges, depending on the move. The downside is that the actual Nobody attacks are either very weak or highly situational, so its not a full on double attacking mechanic.
The Nobody will vanish if Xehanort takes 30% while its out, as its form melts away into nothing. This basically means that while you can keep your setup around as long as you want, a good combo from the foe will take it away from you again. The good news is that while 28 frames of start lag does make the Nobody a bit annoying to summon, the ending lag is only 15 frames, so the window is not that hard to find if you knock the opponent away or get out of their range. Also the Nobody is totally intangible and does not interact with anything when not attacking, even fading through solid objects.
Now for something a bit more exciting, Xehanort has a visible meter next to his stock, the heart-shaped moon of Kingdom Hearts next to him. As Xehanort takes and recieves damage, the moon will grow darker, until at full charge it has become a dark purple shade and appears to be visibly dripping darkness. This means if Xehanort holds down Neutral Special, he will activate a vastly more powerful version of this move. Xehanort will raise both his arms to the sky as in the background of the stage, 13 pillars rise up as the background of the stage distorts and becomes partially consumed by a grey whirling void. Even the stage and platforms themselves become a greyer shade, as the full presense of Xehanort's power begins to overwhelm it. Atop each pillar sits a cloaked figure, as Master Xehanort calls forth the full might of Organization XIII. From there, each member will teleport in when Xehanort calls them to attack, warping off the throne and appearing right at Xehanort's side when you use a follow up.
So what does this all do? Xehanort is now given THIRTEEN charges of his Neutral Special to use, and yes it still takes 30% to deplete one of them and they stick around indefinitely. This means unlike your basic Neutral Special, you can now spam follow ups on basically all your attacks, throwing out clone after clone to create ridiculous combo strings no reasonable character would have access to and putting immense pressure on the opponent to just try and survive your onslaught. This is powerful enough that in the two stock or three stock matches it can STILL end the game if Xehanort gets it once, provided he's playing particularly well. With that said, there are a couple caveats. While some follow ups you can invest multiple organization members into, you can't just say, use the Forward Tilt follow up twice after one Forward Tilt by expending multiple clones on it without having Xehanort perform another Forward Tilt himself. Organization XIII will also vanish when you get KO'd, so you can lose your enormous buff to a deadly combo or a stray powerful hit if you're careless. But the bigger caveat is how you charge it.
This move charges similarly to Little Mac's KO punch, as Xehanort dealing or taking damage further darkens Kingdom Hearts. The problem is how much, Xehanort needs to either take 500% or deal 450% to fully darken it, with the meter effectively increasing by 10% for every 50% Xehanort takes or 45% he deals. Technically if a stock lasts well into the 200%'s for both players, or one somehow sticks around to 300%, this might become accessible, but that's an incredibly rare circumstance. This is compounded by the fact that when Xehanort dies, the whole meter just gets reset back to the start. So on paper, you don't have access to this absolutely terrifying move under any remotely normal circumstances. That said, Xehanort derives power for the X-Blade by clashing light and darkness, which speeds up the process of activating this move. We'll get to exactly how shortly.
If you hold Neutral Special for half a second while the meter is only half full, Xehanort will instead summon in 3 Nobodies behind him, chuckling while he snaps his finger as a large spark of darkness forms this time. Each of these nobodies look like specific incarnations Xehanort used to conduct his plans throughout the series: Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort specifically. This is a slightly easier to use variation of the 13 version, giving Xehanort access to the power of having multiple Nobodies out at once for some of the more elaborate play patterns it allows. That said, while this does let you play with the great power that summoning the whole Organization XIII offers to a limited extent, its not nearly as overwhelmingly strong as the real thing, as with less than a quarter of the uses its easy to blow them on nothing and doesn't turn you into a threat that can easily put away an entire match. That, and the lag is slightly greater than it is for the version that summons all 13 nobodies, funnily enough. That said, having this option is pretty important, given Xehanort has to seriously work for the stronger version of this move and sometimes the foe just won't let him get that far, so having a backup way to use your flashier tools is nice.
In a non-1v1 match, the visual flash of summoning 13 organization members is toned down significantly, as it appears visually similar to the 3 summon version instead. The only difference is Xehanort's own animation of raising his hands to the sky, and an aura of darkness flaring off Xehanort's body after its done. After one of the three Nobodies behind Xehanort is used, another one will form out of the dark aura surrounding him to take its place. This is mostly just to prevent too much visual clutter onscreen, as having one character able to change the entire background and visuals of the stage is a bit much for a non-1v1 situation.
Side Special - Taking the Light
Light shines off the X-Blade as Master Xehanort points it in front of him, in a move that has average starting lag and punishable ending lag if you whiff as it takes a bit for the glow to fade from Xehanort's weapon. There's a small circle of light that forms beyond the X-Blade's tip, which also serves as a hitbox to this move, but it functions a bit differently from the blade hitbox. If you hit with the X-Blade itself, you'll deal 12% and diagonally mostly horizontal knockback that KOs at 175%, which isn't great for the lag invested. That said, the blade is held out for 10 frames and loses none of its power during that time, which can make it good for catching out dodges and walling off players in the air, where that KO percentage will drop much lower given the foe is much closer to the blast zone.
Hitting with the circle of light, however, is the more exciting part of this move. If the foe touches it, they will be stunned briefly as light drains out of their body, pulled into the X-Blade and leaving them a hollow husk of their former self. This leaves that foe in Anti-Form, a black shadow with red eyes in the same shape as the opponent was before, and largely with the same capabilities they had before. This form lasts a whopping 20 seconds, during which the foe is subject to a few minor status changes as listed below:
- Players in Anti-Form actually has slightly less start lag on their attacks, albeit not by much. Specifically, for every 8 frames of startup lag one of their attacks have, one of them is removed. Attacks that come out on Frame 7 or faster come out at the same speed as ever, so it does not help those moves directly. Still, this lets the foe throw out attacks with a bit more speed and safety than they had before, encouraging opponents to be a bit more aggressive while the form lasts.
-Players in Anti-Form take 1% more from attacks across the board. This includes from hits from a multi-hit attack, and also the additional hits your Nobodies add to your combos, so that 1% will actually add up a fair bit more than you might think.
-Shields deplete passively 1.65x as fast and take 1.3x as much damage from all sources, making shielding suddenly become a very risky prospect. With Nobody assistance, Xehanort can break shields with disturbing ease while the foe is in Anti-Form.
-Dodges have 3 frames more ending lag across the board. This makes punishing dodges easier for Xehanort, yet again making the foe's defensive options less and less effective.
To reclaim their light from Xehanort, foes have to deal him 40%. Between the effects of this move and the condition for eliminating Nobodies, Xehanort can very strongly push the foe towards aggression with this move, as their defensive options are suddenly left with worryingly little safety. It should be acknowledged that the decrease in lag, while small, absolutely can end up making the difference between failure and success in neutral, so they're not just hurt by this move when you pull it off. Also, you don't get much of an advantage state out of taking light from the opponent, you're both left in frame neutral after the X-Blade has absorbed the light out of the foe. It does deal the foe 8%, so its a bit less powerful than the actual blade itself as a hitbox.
Now, with a light based weapon and the foe's body completely consumed by darkness, this is where Xehanort's "clash light and dark" mechanic kicks in. Foes attacks dealt to Xehanort fill the meter twice as much as they otherwise would, which is to say Xehanort still needs to take 250% for the meter to be filled. Given Anti-Form expires after the foe deals 40%, "forcing" them to attack you is not a very attractive or viable way to make your way to summoning the whole Organization. However, Xehanort's light based attacks, of which a good portion of his set is comprised, will cause him to gain
five times as much meter as he usually would. While yes, dealing the foe 90% before they deal you 40% when their starting lag is reduced is a bit of a tall task, with their defensive options nerfed and the fact that the meter can be filled the rest of the way by their own damage to Xehanort and small amounts from any blows traded before or after, the threat of summoning all of Organization XIII is very real while the foe is under the effects of this move. This leaves them with a bit of a conundrum, they're encouraged to go aggressive by several effects of Xehanort's moveset, but if they screw up, the punishment will be incredibly severe.
As an aside, draining the light out of the foe will power up the X-Blade when the move is subsequently used. The ring of light does nothing to foes in Anti-Form, as they have no more light to drain, but the actual hitbox deals an additional 5% now, and with the accompanying knockback buff it becomes a formidable kill move. This can actually stack in matches with more than 2 players if you can get multiple foes into Anti-Form, though doing that is placing quite a target on your back. Also keep in mind that for how powerful this move is both in terms of potential results and psychologically, you do have to hit with the light ring, a hitbox only about half Kirby's size, on a move that is not especially fast and exceptionally punishable if you whiff it entirely. Take care when plunging the foe into darkness.
Up Special - Kingdom Hearts
The image of Kingdom Hearts appears in the sky behind Master Xehanort, its power called forth into the world of Smash by the X-Blade. It initially appears a distance of 3 Ganondorf heights above Xehanort, but he rises up to the same height as it over the course of this move's 33 frame startup lag. You can angle this move to have Kingdom Hearts appear a battlefield platform to the left or right to give you access to a noticeably better horizontal recovery. The downside is, unfortunately, that Xehanort has no hitbox to defend himself with during the rising of this move, making it very easy to gimp. That said, he is blessed with super armor for the first 15 frames of his rise into the air, making this move considerably less painful. As a recovery, this is pretty good distance-wise, and you can easily cancel out of it at any point after the super armor fades with only 3 frames of lag, which can allow you to punish people who accidentally hit you before the super armor expired.
The meat of this move, however, happens once Xehanort reaches the maximum height. Pointing the X-Blade at an angle 70 degrees below himself, he gathers light energy in it before he fires a light laser downwards at the angle with infinite range. This has another 30 frames of lag added before he can fire the beam off, making it a total of 63 frames of start lag to worry about. You CAN cancel the attack at this point to have Xehanort simply release the light stored up in a blast surrounding the X-Blade as he holds it out in front of himself, dealing 10%-18% and mostly upward knockback that KOs at 200%-95%, depending on how much of the start lag he went through before cancelling. The animation of discharging the light from the X-Blade is actually pretty fast, only 7 frames, and lingers long enough it can sometimes catch spot dodges. Master Xehanort does go into helpless afterwards, however, so this is more of an emergency defensive tool than the primary point of this move.
