Make Your Move 23; Moveset Contest! Top 50 posted! Congratulations everyone! 23 is dead; see you in 24 on Feb. 24th!

[UserShadow7989]

WELCOME TO MAKE YOUR MOVE 23!

Hey there, welcome to Make Your Move! Make Your Move (or MYM) is a moveset writing contest, where you can design a moveset for absolutely any character you want and show your writing and game design talent! By "any character," we really do mean any character – Nintendo, third-party, TV, comics, film, novels, OCs, ancient mythology, or even Real Life! There's no real limit on the character you can pick in terms of source medium. We focus on sets made in the Smash Bros. engine, most commonly Smash Ultimate as it's the current entry in the series. If you want, though, you can write for Smash 4, Brawl, Project M, or even Melee and 64 if you so choose. Whatever character and game you pick, give it your best shot!!

MYM Overview
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Moveset Creation

A moveset is made up of 23 inputs:​

• 4 Special Moves [ Neutral | Up | Side | Down ]
• 5 Standard Attacks [ Jab | Dash Attack | Up Tilt | Forward Tilt | Down Tilt ]
• 3 Smash Attacks [ Forward | Up | Down ]
• 5 Aerial Attacks [ Neutral | Up | Down | Forward | Back ]
• 6 Grab Game Inputs [ Grab | Pummel | Up Throw | Down Throw | Forward Throw | Back Throw ]
• Plus a Stats Section [ Movement | Size | Weight | any Unique Mechanics | etc. ]

You can list them in whatever order you want. Most movesets list Special Moves first, since their unique properties often tie a moveset together as a "core" and can be relevant to the rest of the moves. For example, Shulk's Monado Arts change up how the rest of his moves are used, so it'd be helpful to list his Special Moves at the beginning. Similarly, a character's Stats should go in the beginning bit.​

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Outside of that, the order varies a lot, but moves are almost always grouped together into the five sections bullet-pointed above. Do whatever you'd like here!​

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Other optional things you might want to include:​

• Image of the character [ Recommended! ]
• Intro writeup for the character [ Recommended! ]
• Final Smash [ Recommended! ]
• Taunts
• Custom Specials
• Situational Attacks [ Ledge Attack | Getup Attack ]
• Miscellaneous Flavor [ Home Stage | Alternate Costumes | etc. ]

Having trouble writing a set? Just post in the thread or DM one of the five Leaders listed later in this post! We're always happy to check out WIP sets and provide feedback. ​

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Traditionally, movesets are posted in the thread itself, as regular posts. However, a good number of MYMers instead host movesets offsite, such as with Google Docs, for the sake of formatting control, reliability, or the like. For Google Docs in particular, there is a handy [ TEMPLATE ] you can use. If you're signed into Docs, just hit file > make a copy and you're good to go.​

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Commenting

"Famous writers got to where they are due to reading a large amount of literature, and it’s the same with movesets. Commenting forces you to articulate that knowledge and put it to word; the helpfulness of this exercise cannot be overstated."​

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After reading a moveset, why not share your thoughts on it? That's what a Comment is! You can share your impressions, give advice / feedback on what you think could be improved, and / or praise the moveset's strengths. Just anything you want to say after reading the set! The author of the set'll really appreciate it! Also, do leave a Like on sets you read and enjoy, which while not as strong as a Comment still gets the idea across to an extent.​

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Not only is reading and Commenting movesets helpful for the author of the set, but it can also help the Commenter's skills improve by learning from other sets' strengths and weaknesses. Also, in order to Vote at the very end of Make Your Move 23, a user must post at least 10 Comments throughout the course of the contest, to demonstrate that he has read enough movesets to give an informed vote.​

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Ranking

If you want to take Commenting a step further, why not start your own Rankings? Rankings are a post (in the thread or otherwise) where you list the sets you've read, and say how good you think each set is. Many Rankings use a ten-star system, but other systems are definitely possible. Five-star, category-based, and other types of Rankings have all been used in the past, so just use whichever format you'd like. One common theme is "Ranking images," a funny or cool image posted along with each set's Ranking.​

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You'll see Rankings from a lot of experienced MYMers, but anyone is free to make one of their own! You might want to consider putting them in a spoiler tag to avoid clogging up too much space, though this is not required. This also has the handy benefit of resizing images to be more uniform.​

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I wouldn't be shy about making rankings, even if you're fairly new: They're ultimately an expression of how you feel of a set, which everyone has, and only through practice does someone become good at something. I started my first rankings when I was but a humble newbie, after all. We're always looking for more, so don't be worried or shy! ​

Contest's End

In the past, each Make Your Move contest ended around the time one hundred movesets had been posted in that contest. Ever since Make Your Move 19, however, a strict deadline has been used instead. For MYM23, that deadline is [ September 30th ]. Don't miss it!​

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At the end of a contest, it's a MYM tradition to vote on all the sets posted in the thread! Any user who has posted at least 10 Comments may submit a Vote to one of the Vote Gurus via a Smashboards DM. You have 35 Votes to award to movesets you think deserve it, split between these categories:​

• 15 Weak Votes [ 2 Points ]
• 12 Regular Votes [ 5 Points ]
• 8 Super Votes [ 9 Points ]

Give these Votes to sets you like, and the set with the most points wins! You don't have to use every single Vote, but you can't go over the maximum for each category.​

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You may also choose to upgrade some of your Votes into Vote Pluses, if you think that some sets in a Vote category on your list stand out among the rest. You may upgrade one Super Vote into a Super Vote Plus, making it worth 11 Points instead of 9 Points. The other two Vote types may each have three Vote Pluses, becoming worth 1 Point more than usual. Traditionally, your Super Vote Plus is given to the set you thought were the best, your Regular Vote Plusses to the Regular Votes you thought were the best and the Weak Vote Plusses to the Weak Votes you thought were the best. There are no actual rules to how you use your Vote Plusses, though.​

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For a visual aid, here is FrozenRoy's votelist from Make Your Move 21, which used every vote it could!​

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It goes without saying, but you can't vote on your own sets. Normally this would give those who vote a disadvantage in terms of placing well, so there are measures in place to compensate those who vote with extra points.​

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Immediately after the contest ends, there is a Voting Period, where everybody has time to read movesets they missed, compile a Vote List, and submit it to the Vote Gurus. After that, the Leaders will work hard on completing the Top Fifty, a ranking of the top-voted movesets!​

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Despite the name, the Top Fifty no longer always has fifty movesets, due to the deadline changes made in MYM19. Instead, any moveset with at least two Votes of any kind, OR at least one Super Vote, is eligible for the Top Fifty. Note, however, that the MAXIMUM sets that can get on remains fifty: If 51 sets qualify, then one of them isn't making it! It's posted in the thread along with some fanfare, as per tradition. Will your set place on the Top Fifty?​

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For the Top Fifty, the Leaders will break ties when needed. There'll always be raw voting data available, so you can peek behind the curtain if you'd like.​

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Beyond The Thread
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MYM-Operated Communities and Sites

Make Your Move has a very active Discord chat, where all the discussion happens. There's a handy [ LINK ] to join it right away! Feel free to pop in and say hello after reading the rules.​

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The newly-completed MYM Hub [ LINK ] is your one-stop shop for helpful resources such as moveset lists (for this current MYM as well as contests prior) and a few articles! The website is still under construction, so it'll probably take a little bit of time for a good amount of article content to come in. In the meantime, check out The Bunker [ LINK ] and The Stadium [ LINK ] for further reading. These two websites have been around for ages!​

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The Whiteboard [ LINK ] is an ancient forum where unfinished or "lost" movesets were posted long ago. It's now largely defunct due to changes in the forum's host, but lives on as an archive.​

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Unaffiliated Resources

KuroganeHammer [ LINK ] is a treasure trove of technical details about moves in Smash Ultimate, as well as a handful of other games such as Smash 4. Check it out if you want a reference point for how much damage a move should deal, how quick it should be, or anything like that. The Smash Wiki [ LINK] also has a decent amount of data, including statistics like character jump height, terminology, Smash Bros trivia from across the series, and more information of possible interest.​

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There exists a thread on Smashboards [ LINK ] which houses gifs for some characters' attack hitboxes. The data is from Smash 4 and not Ultimate, but it's still a handy resource for the range and animation of moves.​

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Art of Smash [ LINK ] is a video series by Izaw about the intricacies of how Smash 4 is played. The first four videos are a little bit outdated, since Smash Ultimate has changes from Smash 4 (see the next paragraph for a better resource). The useful part is the videos that come after: an expansive list of character-specific videos, going over lots of tricks, combos, and techniques which can inspire moves in a MYM set. Most important, perhaps, is the videos' emphasis on the "playstyle" of a character, or the method by which one makes a moveset feel like a cohesive whole. In MYM, understanding this concept separates the wheat from the chaff.​

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There's also an ongoing sequel series to Art of Smash, called Art of Smash Ultimate, made by the same person and for the same purpose: [ LINK ]​

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Leadership

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The organizers of Make Your Move, the Leaders of the community make sure everything keeps running smoothly here in our little contest. Leaders are generally well-respected and usually very seasoned MYMers, sometimes having been in the community since MYM's inception! Feel free to hit us up via Smashboards or Discord if you want to chat, we're here to help.​

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Here's some of our Leadership's crispest, freshest sets to date:​

• Master Xehanort
• Naomi Faren
• skekSil, the Chamberlain
• Rudy the Clown
• Utsuho Reiuji

Smash Daddy | "Smady"

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poison​

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First Contest​

Make Your Move 3​

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First Set​

Vivi​

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Highest Placing​

1st [ Raiden - MYM5 | Death - MYM11 | Ameno-Sagiri - MYM12 | Fassad - MYM17 ]​

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Total Movesets​

79, as of MYM22​

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Notable Franchises​

Dragon Quest [ King Korol - MYM17 (4th) | Ladja - MYM17 (7th) ]​

Ace Attorney [ Kristoph Gavin - MYM18 (4th) | L'Belle - MYM17 (17th) ]​

Shin Megami Tensei/Persona [ Ameno Sagiri - MYM12 (1st) | Matador - MYM18 (5th) | Kamoshida - MYM21 (4th) | Michael - MYM18 (15th) | Shadow Teddie - MYM18 (18th) ]​

Final Fantasy [ Jecht - MYM18 (6th) | Adel - MYM18 (24st) ]​

Resident Evil [ William Birkin - MYM17 (6th) | Albert Wesker - MYM15 (8th) | Dr. Marcus - MYM18 (10th) ]​

One Piece [ Vander Decken - MYM16 (3rd) | Magellan - MYM19 (4th) | Caribou - MYM17 (8th) ]​

Illbleed [ Michael Reynolds - MYM13 (5th) | Cashman - MYM13 (4th) ]​

CD-i [ Hotel Mario Roy - MYM19 (9th) ]​

Cuphead [ Goopy Le Grande - MYM20 (29th) | Wally Warbles - MYM20 (32nd) | Werner Werman - MYM20 (10th) | Djimmi the Great - MYM20 (17th) | Dr. Kahl - MYM20 (13th) ]​

Five Nights at Freddy's [ Ennard - MYM22 (10th) ]​

Street Fighter [ Hugo - MYM22 (16th) ]​

Wario [ Rudy the Clown - MYM22 (4th) ]​

ForwardArrow | "FA"

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-->​

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First Contest​

Make Your Move 10​

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First Set​

Hoppip​

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Highest Placing​

1st [ Jarad - MYM13 | Vector - MYM15 | Three - MYM15 (tied, lost tiebreaker) | Iguana - MYM19 | Aurelia Midam - MYM21 | Master Xehanort - MYM22 ]​

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Total Movesets​

49, as of MYM22​

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Notable Franchises​

Yu-Gi-Oh! [ Vector - MYM15 (1st) ]​

Magic: The Gathering [ Jarad - MYM13 (1st) ]​

Original Characters [ Iguana - MYM19 (1st) | Knight - MYM19 (2nd) | Metireon - MYM19 (2nd) | Hee-Mo - MYM20 (36th) | Aurelia Midam - MYM21 (1st) ]​

Puella Magi Madoka Magica [ Kyoko Sakrua - MYM22 (Pending) ]​

Kingdom Hearts [ Master Xehanort - MYM22 (1st) ]​

Drakengard [ Intoner Three - MYM15 (2nd) ]​

FrozenRoy | "Froy" | "Roy"

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frosty boi​

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First Contest​

Make Your Move 12​

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First Set​

Scizor​

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Highest Placing​

1st [ Sho Minamimoto - MYM14 ]​

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Total Movesets​

99, as of MYM22​

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Notable Franchises​

Touhou [ Utsuho Reiuji - MYM22 (19th) | Remilia Scarlet - MYM14 (8th) ]​

Warcraft [ Baron Rivendare - MYM16 (13th) ]​

RWBY [ Weiss Schnee - MYM15 (14th) ]​

League of Legends [ Viktor - MYM16 (8th) ]​

Dark Souls [ Artorias the Abysswalker - MYM18 (11th) ]​

Defense of the Ancients 2 [ Anti-Mage - MYM18 (17th) ]​

Yu-Gi-Oh! [ Night's End Sorcerer Remix - MYM15 (21st) ]​

The World Ends With You [ Sho Minamimoto - MYM14 (1st) ]​

Pokémon [ Elekid - MYM22 (38th) | Poochyena - MYM22 (43rd) | Poliwag - MYM21 (39th) | Toxicroak - MYM21(34th) | Haunter - MYM20 (18th) ]​

Star Wars [ Count Dooku - MYM17 (18th) ]​

Kingdom Hearts [ Xaldin - MYM21 (6th) | Lexaeus - MYM21 (21st) ]​

Street Fighter [ Alex - MYM22 (17th) ]​

Mega Man [ Elpizo - MYM21 (28th) | Copy X - MYM21 (24th) ]​

Wakfu [ Nox - MYM22 (11th) | Quilby - MYM22 (6th) ]​

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure [ B. Polneraff - MYM22 (9th) | Hol Horse - MYM22 (2nd) ]​

UserShadow7989 | "US" | "Professor Hawke"

[No Image Found]​

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witches​

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First Contest​

Make Your Move 5​

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First Set​

Revolver Ocelot​

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Highest Placing​

2nd [ Bubble Witch Marin - MYM14 ]​

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Total Movesets​

41, as of MYM22​

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Notable Franchises​

Original Character [ Naomi Faren - MYM22 (8th) | Slime Witch Dahlia - MYM22 (21st) | Rime Marz - MYM21 (8th) | Knightly Witch Garnet - MYM18 (14th) ]​

Mega Man [ PlanetMan.EXE - MYM21 (18th) | Colonel.EXE - MYM18 (35th) ]​

Pokemon [ Butterfree - MYM19 (21st) | Tangrowth - MYM18 (36th) ]​

Yu-Gi-Oh! [ Dragonmaid Hauskee - MYM22 (15th) | Dragonmaid Tillroo - MYM22 (30th) ]​

BKUPA666 | "Kupa"

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K. Rool D-Smash​

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First Contest​

Make Your Move 3​

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First Set​

Timon & Pumbaa​

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Highest Placing​

1st [ Bowser Jr. - MYM9 ]​

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Total Movesets​

88, as of MYM22​

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Notable Franchises​

Donkey Kong [ Baron K. Roolenstein - MYM10 (4th) | Necky - MYM9 (10th) | Kritter - MYM22 (33rd) ]​

Mario [ Bowser Jr. - MYM9 (1st) | Bowser - MYM11 (5th) | Gooper Blooper - MYM12 (17th) ]​

Luigi's Mansion [ Jarvis - MYM12 (6th) | King Boo - MYM9 (8th) ]​

Disney [ Edgar - MYM10 (17th) | Professor Ratigan - MYM12 (19th) | Gaston - MYM11 (22nd) ]​

Pixar [ Mr. Potato Head - MYM8 (3rd) | Slinky - MYM8 (16th) ]​

Horror [ Pennywise the Dancing Clown - MYM10 (2nd) ]​

Marvel [ Vulture - MYM22 (14th) | Kingpin - MYM22 (37th) ]​

Dark Crystal [ skekSil, the Chamberlain - MYM 22 (5th) ]​

Rules

This goes without saying, but MYM abides by the [ RULES ] set in place by the folks in charge of this website, so keep that in mind! Please remember to report posts that break the rules, instead of replying to them.​

And that's pretty much it! Go have fun writing, reading, and critiquing sets. Write your moveset, carve your legacy, Make Your Move!​

 

[Katapultar]

Hotaru Futaba makes her mark! Will she find her brother in MYM23? Or will Tom Nook and the League of Villains get to her first?