The infinite range beam of light Xehanort fires is actually quite powerful, dealing 20% and straight upwards knockback that KOs at 90%. When the beam hits the ground, however, the energy fans out in a wave around the beam, which is a hitbox about the size of the one Pikachu's Thunder creates when it collides with him. This impact wave actually deals even more damage and knockback, specifically 23% and diagonal but mostly upward knockback that KOs at 80%. Xehanort will gradually sweep the beam forward until you cancel out of the input or the attack ends, moving it from a 70 degree angle below Xehanort to a 25 degree angle below Xehanort, allowing him to sweep it across the stage. This is a VERY slow sweep however, taking a full
five seconds to perform unless you cancel out and go into helpless. All cancels with this move can be done by pressing any other input, just for the record. As a final note, the beam's damage increases by 1% for each second its been firing, and 2% on the light wave hitbox, with a knockback increase to match, so if you hit later on in the move its even more powerful! On the whole though, this light beam covers a positively gigantic area of space with its sweep, and has incredible power, but the incredibly slow speed of the sweep and how much lag it has to come out does not make it easy to use.
It is, however, more viable than you think it is, as long as you have a Nobody on you. While Master Xehanort is busy firing the light laser, he will deploy one of his Nobodies to fight for him. While you can usually cancel out of this move with any other input, if you press Up B a second time while the light laser is sweeping down, the Nobody will appear slightly in front of the laser, and can now move and act like Master Xehanort himself would. This effectively creates a doppelganger of yourself than can fight in your place while you fire the beam, with a copy of your entire moveset barring the Specials. That said, it has the noticeable defect of having noticeably laggier dodges and an extremely fragile shield that can only take a third as much damage as normal, so it can really only go on the offensive. This is not helped by its paltry 10 stamina, making it pretty easy to get rid of the Nobody fighting in Xehanort's place. That said, if you play it right, despite its crippled defenses and lack of your powerful tools in the Specials, you can get one of two good results out of this. Either you can pressure the foe into your light beam and make the usually hard to hit move suddenly much more practical, or you can use the light beam's massive stage presence to just scare the foe into getting comboed by Xehanort's own moveset.
In regards to a foe in Anti-Form, given how Nobodies do not reap any extra power dealing damage to a foe wallowing in darkness, using a Nobody to fight in Xehanort's place is not a great way to rack up meter. The light beam is a VERY powerful hit though, and at low percentages given Xehanort won't stop sweeping it across the stage, good use of your on-stage Nobody means you might be able to hit the foe into it twice, getting you already about halfway to your full meter and piling tons of damage on the foe. Its a little predictable to go for, however, which isn't great when the Nobody is so easy to kill if it messes up and the laser sweep is so unbelievably predictable.
Now the real fun of this move kicks in when Xehanort has multiple Nobodies. You see, if one of your Nobodies dies, Xehanort will immediately send the next one in to fight instead, meaning the sheer fragility of the Nobodies is no longer the issue it once was, though there is a 10 frame period of lag as the new Nobody appears right in front of the beam once again. In addition, the Nobody fighting in place of Xehanort can actually still use the follow ups Xehanort has access to with multiple nobodies out by expending them just as usual, meaning you can now start pulling Xehanort's flashier combos and have a giant death laser out at the same time. While you'll run out pretty fast with 3 given they're used up on either one follow up or after taking a single notable hit, its a devastatingly powerful play off a half meter if used right. If you have 13, well, you have plenty to spare on this move, and good luck to the opponent surviving the kind of nonsense you can now throw out.
Any Nobody Xehanort had out during this move disappears once Xehanort completes the sweep or cancels out of the move. You cancel out of it with a Nobody out by pressing B, given the specials are currently not usable for anything else.
Down Special - Stopza
Xehanort holds out a hand as an orb of darkness appears from it, with a transparent clock rapidly spinning its minute hand around in a complete circle over the animation. If the foe strikes Xehanort during this time, Xehanort will release a large circular wave from around his body covered in clock symbols, which will interrupt the foe's attack and then suspend them in time as it collides with them. The wave has pretty generous range, stretching out over 1.4 battlefield platform widths around Xehanort, allowing him to counter some very long range hitboxes and even the occasional projectile fired pretty close. Grabs will go right through this counter though, as they usually do. Rather than Marth's counter window of Frame 6-27, Xehanort's is actually less generous, but it does start earlier, going from Frame 4-16. After that, you get 44 frames of ending lag if you didn't hit the counter window, so try not to whiff this. Its pretty bad if you do.
If you do connect with this counter, the foe is simply frozen in time for a period depending on a couple factors. How long the foe is frozen scales positively with their percentage, but actually scales negatively with how strong the attack that hit you was. The move is it at its most powerful if the foe hits you with an attack that deals 5% or less, and diminishes in stun duration for stronger attacks. With the foe at 0%, you'd actually be up at a 50 frame advantage for an attack that deals 5% or less, 25 frames at an attack that deals 10%, and frame neutral at 25% or higher. At 80%, you'd be at a 2 second advantage(!) over a foe that hit you with an attack dealing 5% or less, a full second advantage over one that hit you with an attack that deals 10%, a 25 frame advantage over a foe that hit you with an attack that deals 25%, and you'd get a couple frames of advantage over a Warlock Punch. Essentially, the move's power minimizes at frame neutral, and maximizes at 3 seconds of stun(achievable on a foe at 130% who hit you with a move that deals 5% or less, and at much higher percents on foes that hit you with stronger attacks than that).
This attack deals no damage, but it does have a nice side effect if you get the foe past 1.5 seconds worth of stun time. See, normally the foe will just appear frozen in place, but for the duration of the stun before it ticks down to 1.5 seconds left, the foe's body will be turned to a duller, grey color. During this period of the stun, outside attacks will actually not knock the foe out of their stun, which allows for Xehanort to pile on additional damage before he begins his combo. While you might think that this kind of stun duration only coming up at high percents means this probably doesn't matter too much to Xehanort, the extra damage this lets you build adds a layer of additional terror to landing this counter. Not only do you get to take the opponent's stock, but potentially you'll get a bunch of meter out of it if the foe is in anti-form, where they're strongly pushed to play more aggressive because of how that form's mechanics work. Given you can probably throw a pretty devastating combo at them afterwards too, it might be all you need to suddenly have the foe staring down the full might of Organization XIII.
This move has another function if you tilt down B rather than smash it, where instead a bubble of energy with a clock manifested on it will appear in Xehanort's hand, before he puts it away, a small clock now next to his portrait. This clock will also appear there if Xehanort whiffs the counter but is not hit during the move's ending lag, but if you're specifically to store away Stopza's power, the tilted version is probably the safer way to go. The stored Stopza stays around for 20 seconds and you can only hold one at a time, but the creation of one via the tilted version is pretty quick, only taking 25 frames to do. Using this move again with one stored just refreshes its duration.
The stored Stopza comes into play if you have a Nobody summoned, as it gives you a new follow up option to all your attacks. If you press B instead of A to use the second hit, Xehanort will instead freeze the Nobody in time when it comes out, frozen in place and unaffected by everything going on in the match. Pressing B during any move or tilting Down Special while not using an attack will undo the effects of Stopza on the Nobody, causing it to then perform its follow up as a manually activated trap. This opens up tons of new applications for all Xehanort's Nobody-based follow ups, and vastly expands Xehanort's pool of potential combos and setups by storing one away. To say nothing of the raw power of using a Nobody suspended in time to supplement Xehanort's combos while he has 3 or even 13 Nobodies out to support him. This is a very powerful technique, and not one to be taken lightly, but you don't have a massive window to use the time suspended Nobody. They'll just break out and do their attack after 6 seconds, so use it while it counts.
If Up Special is active, pressing B is now another input that doesn't cancel out of it, as it will instead be dedicated to activating a delayed Nobody. That said, this really puts the foe between a rock and a have place as there are now two on stage "traps" for them to worry about, one of which is very, very powerful and the other can be activated at any time to support a Nobody pressuring the foe into this. Scary stuff!
Standards
Jab - Encroaching Darkness
Putting one hand forward in front of himself, Xehanort fires a glowing purple orb from his hand, which travels a bit slower than Xehanort's own dash speed and deals 6% and very small upwards knockback. This comes out a little faster than Ganondorf's Jab, actually, but does have a concerning amount of ending lag that will absolutely get you punished by an opponent in close range. For what its worth, the ending lag can be circumvented a little by just spamming this move, as repeating it gives you quite a bit less ending lag than when you end it. The purple orb will travel forward about 3 battlefield platforms of length, and after its first battlefield platform of travel it will start homing in on foes who come within half a battlefield platform length of it, albeit pretty weakly. It picks up a considerable amount of speed during the last battlefield platform of its range too, accelerating to be going nearly twice as fast by the end of the range. This can make dodging it a bit trickier due to the less consistent speed and homing properties.
While the ending lag makes it a bit harder to capitalize on in this regard as Xehanort might like, this move has a pretty obvious application for Xehanort's approach and combo games. Because it travels so slowly, Xehanort can have it at his back while he runs in towards the foe, and then not only does the foe have a projectile to worry about once Xehanort gets close, its a projectile that gets faster and homes in after a bit to make it harder to defend against. Xehanort can also hit the opponent into the dark orb to extend a combo, resetting the foe with the orb's weak knockback and hitstun from something that would normally put the foe out of his reach. Its admittedly a bit predictable even if it does make Xehanort's approach more impressive, and creates the unfortunate problem that Xehanort's Jab is kind of garbage up close, leaving him with fewer fast close range options than he'd probably like. As a final note, given this is a darkness-based attack, it doesn't give more meter on foes in anti-form, but you can use it to increase the number of light-based hits you land anyway so its not like it doesn't serve a function for building that up.
There's an alternate version of this move you can get by holding A rather than just tapping it, which instead has Xehanort, with a bit more starting lag, fire 5 small darts of darkness that travel about 0.8x as fast as Fox's laser and go 4 battlefield platforms instead of 3. This has considerably more start lag than the other version, and the darts each deal a hit of 2.6% and flinching, conveniently adding up to 13%. The ending lag is the same as the other variation, and the 5 hits together actually add up to quite a bit of shield stun or hitstun. This is a lot less good for combos/approaches than the other version, but it does more damage, is better against shields and rolls(by virtue of covering more space) even if its worse against spot dodges, and is less punishable if used up close as its not actually punishable on hit at close range, instead leaving Xehanort with a notable frame advantage.
The nice thing about these two variations is you can weave them together, as firing another dark orb or barrage of darts will not send Xehanort into the ending lag of the move. This actually allows Xehanort access to some minor bullet hell, as you can rapidly switch between two projectiles of different speeds to mess with the opponents defensive options and cover the holes that the other projectiles have. It doesn't make Xehanort an amazing camper, even used in conjunction its not that hard to shield through or weave around the projectiles, but using them together with the right timing can make the subsequent approach on the foe considerably more advantageous. And given the damage of the projectiles is respectable, sometimes you just get to use it to put yourself at a decent percent advantage if you time around the opponent's defenses right.
The ending lag of this move can be covered by a Nobody, who can fire out an additional projectile during the ending lag by using them to follow up once Xehanort actually starts to pull his arm back from firing out orbs/darts. If used after the dark orb, the Nobody will fire a triad of darts, one going up at a slight angle and one going down at a slight angle. Each of these only deals 1% and a flinch, and they travel the same speed and distance as Master Xehanort's own darts, while being about half as long and extremely thin. At certain ranges, the fact that the higher and lower flying darts exists actually allows Xehanort to shield poke foes out of their shield if they're using that to defend against this move, possibly letting the dark orb Xehanort fired beforehand catch up afterwards and nail the foe, a pretty effective combination! The damage is pretty minimal, however, especially if you hit with only 1 or 2 of the darts. The Nobody has about as much starting lag as the tapped version of this move.
If you fire it out when it was proceeded by a barrage of darts, the Nobody will take as much lag as the barrage of darts to fire 3 half-sized dark orbs, each of which deal 1.3% and a flinch, enough to add up to 4% (its technically 1.33% on each orb to make it add up more cleanly). These are fired level with Xehanort, at a slightly higher angle, and then at a 35 degree angle above him, which gives this a unique niche among Xehanort's Jab options of covering considerable airspace. Usually, just kind of approaching the air above the projectiles would work against Xehanort, but when there's 2 of the projectiles going at an upwards angle, that becomes less practical. These also have the same movement properties of the dark orb Xehanort fires, making it a bit trickier to avoid them and providing a larger area of coverage through which Xehanort can approach the foe and/or combo them off. While the higher starting lag might sound like an issue, this means they're fired a lot closer to the point Xehanort himself comes out of lag than he'd otherwise be able to access, which is quite nice... especially if you actually hit with the darts before them. That means Xehanort's at an advantage state before you factor in the orbs taking up airspace that's he also got to approach through, making it fairly scary to get hit by the darts while Xehanort has a Nobody out given he can convert into close range very nicely off it.
The applications of using this with Down Special are probably pretty obvious. Delaying either projectile gives Xehanort a wider range of options in how he plays with them and makes it much easier to follow them up than it would usually be. Suddenly flood the air around yourself with projectiles while fighting the opponent up off the ground, poke the opponent with a flinch from across the stage to reset yourself to an advantage or extend a combo, or just use them for even greater approach coverage potential.
Forward Tilt - X-Combo
Master Xehanort stabs forward with the X-Blade, dealing a hit of 4% and extremely weak horizontal knockback that comes out on Frame 8. This has good range as Xehanort reaches forward quite a bit for the stab, and between that and its respectable speed its an acceptable neutral option that can start some combos if you land it, given the ending lag isn't too bad. That said, you do have a fairly important option that makes this move a bit better, it has two subsequent follow ups that are both accessible whether or not you have a Nobody on you, the Nobody specifically allowing you to access a final one after you land the third hit. Just ending after the first hit has some utility though, given the ending lag is short enough to allow you to go into your aerials or Down Tilt out of this, with Down Tilt being a true combo(but maybe not as great of one as you'd hope for reasons we'll get to).
The second hit has Xehanort lunge forward a short distance, hopping slightly off the ground and swinging his keyblade in an upward arc as he goes. This combos out of the first hit until some pretty high percents, dealing 3% and knocking the foe upward and forward a very short distance. If you want to go into most of your combos out of this move, this is the hit you want to stop on, as it can confirm into aerial follow ups that are generally better than Down Tilt. That said it does stop true comboing out of the first hit after a while, around 80% on Mario so the combo does at least last to pretty high percentages, but it does mean at high percents Forward Tilt's payoff becomes a lot less impressive.
The third hit follow up has Xehanort slam his keyblade back down to the ground, sliding forward slightly as he does so. This deals 5% and knockback at a low diagonal that KOs at 165%, though the first two hits will stop comboing into this move at 65% so unless you have an outside source to knock the foe back into this move you probably won't succeed at pulling that kill off. This has a bit more ending lag than the first 2 hits, and arguably less payoff than the second hit if you combo into something more damaging with it, but it does guaruntee you some space and can lead into the fourth hit of this move if you have a Nobody around. There's also an additional general utility to this move in that each hit will drag the opponent forward a decent distance, leaving Xehanort and the foe 0.6 battlefield platforms away from their starting position by the time they take the final hit. This third hit can mean the difference between a foe being dragged into a time delayed duplicate or not, or in the case of if you have your Up Special active, this can drag the opponent right into the path of the beam for a massive final hit.
The fourth hit, only accessible with a Nobody, has the Nobody fly forth from behind Xehanort and catch up to the foe after they've flown forth about a battlefield platform's distance away(closer if the foe has taken fairly little knockback, under 1.5 battlefield platforms worth if this move wasn't involved) and stabbing them with their keyblade, dealing an additional 4% and knockback that KOs at 185%. Unlike the first 3 hits, you can angle this one, with upwards sending the foe at a high diagonal angle with the final hit, forwards sending the foe directly horizontally, and downward actually sending the foe at an angle 20 degrees below the horizontal. The low angle provided by the downward version actually can gimp opponents pretty hard under the right circumstances, but given you can only link into this until about 65% you probably won't end up knocking the foe far below level with the stage. Note that if you use this follow up without hitting a foe beforehand, the Nobody will just home in on the nearest foe, and if there's no foe within a battlefield platform for it to home in on, it will just rush a battlefield platform forward and disappear.
There is a particular scenario that the downwards hit offers that is pretty powerful, which is using Up Special to ledgeguard after the foe has been knocked below the stage. This is something the foe can weave around normally given the sheer predictability of the Up Special by default, but it is awkward coming from an angle below the stage. That awkwardness is massively compounded if you can send out an additional Nobody to pursue the foe while Up Special is being fired off, giving the foe two threats to deal with while trying to recover low from the stage, which is a devastating scenario no foe wants to be in. This does, however, require you either activate the 3 or 13 Nobody setup, or specifically hit with the trap version of this move while having another Nobody prepared. The horizontal variant of this allows Xehanort to abuse his Jab projectiles on a recovering foe to frustrate their recovery, an option that's also a bit less predictable than the Up Special. The upwards variant might seem the least powerful on paper, but Xehanort can certainly give a foe high in the air some serious trouble under the right circumstances.
On a shielding foe, the hits actually do still deal just enough shield stun to link into each other, and enough shield push to keep sending the foe forward, so you can still drag them around in shield. In fact, the fourth hit deals another 0.5 battlefield platforms of push, sending the foe possibly right into a beam if you've got Up Special up. Since this is a chain of hits that'll lock the foe in shield stun, it can eat up their shield alarmingly fast in Anti-Form, and given the nature of this attack as a follow up move it already is pretty good at catching out dodges. One thing to look out for though is that the third hit actually deals very minimal shield push even if the shield stun is above average, and if you end on that hit rather than having access to the fourth to shove the foe out of your face you will probably get punished for it badly.
The delayed version of this hit already serves an important function in allowing you to access the threatening Up Special scenario without needing 2 or more Nobodies out, but it is a bit awkward to set up. When not in the context of being used as a follow up to the third hit, this hit actually has a fair bit of start up lag so the foe can pretty easily dodge get out of the way. That said, having a trap that can go into three different angles of knockback that can also fly a full battlefield platform from its initial position gives Xehanort a LOT of potential combos or pressure out of this. Leaving this out in the middle of the stage can make all the Jab projectile pressure way more terrifying to deal with, and you can mix up the foe at the ledge by not going for the standard Up Special combo, but rather leaving the Nobody on the ledge to activate while you go down and try to gimp the foe personally. Its a powerful delayed hitbox to have access to, but keep in mind you have to go through a full three part combo to use it, which is sometimes pretty inconvenient.
Up Tilt - Burning Light
Xehanort sweeps his sword above him in an arc overhead, in a motion with worse than average lag for a tilt due to Xehanort sweeping the blade a bit slowly. It does, however, at least cover a fairly sizeable area, and is followed up by a second, faster sweep of the blade, which has a thin wave of light eminating beyond it on this second swing. The first hit deals 5% and knocks the foe very slightly upward and the second hit deals 6% on the blade and 8% on the light wave. The blade deals upward knockback that KOs at 255% on the second hit, while the light wave will deal some elongated hitstun to the foe before they take knockback that KOs at 200%. The ending lag is pretty brief, making it easy to go into combos off this move at lower percents, but the knockback on the blade hit has high enough base knockback that combos stop being possible off it pretty early, around 25%. The light hit's knockback is more scaling oriented, so it takes a bit longer to stop comboing, especially when you factor in the added hitstun it deals to let Xehanort get into position a bit more easily.
Hitting with the stronger light hit of this move is a bit dependant on the spacing of the foe when you land the first hit, as its knockback is a set short distance up. Therefore, you'll get the stronger second hit if you land the part of the hitbox closer to the edge, and the weaker one if you hit up close, meaning you'll want to be spaced a bit further away from the foe with this move. The double hit of this move makes it okay for catching spot dodges and it hits far enough to both sides of Xehanort that you can sometimes use it to catch out a foe while battling over neutral because of this. That said, it also means Xehanort's Up Tilt is not only laggier than average, it has longer duration so you can take a surprisingly big punish off of a whiff on this move.
The follow up on this move has a Nobody rise up behind Xehanort and then fly forward at a downward diagonal angle, keyblade stabbed out in front of them. This only deals 3% and very weak forward diagonally downward knockback, and will always confirm out of the light hit due to the elongated hitstun. This leaves the opponent in front of you to allow for combos into Forward Tilt or Fair, and can come pretty close to confirming into Side Special on occasion. The ability to transition an anti-air into a grounded combo like this is a unique ability that this follow up lets you access, and can guaruntee piling on quite a bit more damage than the your aerial follow ups would offer.
The time delayed version of this move seems pretty weak, as Xehanort has a lot of tools that he can suspend with Stopza that are on paper more powerful edgeguards than this. That said, this does at least cover a big area, as while this isn't usually terrible relevant the Nobody will travel down a length of nearly 1.5 battlefield platforms at a 45 degree angle. This makes it a pretty useful thing to use alongside Up Special to just deny another huge swath of space, making a Nobody-based gimping attempt work far better when a fairly fast to come out move that pushes them further to the blast zone exists as something Xehanort can throw out mid combo. You could even use it while the foe is landing a lethal blow on the Nobody to smack them into the light beam to get some massive damage and possibly a kill in return.