 

[Slavic]

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[UserShadow7989]

From us here at MYM to all of you, we hope you have a wonderful Holiday today!

Now, in the spirit of the season, let's all sit back and enjoy a movie classic icon - Frosty the Snowman!

 

[PeridotGX]

I'm lazy, so I don't have a set yet, but here's my prior movesets and who is yet to come.

 

[Kholdstare]

(That means this set is unfinished at the moment.)​

 

[FruitLoop]

What if I made a NOT Whitehorn set for MYM 23 and didn't try to make it a meme.

Haha that would never happen, unless? :eyes:

 

[plague126]

MUGen Tirek IM HERE

fBio: You ****ing fools. He have big arm and long arm, in fact, hes the ARMS hcharacter nintendo talked about. He move fast. H e will kick yor ****ing ass all the way to the 10th circle of hell and back. That's right he made a whole ****ing new circle of hell just to kick your asss to it, and he didnt even need to move to do so because his arms have infinite range. DIe.


Stats:You wanna know his stats??? You dare??? Ask me his ff****ing stats??? He is ****ing twice as atall as ganondorf, 3 times as heavy as bwoser, and he doesnt even move normally he is just always where you want mhim to be, thhats right he reads ur fukcing mind you idiot im gonna kill you give me 200 dollars

Final Smash: **** You


He has the smash ball, o corse he does, you are an utter fool for thinking you could even ****ing match this man's might, and you will pay ffor your utter ****ing trangressions. He ****in telepors to the middle of the stage, his arms get fucin massive, and he turns into Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Tirek, and flails around until your stocks are empty, fhck

Down Smash: He ssstomp
For this move, Tirek just freaking jumps up offscreen then lands on the opponent’s current position, which buries them, even in the air, thats right, they just get buried in the air, why? I dont know stop asking me questions i dont wanna talk to you after you took the kids karen. If you use this move on an already buried opponent they just get fricking spiked through the stage cuz why not, that sounds cool and unbalanced and i give no care about anything because my life is a downward spiral.



cheese


Up Smash: AARMS
For his up smash, Tirek takes advantage of his. Arms. and extends them so far uo the scrern that it just...wraps back around the bottom and makes a freaking wall of arms that also can he held out forever, and also can be used in midair, because this move isnt ridiculous enough already

Up Throw: Arm,,:extend
For this, Tirek just freakin extends his arm upwards, and if it reaches top of screen, it just moves the foe a battle field platofrm forward and extends then upward more, until the foe escapes at 2x grab difficulty (4x at max down special buff), and they pass through the stage too because they should, and when they do escape they are dealt up tilt knockback even tho we havent seen up tilt or down special yet what do you expect of me?? consistency?? bah

Up Air: Aaarm
Tirek just extends his arms to the blast zone. No matter where he is, he just reaches exaclty to the blast zone, and any opponent caught is just. they’re dead, gonezo, in the grave, no life, 0 heartbeat, kaput, other synonyms for dead that I can’t be bothered to look up right now


Up Special: AaAaAaAaArms
He reaches out towards either the nearest ledge, instantly recovering to it no matter where he is on the stage so good luck koing this maaanann. but if you are closer, he instead grag....you with his BIG MEATY CLAWS (not actually claws) and ****ing pulls his entire body into you, dealing his whole body weight, twice bowser's for reference in damage, almost instantly killing u, so ur better just gonna have to pray triek lets you wiiin

FAir: He nyoom
Tirek stops midair and just freakin shoulder bashes horizontally forward, not stopping until he hit something, and if he reach blast zome he will just wrap around screen, and u must take hit to end this or Tirek will be stuck forever til the end of tiiiime


DThrow: Nother stomp
He tosses you into the ground, burying you, then he freaking jumps off screen and lands on you hard, spiking you straight through the stage so hard you wrap around to the top and are still going so fast you fall straight through the bottom of the stage again, murdering you instantly

SSpec: That One Move Thats Just His Running Animation But It Knocks You Into The Air For Like 3 Seconds
Just like the move’s name, Tirek literally runs forward and he inexplciably has a hitbox cuz why not, and if he hits anyone, they fly off the top blast zone, but dont get kod instead they fall back down after 3 seconds, taking 3 times their weight in damage, this is also the only way to use dash attack

NSpec: That One Fireball Move I Didnt Even Know He Had Until Recently That Spits Like 10 Fireballs But Only Hits 3 Times
Tirek spits out a constant barrage of fireballs as tall as he is, which if you werent aware, is an absolute unit, chad size of 2 ganons tall, but only 3/10 of the fireballs actually do anything to make it balanced, because I care about that now, and I will proceed to not care about balance anymore.

BThrow: remember marios back throw
Tirek basically just performs marios back throw but his arms are an entire FD length long so this kos super early because trieke is a god amognst men

DAir: No more air pls
Tirek just stops midair, then plummets to the ground at such fasts speed that he basically instantly teleports there, and if youre under him you get spiked so hard you get spiked through the stage but when u exit the stage bottom you take the upwards knockback, cuz thats unique and cool! xD LOL i hate myself

Grab: Yes.
Tirek's grab simply have him reach out his looooooooooooong arms, which actually just tracks the opponent with 100% accuracy, so you'll always land a grab no matter what, automatically giving tirek the best grab game to grab games by grabbing games wiht grbab games,,


Jab: Arm arm arm
Tirek first performs two downward swipes with his aaarmsss, and then u can peform a rapid jab thats just Tirek freaking swiping his arms downwardds again....but fast, and every rapid jab permanently makes tirek's arms 1% bigger, which doesnt effect damage, but it does stack with the buff from down special. What? You say we havent gotten to down special yeT? i freaking know that man, wait ya turn and stop being impatient

Up Tilt: Arm but Up
Tirek, with basically no start or endlag, extends his arms all the way above him to the blast zone, basically letting you spam this as much as you want. In fact this move doesnt even stale, it does the opposite, it gets stronger the more you use it, why?? i wish i knew man, i wish i knew, but all i know is that you made a mistake trying to fight tirek and you will pay

DSpec: Anchor Arms from Spongbob
Wemve finally gotten to the elusive down special, and it has a secret about his arms. They’re acrually inflatable anchor arms, and for his down special, tirek inflates them, increasing their hitboxes and damage, up to a maximum of 2x, but if u go past that, your aaarmmsss blow up and u cant use any moves that use arms for the rest of the stock, as punishment for ur hubris

FThrow: Tirekcide
Tirek for this throw jumps towards the blast zone wile holding the foe, and if the foe escapes the grab, Tirek just dies as he rockets past the blast zone, but if they dont, then both the foe and Tirek die, so either way Tirek dies, which is generally bad for him

DTilt: ArmDig
Tirek shoves his arms into the ground, and they somehow emerge from under the opponent, tracking them wherever they are with absolutelt 100% accuracy, he never misses, if he does your switch just dies. This move has no start or end lag btw too so lol

Dash Attack: Ow Ooof My Bones
For his Dash attack tirek just. he. he just freaking bends his upper body 90 degrees without moving his lower body forward, and charges forward with hands up, not using his long arms. i lied if you hold it the arms slowly extend and keep te hitbiox

FSmash: Horizarmtal
He recahes out his arms horizontally and it wraps arpumd the screen creating a pit of arm and pain. You wanna know hwo much ****ing damage it does??? You seriously dare ask?? this is the answer: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UdXnPMqc0HwgCbRq2MUkaap-l2i1LHue_6clR87Ri8o

Pummel: Punch
hhhhhhhh punch

NAir; Arm speen
For this move, Tirek’s arms speen around his body. they dont actually animate their sprites just. separate from Tirek and rotate around him 360 degrees. why?? cuz its funny

FTolt: Reach
He reach his arm forward long arm. It big spam. No lag. Yes

BAir; Swing
He swing his arm behind him for as long as hd button

i am free

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Bleak

Bleak is a pleasant surprise character as your secret 3 day DK set! He's a pretty basic camper, not the most inspiring boss for a moveset, but I did actually enjoy pieces of your newfound melee. I liked F-tilt's low launch angle being used to punish opponents for making Bleak approach, for instance. I also enjoyed how his fast initial dash could be used to catch foes by surprise with a grab if they were expecting him to keep camping, that's a good use of the stat. D-Smash was also interesting for its Special-esque nature and the size renewal on snowbanks, as well as the snow-flavoured pitfall. You did pretty well for not having a big base to play off of!

I like the idea behind Snowbank being a fragile slope due to being made of snow, one that breaks when the foe touches it. I honestly think you could expand upon this idea (if not Bleak then another set), like being able to have Bleak use the Snowbank as a slope (perhaps it breaks when he leaves it to prevent cheese and abuse), even customise the slope like tilting the control stick forwards to make it low instead of high. You enjoyed Kritter a ton and like playground sets, so I could definitely see you gun for it. You could even roll the snowballs along the ground or slope and not have them absorb the snowbank or deplete if they were at max size. You could even have Bleak’s Dash Attack be a DK roll where he can roll along a snowbank and deals more damage out of it, possibly using the momentum to retreat behind the foe or… even combo if he knocked a foe away and flew with them from the right angle. Could even do a 50/50 by just running off the snowbank into your strong F-air if the foe thought you would roll into them. But I’m just throwing out random stuff here.

Bleak was a nice set, one that was surprisingly inspiring! Certainly got the gears in my head spinning for snow. It's fun that Bleak adds to your collection of snow minions along the two Hockey Man sets and Abomasnow. Even if you didn’t want to expand upon Bleak too much to work on some exciting future sets, I would love to see a snow or ice set from you that truly embraces either - or both - concepts!

 

[MasterWarlord]

Sorry for everything everybody. Hope you have a great MYM.
I don't want to get too much attention by making a new post.

 

[Perkilator]

Arvis, Emperor of Flame; from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Spoiler: Who is Arvis?

From Arvis’s page on the Fire Emblem Wiki:

Arvis succeeded his father as the Duke of Velthomer at the age of 7, following his father's suicide and his mother's disappearance. Even from this young age, Arvis proved to be a strong and charismatic leader and maintained a firm hold on Velthomer's leadership; he was secretly assisted by Kurth, the Grannvale prince. Despite his issues coping with women, around Grann 748-749, he had a relationship with Aida of the Velthomer army which yielded a son and full-blooded heir, Saias, who was raised in hiding. By Grann 757, he had been appointed the leader of the Weissritter royal guard at the Grannvale capital Belhalla, tasked with the care of King Azmur during the war with Isaach. Throughout his life, he was blackmailed by Manfroy of the Loptyrians into co-operating with his desires, as Manfroy threatened to reveal Arvis's Loptous heritage to the world at large.

During the Verdane invasion in Grann 757, Arvis forbade his half-brother Azel from going to assist in repelling the Verdane army, though Azel departed to do so anyway. Later, Arvis was dispatched by Azmur to check the situation, where he found Sigurd and a handful of soldiers fighting the Verdane army. He entrusted Sigurd with a silver sword as a gift from Azmur, before departing.

In the following years, Arvis feigned support of Reptor and Langobalt’s coup against Kurth and Vylon, participating in the framing of Sigurd and Vylon as the perpetrators following Langobalt's assassination of Kurth, using his status with King Azmur to help perpetuate the false accusation. In reality, Arvis had far more respect for Sigurd than for Reptor and Langobalt, but nonetheless sacrificed Sigurd as part of Manfroy's plan for his ascent to power, taking advantage of Reptor and Langobalt to accomplish this.

When Deirdre was returned to Grannvale by Manfroy (though Arvis was not aware of this) and was recognised as the heiress to the country's throne by Azmur, she and Arvis fell in love and became engaged to each other, with Azmur's blessing. In Grann 760, in preparation for Sigurd's attempt to return to Grannvale, Arvis dispatched the Velthomer army under Aida to Phinora Castle, supporting Langobalt and Reptor's forces; however, when Sigurd's army approached Velthomer itself, as per Arvis's orders Aida turned on Reptor's Friege army, assaulting it with Meteor spells in "support" of Sigurd. Following Reptor's defeat, Aida led Sigurd's army to Belhalla, claiming that Arvis was supporting him all along through hands tied by Reptor and Langobalt's influence and that Arvis had arranged a formal celebration of Sigurd's return. Instead, Arvis sentenced Sigurd and his army to death for their treasonous acts, but not before showing off Deirdre as his wife to test his concerns about her past. After having Deirdre escorted back to Belhalla Castle, he commenced the Battle of Belhalla, executing Sigurd's army; during this, he personally slew Sigurd using Valflame.

With the deaths of Reptor, Langobalt, Claud and Sigurd, Arvis became the sole surviving power in Grannvale. Following Azmur's death, he succeeded him as Grannvale's king in accordance with Azmur's wishes; Isaach and Agustria were now part of Grannvale's holdings, and the other nations of Jugdral (save for Thracia) too soon fell under its rule. With the continent unified under his leadership, Arvis reorganized Grannvale into an empire with himself as its first emperor, by popular demand of the people of Grannvale. At first, Arvis's reign over the empire was a decent one, albeit constrained and strict, and Jugdral experienced an era of peace. During this time, Arvis and Deirdre had twin children, Julius and Julia; Julius possessed major Loptous Holy Blood, marking the success of Manfroy's schemes to breed Arvis and Deirdre to yield a viable host for Loptous.