Down Tilt - Succumb
With a surprising amount of force behind it, Xehanort stabs very low to the ground with the X-Blade, light sparking at the tip. This move comes out at an incredible Frame 3, has pretty respectable range, and is so low to the ground it will poke through a shield on a pretty minimal amount of damage. If the foe happens to be in anti-form, even just briefly pulling out their shield for an attack Xehanort never goes for might be enough that the poke will go under it with the subsequent shield depletion at near the attack's max range, and it will usually just go through it regardless of where you hit once the foe is at higher percents. The actual damage is also pretty good, dealing 10% and weakly popping the foe up for the majority of the move's range, and an improved 13% and 50 degree diagonal upward knockback that's quite strong at base but doesn't KO until very late at the sparking tip.
While this seems like a stellar tool for winning neutral for Xehanort and even starting combos, there's just one problem. The ending lag on this move is a huge pain to deal with, actually leaving Xehanort at a slight frame disadvantage until about 40%, and only being frame neutral or barely frame positive for a while longer, at which point the knockback gets to be enough it'll never combo into anything of value without support. That said, its not enough of a frame disadvantage you'll reasonably be punished on hit, and can let you chip in damage while basically staying in your neutral game with decent efficiency, so its not a bad neutral tool, just not something that will outright win it for you and is punishable if you screw it up. Obviously, using Jab projectiles of the either delayed or just slow moving dark orb variety can set up into this move fairly well, as well as any Nobodies you have lying around that can combo into this. If the main Xehanort is currently using Up Special, this move is a bit scarier as the ending lag problem isn't as big of a deal if you just pop the opponent into the all powerful death laser.
The tipper hitbox leaves Xehanort at a bit of an advantage, though the angle and distance it knocks the foe means its not going to be an exceptional reward for landing this either. Given Xehanort's quite good air game, this does at least convert well into an aerial assault/approach, or can possibly just be used as space to set up either a Nobody or a Nobody delay to open up Xehanort's options more once the foe is back down to earth with him. Its not a strong reward for winning neutral, but that's not really what this move is meant to do, given its easier to win neutral with this move than a lot of Xehanort's options.
When activating the follow up, it will have the Nobody appear directly behind the opponent and slam their keyblade down in a motion similar to Ike's Forward Smash. This deals 14% and very powerful diagonal knockback for a Nobody attack, KOing at 130%. It actually takes quite a bit for this attack to start up, nearly as long as the Forward Smash in question, which isn't great as the added ending lag means the foe could technically punish Xehanort on hit at low percents. If the foe does that though, they will almost certainly get hit by the Nobody's attack, which is probably worth whatever small damage the foe did to you with their faster move. If the foe reacts by getting out of the way, that frequently puts Xehanort in a better spot than he'd be in if he connected with this move in its base version anyway. Its not a great follow up, but given it is pretty powerful and is fired off a bit after Xehanort comes out of lag, it can lead into some good read situations.
The nice thing about this move is the Nobody will follow the foe while they're taking knockback from this move. This means at higher percents or if you hit with the tip, they'll still come out and prepare to hit the foe, giving them something to immediately dodge while Xehanort gets back on his feet. In particular with the tip, if you actually hit this hitbox it can be devastating since the foe is much closer to the top blast zone now than they otherwise would be. And if you don't hit with it, forcing the foe to account for the delayed strike gives them more problems when Xehanort closes in to continue his assault, letting him make an advantageous state where he'd usually just get the space and neutral reset. The fact that this is never a guarunteed follow up is a little frustrating, but you can make it into one if you make some clever plays with a delayed Nobody and the added pressure makes landing this move a bigger reward than it otherwise would be.
This is obviously a pretty good hitbox to freeze with Stopza, just because its big and powerful by the standards of Nobody attacks and makes a great thing to knock the opponent into for a finisher, or to send them flying back into an aerial Xehanort to go back into a combo. Attacks that deal larger knockback actually do inflict increased hitstun for combos, and that's actually usable when said knockback comes from a trap, after all. There isn't much complexity to using it as a delayed hitbox other than that the opponent will see it coming due to its sizeable starting lag, though you can sometimes set it up in interesting places given the Nobody will be frozen where the foe's knockback ends, leading into an early kill if you then combo the foe into it.
Dash Attack - Keyblade Storm
From the ground below Xehanort during his dash, several black keyblades rise out of the ground, with Xehanort hopping on top of them and riding them forward. Xehanort will fly forward a little over a battlefield platform riding these, and on contact the keyblades deal 6 hits that add up to 15%, with the final hit actually dealing quite weak horizontal knockback. Xehanort sails a bit over ground level during this move, flying over his projectiles from Jab while moving at a pace a bit faster than his dash, and the fairly sizeable mass of keyblades(a fair bit wider than but a bit shorter than Wario) allows him to plow through most grounded attacks with this. The unfortunate part here is the starting lag and fairly commital duration, the move taking 17 frames to come out, but fortunately you go right into the ending lag once you hit a foe as the keyblades all skewer the foe and then disappear.
The weak knockback, multihit for additional hitstun, and actually rather short ending lag as the keyblades sink back into the ground with Xehanort stepping off or he just casually hops off upon hitting a foe means this move is absolutely ripe to start a combo. Piling on 15% with a combo starter is also more than you'd usually get and can lead to some very high damage combos... just keep in mind, this move is pretty predictable and foes can just take to the air to knock you back down. Projectile coverage with Jab makes this approach a lot scarier, but that is admittedly pretty predictable... but if you have say, a delayed Nobody around, a lot of that predictability is gone as you can spring that at any point during your attack. And high damage off a single combo makes this quite scary if you go for it while the foe is Anti-Form, as you can pretty easily build up a ton of meter off whatever combo you get off this and defensive options for dealing with the approach are noticeably nerfed. As a final note, Xehanort will keep travelling through the air with this move,
Xehanort actually has TWO kinds of Nobody follow up to this move, one of which is activated by tapping A, and one of which is activated by holding A. The "follow ups" are actually activated during the attack's duration this time, and both of them have a Nobody fly out riding on a pair of flying keyblades from behind Xehanort. If you tap A, it will just have the Nobody fly forward at a high upwards angle, dealing 5 hits of 1% that drag the opponent along up into the air, leaving them about 1.45 Ganondorf heights above where Xehanort was when he initiated the move. Holding A will instead have the Nobody loop back around behind Xehanort for the same hitbox, but instead dumping the foe off about a battlefield platform behind where Xehanort initiated the move about a Kirby height above the ground.
As far as the power of these hits goes on their own, these are consolation prizes. Basically it just allows you some additional coverage both in terms of timing and in terms of space in the air that, while not as powerful of a hitbox, at least makes sure you got a little extra damage on the foe and if used near the end of the move still puts Xehanort at a great position to set up a Nobody or a time delay due to the space he's gained. There's a lot of situations where this move becomes more than that, but it does require prior setup. Those dragging hitboxes that take the opponent specifically where you want them to be are a lot more alarming if that place has a time delayed Nobody ready to strike right there. In addition, if you do have at least two Nobodies on you, having a hitbox that drags people around with its knockback is actually extremely strong. If you use Up Special, these dragging hitboxes can easily pull the foe right into the path of the Up Special beam, and while this does mean you have to use Dash Attack's follow up during an Up Special and expend a clone, its a pretty powerful effect to have access to, especially since the multi-hit of the dash attack can also leave the foe stuck in the path of the beam even if you can't scoop it back into it with a separate Nobody.
For some similar reasons to why its good with multiple Nobodies or with other time delayed attacks, the dash attack itself is fantastic to time delay, as the multi-hit drag can pull the opponent into all sorts of combos and setups. One thing to keep in mind however is that this does get worse when the foe is at higher percentages, as they'll be able to DI out of the drag earlier and earlier. This means using this to set up for KOs can be a bit trickier than it at first sounds, and on top of that you do have to go through a high starting lag, high duration move to get these Nobodies out, so the reward had better be powerful. None-the-less, the lag investment in creating this "trap" is quite worth it, as being able to both reposition the foe and subject them to an abnormal amount of hitstun simultaneously can allow for some pretty absurd potential combos.
Smashes
Forward Smash - Wheeling Slash
Lunging forward and gripping the X-Blade at an angle behind him, Xehanort swings it forward in a massive semi-circle. Light flares all around the blade, scattering off in wavy streaks when this attack hits the foe as they explode with light. This deals an insane 26%-38% and diagonal upward knockback that KOs at 60%-20%, but as you might expect it is very, very laggy. The move comes out on Frame 39, so actually landing it is really difficult, and as a side note the hitbox above Xehanort during the first part of the swing is a bit weaker too, only dealing 21%-29% and purely vertical knockback that KOs at 85%-50%. Still quite strong, mind you, but less absurd than the frontal hitbox, and also doesn't produce the visual of the foe exploding with light.
This move does outrange Ganondorf and Dedede's FSmashes by virtue of having Xehanort jump forward during the starting lag, but this does create a bit of a blindspot up close, so Xehanort to not have the foe right in his face if he goes for this move. Unfortunately, one other thing it exceeds those two in is ending lag, as Xehanort needs to get his bearings after performing a move that acrobatic. He's rather old and his age does catch up to him a bit during this ending lag, so it takes him even longer than you'd think to get back to a steady stance. If you whiff with this, you're going to be brutally punished, and its really hard not to whiff with given the starting lag, making this move come across as kind of obviously garbage.
Except its not, for a couple reasons. For one, the follow up for this move is a bit unique, it actually comes out BEFORE the move. Specifically, if you press the A button again during the attack's starting lag, one of the Nobodies will appear next to where Xehanort will slam his blade down, specifically taking the form of Young Xehanort(or using the pre-existing Young Xehanort Nobody if you activated that variation of Neutral Special). Young Xehanort will then create a sphere of time magic, indicated by a clock on it, that will stun the opponent in place if they're hit by it, the sphere being fairly big and dealing 1% and 30 frames worth of stun. The key thing is, Young Xehanort is spawned on frame 15 of this attack's starting lag, so now instead of the horrific 39 frames of starting lag, you only have to deal with what really isn't all that bad of lag for a Smash Attack. Obviously, its not that fast and the ending lag is still utterly brutal, but for the kind of power you're commanding its kind of scary it comes out even that fast.
While Young Xehanort will always spawn 6 frames into the starting lag of Xehanort's Forward Smash if you tap the A button within the first 5 frames, you can actually spawn him later into the lag by pressing the follow up further in as he will stun the foe 10 frames after he's been input. This actually gives you a bit of a timing mixup the opponent has to worry about, letting you catch dodges with this more effectively than you might think. This stun doesn't go through shields, but it does inflict enough shield stun that the foe has very little time to react to the blade actually coming down and might tick their shield down to a break in Anti-Form, or result in a shield break if the foe times their shield drop poorly(provided its not somehow healthy enough to tank this massive hit). Even with this move's hideous ending lag, you're still at a massive advantage off a shield break. Of course if their shield is healthy enough, you're going to regret the decision to use this move.
If being able to use this kind of power off 15 frames of startup isn't good enough for you at face value, because the ending lag is too terrible, keep in mind the rest of Xehanort's moveset. He has slow projectiles and delayed hitboxes to set this up, and some very powerful combo tools that can lead into this move if he has another Nobody prepped. Keep in mind you either need 3+ Nobodies or a very careful plan to actually confirm or near confirm into this Forward Smash, but the fact that its even possible to occasionally true combo into a hitbox THIS powerful is something that should put the fear of god into your opponents. Should you get out the full 13 Nobodies, with the kind of resources you have to blow, the setup isn't even hard anymore, which is one of the many reasons why taking multiple stocks off that is perfectly feasible.
Young Xehanort is amazing suspended as a trap, because a trap you can spring at any time that stuns the foe for 30 frames is absolutely stupid good. It true combos into anything in your set that's not Forward Smash, the hitbox is reasonably large, and in general its great for just setting up some insane combos on the opponent. Its not even slow to come out. You do have to go through this move's hideous lag to use it though, so unlike with the other delayed Nobody attacks you absolutely cannot just weeve pulling this out casually into fighting the opponent. You need to set it deliberately while the foe is far, far away from you, but hey, if you get that distance, its a terrifying threat for the foe to deal with.
Up Smash - Kingdom Ray
Pointing his the X-Blade skyward, Master Xehanort fires a vibrant beam of white light upwards, travelling up nearly as far as Palutena's Up Smash. The light even shines down in rays on both sides of Xehanort, giving this move some actual horizontal coverage as well, making it downright amazing in that regard. What's not amazing on this move is the lag, the start lag is not particularly fast and the ending lag is very long as the beam dies away before Xehanort puts back his keyblade. The good news is for the first 10 frames of the beam dying away it acts as a sourspot that deals 6%-8% and weak upwards knockback, but it does lose the coverage on Xehanort's sides and is punishable on hit up close, so its not really the best consolation prize, but given there is a follow up hit if you have a Nobody getting the consolation hit can sometimes be quite worth it. And the long duration means this move is pretty good at catching air dodges, especially since the starting lag is, while not great, serviceable.
How powerful this move is depends on how close the opponent is to Xehanort, because conversely to what you'd expect for this kind of massive range move, its considerably more effective at close range. Hitting the actual blade of the sword the beam is fired from deals 18%-25% and upwards knockback that KOs at 105%-70%, and right past that the damage decreases to 14%-20% and upwards knockback that KOs at 130%-100%. It further diminishes until you reach the end of the hitbox, which only deals 9%-13% and upwards knockback that KOs at 200%-150%. Hitting with the light beams stretching off to the sides deals the same damage and knockback as the strongest hit that's not on the X-Blade itself. For what its worth, the weaker hits aren't AS big of a loss compared to the base hit given they hit the foe considerably higher up in the air, so the KO percentage decrease is smaller than it looks.
This move's massive range has a pretty solid purpose for Xehanort in conjunction with his ability to delay his Nobody hitboxes. The Up Smash just serves as a massive wall of space that is very easy to smack the opponent into, so while its a bit harder to combo into with his own moves thanks to the lag, its actually a very easy move to combo into with the help of a time delayed Nobody. It is really easy to say, use Dash Attack or Forward Tilt's delayed hitbox to land this, and even Down Tilt's can work despite not really coming across as a combo move. Using this to cut off a huge swath of space during Up Special is also pretty powerful, especially considering its lingering nature. Just know if you whiff with both you're definently getting that Nobody destroyed given the ending lag, and on that note you better get the timing for delayed hitbox combos down for this move.
The follow up to this move is another quite flashy one, as the Nobody using it takes the form of Ansem with his guardian at his side. The Ansem Nobody raises his arms into the air as his guardian stretches upward rapidly, rising higher and higher into the air. By default, it will go up a little over a Ganondorf height before slamming its hands together for a hit that deals 11%-15% and upwards knockback that KOs at 150%-115%. The thing about the guardian is that if there is a foe directly above it, it will rapidly stretch upwards to meet them, taking longer to go up the higher up the foe is. It doesn't go up QUITE fast enough to true combo out of Up Smash at high percentages, but its actually not that far off from doing so, meaning against a foe with poor timing the two hits can connect into one another and convert this into a noticeably earlier kill move. At lower percentages, this just means Up Smash can pile on a ton of damage and get the foe extremely high in the air, giving Xehanort plenty of setup time, and on some opponents depending on gravity this can lead into early kills at 70%-80% off Up Smash, just keep in mind its not going to work on every opponent.
This also makes it much more rewarding to hit with this move's sourspot, as because the sourspot comes out later it will actually confirm into the guardian's attack rather than just providing another layer of pressure to give Xehanort a bigger advantage state. This can make timing the move as a combo ender a lot more comfortable or make it much worse for an opponent who gets caught out of a dodge.
Used as a delayed hitbox, this is a potentially amazing delayed hitbox to have with its potentially infinite upwards range. If Xehanort manages to pressure a foe to a position high above the ground with this, you can kind of build your own Up Smash into Ansem follow up that ACTUALLY true combos to kill early on everyone. While its not as powerful as a true "sectioning off" of the stage like the original hit of Up Smash, you can still use this to zone the foe out from an entire column of the stage, possibly keeping them trapped near the ledge where one wrong move can lead into Xehanort using the powerful combination of Up Special and a Nobody against an offstage opponent. While a bit trickier to combo into that many of the follow ups, it has the actual highest KO potential if you get a foe reasonably high in the air.
Down Smash - Brilliant Beacon
Master Xehanort traces the X-Blade along the floor around him, in a move that only deals 6%-8% and low knockback that pops the opponent slightly up and forward from the direction the blade was spinning(so behind Xehanort it knocks the foe slightly further back). Xehanort's cape billows a bit after the spin, and the X-Blade glows increasingly brightly as he performs it. The real power of this move's hitbox starts when Xehanort has mostly finishes his spin as two light beams rise up and spin around him, quickly reaching their full height of about 1.6x Ganondorf's height after they're halfway through their first spin, starting out only a Kirby height. It should be noted they're only hitboxes for the portion of the spin where at least part of the beam is out of the background, so this attack does have some blindspots in terms of time coverage, but the beams fortunately are at least partly on the fighting plane for a large enough portion of the attack that this ends up covering a decently large portion of the attack's whole duration. The beams will make two orbits around Xehanort before disappearing, and travel out to a maximum distance of about 1.5x the distance of Xehanort's blade, while becoming a hitbox on the main plane 0.8x the distance of Xehanort's blade out from him.
The light beams deal 13%-18%, and mostly horizontal knockback that KOs at 170%-135%. While this is pretty weak for a smash, and the starting lag is on the somewhat higher end, there are some good points. This move has a pretty long duration and even if hitboxes aren't active for all of it, they still give it good enough coverage that it can catch out dodges and kind of "protect" Xehanort until the end lag starts. If you hit with the very end of the hitbox's duration, you can actually score a combo off it at low percents, because the final hit takes place so close to lag's end. Now is this easy to set up? No, but it can work if you catch out a roll or dodge at the right time, or if you use a lingering hitbox to combo into it. Xehanort has no trouble setting up one of those, given his nobodies that he can place around stage via Down Special and activate while this move is out.
The end result of this move is actually even better if you charged it more, as the light beams will actually keep spinning up until the actual end of the end lag after about 10 frames of charge up front, and keep increasing beyond that. With a fully charged Down Smash, you'll have the hitbox continue to linger about half a second after Xehanort comes entirely out of lag, which giving you yet another lingering hitbox you can throw out on stage for one thing, albeit at the cost of tons of lag. This also means you could potentially combo the foe into this attack an even larger number of times due to the increased duration and pile on over 50% off one move, but that requires some very specific use of both Xehanort's own kit and your delayed hitboxes, so its a bit of a challenge to make work. That said, it could be a way to spontaneously burst your way up to full meter against an anti-form foe.
The foe is left with a glowing aura of light after being hit by this attack, which lasts for only 2.5 seconds. This brief glowing aura is actually an indicator for where this attack's follow up will activate, albeit if it hits multiple foes it will target the closest of them. When the follow up is pressed, a Nobody will appear in the form of Xemnas, and raise both hands at his sides as dark energy forms around them, before slamming them together in a manuever that is very laggy, taking 1.2 seconds. Considering that Xemnas' lag is thankfully disjointed from Xehanort's, this isn't really the worst problem to have, but it does telegraph what Xemnas is about to do a lot. And this is in some ways Master Xehanort's most powerful follow up, but one that there's a lot of room to play around at least.
Once Xemnas has finished his lag, he will summon a massive dome of lasers around the opponent, about the size of Giga Bowser. This dome has 50 lasers in it in total, and is distributed through the foreground/background around the opponent, the lasers only being hitboxes right when they hit the opponent in the foreground obviously. Each laser does a highly underwhelming 0.3% and no flinch on hit, and ten of them are fired at the opponent per second as long as they remain within the laser dome. Essentially, it just adds up to the foe taking 3% per second as long as they stay within the very large AoE of this attack, which isn't really that much to write home about. That said, foes will take 5 hits of the lasers at once if they just try to run out of the sides, albeit decreased by 1 hit per second as more and more lasers are fired off at the foe and the edges become sparser with lasers. Eventually, the dome will have few enough lasers in it the foe can just run out the sides without bumping into any, or easily jump/crouch around them, usually when only 10-20 lasers are left. If the dome forms in the air, it will be oval shaped and the opponent will take about as many hits if they go through the bottom or top of the dome without dodging as they would the sides, but usually 1-2 less as the lasers there are less densely clustered.