Arvis's rule experienced a significant shift in its fortunes in Grann 770, when Manfroy presented Julius with the Book of Loptous, instantly corrupting him with the spirit of Loptous. Julius wrested control of Grannvale from Arvis, rendering him a mostly powerless figurehead as Julius perverted the empire into a tyrannical force and granted the Loptyrians positions of power across the continent. Arvis attempted to resist Julius seizing hold of the empire, even once attempting to outright banish him from Grannvale, but his efforts met with failure and, it is implied, severe consequences. During his reign, Arvis himself authorized the child hunt practice despite his personal opposition to it, possibly under pressure from Julius.

In Grann 777, near the end of Seliph’s liberation war, Arvis was stationed at Chalphy Castle by Julius as Seliph's army fought in neighboring Miletos. While Julius was busy, Arvis travelled to Miletos Castle and attempted to order Ishtar to release the children captured there, but was foiled by Julius's arrival and sent back to Chalphy. At Chalphy, he released the Bishop Palmarch and the imprisoned children, tasking Palmark with fleeing with them and with giving Tyrfing to Seliph. He attempted to send Julia, now captured by Manfroy, along with them, but Manfroy took Julia away and tasked a unit of dark bishops with hunting Palmarch and the other children. Forced to comply with Julius and Manfroy's orders, Arvis led the Rot Ritter in defending Chalphy from Seliph's army, but his efforts failed and he was killed.

Although in the war's aftermath Seliph said he understood and sympathized with Arvis's fate, no longer hating him, thousands of years later, Chrom claimed that retellings of the story in the sagas maintained a negative view of Arvis, referring to him as "the villain of every Jugdrali saga I've ever heard".

Spoiler: Arvis’s Moveset

Intro: Arvis emerges from a Warp circle of flames.

Stance/Idle 1: Arvis has his right palm raised up, facing upwards, occasionally retracting his fingers.

Idle 2: Arvis retracts his right arm, with some flames briefly appearing.


Notable Palette Swaps: Julius, Sigurd, Deirdre, Manfroy, Eldigan, Veld, Emperor Arvis


Walk: Arvis walks looking natural.

Jog: Arvis slowly flits along the ground via small flames.

Dash: Arvis skids along the ground and leaves a trail of flames.

Damage: The damage animation from Fire Emblem Heroes.

Jump: Arvis jumps, then uses a small flame to gain extra height (slightly less than Mewtwo’s).

Crouch: Arvis kneels down, as if he were kneeling to a god.


Movement Speed: Between Ike and Cloud when dashing

Size: Around the same as Ike

Weight: Between Marth and Mewtwo



Weapon of Choice: Arvis is a fire mage; his most powerful spell is the tome Valflame, a holy weapon from the Crusader Fjalar. He also occasionally uses his Great Shield.


Tilts
Jab: Arvis shoots a small flame that streams out a small distance (7%, small knockback)

Forward+A: Arvis summons an arc of fire in front of him (8%, small knockback)

Down+A: Arvis shoots fire downward (3%, small knockback) that then moves swiftly upward (8%, small knockback)

Up+A: Arvis summons fire in the shape of a whip (9%, OK knockback)


Aerial Attacks
Air+A: Arvis summons a circle of flame around himself (11%, OK knockback)

Air Forward+A: Arvis pushes the opponent with a magic shockwave imbued with Fire (13%, OK knockback)

Air Back + A: Arvis swings his Great Shield behind himself (14%, OK knockback), reducing damage taken from aerial projectiles as he keeps falling unflinched.

Air Up+A: Arvis summons two fire arcs that spin around rapidly (11%, OK knockback)

Air Down+A: Arvis casts Elfire, and a vortex of flames spins downward (12%, OK knockback)



Dash Attack: Arvis rams the opponent with his Great Shield, covered in flames (13%, OK knockback). This also reduces damage taken from projectiles by x.2.

Edge Attack: Arvis shoots a burst of fire as he climbs back up (11%, OK knockback)

Get-Up Attack: Arvis briefly summons a circle of fire around himself and raises it (9%, small knockback)



Smash Moves
Forward+A: Arvis summons a torrent of flames in front of himself (16%, OK-medium knockback)

Up+A: Arvis charges up an explosion (1% per hit, small knockback), and then blows it up (22%, medium knockback) with a shockwave around him (12%, OK knockback); the animation is based on his artwork from Genealogy of the Holy War.

Down+A: Arvis summons two torrents of flames that drop and rise (18%, OK-medium)


Grabs & Throws
Grab: Arvis grabs his opponent in the throat.

Pummel: Arvis chokes his opponent (2%)

Forwards+Throw: Arvis throws his opponent with flame residue (9%, OK knockback)

Down+Throw: Arvis levitates his opponents, and then bursts a flame that meteors the opponent diagonally downward (13%, meteor knockback)

Back+Throw: Arvis levitates the opponent and pushes them back with magic (8%, small-OK knockback)

Up+Throw: Arvis sends the opponent flying with a pillar of flames (14%, OK knockback)


Special Moves
B : Growing Flame; Arvis charges a circle of flame around himself. If B is pressed mid-charge, Arvis simply lets out that circle (14%, OK knockback). If B is pressed after the charge, Arvis lets a more powerful version that affects a large area (24%, medium knockback)

B + Forwards : Bolganone; Arvis fires a sideways pillar of flame that (about the reach of Simon’s side-Smash) that can even break shields if the opponent is close enough (23%, medium knockback)

B + Up : Rising Flame; Arvis creates a spiral of flames above himself (12%, OK knockback; slightly less than the height of Snake’s Up B), and then travels along it before jumping at about the height of Fox and Falco’s Up B’s (17%, OK knockback)

B + Down : Pavise; Arvis mounts his Great Shield, which halves the damage taken by physical attacks and can reflect projectiles. It also slightly pushes back fighters (9%, OK knockback)


Final Smash: Valflame; A triangle appears with a fire circle around it. Anyone caught in that area (13%) are then trapped under a red-orange light, and then an enormous fireball falls down on them like a miniature sun (50%; 63% total, devastating knockback). As Valflame falls down, any open fighters who touch it get sent flying back (10%, OK knockback), even if no fighters are trapped. The animation is loosely based on his Emperor animation from Genealogy of the Holy War for when he summons Valflame.

Sources:
Arvis: Emperor of Flame - Fire Emblem Wiki
Pavise - Fire Emblem Wiki


Gimmick: N/A


Taunts
1: “You miserable fools…” Arvis loosely mimics his pose from the Fire Emblem trading card game.

2: “For a better world.” Arvis loosely mimics his artwork from Heroes.

1+2: Arvis chuckles as a fireball materializes in his hand, and then disappears.


Winposes
1: “Anyone who opposes me will be burnt to cinders.” Arvis summons a fireball, and then streams around himself.

2: “I sentence you to death.” Arvis stomps on a flame on the ground, and the flame disappears.

3: “I'm a champion of the people—like the crusaders before me." Arvis levitates his Valflame tome, and then shuts it abruptly.


Icon: The Falchion

Boxing Ring Title: Emperor of Flames

Victory Music: The beginning of Vs. Arvis (https://youtu.be/LiKnlT-XZRs)

Kirby Hat: Arvis’s hair

…

Classic Mode: Twelve Scions of Chaos (fights characters based on the 12 Deadlords)
Stage 1: on Reset Bomb Forest (Midna’s Lament)
Stage 2: on Arena Ferox (You Call This a Utopia?!)
Stage 3: on (Crimean Army Sortie)
Stage 4: on Temple (Crimean Army Sortie)
Stage 5: on (Conquest (Ablaze))
Stage 6: on Great Plateau Tower (Hyrule Castle (Outside))
Boss: , white alt (Edge of Adversity), and the Master (and Crazy) Hand on Ω

 

[Katapultar]

It's revenge of the Kat anime schoolgirls with a set for Tomoyo Kanzaki!

 

[Perkilator]

Min Min, the Ramen Bomber; from ARMS

Spoiler: Who is Min Min?

Min Min is part of a family who owns the Mintendo Noodle House. She is a participant of the ARMS Grand Prix; mixing a bit of Kung-fu with her signature Dragon ARMS, along with being able to cancel out attacks by kick-dodging, she’s a force to be reckoned with in this Grand Prix.

Spoiler: Min Min Moveset

Intro: Min Min jumps down from the sky and gets into her fighting stance.

Stance/Idle 1: Her fighting stance from ARMS,

Idle 2: Min Min’s Dragon Arms breathe fire for a second.


Notable Palette Swaps: Yellow Min Min, White Min Min, Pink Min Min, Ninjara*, Helix*, Kid Cobra*, Max Brass*

*Not composite characters, just colors.



Walk: Her walking animation from ARMS.

Jog: Her jogging animation from ARMS.

Dash: Her dashing animation from ARMS.

Damage: Her damage animation from ARMS.

Jump: Her jumping animation from ARMS.

Crouch: Min Min crouches with her ARMS held slightly above her.


Ground Movement:
Size: (Slightly more than Little Mac)
Weight: Unimportant
Range:
Jumping:


Weapon of Choice: ARMS, a special type of melee weapon designed for ARMS fights.


Special Moves
B : Dragon Beam; Min Min sends one of her Dragon ARMS forward, and the one she sends out shoots a fiery beam that can be moved up or down (15%, OK knockback and endlag). When charged, the beam is bigger and the Dragon can’t be aimed (25%, medium knockback and endlag). The beam can even go offscreen, so you could potentially use it from the other side of the stage. The base version can be used as sort of a sniper-like weapon opponents that are tough to reach. The charged version can be used as a Get Out of Jail Free card for desperate situations.

B + Forwards : Ramram Slice-n-Dice; Min Min sends a Ramram forward and sliced by spinning backwards (13%, OK knockback and small endlag). When charged, it spins 5 times in succession (20%, medium knockback and endlag). The base version can be used to rack up damage while avoiding fatal close-combat situations. The charged version be used as a way to keep opponents at bay while you plan your next move.

B + Up : Megawatt Propel; Min Min punches diagonally downward from herself to propel forward (16%, OK knockback and medium endlag). When charged, Min Min sends out a bigger Megawatt to propel herself further (24%, medium knockback and endlag). The base version goes only about the height of Young Link’s recovery, so it’s better suited for using it to Meteor Smash opponents. The charged version goes the height of Rosalina’s recovery with a slightly smaller curve, so save it for when you need it,

B + Down : Dragon Charge; Min Min stores energy in her to power up a special move. When B + Down is pressed again, Min Min instead shoots an orb that uses the energy for Dragon Beam. This beam homes in on players, but takes awhile to make contact (16%, OK knockback). This could save your life on multiple occasions (B for sniping, Side B for keeping opponents away, Up B for recovering, and Down B for racking up damage to knock them off)


Standard Attacks
Jab: Min Min does a short-reaching jab with either arm (7%, small knockback and endlag)

Forward+A: Min Min briefly summons a Ramram using the ARM closer to the background (9%, OK knockback and endlag)

Down+A: Min Min raises the foot closer to the background and kicks downward (8%, OK knockback and endlag)

Up+A: Min Min kicks upwards using the foot closer to the foreground while using her ARMS for a brief handstand (8%, small knockback and OK endlag)

Dash Attack: Min Min does a jumping kick with the foot closer to the background (9%, OK knockback and endlag)

Edge Attack: Min Min stretches back and springs upwards with a arc kick (10%, OK knockback and small endlag)

Get-Up Attack: Min Min turns her ARMS into Ramrams and spins around (12%, OK knockback and endlag)



Grab Game: Min Min’s grab game beats any fighter in the game bar none. It could be extremely useful for when you need to grab opponents safely.
Grab: Her grab from ARMS. It’s length is about the same as it is in ARMS, so you could interrupt a planned ranged attack from the opponent you’re grabbing.

Pummel: Min Min kicks the opponent (2% with small endlag). The endlag is so small you could do it up to four times before the opponent escapes.

Forwards+Throw: The second part of her throw from ARMS (13%, OK knockback and endlag)

Down+Throw: The first part of her throw from ARMS (11%, OK knockback and small endlag)

Back+Throw: Min Min jumps above the opponent still grabbing them, and then kicks them from behind (14%, OK knockback and medium endlag); based on Helix’s throw from ARMS.

Up+Throw: Kid Cobra’s throw from ARMS (16%, OK knockback and endlag)


Smash Moves
Forward+A: Min Min fully extends the Dragon ARM closer to the foreground (17%, OK knockback and medium endlag)

Up+A: Min Min strikes upwards with charged Ramrams that cut through the air like wind (19%, medium knockback and OK endlag

Down+A: Min Min slams her Megawatt ARMS on both sides of the ground (26%, medium knockback and endlag)


Aerial Attacks
Air+A: Min Min kicks in a circle with the foot closer to the background (7%, small knockback and OK endlag)

Air Forward+A: Min Min kicks forward with the foot closer to the background (7%, small knockback and endlag)

Air Back + A: Min Min kicks backwards with the foot closer to the foreground (8%, small knockback and endlag)

Air Up+A: Min Min kicks upwards (8%, small knockback and endlag)

Air Down+A: Min Min kicks downwards (11%, OK knockback and OK endlag)



Final Smash: Dragon Rush; Min Min is surged with energy. She punches outward with a Megawatt (18%), creates a flurry of Ramrams (13%) and then shoots two powerful beams out of both her Dragon ARMS by aiming them at different angles (32%; 63% total, devastating knockback). The yellow Rush aura from ARMS appears around Min Min, just like in the game. The Megawatt properly starts the FS, the Ramrams fly all over the stage to catch stragglers, and the two Dragons deal the finishing blow to ensure victory.


Gimmick: Every now and then, the arm closest to the foreground will be turned into dragon scales. Her attack power is then permanently raised by 1.1x until she is K.O.’d. In addition, her aerials reduce damage taken from attacks.

Overall Playstyle: Useful Close-Up, But Better Afar

Taunts
1: Her winpose for when she wins a round.

2: Min Min loosely mimics her official render.

1+2: Min Min loosely mimics her Grand Prix ending artwork.


Winposes
1: Her animation for when she wins the Grand Prix in ARMS, belt and all.

2: Her victory animation from ARMS where she ends with a kick with the left foot close to the camera.

3: Her victory animation from ARMS where she raises her dragon scaled right arm and then poses it towards the camera, with the Dragon ARM being offscreen.


Icon: The ARMS logo constantly seen throughout the game.


Boxing Ring Title: The Ramen Bomber


Victory Music: https://youtu.be/kwQ6_rwvMp8


Kirby Hat: Min Min’s hat, hair, and mask.