Now this might all sound like a mediocre damage over time effect, but it does get a lot scarier as the attack goes on. You see, after 10 lasers hit the opponent, the damage subsequent lasers do is increased by 0.1%, and this will increase every 10 lasers that hit the opponent to cause the damage potential on this move to skyrocket. Not only that, but every 25 lasers that hit the foe will cause a mini-stun for 12 frames, giving Xehanort a pretty big advantage over the foe to narrowly go for a Young Xehanort boosted FSmash to give the foe only a little time to dodge, or just go for a combo starter if you want some more guarunteed output. It sadly is pretty hard to get two mini-stuns out of this move, however, as any lasers shielded/dodged won't count for the damage increase or the mini-stun effect. This kind of encourages foes to dodge/shield a bit more recklessly in this zone however so they can at least avoid a laser or five if they're struggling to escape... and careless use of their defensive options gives Xehanort a bigger chance to go for shield pokes/breaks and dodge punishes.
You can add even more Nobodies to this move by tapping A repeatedly for this follow up, with each tap past the first summoning another Nobody to assist Xemnas in creating the dome. This adds 10 lasers to it and causes it to continue firing for 1 more second, which with even one Nobody allows you to go for more mini-stuns quite easily, increases the damage if the foe tries to go out the side considerably, and greatly raises the damage potential of this manuever. Obviously, if you get a full organization and invest 6 or 7 of them into this move, this becomes a ridiculously overpowered zone control tool, as the opponent's damage just skyrockets when they're in the zone after a while... and on top of that, the mini stuns actually get more frequent past a point. If the lasers are dealing over 1% to the foe, the mini-stuns will happen after 15 hits rather than 25, which makes escaping the laser dome go from "somewhat annoying" to "extremely difficult if Xehanort is there to pressure the foe". Obviously, that requires the foe to be in the laser dome for a full 7 seconds, but once you get it the foe will likely not really be able to fight back against Xehanort anymore unless you knock them around too carelessly, netting you the stock.
Having a massive dome/oval of the stage sectioned off is actually quite powerful for Xehanort's other tools too. If you put it near the edge of the stage it will strongly encourage the foe to either try to fight past Xehanort under considerably more difficult conditions... or to back off the edge, letting Xehanort go for an Up Special edgeguard, leading to a bit of a win-win scenario. Xehanort's Up Special generally combines well with this move as the massive laser can block the opponent off from getting out of the laser dome, and while that might be a bit predictable on its own if you factor in a delayed Nobody attack or using another Nobody with the Up Special, it can actually keep the foe locked in to take massive damage quite nicely. If this is out at the same time as the Up Special, for that matter, the mini-stun can lead right into the opponent getting smacked into the extremely powerful beam. Xehanort can also kind of "drag" the foe back into this move with Forward Tilt or a function of the Nair that we'll get into soon enough. Either way, there's a lot of tools you can use to keep the opponent in there and let the damage pile up, albeit some of the stronger ones are either laggy or resource intensive. It is worth mentioning sometimes just throwing this move out can make the whole prospect of "definitively winning neutral with Xehanort" a lot easier as you can more easily land your actual combo starters when the foe is frantically trying to not get mini-stunned or take too much damage from the lasers.
Given this is already a long lasting hitbox, delaying it has less massive implications for how this move applies than it otherwise would. It basically just means you make the same danger zone you otherwise would, but at a time more specifically convenient to you now that you can activate it whenever. Being able to suddenly spawn a dome in at any moment is a reasonably scary ability to have, even if it doesn't necessarily open up combo opportunities that other moves do, considering how terrifying it makes traversing the stage. It should be noted that if a foe is not covered in light from the initial Down Smash hit, the dome of lasers Xemnas creates will just be spawned around the point Xehanort used the Down Smash in the first place. Hitting with a Down Smash before pulling out the delayed version, however, can make it lock onto the opponent's position again via the light source, which is a useful little trick to know if you've got one prepared on stage. Note that if there's already a laser dome out, a new one will cause the old one to end and all the accumulated damage stacking and added Nobodies will not be factored into the new one. So keep that in mind.
If multiple foes are inside a laser dome, the lasers will divide themselves up between the different targets in that dome, splitting up the damage output and making this move generally much less threatening to each individual opponent. This can kind of make grouping up to fight against this move a valid combat tactic, and considering that's how Sora and Riku stopped it in their fight against Xemnas, it only makes sense really.
Aerials
Neutral Aerial - Light of the X-Blade
Light surrounds the X-Blade as Master Xehanort holds it upwards and backwards a bit, as the light also covers Master Xehanort's body. This move comes out quite fast, activating on Frame 5, and deals 9% when it first comes out as well as mostly upward knockback that won't KO at a reasonable percentage unless the foe is really high up in the air. The light lingers on Xehanort's body and blade for a bit, diminishing in power to only deal 5% and extremely weak upwards knockback afterwards. It lingers for a bit before Xehanort has very little ending lag as his sword is not even that far from its default position during this move's animation anyway.
Now this move sounds pretty great for how fast it is, but there are a few problems with it. For one, the duration being a bit long combined with the tiny range compared to Xehanort's other moves makes it pretty unsafe to use, and the move doesn't combo into anything if you hit with the initial hit. Hitting with the late hit is considerably harder, as if you hit early into the duration but past the initial, stronger hitbox, you're liable to get yourself punished on hit. The move has pretty great landing lag though, making it a good option out of a short hop, albeit it can still be tricky to not specifically hit with the initial hitbox when the hitbox size is a bit bigger when it first comes out, which doesn't combo into all the potential things the latter hitbox can like Up Tilt. So there's a bit of finesse to using this move, but it can be one of Xehanort's best combo starters if used properly, and serves the backup function of a move to reset when the foe is in advantage state but accidentally gives you a small window to claw your way back in.
The follow up to this move makes hitting with the more combo-capable weaker hit a lot easier, as you can activate it a few frames into the move's duration rather than just afterwards. The Nobody will fly a short distance in front of Xehanort and a dark aura will surround their body as they hold their keyblade in front of themselves, as darkness leaking off them drags in nearby opponents with a suction effect that gets stronger the closer they are to the Nobody, though it will pull in slightly from a range a little shorter than Dedede's Neutral Special, albeit not with the same strength. If the foe comes into contact with the Nobody, they take 5% and are knocked slightly backwards, either into the combo hitbox of the Nair or into range that you're in a good position to land Bair even if it doesn't true combo into it later on in the Nair's duration. Just keep in mind if you use this to set up a very late Nair hit, its not quite as good as it otherwise would be due to the additional 5 frames of ending lag you take.
This follow up actually has a secondary property of pulling projectiles in with the suction hitbox, redirecting them from their path. This allows you to redirect dark orbs, or even darts fired by a delayed Nobody, up into the air, usually give Xehanort an additional source of anti-dodge pressure or combo potential. If the dark projectiles actually come into contact with the Nobody, they'll be trapped in place there and if a foe is also pulled in they'll take a multi-hit of all the projectiles before getting knocked backwards, actually allowing this to potentially confirm into something like Bair due to the increased hitstun, and also piles on quite a bit of damage(albeit sadly not the kind that builds a lot of meter against an anti-form foe). This does sacrifice the projectiles, but if you use it while the projectiles are far enough away you can instead just redirect them as they don't get pulled all the way to the Nobody, so there's quite a few tricks you can do with this.
As far as delaying hitboxes goes, the Nair Nobody hitbox is exceptionally useful when delayed. Its not a particularly powerful payoff on its own merits, being a weak hitbox that can combo into some upward angled things, but is hardly exceptional for combo potential compared to some of the other options. The thing that makes it so good, however, is that it allows you to actually use this to mess with a foe's spacing. Pulling a foe just out of reach of one of your attacks into one, redirecting your Jab projectiles to mess with your ability to dodge, or making moves that wouldn't normally combo together actually connect by pulling the opponent right back in are just a few of the many uses setting up a delayed Nair has. Its even pretty easy to set up, so this may be one of Xehanort's most common delayed hitboxes to drop out on stage.
Forward Aerial - Ladder to the Kingdom
Xehanort performs a simple, arcing slash from bottom to top in front of him, dealing 8% and knockback at an angle slightly above horizontal that won't kill at any reasonable percent. This move comes pretty fast and has good coverage in front of Xehanort, but the ending lag is high enough that comboing off it is unfortunately kind of awkward, you need to predict the opponent's reactions/dodges a bit for it to link into itself or Nair. Xehanort can't really create a massive amount of advantage off winning neutral with this if he doesn't have a Nobody out, which is a bit of a shame as like Down Tilt it is one of his best tools to do so, and Down Tilt doesn't really provide much of a reward either. That said, if you do have a Nobody out, this move is a fair bit more dangerous for reasons we'll get into, and if the foe misreads you trying to use one of Fair or DTilt to win neutral they could easily end up taking a far more crucial hit.
This move has a bit of an interesting follow up, although its quite simple at first. By default, the Nobody will appear a distance of half a battlefield platform in front of Xehanort, able to come out as soon as Xehanort starts swinging the blade. They will swing their blade back at the foe to knock them right back once the foe takes the hit from Xehanort, sending them at the same angle upward but back towards Xehanort. This hit deals 4% and allows for an incredibly easy Uair confirmation up until around 70%. This is a much better combo confirm than this move would usually have, getting Xehanort a solid amount of damage off winning neutral with a tool that's pretty easy to win neutral with, certainly a useful trick to have. Of course if you're just summoning Nobodies and spamming this you're not going to win through that alone, the move is not THAT fast. For what its worth, the follow up on this move will work until like 250%.
If you have additional nobodies out, you can actually press A a second and third time to use up another one with each press to further extend this move. With a second press another Nobody will move itself slightly above and behind Xehanort and hit the foe back in the opposite direction horizontally but still upward, dealing 5% this time. The first follow up does stop linking into this one a bit earlier than the first hit stops linking into the first follow up, but you can still do this until about 160%. Sometimes, this can mean you land on a platform below and kill confirm with Up Smash, a quite powerful option to have out of Fair. The third hit will have the final Nobody appear a bit above the first one and instead swing its keyblade in a downward arc with considerable force. This deals 6% and spikes the opponent pretty hard, KOing foes pretty early if you land it off stage(60% or so, and some characters earlier if they can't recover vertically well). Being able to spike with this fast Fair is frankly a terrifying option, the damage is considerable, and used above the stage the foe will be juggled between Nobodies long enough this will confirm into most of your set. Sure, you can't confirm FSmash off it(unless you have a fourth Nobody prepared so Young Xehanort can catch the foe out, requiring your insanely expensive full organization summon), but there's still some pretty intense setups you can get off this move. This combo stops working around 100%, for what its worth.
Using Stopza on your Nobodies here has a bit of versatility, as your one stored Stopza charge can be used on any number of the Nobodies that come out here. That said, once you've frozen a Nobody in place rather than having it immediately attack, you've made it so subsequent follow ups will likely not hit. This means say, freezing the first Nobody you throw out by pressing B and then using the next two follow ups by pressing A is not recommended. That said, you can do an unfrozen follow up to get all the advantage it has and then freeze the next one, allowing you to use all the added hitstun and damage of the first and second follow ups and then leave the third one in the air to spike the foe later for some devastating subsequent combos. One of the nice things about this move is that it comes out fast AND the follow up hit comes out fast when Xehanort unfreezes it, so its both easy to combo opponents into and not punishing to go into, and you can create some absolutely devastating combos using a delayed double or triple Nobody on this move(with a projectile hitting the foe as well you might actually be able to confirm a Forward Smash, which is kind of horrifying), but that does require you either have the full organization or the triple Nobody summon, both of which are hefty investments on Xehanort's part, especially into something that could possibly just disappear without the foe ever running into it.
Back Aerial - Holy Impale
Pulling the blade back in for a moment, Xehanort thrusts the X-Blade behind him with a great deal of force, in a move with pretty large starting lag that makes it difficult to throw out casually. The power on this move fortunately makes it worth it, as it deals 14% and has knockback that KOs from center stage at 130%. On an aerial, that's pretty strong stuff, only helped by this move having pretty big range as Xehanort moves himself backwards to use it. This can help a tiny bit with horizontal recovery, though its pretty situational that this will actually be the difference between getting back to the stage or not and doing so is fairly predictable. There's plenty of useful delayed hitboxes in your set that make this move easier to land, and that's really the main context you should be using it in, as its pretty easy for opponents to just weave around this in the air or punish you for going for it. That said, if the foe's already exhausted their air dodge, landing this on a read is not THAT difficult and can lead to some early kills on a read. Basically, while its not a safe move, Xehanort has the tools to make good use of it. This move does have decently long ending lag though, albeit the landing lag is actually not too bad even if using this move out of a short hop is sadly not really possible.
The follow up on this move is one that's never going to connect out of the main hit, and just has the Nobody follow Xehanort's motion except moving even further forward with their own keyblade by a small amount. This deals 11% and backwards knockback that KOs at 190%, and as such isn't nearly the KO move the initial hit is. With that said, the foe has only one dodge in the air and while Ultimate air dodges are directional, air dodging in place has by far the least ending lag and is as such the safest one to go for. This makes an in place air dodge a lot more hazardous to go for, and can either be used to punish that and still get a kill off stage... or just bait the foe into higher lag air dodges that you can more easily punish when they go wrong simply by having a Nobody out. It also does make the situations where you use this move above the ground pretty terrifying, as Xehanort going into the landing lag of this move will make the pressure provided by the second hit a lot more powerful to follow up on. So while it lacks Xehanort's usual extended combo utility, what it does do is just make the Bair a significantly scarier move to try and weave around.
Using the Nobody as a delayed hitbox is pretty simple. Its a hitbox that uses a single Nobody, has KO power, mostly horizontal knockback to make comboing into moves across the stage with the high knockback easier, and can be placed in the air. If you position this off stage you can possibly use this to shunt the foe off the blast zone at not especially high percents, or you can hit the opponent into it from across the stage and then use this move to knock it back to you for a fairly flashy combo into Up Smash and occasionally Forward Smash with very particular positioning. There's enough of a vertical component to the knockback that you'd need to use this below the ledge to knock the opponent into FSmash on a flat stage, or with very particular positioning in regards to a platform on a stage with those. Even then you'll probably need Young Xehanort's help to pull it off. If you use it in mid Down Smash you can potentially combo the Down Smash into this and then right back into itself, which is a neat little trick that piles on quite a bit of damage.
Up Aerial - Spinning Blade
In a swift upwards motion, Xehanort spins most of a full circle around himself, only not covering about 90 degrees below himself in a move that actually comes out quite fast, at only Frame 6. The good range, speed and coverage are complimented by respectable damage, as the move deals 9% and upwards knockback that kills at 200%. The ending lag and knockback are both too great for this move to really go into another aerial, sadly, and makes this move slightly punishable on whiff. Its more good for combo endings and juggles than it is a great KO or combo continuer. That said, helping juggles is pretty nice for Xehanort, especially considering he has both the aerial delayed hitboxes and Up Smash to support them and while its not as a "true" a source of combos, if you keep up the advantage they provide on a foe in anti-form its a great backup strategy to build meter.
The follow up to this is simple, a Nobody jumps up after the foe and does their own spinnning slash, boosting about a Ganondorf height into the air. This deals another 6% and upwards knockback that KOs at 225%. It does stop comboing at high percents, and it doesn't have a ton of great follow ups... but you can fast fall Up Smash close to the ground and give the foe a very small window to dodge it, or use a second jump to pursue with another Uair. This is only situationally a useful 50/50, but it can let you just squeeze a little bit of extra damage off your Uair if you play it right, which really is what this follow up is useful for, just providing a little more damage and messing with dodges that Uair wouldn't otherwise have. The delayed version of this is quite good for keeping the opponent in the air for aerial combo strings, not really having that many flashy applications but just being a solid, aerial combo/pressure enabler.
Down Aerial - Light Array
Xehanort pulls the X-Blade back behind him as he faces downward, light energy flashing off it before he thrusts it down and several beams of light shoot off the blade around Xehanort. They fan out off the blade to about the length of Marth's sword from the blade, making a tree-like shape out of light beams. This creates a massive hitbox, but the starting lag on this move is pretty high, making it rather unsafe to throw out at close range. That said, this move is easier to use than a lot of moves with this much lag due to its sheer range, including large amounts of coverage on both sides. This allows it to function in a similar role to Up Smash of serving as something to combo into with your delayed hitboxes, as its sheer size makes it fairly easy to catch opponents in it. Its also not half bad to throw out if you have space from the foe, as the light beams can poke at them while they lack options to hit you from that far away. The ending lag on this move is average, so whiffing is a lot less painful than it is with say, Forward Smash, but you still can get punished hard on a whiff if the foe is close and sometimes even if you're a bit careless poking at the foe.
The X-blade itself deals 17% and is a pretty strong spike, not quite Ganondorf Dair levels but still killing off stage at early percents. The light beams deal a much less impressive 8% and diagonal upwards knockback in the horizontal direction they're facing that KOs very late. The beams coming out of the bottom of the blade will actually knock the foe straight up and have slightly more knockback than the ones on the sides, allowing this move to potentially combo into Uair or Nair at medium percents. You're not really using this move for raw power or combo potential most of the time, but the fact that it has some decent properties for both of those things depending on where the move hits means it can help with getting in a foe's head to zone them to a more ideal area of the stage.
The follow up hit to this has the Nobody descend down below Xehanort with its keyblade stabbing below it, falling to the stage a little slower than Sonic does in his Dair. The Nobody deals 6% and mostly upward diagonal knockback on contact with the foe, actually leading into Xehanort's aerials quite well due to the Nobody being desynced from Xehanort's lag. This makes it a better combo starter than the original move and will catch out opponents who tried to avoid it in place by doding or shielding... except its actually a little better than even that. After the Nobody lands on the ground, its keyblade will crack and shatter as it disappears, creating an explosion of darkness around it that deals 9% and upwards knockback that KOs at 175%, 10 frames after it hits the ground. This creates a multi-layered frame trap of sorts, as even if the foe avoids the first 2 hits there's still a third one coming that starts after Xehanort is already out of his ending lag, putting a lot of pressure on opponents that don't move out of the way. While it doesn't increase the moves power outright when it doesn't combo out of it(except at very low percentages with the bottom hitbox), it makes it much harder to shield/dodge around and creates a much greater amount of pressure over the horizontal area below Xehanort, greatly improving this move's zoning ability by the simple presense of having a Nobody out.
The double hitboxes this move produces are tricky to combo off twice on a delayed version, you need some pretty specific spacing/timing to do so. That said, its a Nobody move that covers a wide area of space so its a pretty useful tool for spacial control even if you don't pull that off. If you can get the first hit to combo to Xehanort and then back into the second hit though, that will both pile on a fair bit of damage and serve as a pretty unique sort of combo opportunity you don't quite get from the single hit combo resets of your other delayed hitboxes.
Grab Game
Grab - Clutches of Darkness
Xehanort reaches forward, darkness surrounding his hand as grabs onto the opponent. If the opponent is the same size as Master Xehanort or smaller, he'll lift them up by the neck with darkness pouring out of his hand, but if the foe happens to be too big to do that on, they'll instead just be levitated into the air with darkness surrounding their neck and pouring off their body while Xehanort simply watches. He has an amused smirk on his face either way. This is a bit of a short range grab and has a tiny bit worse than average lag for a grab too, so on the whole Xehanort struggles a bit more to land grabs than most characters do. Given Xehanort being able to capitalize hard off wins in neutral is pretty reliant on either a pretty good read or having a Nobody out in some form, not having access to the best grab for combo setups is a bit of a letdown. But Xehanort is a master schemer, he shouldn't have to take the easy way out.
Pummel - DARKNESS
Darkness flows from Xehanort's hand or the ring around their neck into the opponent's body, causing them to briefly flinch and sometimes flash into Anti-Form for a couple frames, albeit this is just an aesthetic touch as Xehanort corrupts their essense. This deals 2.5% per hit in a moderate speed pummel, giving it above average damage output. If the foe is already in Anti-Form, Xehanort will instead siphon darkness off their body, dealing damage at the same rate, but giving a slightly different animation. This animation also justifies why this pummel will actually get the buff to meter production while the foe is in Anti-Form that Xehanort's light based attacks do. Given he's directly siphoning power off the opponent this proves an adequate substitute to clashing light and darkness for powering Xehanort's plans.
Forward Throw - Light Barrage
Master Xehanort appears behind the opponent in an instant as a slash of light appears through their body, sending them flying forward with 7% and low horizontal knockback that will only KO around 300%. The throw can end here if you want it too, and considering Xehanort is positioned forward a bit while using this throw its actually a pretty decent combo starter into Forward Tilt... albeit it actually won't work at 0% as Xehanort will be too far in front of the foe, needing to do it between the 30%-60% range on a middleweight. It does however combo at lower percents if you're near a ledge as Xehanort will not go off the edge when moving forward with this move, instead stopping in front of the opponent with a slash mark stilll appearing over them if necessary.