…

Classic Mode: Extendable Smash (Fights against characters who stretch in some form; all fights are Stamina Battles and fighters’ HP is 100. In addition, Spring Man is the only Assist Trophy)
Stage 1: on Boxing Ring (Spring Stadium)
Stage 2: on Suzaku Castle Ω (Ramen Bowl)
Stage 3: on Dracula’s Castle (Mausoleum)

Bonus Stage

Stage 4: on Brinstar Depths (Snake Park)
Stage 5: on (Via Dolce)
Stage 6: ( if you don’t have ) on Kongo Falls (Temple Grounds)
Boss: Crazy Hand (Sky Arena)

 

[dilliam]

"You were never one of us. You were nothing but a usurper, a false idol. My eyes have been opened. Let me help you to see, Slayer."
-A Marauder addressing the Doom Slayer

The ever-infamous Marauder from Doom Eternal joins the battle!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mM0U-awAUQiY1AGDJKYJJ_GIKd3UXJ3PbYnntbYZBYQ/edit?usp=sharing

edit: hint for the next set!
"I am a cyborg
Born
If you may call it that
In a world that is dense and black
Created without a desire to draw breath
Without a desire to have being
Without a yearning of just to be
I'd like my desire back"
​

 

[FruitLoop]

Aite i'll try to give some genuine comments here:

Spoiler: Min-Min

Welcome to MYM Perkilator! So I've read your Min-Min set for a bit and here's what I have to say.

The kit you have shown here is certainly faithful to Arms after I envisioned all of the moves visually via the game in question, however it's lacking cohesiveness.

I do want to note some things regarding organization because I had the same exact issue for MYM 22 with Whitehorn/The Knight (Dw guys i'm not going to meme or joke about that set ever again, TRUST me on that one). Generally you do want Specials to come first since it introduces us to the character concepts and it makes it easier to sell the set as we read the more mundane and boring parts of the set which can leave a better first impression. Also for height and mobility you likely want to check out kurogane hammer or any other resources regarding character stats for things such as height, weight, and mobility. This isn't a character bio, this is translating the character in a feasible fighting game and I cannot envision these stats.

Also when it comes to making moves just ensure that you're explaining more than just the physical details (adding images would be great but not always necessary). Give a bit more clarification on not just the physical descriptions, but more of the move's properties. It's not just % and knockback that matters but you also want to explain it in context of Min Min's own kit. I can't envision how she would play as a functional character outside of what her moves would look like and how powerful some moves are as I don't know what moves are meant to be utilize for combos (If it's low knockback, how much hitstun/endlag does it have, clarify what things it combos into). Since the mobility and stats seems hard to understand and all I know about Min-Min is her range based off of the given game it becomes hard for me to envision her playstyle. Is she supposed to be a fast char with no CQC but with lots of ranged options? Is she slow with long range and wants to play bait and punish?

I'd really recommend for you to just look at what you have now and try to give the reader less things to openly interpret, we want to see YOUR vision and the clearer it is the easier it is for others to judge your submission as fairly as possible. I feel like going at it and revising all of these important details would be VERY helpful in the future.

Hopefully you take this feedback to make a stellar set!

I will NOT be giving a Loops Council Score yet because I don't think it does the set any justice and it's arbitrary for this scenario.

Spoiler: Arvis

I feel like the issues with your Arvis set also is quite similar to your Min-Min set Perkilator.

It's a little too broad and doesn't really factor in a cohesive set. You did finally add in some general game stats that are taken in the game though I'd still recommend mentioning things like air speed, aerial drift, walk speed, gravity, etc. You only really mentioned runspeed and you also only really referenced size and weight which is still important to know but there still needs to be a bit more things.

It's a little hard to also judge the set from a gameplay standpoint since there doesn't really seem to be enough information for me to really grasp how Arvis will play in smash so I can't really go too much into any criticisms regarding design.

Just work on a little bit of what I said about Min-Min and apply it here.

Again I won't be giving a Loops Council Score until these things get fixed then I think it'd be more fair to score it.

Spoiler: Marauder

Welcome to MYM Dilliam!

So I saw your set for Marauder and I overall like the draft you have so far. There's obviously room for improvement but this is very early on in MYM23 and honestly I think there's a little bit of room to grow for anyone at this state including me (especially me given the "things" that happened at MYM22).

There are some things that I do think the set does quite well, especially the more I read it. I actually feel like I'm getting a coherent and sound gameplan that actually works well in Smash. At first this was my main issue with the set but the more I thought about how the kit is applied the more I appreciated the set as a whole since it took a lot of inspiration from other Heavies but gives it some interesting physics and ideas.

Making Marauder a generally fast character on the ground that is meant to be a character with generally laggy moves. The CQC (Close Quarters Combat) is bad and the character has good mid-range option and has the mobility to get out of pressure + I can envision Nair being a main OoS (You should probably consider designing it to be his main OoS) means that the character can still reliably deal with rushdowns without directly calling out characters. Having three projectiles mixed in with Marauder's midrange option and access to speed with one fast projectile and a slow projectile is certainly a novel idea (Reminds me a bit of K Rool but with good execution it could actually lead to some even more interesting design decisions)

I do think that making Wolf just the "fast" projectile that you can try to hit to make it weaker or dissipate with more hits while having cooldown is actually a pretty solid idea while having generally middling startup that isn't absurd (Hopefully not as slow as Crown) but still generally fair is a solid concept. I think that the reward leaves a lot to be desired and it just feels like "Another projectile". I hear that you mention biting in the set and it reminds me a lot of how Mechakoopas bite before exploding. So maybe an idea could be that the wolf bites onto the opponent and after a few seconds it explodes and does a bit of knockback meaning that it can setup into cool kill confirms or just a lot of stylish confirms in general. Actually because it's sort of similar to the Down-Special axe move except its faster and quicker. Maybe designing Marauder so he has two moves that explode over time like crash bomb with a fast and slow variant while having different ways to synergize with eachother can create some really INTERESTING character design and balance. Being a midrange character with generally a lot of laggy options means that making the opponent have to panic and shield because of both moves allows for Marauder to have a more reliable and less risky neutral while still not being overbearing.

Marauder is powerful but he still doesn't seem to have a super reliable disadvantage and still not having the greatest CQC while having bad frame data is still a nice counterbalance while he has the kit to not just flat out lose to degenerative play which puts him a step above almost every other heavy. There's a lot of potential to be had here on your character.

I would suggest talking a bit about the different ways you can synergize with your specials or use your normals outside of just "This is your combo tool" or "This is your kill option or it sets up into a specific kill confirm". I'd suggest to think a bit more in the shoes of if Marauder were to be a released character today with the moveset you envision to try to make your set more cohesive. Also trying to visualize some of your kit would always be greatly appreciated (Maybe you can show us what the hell hounds look like for example or if he's using an attack from his own game you can show it even if it isn't what it'd look like in smash completely). I actually do like the reference you made to training room blocks but I'd also like for you to compare ranges to other characters, use other characters for references instead of just training room (it can just be a specific side note) so it's easier to access and easier to envision. Some people won't know how much is 7 training mode blocks and having to go the extra step just to see your vision isn't going to always pan out the best.

Either way take the advice I have and generally it's a pretty good draft. Some fine tuning should do the trick and just talking a bit more about your moves's application could make for a much better set and an easier read.

The Loops Council Score: 6/10

Spoiler: MugenTIREK

It's Mugen Tirek, what more can I say? It's a masterpiece in every way and I really like your writing style. It comes across as you really meticulously taking your time and making sure that every part of Mugen Tirek is perfect. I think the entire set has no flaws and I'd be shocked if this doesn't at least end up in my top 5. But who knows, the competition could be tough!

The Loops Council Score: 11/10!

 

[GolisoPower]

In the first age...in the first battle...when the shadows first lengthened...one stood. Burned by the embers of Armageddon, his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred, he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains, seeking vengeance against the Dark Lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him...

THE DOOM SLAYER

The demon-destroying Doom Slayer is the protagonist of the Doom series, an armor-clad marine who has been known for striking fear into the hearts of man and demon alike. A powerful warrior of the famed Night Sentinels, the Slayer is power and violence incarnate, carrying a steel-barreled sword of vengeance and bearing great power granted by a holy Seraphim. His demon-destroying crusade has now brought him into the land of Smash Bros., where many new foes await him...

Spoiler: Attributes

Size: Ganondorf
Weight: 93 (Joker)
Walk: 1.281 (Squirtle)
Run: 1.98 (Initial) 2.552 (Run) Captain Falcon
Jump Height: 37 (Full Hop) 18 (Short Hop) 37 (Air Jump) (Samus)
Air Dodge: 3-29 (Fresh) 57 (Total) (Samus)
Air Acceleration: 0.04-0.05 (Samus)
Air Speed: 1.03 (Samus)
Air Friction: 0.0075 (Samus)
Fast Fall: 2.56 (Byleth)
Falling Speed: 1.73 (Snake)
Spot Dodge: Snake
Dodge Roll: 4-15 (Fresh), 8-14 (Stale)
Traction: 0.082 (Samus)
Crawl: Yes
Wall Cling: Yes
Wall Jump: Yes

Spoiler: Special Attacks

His Neutral Special is called, "Slayer's Arsenal". When starting a match, you'll notice that the Slayer doesn't have any weapon equipped. Well, when you activate this move, the Slayer will pop a weapon out of thin air (Taking 10 frames to take out) and go into a state that combines Banjo & Kazooie's Breegull Blaster and Inkling's Splattershot: you can tilt the joystick left and right to move around and tilt the joystick up and down to aim. To change directions, just double-tap the joystick, much like how you change direction with Terry while in mid-air. You can cancel out of this move by dodging or shielding, and you can be knocked out of this state.

In this state, the Slayer can fire his equipped weapon by tapping B. But by holding A in this state, he can access a Weapon Wheel that functions similarly to the Shulk's Monado Wheel. With the Weapon Wheel, he can swap between weapons in his arsenal, which takes 10 frames to do. Each weapon is diverse, and he has 6 weapons he can access:

• Combat Shotgun: The Slayer's Ol' Reliable. When tapping B, the Doom Slayer will fire a shot that reaches one Bowser out. The attack comes out instantly but requires a 26 frame pause before he can attack again. There are 3 hitboxes that compose of the Shotgun blast: the furthest out is a sour spot that deals a measly 3% damage and no hitstun. The one closer is a hitbox that deals 6% damage and stuns opponents. The sweet spot is right at the muzzle of the gun and deals 9% damage. At 0%, the Shotgun's sweet spot can knock opponents at a 46-degree angle and at a distance of 2 1/2 Bowsers. The best move you'll want to use the Combat Shotgun with is Forward and Backward Air since the dash can cover the distance to get close and the middle hitbox of the attack can furthermore stun them open for another F-air.
• Heavy Cannon: The Heavy Cannon is a large gun with an 8-shot-per-second fire rate, and shoots projectiles similar to those found on Bayonetta's Bullet Climax. Each individual shot deals 2.3% damage and hit stun on hit, but since they are projectiles, they can be reflected. The Heavy Cannon is better used with Down Smash, as despite the projectile nature of the weapon can still rack up decent damage before finishing them off up close.
• Chaingun: The Chaingun is a high-rapid-fire weapon that shoots 16 shots per second. Unlike its brethren the Heavy Cannon and the Plasma Gun, this gun has the same disjointed hitboxes as Bayonetta and Joker's guns, meaning they do not count as projectiles. The shots themselves, however, are weak, dealing a mere 1.8% damage on their own. This gun also reaches as far as Joker's Gun, giving it some decent range. As far as combos go, this is heavily situational due to it being basically a Bullet Art you aim with, so you won’t find use in many other moves outside of easy damage from a distance.
• Plasma Gun: The highest-fire-rate weapon at 20 shots per second, the Plasma Gun is your go-to for damage per second. This weapon fires plasma balls that by themselves deal .9% damage. The plasma balls in question can be reflected and absorbed, and the projectiles are more akin to Fox's Blaster than Falco's or Wolf's. Additionally, when stopping, the Plasma Gun requires a 45-frame pause before he can act again, similarly to the Shotgun. This is actually worse than the Chaingun to use due to its pause, lower damage, and projectile nature, in spite of the heightened rate of fire. You’re not gonna find much out of this combo-wise, so like the Chaingun, you’ll want to use this if you’re impatient about dealing damage.

(NOTE: While the Heavy Cannon, the Chaingun and the Plasma Gun can be aimed while firing, it's not exactly recommended, as aiming from a 0-degree angle to a 60-degree angle will take 6 seconds while firing as opposed to the usual 2 when not firing.)

• Ballista: The Ballista is a precision weapon that is like fully-charged Failnaught if it can be aimed upwards or downwards. This weapon is an absolute beast, dealing 18.4% damage on hit and at 0% knockback can send them 2 Bowsers away. The bad things about this are that the gun requires a 1-second pause before he can act again and that the Ballista isn't exactly small. Low-knockback moves like Jab will have to be your best option since the Ballista takes a while to aim and fire, but the Ballista can also be used to end a combo, and it’s very flexible in where you combo this from.
• Rocket Launcher: An explosive weapon that fires 1.5 rockets per second. The rockets explode on impact, dealing 16.2% damage to all enemies in a blast-radius equal to Snake's Nikita, and at 0% can knock opponents 2.25 Bowsers away. The downside is its slow fire rate and that the rockets can be reflected, on top of the fact that the blast can damage the Slayer as well. The Rocket Launcher is easily the best in terms of Combo ending, so you’ll want to use this with upwards-knockback attacks like F-/B-air and U-/D-throw, as the vertical knockback can leave them open to these explosive shots.

The Ballista, Heavy Cannon, Plasma Gun, and Rocket Launcher are the only 4 weapons with screen-reaching range.

His Side Special is called, "Blood Punch". Like an Argent-powered Raptor Boost, the Slayer will charge in front of himself and land a brutal left hook that deals 9% damage on impact and at 0% knocks opponents 2.7 Bowsers away. For the initial charge, he will travel as far as a non-misfire Green Missile, or until he hits something. The initial charge takes 6 frames to start up, and 8 frames to recover if it hits. Blood Punch works very will with F-/B-air, since even if you don’t manage to land F-/B-air, you can always follow up with Blood Punch to attack with.

His Up Special is called, "Meat Hook". Taking out his trusty Super Shotgun over 22 frames, the Slayer will aim his Super Shotgun in the direction of the joystick, then launch its Meat Hook attachment in that very direction. This snaps to the ledge like other tether moves and can grapple opponents with it, regardless of whether or not either side is in mid-air. When grappling an opponent, the Slayer will slowly reel himself in towards the opponent, taking 2 seconds to do so at max distance, and the player can do one of two things.

• He can press A and fire a blast from the Super Shotgun, which takes the hitbox properties of the normal Shotgun and doubles them, but at the cost of releasing them and losing all momentum. He will also take 33 frames to reload his Super Shotgun, being unable to do anything until then.
• He can press B to release the opponent without sacrificing momentum. This can risk having opponents counterattack you, and you're left open for 12 frames while you put away your Super Shotgun.

With all this utility, the Meat Hook doesn't reach as far as the Sword of the Creator and the Grappling Hook, reaching only .6x that much, and any characters grappled can mash out easily. Meat Hook would be best used with U-tilt, Jab, and N-air since they don’t knock them away far enough to be out of Meat Hook’s range. A good BnB combo would be to use: [N-air → Up-B → Up-B + A → Rocket Launcher] since the Super Shotgun blast can be great for knocking opponents away afterward.

His Down Special is called, "Equipment Launcher". Activating his shoulder-mounted cannon, the Slayer will fire one of three different kinds of Grenades:

• Frag Grenades: These grenades function similarly to Snake's Grenade and Kazooie's Grenade Egg. This will deal 13% damage and at 0% can knock opponents back 2 Bowsers away. This thing will travel 2 Bowsers itself before exploding. Frag Grenades can be best used with post-release Meat Hook since you don’t sacrifice momentum by releasing and the opponent is within close range of the Equipment Launcher.
• Siphon Grenades: These grenades, on impact, create a field of sinister energy that lasts for 2 seconds and has a radius of 1 Bowser. For that duration, this will deal a total of 14% non-flinching damage and even heal the Slayer for half that damage.
• Ice Bombs: These bombs will explode on impact, dealing 10% damage to all opponents in the blast and freezing them as well. This is great for combos and is a good cue to break out the Ballista with Slayer's Arsenal.

This move takes 12 frames to release. The Frag Grenades are most common while the Siphon Grenade is the rarest. All grenades can be reflected and used against the Slayer since they are projectiles. After firing, it takes 4 frames to recover.

His Final Smash is none other than the BFG-9000. The Slayer will jump to the top of the screen, then the massive gun will appear from the bottom, mimicking the FPS aspect of Doom Classic. After a charge period, the BFG will fire a single shot, which will linger for 5 seconds as it goes towards the stage before it explodes. The shot itself shoots tendrils at all nearby opponents, dealing 8% damage per second and the explosion deals 50% damage and launch opponents. This also instantly KO's anyone over 100% damage.

Spoiler: Glory Kills

The Slayer's core gimmick is none other than Glory Kills.

As the Slayer damages an opponent over the course of the match, a white outline of a Slayer's mark will start forming over said opponent. After racking up 100% damage to them, the Slayer's mark will be complete and they will be prone to a Glory Kill, which triggers upon a grab and instantly KO's the opponent.

Now I hear you ask: what incentive would Glory Kills have over just normal KO'ing? Well, there are a few advantages to this:

1. Glory Kills will heal half of all excess damage above the Slayer Mark threshold, meaning if the opponent was at 30% damage above said threshold, the Slayer will heal for 15% of that damage.
2. Glory Kills will affect your attacks with a powerful Glory Boost to your specials.
3. 1. The Slayer's Arsenal will allow the Slayer single-access use of a Weapon Mod:
   2. 1. The Combat Shotgun will use a Sticky Grenade that sticks to opponents, and after 1 second of sticking, it will explode, dealing 12% damage and knocking them back 2.4 Bowsers away at 0%. Sticky Grenades would best be used with Ice Bombs if you manage to release, as the blast can both shatter the ice and easily put in some damage after release.
      2. The Heavy Cannon will fire six Micro Missiles that explode on impact, dealing 5.6% damage per hit and dealing hitstun. Once those six are fired, they will return to normal bullets. The strategy with Micro Missiles are generally the same as the normal Heavy Cannon, but it’s especially good here due to the increased damage.
      3. The Chaingun will split into 4 smaller barrels and turn into a Mobile Turret that is quadruple the fire-rate of the normal Chaingun but will overheat after 8 seconds of constant fire, leaving the Slayer open for 2 seconds. Despite the overheat function and the lack of change in hitbox properties, this is especially efficient in dealing damage from a distance, but synergy is still garbage here.
      4. The Plasma Gun will fire a Microwave Beam that constantly channels energy into the opponent's body. When the Microwave Beam has dealt 25% damage total (Which takes 8 seconds) without interruption, the opponent will explode, dealing an additional 10% damage and knocking them 2.75 Bowsers away at 25% damage. This has a range equivalent of Byleth's Areadhbar and stuns for the entire channeling. This mod is what the Plasma Gun has over the Chaingun besides the higher fire rate. The Microwave Beam should best be used after F-throw and Side Smash since the Microwave Beam stops all their momentum to fry them.
      5. The Ballista will charge for 2 seconds, then fire a massive Destroyer Blade that can pierce through multiple opponents, dealing 18% damage each and knocking them 3 Bowsers away at 0%. The Destroyer Blade will travel a set distance of 5 Bowsers before disappearing. The Destroyer Blade would best be used with F-air and Dash attack since Doom Slayer can move after releasing a shot from this Mod, allowing him to close the distance.
      6. The Rocket Launcher will lock onto a single opponent and fire a Lock-On Burst of three rockets that home in on the opponent's position. They deal less damage upon impact, dealing only 8.1% damage each, and their knockback is reduced to 1.75 Bowsers at 0%, but this is still good for racking up damage from a distance. The Rockets themselves will last for 3 seconds before exploding on their own. The Lock-On Burst is especially good alongside Meat Hook since you can release while putting them in practical point-blank without self-damage from the blast.
   3. The Blood Punch, on impact, will create an immense shockwave that damages surrounding opponents for equal damage. Blood Punch strategy with this is generally unchanged.
   4. The Meat Hook will light the opponent on fire and deal 1.2% damage per second for 5 seconds from the moment they are grappled, adding more damage output from the Super Shotgun blast. Strategy with the Meat Hook is only slightly changed due to the fire damage, but long-range weapons like the Ballista and the Heavy Cannon are a good use with this function since the added damage makes the Ballista more valuable.
   5. The Equipment Launcher will immolate opponents with a Flame Belch that deals 1.2% initial non-flinching damage and deals 3.6% damage per second for 5 seconds. This is good for lighting up opponents before closing in with a grab since the damage dealt makes the kill throws increasingly valuable.
   6. Even the Final Smash is affected by this, changing into the UNMAYKR, a weapon inspired by Sentinel weaponry and refined by the Maykrs' divine intellect. The destructive potential of this pure Maykr-tech weapon is staggering, firing 10 bursts of three lasers per second for 8 seconds, retaining the Instant-Kill threshold of its sister weapon, the BFG.

But obviously, Glory Killing has its disadvantages: for one, the damage-dealing requirements mean you need the dedication to put them in the state, and even then the state lasts 6 seconds. And just because they're branded by the Slayer's Mark doesn't mean they're defenseless, as they can still fight back and hold you off until the Mark disappears. When said Mark disappears, you have to deal 100% more damage to them to brand them again.

Spoiler: Ground Attacks (Tilts, Grabs and Smashes)

Jab: A left hook, then a right hook, then bash them over the head with a flashlight. For his rapid jab, he will instead take out the Chainsaw and lunge it towards the opponent, mimicking the Chainsaw's function in the classic Doom games. The first two hits come out pretty fast, dealing 3% damage each and coming out at Frame 4 and recovering after 3. The flashlight bash deals 4% damage that knocks opponents 1.4 Bowsers away. The rapid jab deals .3% damage per hit with the finisher dealing 3.2% damage. The flashlight bash is a good way to start a combo, more so than the Chainsaw, while the Chainsaw can be used for a good combo ender. You’ll best want to use this with Meat Hook since low knockback of the flashlight can still put them in acceptable ranges of the Meat Hook, and the Chainsaw ender can be used after a barrage of Heavy Cannon shots.

Side tilt: The Slayer will take out his pistol and fire a single shot from it. While not having the utility of Joker's Gun, this tilt attack has just as much range and stuns at closer ranges, but this can't be aimed and is so thin, even a Ganondorf can duck underneath it. Like in Doom, you won't find much use of this gun in the grand scheme of things. The Pistol deals 1.2% damage per shot and comes out at Frame 3, which is nuts for a Tilt attack but fitting for a gun like this.

Up tilt: The Slayer will stab upwards with the Chainsaw, hitting a total of 5 times, and dealing 13% damage overall. At 0%, this can knock someone 1.65 Bowsers high, and the final hit can be taken from behind the Slayer. This comes out on Frame 8, despite the Chainsaw's hefty bulk, and recovers after 9 more frames. U-tilt can be best used before Combat Shotgun, which can be used to jump up and hit with the sweet spot of the blast. U-tilt, as mentioned before, can also be used with Meat Hook for grabbing from long distance.

Down tilt: The exact same as Side tilt, except he's crouching. A much better alternative to Side tilt, due to the crouching giving this more usefulness, but the hitstun properties are replaced with the ability to trip opponents. This, alongside Side tilt, is great for racking up damage from afar, but up close, you can use this alongside Grab since the opponent is unable to do anything after a close-up hit, or Down/Side Smash since the range required to trip or stun opponents makes this a good trap for those attacks.

Dash Attack: A single stab with the Doom Blade. This comes out at Frame 6 and has a disjointed hitbox at the Blade. The attack deals 9.2% damage, at 0% can knock opponents 1.65 Bowsers away at a 60-degree angle and reaches out by 1 1/2 Pichus. It's fairly safe on shield, which is good for keeping up with raw offense. Dash attack should be used with Destroyer Blade, as mentioned before, but it’s good to use this in addition to U-air since the upwards momentum of the late hurtbox can make this a good trap for this move.

Grab: The Slayer does what he did with Deag Nilox and lifts them by their neck. He will then squeeze said neck for his pummel, dealing 2.4% per hit while being fairly slow. This grab comes out at Frame 6.

Forward-throw: The Slayer will hit the opponent with a one-two punch, which is based on his basic Glory Kill from Doom 2016. This hits twice and deals a total of 13.7% damage and launches at a 55-degree angle. At 0%, this sends the opponent 2.45 Bowsers away, making this a fairly decent kill throw. You’re going to want to use this with Microwave Beam since you can stop all momentum from this in particular. F-throw is also best used with Dash attack since F-throw puts that attack in a good position.

Down-throw: The Slayer will drop the opponent, then stomp on their head, based on his usual Mid-air Glory Kill from Doom 2016. This deals a decent 19.1% damage and only launches the opponent 1.65 Bowsers upwards at 0%, making this a good combo starter.

Back-throw: The Slayer will dash behind the opponent and thrust kick them in the back, based on one of his Berserk Kill animations from Doom Eternal. This is a fairly powerful throw, dealing 17.6% damage and knocking them 1.95 Bowsers away at a 50-degree angle at 0%. Back-throw is usually best used alongside Blood Punch since despite its higher knockback, Blood Punch can cover some good distance while still being able to hit them.

Up-throw: The Slayer will trip the opponent up before bringing his fist down on top of them and spiking them off the ground. This deals 14.7% damage and knocks them 1.65 Bowsers upwards at 0%. As stated before, this and Down-throw should be used with Rocket Launcher, but you can also use them with Up Smash since the equal knockback makes them in a good position to snipe with Up Smash.

Side Smash: The Slayer will rev up his Chainsaw and violently swing it in front of himself. This deals a total of 8 hits with a total of 15.5% damage, but at 0% only launches the opponent 1.5 Bowsers away at a 45-degree angle, making it a good combo starter tool. This comes out at Frame 11 and hits every 2 frames but takes about 11 more frames to recover afterward. Microwave Beam and Down tilt are best usable with this move since despite it being a Smash attack, knocking opponents away isn’t really what the Chainsaw was meant for, since Microwave Beam doesn’t have much range of activation to combo into most moves. Down tilt can also be used before this move if up close due to its tripping, or even Side tilt for its stun mechanics.

Up Smash: The Slayer will prop the Ballista at his feet and aim it upwards. At Frame 10, the Slayer will fire the Ballista upwards, making it a Smash attack akin to the Belmonts' whip. This reaches pretty high and deals a good 16.6% damage, with the attack launching the opponent 1.85 Bowsers upwards at 0% damage. This is a good anti-air tool, just like how the Ballista was designed in lore. Though, the hitbox is very thin, much like the Belmonts' Up Smash. Use this after Up-throw for maximum effect, as the direct upwards knockback can put opponents in a sufficient range to follow up with this.

Down Smash: The Slayer will take out the Super Shotgun, then fire two blasts at both sides on Frame 11 and Frame 22 respectively. Like the Meat Hook's Super Shotgun blast, the Down Smash's attacks use the Combat Shotgun's hitboxes but doubles the damage and knockback. This is very good for killing. Use this after rush-firing the Heavy Cannon for maximum effect. Also, you can use this to punish foes. Down Smash can also be used after going in on a standing opponent with Meat Hook, since the 8-Frame landing lag of that special can be encouraging with this..

Spoiler: Aerial Attacks

Neutral Air: The Doom Slayer will swipe the Doom Blade in a 360-degree motion, much like Cloud's N-air. This comes out quickly, at Frame 7, and deals 9.5% damage on hit. The knockback sends opponents 2.15 Bowsers away at a 55-degree angle at 0%. This is best used to start the following BnB combo: [N-air → Up-B → Up-B + A → Rocket Launcher], as the amount of damage you can get out of this can put one dangerously close to the Glory Kill threshold from 0%.

Forward and Back Air: The Doom Slayer will dash forward or backward and land a mighty pound if he runs into any opponents. The attack comes out fairly quickly, at Frame 4, and both cover some good distance, shooting him forwards 1.5 Bowsers in either direction. These can also be used twice in quick succession in either direction but at the cost of getting helpless. The attack itself deals 11% damage on hit and at 0%, can launch opponents 1.9 Bowsers away at a 35-degree angle. This is great for using with Blood Punch, since you can easily close the distance for that Special. You can also greatly use this in tandem with Destroyer Blade due to acting in tandem with the traveling projectile, and close-up Combat Shotgun due to being an amazing means of point-blank damage and killing at the ledge (It kills at 115% at the ledge).

Down Air: The Doom Slayer will slam his feet downwards while shooting a burst from his Lateral Thrusters. This has a sour spot on the burst that deals 7.4% damage and hitstun. The normal hitbox at the feet themselves deals 10.8% damage and can meteor smash opponents. The move can also push the Doom Slayer upwards, much like how Corrin's B-air pushes her away. The attack comes out at Frame 15. A simple attack to use this with is the Meat Hook, as if you release at the right moment, you can end up above them and meteor smash with this move.