This move has a follow up Xehanort can use if he doesn't want to just go for a regular combo off it, where he can press any cardinal direction during the ending lag of the throw to instead have himself leap to the opponent's position in the air. This leap will stop working at about 120% on middleweights, at which point the throw knocks them a bit too far for Xehanort to make the jump, lower on lightweights and higher on heavyweights. Once he gets there, he'll stab the X-Blade into the opponent for another 5% and set knockback of 0.6 units in the chosen direction, which Xehanort isn't really qualified to combo off especially because the ending lag of this version is a bit longer as Xehanort needs a bit more time to get back to his default pose from this position. That said, it turns what was a solid combo tool into instead an excellent spacing tool, allowing you to get the foe that much better positioned for your time suspended Nobody attacks.
You can also expend a Nobody by pressing any cardinal direction again during the ending lag of the second hit, which will cause it to just repeat Xehanort's attack in a new direction. This can be done up to twice after this move, and by the time the second Nobody's attacking the opponent you'll already be out of your ending lag to start capitalizing on this, making this a brutally powerful throw if you have two Nobodies out for all sorts of crazy stuff. Unfortunately you can't suspend this particular Nobody attack in time, its a contingency of this particular throw rather than a normal follow up, but this already allows for some VERY powerful and specific repositioning, basically lining the foe up perfectly with whatever trap you have lying in wait for them, AND at a frame advantage. The one Nobody follow up is also good for repositioning opponents near the edge for ledgeguard scenarios, setting up combos from angles the FThrow couldn't usually and at a greater variety of percentages, and of course the usual spacing into delayed hitboxes/traps nonsense. Its a very versatile throw, but it doesn't cover the unique niches Xehanort's other throws do.
Down Throw - The Recusant's Sigil
A considerable overflow of darkness bursts out of the point Xehanort is grabbing the foe from, before forming into a red X-symbol on their body. It then flashes into a glowing light as the foe is released from Xehanort's grip in frame neutral with him, dealing 6%. This is pretty underwhelming as far as immediate impact goes, and the sigil on the opponent's body will sadly not last long either, only lasting for 6 seconds. Going into neutral isn't necessarily the worst for Xehanort though, as he has some pretty strong neutral tools like DTilt and Fair, its just once he uses them he's not really putting himself at much of an advantage.
As you might expect, the point of this move is the effect the Recusant's Sigil has on the opponent while its on them, which is thankfully quite strong and warrants using this otherwise weak throw out of a mediocre grab and then some. The Recusant's Sigil allows Xehanort to "track" opponents, which has an effect both on Xehanort's Nobody follow ups and projectiles. For your Nobody follow ups, it will actually cause them to slide a short distance towards the foe when performing their attack if the foe would otherwise be out of range, essentially giving them extra reach in all 8 cardinal directions. This causes some follow ups to combo together for longer, makes tools like the Up Smash follow up easier to hit with, and makes all your delayed Nobody attacks have a much larger potential area of effect, in general extending Xehanort's combo game quite a bit. Even Xemnas' laser dome will slide towards opponents within about half a battlefield platform range to surroudn them, albeit it moves slower than the other Nobodies at a bit slower than Incineroar's Dash Speed, who traverse the distance very quickly, so its possible for the foe to run away from it... though it now zones the foe off a larger area of the stage and is harder to escape all the lasers if they do get caught in it.
Projectiles home in too now, with the orbs homing in considerably more powerfully than they used to and starting to accelerate once they start homing in on opponent's rather than at the end of their range, making them require a shield or dodge much more frequently than they used too. The darts home in a bit more weakly, but this still means just jumping over them is still no longer an easy solution to that problem. Combined with the delayed Nair, Jab's follow up, or a delayed Jab follow up, you can create some pretty complex to avoid projectile combos, though the window to pull it off is a bit tricky.
The big payoff to this move, however, is that it now adds another follow up to Xehanort's attacks. By pressing a grab input after performing an attack, Xehanort will detonate the Recusant Sigil as it flashes red and sends the opponent sliding right at Xehanort, traveling a maximum of a battlefield platform in his direction though stopping right in front of him otherwise, with a bit of hitstun as well. Xehanort can do this out of any attack and do it in combination with either of his other follow ups(creating a delayed Nobody or just using a regular one). This opens up true combos between hits that would otherwise never have them(like the two Up Smash hits), lets Xehanort drag foes all over the stage for use with delayed Nobodies/Xemnas. Pulling the foe back towards you while Up Special is out is also REALLY strong, as it lets you reset a combo or hit you did not aimed toward the beam into one that now DOES combo into your beam, or if the beam just passed over the Nobody outright drag the foe right back into it for massive damage and knockback. There's even the rather intimidating prospect of actually comboing people with the Down Tilt now, due to the additional hitstun, making that move terrifying given how hard it is to shield.
Of course, while this stuff is all powerful, you have a rather small window to use it, which in combination with delayed Nobody stuff can be a challenge given those also have a low duration. The most powerful option this move has is also locked behind actually hitting with something first, and while 6 seconds is a good time frame for you to get at least one hit in, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a particularly optimal combo and sometimes you're just going to get to get pushed to disadvantage when this leaves the foe in neutral. Use this move wisely, as the rewards are not the easiest to reap.
Up Throw - Expanding Darkness
Raising the foe up into the air Xehanort has the darkness leaking off the foe crush in on them and send them flying upwards for 8% and upwards knockback that KOs at 200%. This doesn't true combo into any of Xehanort's upwards options, but its pretty easy to 50/50 them with short hop Uair/Up Tilt or full hop Uair/Up Smash depending on percent. You can definently push a decent amount of advantage off this move, especially off if you go into Up Tilt with a Nobody up as you can keep a combo/advantage state for quite a while based off that, but it is a bit situational and not as powerful as FThrow given you don't get anything guarunteed.
That said, this move does have a decent side benefit of the darkness collecting on the foe's body, before starting to swell up and leak ominous purple energy out of it. After 5 seconds, the energy will explode, dealing 6% and upwards knockback that kills at 220%, on the whole, not very impressive. That said, this isn't really a move you use for its raw damage or kill power. Like the Down Throw, this is a combo extender, and while throwing one hit into the middle of a combo isn't a huge deal, it can at least reset combos, and combined with using duplicates to already allow longer ones you can allow for seriously nasty combo strings with this. You can also pop the foe into the air with specific positioning in combination with Forward Tilt, or use Xehanort's various tools to juggle the foe towards the top of the screen(Up Smash/Uair/Up Smash follow up) to have the explosion just kill the foe due to their proximity to the top blast zone.
This hit is also really good for adding pressure on the opponent's defenses. If the foe doesn't want to be hit by it and lose neutral, they have to shield or dodge it. Xehanort can guaruntee a Down Tilt hit off a shield attempt because of how low it pokes, meaning as long as he's in close range when it goes off he will basically always reap some damage on the opponent. If the foe is in anti-form, the nerfed shields/dodges make this especially painful to deal with... and one thing that is worth noting is that it can make Up Special and Forward Smash easier to use than you'd think considering their lag. This combined with Xemnas and a delayed Nobody you can throw out at any time is, while very difficult to setup, the kind of ridiculous external pressure that makes landing those otherwise insanely laggy moves actually feasible, even without Nobody assistance. This is to say nothing of if Xehanort has a Nobody on his person and wants to fish for an FSmash kill, but needs assurence it won't fail.
This doesn't provide the same kind of absurd combo potential upgrade that Down Throw does. That said, there are definently situations where going for this move is better. Particular setups that lead into this version more comfortably, or if you don't have a setup of any sort and want into the lead while also adding a timed threat rather than just going right into a combo. Its also the case that the choice between which move to use might just depend on which the individual Xehanort player is more comfortable with, as both of them encourage different patterns.
Back Throw - The Final Key
The darkness continuing to surround the opponent's neck, Xehanort has them float backward, released from his grip if he was holding them by the neck. He then slashes the X-blade through the opponent's back, with a glass shattering sound playing after the slash hits the opponent as tiny, crystalline shards fly out of their body. This deals 12%, and knockback that KOs at from the ledge at 140%, wholely underwhelming for Master Xehanort's KO throw and especially off a poor grab. There is, at the very least, some additional utility here as landing higher knockback moves out of a grab is not necessarily something you can never combo off with as many delayed tricks as Xehanort has. Its not some super easy setup, but if you Back Throw the foe into something that'll send them back towards Xehanort, following up with a Bair is quite a lot of damage to get off a simple throw like this.
The animation for this throw being based on Xehanort killing Kairi is like that for a little more than just that good ol' villainous flavor, though. If you kill a foe with this move, Xehanort will acquire the light and darkness in their heart to empower himself and further his plans, meaning a KO with this represents a whopping 40% of your meter being filled. That's the kind of progress you'd usually only get on a decently sized combo string in Anti-Form, and you don't even need the foe in Anti-Form to get it! Nabbing that extra 40% of your meter early on in a 3 stock match can have a massive snowball effect, immediately giving yourself access to the Xehanort triad and making it so much easier to reach the full Organization XIII. So while its far from your best KO move, Xehanort's powerful damage racking potential and the extra incentive you get if you pull it off make it worth going for as a KO move, at least some percentage of the time.
Finally, if used in a match where Xehanort has 2 or more opponents, he will smirk before using this as he declares to the uncaptured opponent "You require motivation!" A truly heartless move if the characters involved are two that care about each other, though sometimes you just try to motivate Ganondorf by killing Olimar and it probably doesn't work.
Final Smash - 10,000 Heartless
Rising up high into the sky, Master Xehanort laughs maniacally as thousands upon thousands of heartless flood onto the stage. They assemble into a tornado below Xehanort that towers up 4 Ganondorf heights into the air, while being twice as wide as Bowser. This tornado deals 40% on contact and knockback that KOs at 50%, but also shoots off smaller streams of heartless, traveling in a squiggly line that will home in on foes that come within a battlefield platform of them. These streams of heartless are only as thick as Kirby, but are about a battlefield platform in length uncurved(they'll usually be bent at an angle). These deal 25% and knockback that KOs at 80%, and the tornado will fire out one of them per second, totaling to three on each side over the move's 6 second duration. They are fired out at the same vertical height as the nearest opponent, or out of the top of the tornado if the foe is above the top of it. Xehanort will be hidden inside the top of the vortex of Heartless, invulnerable the entire time. Its a powerful if predictable final smash, but if you use it at the right time you might be able to completely wipe out all the opposing lights and finally plunge all of Smash Brothers into Darkness.