Up Air: The Doom Slayer sharply raises a knee upwards, much like during the Glory Kill against a Revenant. This comes out at Frame 12 and has a lingering hitbox that lasts for 26 frames afterward. The attack deals 13.1% damage on the initial hitbox and 9% damage on the lingering hitbox. This doesn't have much range either, only poking a Pichu's torso out above him. This knocks opponents 2.5 Bowsers upwards on the initial hitbox and 1.5 Bowsers on the lingering hitbox at 0%. U-air’s late hitbox can be best used to follow up with Dash attack, but the initial hitbox can be amazingly used with Lock-On Burst, as a way of following up from this move due to that Mod’s tracking mechanics.

Spoiler: Animations and Flavours

Entrance: A blue portal appears and the Doom Slayer menacingly walks out of it before preparing for battle.

Idle Stance: The Doom Slayer will stand still, a fist poised to strike and a hand outstretched. This is a reference to the fist stance from the Classic Doom.

Idle Animation #1: The Doom Slayer will grab his shoulder and crick his neck for a bit.

Idle Animation #2: The Doom Slayer menacingly does a "Bring it" gesture.

Taunt #1: The Doom Slayer takes out his chainsaw and examines it for a bit. He then shrugs before revving it.

Taunt #2: The Doom Slayer takes out a toy version of himself and fistbumps it.

Taunt #3: The Doom Slayer menacingly cracks his knuckles for a bit.

Victory Theme: Intermission from Doom, the result screen music from Doom.

Victory Animation #1: The camera shows a demon skull lying on the ground. After a lingering shot, the Slayer's foot will smash apart the skull before the camera pans up the Slayer. The Slayer will then load his Super Shotgun.

Victory Animation #2: The Slayer will tighten his gauntlet for a moment. He will then notice the camera, then sucker-punch it away from himself.

Victory Animation #3: An explosion is seen from the bottom of the screen as some Imps, Soldiers, and Zombies are sent flying. The camera then pans down and reveals the Slayer fighting hordes of demons, mimicking the alternate Doom '16 cover art. After the name flash, the Slayer will keep fighting demons Ad Infinitum.

Lose Animation: The Slayer is hunched over, clenching his fists in barely-contained anger.

Alternate Costumes: Eternal Praetor Suit, Classic Suit, Red Eternal armor, Yellow Classic, Blue Eternal, Red Classic, Orange Eternal, Indigo Classic

Spoiler: Final Overview

In short, the Doom Slayer is a fast-moving, heavy-hitting glass cannon that would never miss a chance to deal damage. With a kit that has both vicious rushdown attacks and strategic zoner projectiles, the Slayer blurs the line between both archetypes, giving him one of the most versatile offensive gameplans of any character. However, his recovery isn't that good, either being hindered by short-range or helplessness, and he has very little in terms of defense. He is also very easily killed, forcing players to rely on mobility to survive. Additionally, his complexity makes him hard to play and his gimmick requires dedication to be used effectively.

Spoiler: Patch Notes

1.0.0: Added Doom Slayer.
1.1.0: Added tips on moves

I feel proud of this one, tbh.

 

[Perkilator]

Aite i'll try to give some genuine comments here:

Spoiler: Min-Min

View attachment 268037

Welcome to MYM Perkilator! So I've read your Min-Min set for a bit and here's what I have to say.

The kit you have shown here is certainly faithful to Arms after I envisioned all of the moves visually via the game in question, however it's lacking cohesiveness.

I do want to note some things regarding organization because I had the same exact issue for MYM 22 with Whitehorn/The Knight (Dw guys i'm not going to meme or joke about that set ever again, TRUST me on that one). Generally you do want Specials to come first since it introduces us to the character concepts and it makes it easier to sell the set as we read the more mundane and boring parts of the set which can leave a better first impression. Also for height and mobility you likely want to check out kurogane hammer or any other resources regarding character stats for things such as height, weight, and mobility. This isn't a character bio, this is translating the character in a feasible fighting game and I cannot envision these stats.

Also when it comes to making moves just ensure that you're explaining more than just the physical details (adding images would be great but not always necessary). Give a bit more clarification on not just the physical descriptions, but more of the move's properties. It's not just % and knockback that matters but you also want to explain it in context of Min Min's own kit. I can't envision how she would play as a functional character outside of what her moves would look like and how powerful some moves are as I don't know what moves are meant to be utilize for combos (If it's low knockback, how much hitstun/endlag does it have, clarify what things it combos into). Since the mobility and stats seems hard to understand and all I know about Min-Min is her range based off of the given game it becomes hard for me to envision her playstyle. Is she supposed to be a fast char with no CQC but with lots of ranged options? Is she slow with long range and wants to play bait and punish?

I'd really recommend for you to just look at what you have now and try to give the reader less things to openly interpret, we want to see YOUR vision and the clearer it is the easier it is for others to judge your submission as fairly as possible. I feel like going at it and revising all of these important details would be VERY helpful in the future.

Hopefully you take this feedback to make a stellar set!

I will NOT be giving a Loops Council Score yet because I don't think it does the set any justice and it's arbitrary for this scenario.

Spoiler: Arvis

View attachment 268040

I feel like the issues with your Arvis set also is quite similar to your Min-Min set Perkilator.

It's a little too broad and doesn't really factor in a cohesive set. You did finally add in some general game stats that are taken in the game though I'd still recommend mentioning things like air speed, aerial drift, walk speed, gravity, etc. You only really mentioned runspeed and you also only really referenced size and weight which is still important to know but there still needs to be a bit more things.

It's a little hard to also judge the set from a gameplay standpoint since there doesn't really seem to be enough information for me to really grasp how Arvis will play in smash so I can't really go too much into any criticisms regarding design.

Just work on a little bit of what I said about Min-Min and apply it here.

Again I won't be giving a Loops Council Score until these things get fixed then I think it'd be more fair to score it.

Spoiler: Marauder

View attachment 268036

Welcome to MYM Dilliam!

So I saw your set for Marauder and I overall like the draft you have so far. There's obviously room for improvement but this is very early on in MYM23 and honestly I think there's a little bit of room to grow for anyone at this state including me (especially me given the "things" that happened at MYM22).

There are some things that I do think the set does quite well, especially the more I read it. I actually feel like I'm getting a coherent and sound gameplan that actually works well in Smash. At first this was my main issue with the set but the more I thought about how the kit is applied the more I appreciated the set as a whole since it took a lot of inspiration from other Heavies but gives it some interesting physics and ideas.

Making Marauder a generally fast character on the ground that is meant to be a character with generally laggy moves. The CQC (Close Quarters Combat) is bad and the character has good mid-range option and has the mobility to get out of pressure + I can envision Nair being a main OoS (You should probably consider designing it to be his main OoS) means that the character can still reliably deal with rushdowns without directly calling out characters. Having three projectiles mixed in with Marauder's midrange option and access to speed with one fast projectile and a slow projectile is certainly a novel idea (Reminds me a bit of K Rool but with good execution it could actually lead to some even more interesting design decisions)

I do think that making Wolf just the "fast" projectile that you can try to hit to make it weaker or dissipate with more hits while having cooldown is actually a pretty solid idea while having generally middling startup that isn't absurd (Hopefully not as slow as Crown) but still generally fair is a solid concept. I think that the reward leaves a lot to be desired and it just feels like "Another projectile". I hear that you mention biting in the set and it reminds me a lot of how Mechakoopas bite before exploding. So maybe an idea could be that the wolf bites onto the opponent and after a few seconds it explodes and does a bit of knockback meaning that it can setup into cool kill confirms or just a lot of stylish confirms in general. Actually because it's sort of similar to the Down-Special axe move except its faster and quicker. Maybe designing Marauder so he has two moves that explode over time like crash bomb with a fast and slow variant while having different ways to synergize with eachother can create some really INTERESTING character design and balance. Being a midrange character with generally a lot of laggy options means that making the opponent have to panic and shield because of both moves allows for Marauder to have a more reliable and less risky neutral while still not being overbearing.

Marauder is powerful but he still doesn't seem to have a super reliable disadvantage and still not having the greatest CQC while having bad frame data is still a nice counterbalance while he has the kit to not just flat out lose to degenerative play which puts him a step above almost every other heavy. There's a lot of potential to be had here on your character.

I would suggest talking a bit about the different ways you can synergize with your specials or use your normals outside of just "This is your combo tool" or "This is your kill option or it sets up into a specific kill confirm". I'd suggest to think a bit more in the shoes of if Marauder were to be a released character today with the moveset you envision to try to make your set more cohesive. Also trying to visualize some of your kit would always be greatly appreciated (Maybe you can show us what the hell hounds look like for example or if he's using an attack from his own game you can show it even if it isn't what it'd look like in smash completely). I actually do like the reference you made to training room blocks but I'd also like for you to compare ranges to other characters, use other characters for references instead of just training room (it can just be a specific side note) so it's easier to access and easier to envision. Some people won't know how much is 7 training mode blocks and having to go the extra step just to see your vision isn't going to always pan out the best.

Either way take the advice I have and generally it's a pretty good draft. Some fine tuning should do the trick and just talking a bit more about your moves's application could make for a much better set and an easier read.

The Loops Council Score: 6/10

Spoiler: MugenTIREK

View attachment 268035

It's Mugen Tirek, what more can I say? It's a masterpiece in every way and I really like your writing style. It comes across as you really meticulously taking your time and making sure that every part of Mugen Tirek is perfect. I think the entire set has no flaws and I'd be shocked if this doesn't at least end up in my top 5. But who knows, the competition could be tough!

The Loops Council Score: 11/10!

I’ve decided to at least fix Min Min. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.

 

[plague126]

I’ve decided to at least fix Min Min. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.

Hey, don't be too discouraged, It's your first set, if you keep trying you can improve. I haven't gotten a chance to read your sets yet, but I'll try to soon, and give some feedback

 

[FruitLoop]

I’ve decided to at least fix Min Min. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.

Well these are your first sets after all. The very fact that you decided to come on here and show us anything is really more than enough honestly. It's just that MYM is very big on writing and specific details. So there's kind of different priorities for MYM, i think just writing a bit more detail on how your moves work for the character and how it applies to their playstyle is more than enough to make it cohesive and at least be decent. You don't need to have strong writing skills to do well, just think a bit more on how the reader will be reading the set.

I think you have a solid base, it's just that using the feedback i give can make it more "MYM-ey". MYM isn't really objective and the guidelines are very specific so it really shouldn't be anything to be discouraged by. In fact I think you should just be proud that you put out 2 sets in the first place and that's really admirable for any newcomer in general (I didn't even post two sets, I kept procrascinating and kept trying to make my first set a meme 4 months after making it just because i thought at the time it was funny). I'd ironically say that you're already way ahead of me haha.

Just keep at it Perkilator, i know you can make a truly impressive final product

 

[ForwardArrow]

Bleak
Bleak was an interesting effort from US, mostly for trying to make a pretty dry and simple playstyle concept work. You make a barricade, you throw snowballs from behind it and the barricade trips up people trying to reach you to give you a bit of an edge at camping. Once the gap IS closed, you do everything in your power to widen it again with your variety of spacers. I do appreciate that the set gives a little more variety than that, you can just go for combos into snow banks and Side B has a surprising amount of close range utility(something I, if anything, almost wish was expanded on a bit). I think the set does a very competent job at executing this admittedly dry playstyle concept, its clear you've learned quite a bit in that regard since Primeape last contest, as the melee is designed with a careful hand to keep everything going in a competent, but still perfectly beatable manner.

The problem is a problem I think people were aware of even back in MYM6 with the original Bleak to a degree. This kind of basic campy playstyle is not that interesting, and while I think it was tuned fine for Smash Ultimate's pacing overall the loop of "get away and pelt the foe with projectile and maybe plot down a snow fort" feels like its actually pretty dull to play. Its definitely not exactly creating a lot of strategic depth, and unfortunately since the melee is focused around making this very basic gameplan work, its not really allowed to do its own, interesting things. There are some games to played around the snow forts that have more than zero depth, certainly way more than old sets in this genre had when they just put up their camping wall. But just being a camper and not having much beyond that doesn't really work in the modern day, at least not for me.

For what its worth, this set does prove you can do drier stuff and have a competent grasp on it. This set is making me interested in how you'd handle something comparable to Velvet nowadays, as I felt the elaboration on her close ranged stuff was less than it could've been when looking at newer efforts like Bleak and Hauskee in particular.

 

[Professor Lexicovermis]

​

(Yeah, I know it's technically late for opening day, but click above)

Jamie and I are pleased to unveil a collaborative effort from the both of us! We hope you enjoy it!

 

[BKupa666]

KUPA'S MOVESET RANKINGS (MYM23 EDITION)

"Well, I've got a second screen, and about time too. Now, shut up everyone while I read the eagerly awaited results of my prestigious MYM Ranking Awards. . . . ."

Tier One:
This top echelon is reserved for professional rad guys. . .the big daddies of MYM. These movesets are essentially immaculate in my eyes, with creative new ideas that stand above the rest or else brilliant execution of a tried-and-true playstyle. There are virtually no missteps or outlying functionality questions here.
Sets ranked: (4).

Pennywise the Dancing Clown

The Primordial Darkness

"Lucky" Louise

skekUng, the Garthim Master

Tier Two:
The "above average" category, here, we have movesets that are pretty unambiguously great. In essence (mmmMMMmmm), these sets embody most of the same qualities as those in Tier One, just to a less overtly impressive degree, with ideas that aren't quite as above and beyond or perhaps a flaw or two.
Sets ranked: (4).

Ernest Amano

Ochako Uraraka

Prae Aerius

Cap'n Cuttlefish

Tier Three:
My level for the "pedestrian" sort of moveset. These are sets I like, though less so than those in the above two tiers, with works that could be considered no-frills, but competent for what they are, or that have an ingenious concept bogged down by shortcomings elsewhere.
Sets ranked: (5).

Polterkitty

Bleak

Fierce Pork Trooper

Captain Qwark

Robobot Armor

Tier Four:
The tier where moveset quality gets more marginal, or sets start to have more cons than pros. These works are ones I still would consider salvageable with moderate effort on the writer's part, maybe by weaving in necessary details or developing a promising idea further.
Sets ranked: (1).

Exeggcute

Tier Five:
The bottom rung. This isn't a ranking to be ashamed of, as everyone ends up writing at least one "swing and a miss" work sooner or later. These can serve as a learning opportunity for writers willing to give setmaking another try. . .just, these specific sets would need to be revamped beyond recognition to climb higher on here.
Sets ranked: (1).

Komodo Bros.

 

[dilliam]

The last who feels the pain from the wound
The last to be birthed from the flesh of a womb
A wretched life in this altered place
There must be more I can embrace



Han-Tyumi, the confused cyborg, joins the battle!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TrotHIPXGNHehf4B7IKouCBN5fx4Xn6f3af58TZjfKI/edit?usp=sharing
​

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

Spoiler: Bonanza Bros.

The Bonanza Bros, Mobo in blue and Robo in red, are the villainous protagonists of the Sega arcade game of the same name. They are a duo of burglars (vigilante detectives in certain localisations) who raid casinos, pyramids and banks among other locations.

Gimmick: While you'd expect the Bonanzas to be a duo in the veins of the Ice Climbers, they're more like the Duck Hunt Duo, with Robo doing the main work and Mobo tagging along, "helping" him with certain attacks. The two share knockback through Mobo being a huge wimp and clinging on to his brother whenever they're hit, making the duo quite heavy. They're also rather slow with their bags of loot slowing them down.

Neutral B: Stun Gun - Robo shoots a bullet from his stun gun (the megaphone looking thing) - this projectile is small and doesn't travel far. If it hits a foe on the ground they'll be sent to sleep for a short amount of time. If it hits a foe in the air, it'll merely flinch them.
Up B: Spring - The Bros. jump on a spring. Unlike other spring moves this one gives a huge boost, quickly going really high. This move has no offensive application and leaves the Bonanzas VERY vulnerable.
Side B: Loot - Mobo takes a stolen good out of his bag and gives it to Robo so he can throw. This move is rather laggy and has an unusual trajectory, comparable to Dedede's Gordo - through it doesn't bounce, only goes upwards, down, then disappears. It's also rather powerful and can be used as a KO move. Unlike Gordo, it cannot be reflected with attacks.
Down B: Damage Theft - Robo opens up his bag - however, this move isn't for stealing projectiles, instead the Bonanzas steal their own damage, with the numbers flying up from the HUD into their bag! The move will heal whatever damage the last HITBOX to hit the Bonanzas was, so if it's a multihit (for example, Diddy's side Smash) move it will only steal damage from the last hit. This move's best application is for when you survive a super-strong move, like a Falcon Punch or Misfire. If they steal more than 20% damage they'll let out their iconic "Nyeh-heh-heh!"

Jab: A 3-hit combo. The first two are done by Robo, low effort hits that keep the enemy in place but don't deal much damage, then for the third hit Mobo reaches over Robo, flattening the taller brother's head, to do a big, powerful punch
Dash Attack: Mobo spins Robo like a hammer. Powerful multihit

Up Tilt: Robo picks up Mobo and throws him. Decently powerful for a Utilt, sends foes flying upwards and is good for starting combos.
Forward Tilt: Mobo pushes Robo. This is one of the most powerful Ftilts, but has a lot of endlag
Down Tilt: A simple light kick from Robo. Can trip foes.

Forward Smash: Robo bashes his loot bag against the ground. Can spike and ground.
Up Smash: An uppercut by Robo, while Mobo carries him. Has very good range, a little TOO good range and as such it's hard to hit foes nearby.
Down Smash: Mobo drags Robo against the ground while spinning.

Neutral Air: The bros. do aerial cartwheels. Keeps foes in place
Up Air: Mobo does an upwards kick
Down Air: Robo forces Mobo's head downwards. Sends foes downwards, but doesn't spike.
Forward Air: Robo hits with his bag. Spikes
Back Air: identical to Fair.

Grab and pummel: Mobo holds the enemy in place while Robo shoots at them.
Up Throw: Mobo jumps on Robo's head to throw the enemy upwards
Down Throw: The Bonanzas group-kick the enemy. This throw deals a lot of damage, but doesn't deal knockback and can be acted straight out of by the foe - the Bonanzas have a few frames of invulnerability to compensate
Forward Throw: Robo shoots a really big bullet that sends the foe flying forwards
Back Throw: Mobo throws the enemy towards Robo, who also throws them.

Dash speed: 1.43 (same as Byleth and Zelda)
Weight: 106 (same as Banjo, R.O.B. and Snake)
Jump height: Only a double jump, 27 (same as Terry)

Victory Jingle

Series symbol is one of the Bonanza Bros' heads.

The pose for their artwork is based on the NTSC box art of Bonanza Bros, albeit with the in-game designs instead of the box art designs.

 

[bubbyboytoo]

> BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED
> TIME SINCE LAST BOOT: 395 DAYS, 7 HOURS, 11 MINUTES
> RUNNING HWC_OS VERSION 16.6.10
> RUNNING SYSTEMS CHECK...
> GRAVITY TETHER LOCOMOTION SYSTEM: OK
> COOLANT CIRCULATORY SYSTEM: OK
> OPTICAL SCANNING SYSTEM: OK
> ROCKET PROPULSION SYSTEM: OK
> PILOT ADAPTATION SYSTEM: OK
> MOLECULAR RECONSTUCTION DRIVE: OK
> DAMAGE MONITORING SYSTEMS: OK
> SYSTEMS CHECK COMPLETE
> ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL
> ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATIONS LINK WITH HALTMANN DATABASES...
> COMMUNICATIONS SUCCESSFULLY ESTABLISHED
> BOOT SEQUENCE COMPLETE
> NOBLE HALTMANN, WE ADORE HIM.

> cd "root/makeYourMove/mym23"
> FOLDER SUCCESSFULLY OPENED.
> exec "robobotArmor.mym"
> EXECUTING MOVESET FILE...
> COMPLETE.

 

[dilliam]

Watch out, here comes the previews!

“I'll be there with Bells on! Ho ho!”

"Who's going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow."

"You'll take my life but I'll take yours too
You'll fire your musket but I'll run you through
So when you're waiting for the next attack
You'd better stand there's no turning back"

"Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?"

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Prae

I quite admire these small sets that get a lot out of their word count! It's pretty darn inspiring that the two of you made this set in one day, would be absolutely awesome if this set a joint-set trend for other setmakers this contest. It's great that Prae's intro and stats are short but sweet (just like her!) and the fairy sprinkles of character in the moves. Who wouldn't want to go onto Pinterest or Zerochan or Danbooru and search for an "OC image" after reading this set? I love it.

Prae has a pretty neat Side Special that combines a movement attack with projectile creation - we surprisingly don't have a huge amount of those despite the sheer number of projectile manipulations sets in MYM, would be very fun to explore. Up Special was enjoyable for being pretty short but still having a lot you could potentially do with it. And Down Special has its weird but still fun and welcome flavour while being a surprisingly original counter move! I also thought F-tilt was pretty interesting for being a "drain" type move that we don't see too often in MYM. Some other fun highlights were B-air, F-air, N-air; the two of you certainly got creative, just as you encourage players of Aki and Prae to be!

I don't have any major complaints against Prae! If anything, I wonder whether she lacks any notable "get-off me" tools, especially in the air where her N-air is slow to start up. Perhaps you could make the current N-air a hold variant, and give Prae a quick version where she snickers and forms a short-lived barrier around herself? Assuming that doesn't go against your envisioned projectile gameplan for her. I also think it would be cool if her U-air could deal upwards knockback, maybe take a page from MYM15 Sloth's U-air where you have a sweetspot (perhaps close to Prae?) that deals downwards knockback but otherwise juggles? This could let her do things like set up for a Side Special, Up Special finisher or even Neutral Special, but maybe you didn't do it because being able to juggle the foe into the latter does sound pretty powerful. When thinking about things this way, you actually did an interesting and good job at balancing Prae for how quickly she was made!

I wonder whether 4 stars (not the moveset rankings, don't fret!) is a just a bit much for Neutral Special? Sure, you can delay it, but still you're getting quite a lot of projectiles.

Also, I wonder whether Prae could work her Neutral Special stars shield-locking the foe into her grab game somehow? Maybe it could work with U-throw as a rewarding kill move, like juggling the foe farther with the high stars? Or something like that.

Overall, Prae is a really good set for how quickly she was made! She holds up quite well among general movesets for me too. She's a pretty creative set and very inspiring for being made in such a short time. I love the fact that this set exists! Amazing job, Jamie and Lex! This set was inspiring in more ways than one.

I have Rankings for MYM23, by the way, in case anyone wants to see it:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FSKQGeZTI6HSJ9wUNXPOLmf8n1HWUjl92u1en9T0Sh4/edit

 

[Zero Suit Violet]

Oh nice ! I made an entire moveset for my Midna campaign, that is available on the Midna Thread, let me copy all of that here ! (I also have images to illustrate part of it !)

Spoiler: Imp Midna Moveset

Who/What is Midna?

Midna is a character from the “The Legend of Zelda” series, first appearing in “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” in 2006 for the Wii and Gamecube. Midna is an important character from this game, acting as the companion of Link and being at his side through most of the game. The story is centered around her, and the game's subtitle, “Twilight Princess”, is a reference to her. She has been a fan favorite character from the series for a long time, and even today, more than 10 years since the release of "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess", she’s still one of the most requested Zelda characters for Smash!

(Artist is: Geina Malavotli on ArtStation)




Stats :

Air Speed : 1.28

Air Acceleration : 0.7

Fall Speed : 1.5/2.45

Initial Dash Speed : 2.09

Run Speed : 1.9

Walk Speed : 1.1

Weight : 83

Archetype : Glass Canon

Jumps : 2

Crawl ? : No

Gameplay Overview : Midna in her Imp form would be a very light character due to her small form and her floating abilities. She'd be able to use her hair for lots of things like grabbing enemies from afar, punching them with a giant fist, stabbing people, or flattening them with the palm of her hair hand. Her hair would probably be her main weapon as a fighter, but it’s far from being the only thing she can use. She can use portals to warp herself through any solid object, can slip into the shadows to surprise enemies, and can even create a projectile with both her normal hands, and her hair hand.

She could become a very frightening character with lots of tools to use in lots of different situations, a “High Risk/High Reward” sort of character. With many powerful moves that have to be used correctly as to not get punished, she can also call on to the Fused Shadows and her ElderLich Form as a final attack.


Jab: Midna transforms her hair into a giant fist, and punches at the opponent once before pulling it back.

Forward Tilt: A single quick slap with her giant hand in front of her.


Down Tilt: Using her hair as a palm this time, Midna slaps directly into the ground with it, leaving the opponent stuck in the ground for a while.


Up Tilt: A quick swipe from her hair. This move starts from the ground in front of her, then moves upwards.


Dash Attack: Midna summon a Shadow Wolf at her feet to help her run faster, when attacking, she jump out of the wolf, as he launch himself forward and bite straight in front of him


Forward Smash: Midna charges up her fist behind her, and the more she charges it, the more purple her fist becomes (it's a cosmetic effect, charging up just does the same thing as any other Smash attacks). Then she release it with one big blow to the opponent with her hair.
It’s possible to slightly angle it up and down in a similar way to Mario, Sonic, and Mii Brawler's Forward Smash.


Down Smash: She partially merges with the shadows, and her hit box becomes very small and near the ground. She then does one spin with her hair, first hitting in front of her, and then behind her.


Up Smash: Using her Magic, she makes a pointy rock rise up from the stage. The rock hits the enemies in the air on its way up.

Neutral Aerial: Her hair takes the form of a palm before doing a quick spin around her, slapping away the enemies near her.
This move only hits the opponent a single time.



Forward Aerial: Midna creates a shadow ball in her hand, and then throws it in front of her. It'll travel forward for a bit before exploding. However, if it makes contact with an opponent, it'll explode on contact.

Back Aerial: Midna creates the same shadow ball that she uses in her Forward Aerial, but instead of throwing it, she destroys it immediately, making a large hitbox around her back, and propelling her forward a bit.


Up Aerial: Making her hair hand into a palm, Midna thrusts her hair upwards. If an enemy get hit by this attack, they won't take much damage, but will instead be pushed upward rapidly. The knock back increases very slightly with damage, but it will always push pretty high.


Down Aerial: Using her magic, Midna drill kicks straight down while laughing. She isn't able to stop herself mid way, and it's a pretty fast multi-hit attack that will drag down the enemy with her.

In a similar fashion to the F-Smash, some purplish magic drops from her feet as she drills, and she will also suffer from some endlag once on the ground.


Grab: Midna uses her hair hand to grab the enemy with a short ranged grab.


Pummel: Midna just stands lazely as her hand hair constricts the enemy to deal damage.


Forward Throw: Midna’s hair makes a complete spin around her before throwing the enemy off violently in front of her. This throw will have a lot of knockback.


Backward Throw: Midna throws the enemy off behind her without looking, simply yawning. The throw has less knockback than the forward one, but can still throw pretty far.


Upward Throw: Midna throws the enemy slightly into the air, and follows with a punch. This sends the enemy flying high in the air, with good damage and knockback.


Down-throw: She pummels the opponent violently, then lets them fall to the ground.
The opponent cannot tech out of this move.
This move does a lot of damage.


Neutral Special : Using her Hand as a palm, she starts charging up a big orb of Dark Energy, she cannot move while she is charging it up, but she can keep the charge by rolling or dodging, when throwing it she throws it right at her feet causing a big explosion, the more charged it is, the bigger the explosion is, and the more damage it will deal, those hit only by the explosion will take less damage than the one that got caught by the orb throw and the explosion

Side Special : A special type of command grab. Midna stretches her hair in the direction chosen, and will grab any enemies she touches. She will then pull her hair back, and throw the enemy in one direction, by pressing the button a second time while Midna is reaching for the opponent, the hand will change into a fist, dealing good amount of damage and knockback in the direction the fist is going. She cannot move while using this move and cannot cancel out in the middle of it either.

Up B: Midna creates a portal and uses it to teleport upwards. She cannot be hit when teleporting, but the teleport cannot be aimed, and will only go up. She can pass through solid object, but will always teleport in the air. It isn't possible to recover directly onto a platform, and her teleport does not have a hit box, but she does not go into free fall mode after the warp.

Down B: When using this move, a start up animation begins where Midna slowly slips into the platform and into the shadows. She can take damage during the beginning of this attack, even if her hitbox shrinks down into the platform during it. Once inside the shadows, she is invincible for a little while. She is visible by a clear shadow on the platform (just like Greninja's). After a bit of time, she comes out from the shadow and attacks the nearest enemy. However, if no enemy is nearby, she'll simply slip back into the shadows.

Final Smash: The Fused Shadow appear around Midna as she suddenly transforms. Anyone touched by her Spider Form limbs get sent into an animation where Midna, in this new Beastial form, unleashes a brutal combo with her giant spear. If no one is touched, the Fused Shadow simply disappear, and Midna will change to her normal form.

Taunt :

-Up Taunt have her reaching her hand out, making the Fused Shadows appear, she look at them, before wrapping them away and laughing

-Side Taunt have her making the Ordon Shield and Sword appear, the Shield on her head as a mask, and the sword back handed, she give a quick swing, before pulling the items away

-Down Taunt have her extending her hair into a palm, before sitting on it and laughing, then coming back to her normal stand


Idle Animation :

-Midna pull off the Twilight Thorn, playing a bit with it in her hand, before pulling it away

-She start levitating in a laying down position as she start to hum the first few notes of her theme

Victory Theme :

-A battlely remixes of the first notes of her theme, that cuts on when the Frame Freeze on her

Spoiler: Other Content

Alternative Costumes :

-Default
-Argorock Alt
-Zant Alt
-King Bublin Alt
-Light Spirit Alt
-Illia Alt
-Skull Kid/Majora Alt
-Ganondorf Alt

Stage :

Midna did not come alone, her whole dimension and Throne Room are now opened to the world of Smash with her! This stage works with a specific gimmick. Like with Wario Ware, the surroundings of the stage occasionally change, teleporting you to the many "Boss Rooms" that Twilight Princess has to offer. Going through the Temple of Time, the Goron Mines, Arbiter's Ground, a room for every dungeon is present! With either the Mini Boss or the Boss of the dungeon there to give you a warm welcome... It then teleports back to the throne room from time to time.

Here is the entire layout of the stage:

-The Starting Room is the Twilight Throne. No hazards, just the calm ambiance of the Twilight in a large flat room, all the different rooms have this layout unless otherwise stated.
-Diababa's boss room is next. Diababa will spit acid at you from time to time, and, using the poison floor from World of Light, the acid will stay on the ground for a moment.
-Danogoro’s room is a smaller platform with a layout similar to Final Destination, but the platform keeps shaking left and right to throw the fighters off.
-Deku Toad battle. Normal battles are suddenly interrupted by the Deku Toad jumping onto the stage to squish the fighters before climbing back onto the ceiling.
-Death Sword’s battle. The sword is unsealed from the beginning, and Death Sword wanders randomly onto the stage, attacking from the background. It cannot be defeated .
-Blizella is next. In her room, she is already in her Ice Coffin, and is sliding around the whole room, visible in the background. Se sometimes spins onto the stage, sweeping off opponents that are in her way .
-The Temple of Time gets a special room based on ArmoGhoma’s room. The boss is not there, but the statues on the side of the room will activate themselves if an enemy is below them (so at the corner of the room) to deliver a swift punch in front of them.
-Argorock’s Room is next. He flies in the background of the stage, and comes by to either spit flames onto the stage, or to flap his wing, causing a wind that blows the fighters around.
-And finally, we come back to the first room, the Twilight Throne.


Music :
Her stage, and all the other Zelda stages, beneficiate from some music added thanks to this pass! There are 8 songs in all, and they are comprised of both remixes, arrangements, and music taken directly from the game.

Twilight Princess Orchestra Piece #1 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGQFugRDtXE


Light, Twilight and Darkness :

(Arrangement of those 3 pieces)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROjzjsMljeA (click to expand)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLo0NIJWccE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXEnAuzjgKU


Zant Battle :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNVPUC_mtoA


Ganondorf (Arrangement of his 4 Themes) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr-I76OxsVg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OwAFE_kPmg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs_eaPO6lZw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdTWbw5oLco


Hyrule Field (Hyrule Warriors) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4jYd_Sb144


Remnant of Twilight :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYwohSUwu0&t=58s


Boss Battle Medley :

(Something like that)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXezYXqbXO8


A Great Evil :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q3qtU10egg


Spirit Board :

Vaati: x1 Robin
Stage: Skyloft

*The enemy's special moves have increased power
*The enemy favors up specials
*Dangerously high winds are in effect after a little while

Farore: x1 Green Alt Zelda
Stage: Green Greens

*The enemy favors up specials

Navi: x1 Blue Kirby
Stage: Hyrule Castle

*The enemy is small
*The enemy tends to avoid conflict

Death Sword: x1 TP skin Ganondorf
Stage: Twilight Throne

*Enemy is Invinsible
*The enemy favors Smash attacks

Majora's Wrath: x1 Purple Richter
Stage: Find Mii (FD)

*The enemy favors Smash attacks
*Hostile assist trophies will appear after a little while

Makar: x1 Villager
Stage: Temple

*The Enemy begin with an item (Deku Nut)
*The Enemy tends to avoid conflicts
*Dangerously high winds are in effect after a little while

Chancelor Cole: x1 Villager x1 Dark Pit
Stage: Spirit Tracks

*Main enemy tends to avoid conflict
*Secondary enemy favors Side Specials
*Defeat the Main ennemy

Ganon (A Link to The Past): x1 Blue Ganondorf
Stage: Find Mii (FD)

*The enemy is Giant
*Stamina Battle
*The enemy's FS Meter charges quickly

Zelda (Twilight Princess): x1 TP Alt Zelda
Stage: Ordin Bridge

*Stamina Battle
*The enemy Suddenly get a Final Smash

Twili Midna: x1 Midna
Stage: Twilight Throne

*Enemy is giant
*The enemy favors Special attacks
*The enemy's special moves have increased power

I hope there is everything there, but if I missed any thing to put for a valid entry, please tell me ! I'm exited to participate hehe !

 

[BKupa666]

BLEAK:
When you mentioned you were making a DK moveset a week or so ago, I assumed you were going the generic minion route. Which, clearly I would've enjoyed based on my past output, but seeing you had dredged up and modernized Bleak truly was a pleasant surprise. As I alluded to in chat, Bleak has a special place in my heart as the set where I feel my younger self first really understood playstyle as a concept, as opposed to just tossing in random moves and saying the word "combo" a lot. For a character that can't really be faithfully interpreted in anything but a simplistic way (a two-attack boss, as you mention) you definitely deserve credit for squeezing as much mileage out of the core attacks as you did. There's nuance to Hat Trick, with both the varying shooting angles and potential for multiple snow boulders, plus the regular snowball's versatility in setting up 50/50s (which, nitpicking, I wouldn't have minded seeing explained in more depth within the melee).

Then, there's the snowbank, which certainly represents an improvement over being a random F-Smash construct with HP. Rereading the special after you implemented the suggested change of Bleak being able to move through unimpeded (when not knocked bodily into it), it definitely serves as a solid cornerstone. Maybe another interesting option to consider would be the ability for Bleak to cancel some attacks upon impacting the bank (for example, canceling out of a falling aerial early?), beyond just crashing through as a mix-up. I do wish there were more elaboration given as to the bank's value when Bleak isn't standing immediately next to it. The flinching properties of the bank mostly appear to assume Bleak is standing nearby, but theoretically he's also able to corner a foe up against it from a range, using it as more of a trap at the risk of him having nothing to hide behind.

Other miscellaneous items...I like your creative spin in fleshing out Bleak's more standard options, with stuff like shooting himself through his hat in Up Special as a punishing move or carrying foes around in his hat with D-Throw for a targeted launch. The overall interpretation of him as remotely mobile, though the initial foxtrotting was a bit much (as are Ultimate's dumbass "foxtrotting" mechanics period), also lent itself well toward the balance of him being able to get in range for projectiles. Perhaps why I'm more lukewarm on Bleak than I'd like to be is, I don't know that "camp behind barrier with numerous projectiles" lends itself as well to modern Smash as it used to. It's not that it's boring - Ultimate's got that base well covered with "D-Throw to button mashing for 'flashy' aerial combo" toxicity - it's more that Bleak appears to be tailored toward a fundamentally different engine than the current one that, as far as I've seen, limits ranged combat to intermittent mid-ranged zoning (ala Zelda, Duck Hunt, Mega Man) at best. There's some meat beyond that on his more standard moves (the functionality of D-Tilt's clouds and U-Smash's flurries being mini-highlights), I just came away feeling as though the projectiles (Hat Trick in particular) could benefit from being more relevant while Bleak isn't turtled up behind a bank (perhaps in pressing disadvantage at close-ish range with a shot angled to limit a foe's landing options).

I hope that wasn't too long and winding, I definitely came away still liking Bleak, it's just that him being somewhat of a relic of a bygone era both is a blessing and a curse in that regard. Here's hoping he's not your last DK set moving forward.

EXEGGCUTE:
Recognizing Exeggcute's status as an April Fool's Day set, he does have a few neat ideas buried away in there. I like some interactions, like his ability to attach seeds to opponents and then have Melvin light them afire, or have a jab beanstalk show up under an U-Smash solar beam for better connectivity. The hybrid of functional Pikmin and an ammo bank for moves (i.e. having more disposable eggs to toss with F-Smash, making dash attack a safer move on shield) also has its bright spots. That being said, there are a good handful of unstated balance considerations I feel leave pretty big holes among the various moves, while others perhaps aren't balanced as well as would be ideal. You mentioned not really locking down how many eggs Exeggcute is capable of having out at a time, and though no one number jumps to my mind as far as the optimal one here, some restriction on his ability to just double in size at will, healing 8% a pop all the while, is crucial.

Having the seeds just permanently stay stuck on a victim, dealing continuous damage, isn't great, especially given its status as a fast, ranged projectile, and between this, duplication, the seeds' healing Exeggcute after KOs and further buffs from USmash, I struggle to see situations where he's not at or close to 0% if he gets any match momentum whatsoever. I don't see any current limit as far as Exeggcute having to send out duplicate eggs with Up Special, with him seeming to have the ability to just stall in midair without prompting any to leap. I can appreciate the intent as far as restricting the length of time foes can be hypnotized, but even 20 frames near the ledge is sufficient to have a foe dash off the ledge and air dodge downward to self-destruct, with longer timeframes letting the player initiate some move that, even if the foe were to regain control, they couldn't break out of (think Bowser Bomb, or Spinning Kong in the wrong direction) - some sort of balance provision that takes effect for foes in midair would be helpful here, I think. And I don't entirely dislike creating an enemy duplicate with D-Throw on paper, but beyond the unusual input for doing so, all but condemning a foe to take 50% extra damage with one grab landed (with no time limit on the duplicate or alternative ways for removing it beyond death) is an eyebrow-raiser. I think there are the makings of a better set squirreled away in here, and I definitely had a good chuckle at a number of the animations, but my real interest would be seeing the balance become more tightly-spooled on revision.

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Midna

Welcome to MYM Violet! Just saw in the Moveset General thread that you dropped by and talked a bit about yourself; very interesting to hear that you came from posting sets for a more casual audience (and that you're more interested in video game characters!). As dilliam mentioned in the chat, details like knockback and percents would definitely help flesh out her set in MYM. It's great that you've got the stats down and an idea for her playstyle - the next step would be to give a general purpose to her attacks and how they contribute to that glass cannon playstyle. For instance, moves like her shadow ball F-air, rock U-Smash and general range of her hair attacks make her come across as a mid-ranged zoning character. You only posted Midna just recently though, and you mentioned that you have balance in mind and had intentionally omitted move details for your more casual audience. In that sense, it feels like you were testing the waters to get a feel for MYM's movesetting standards. I for one would be really interested in seeing how Midna or your other projects would turn out if you did add some more detail to the attacks!

Also, the art on Midna's Specials is really cool! I admire anyone who makes drawings or images for movesets (theirs or for someone else's) - we used to have an old prolific movesetter named Junahu who did all sorts image movesets for original characters and some existing. It would be really cool to see that on an OC, though I'm not sure whether you'd be up for that. Also, I really like the layout of the Classic Mode! They're some of the most fun extras to include in a moveset, don't think we've had a visual one before (though we like to use other movesets in Classic Modes, given not every moveset is for a video game character). We don't get many stages either or even spirits, it's refreshing to see this kind of stuff done from a more Smash Ultimate point of perspective.

 

[Zero Suit Violet]

Spoiler: Midna

Welcome to MYM Violet! Just saw in the Moveset General thread that you dropped by and talked a bit about yourself; very interesting to hear that you came from posting sets for a more casual audience (and that you're more interested in video game characters!). As dilliam mentioned in the chat, details like knockback and percents would definitely help flesh out her set in MYM. It's great that you've got the stats down and an idea for her playstyle - the next step would be to give a general purpose to her attacks and how they contribute to that glass cannon playstyle. For instance, moves like her shadow ball F-air, rock U-Smash and general range of her hair attacks make her come across as a mid-ranged zoning character. You only posted Midna just recently though, and you mentioned that you have balance in mind and had intentionally omitted move details for your more casual audience. In that sense, it feels like you were testing the waters to get a feel for MYM's movesetting standards. I for one would be really interested in seeing how Midna or your other projects would turn out if you did add some more detail to the attacks!

Also, the art on Midna's Specials is really cool! I admire anyone who makes drawings or images for movesets (theirs or for someone else's) - we used to have an old prolific movesetter named Junahu who did all sorts image movesets for original characters and some existing. It would be really cool to see that on an OC, though I'm not sure whether you'd be up for that. Also, I really like the layout of the Classic Mode! They're some of the most fun extras to include in a moveset, don't think we've had a visual one before (though we like to use other movesets in Classic Modes, given not every moveset is for a video game character). We don't get many stages either or even spirits, it's refreshing to see this kind of stuff done from a more Smash Ultimate point of perspective.

Thank you for the warm welcome !
Hehe I'm glad you took the time to read all of that ! Honestly I didn't even know there was such a massive community behind this thing I used to do casually haha, it's a bit scary TBH to suddenly have to "get serious" about it, and make it for a more professional audience, but I'm sure that given the time, and this helpful Discord and thread, I can manage something ! I'll do my best at the very least hehe

Well, I honestly don't know if I roled her correctly ... I believe that what I wanted to make out of her, could be defined as a Glass Canon, but I'm frankly not entirely sure, my goal while making this moveset, was to make a character that have a lot of powerful tool, that cover a lot of ground, but using them carefully is what is important, since she can administer some nasty punish by getting inside the mind of the opponent, but if it's the reverse that happen, she's gonna be out really quickly, it's something that kinda suit Midna's character as a whole, as you have to get "tricky" while playing her, and use well her kit to not let yourself be surprised, now we'll see how that hold on when I purpose all the moves and add the Knockback/Percentage they deal hehe
I did always have balance in mind, but I made it out of passion, and for people who wouldn't even bother with the stats of the fighter as a whole, prefering to look at the moves, and how they all fit together, which is why I never got to go further than that, but I'm motivated after seing the Discord ! I really want to work on it, and make something nice out of it hehe, it's gonna take some work, but .. I hope to have something good once it's over !


Aw thank you ! I'm glad you like the art for the Down and Neutral Special hehe, I thought it would be a good idea to illustrate each of my moves, and since certain one couldn't really be explained with one in-game image .. I decided to put my talents of artists to the test too while working on that, and came up with this ! Pretty proud of how it came in hehe
Like I mentionned, I was sharing this with a casual audience, one that was also very interested in all the other contents each fighters could bring to Smash, which is why on each of the moveset I did, I worked toward making a Stage, Classic Mode, and Spirit concept too ! I'm glad you liked the theme of the Classic Mode hehe, something that follow the character and her growth through her own game, but put into a new Smashing dimension is what I aimed to do, actually won a Classic Mode contest once with that idea !

Thank you so much for having taken the time to comment on all of this, I'll give my best to rework it now, thank you for inspiring me !

 

[Katapultar]

Thank you for the warm welcome !
Hehe I'm glad you took the time to read all of that ! Honestly I didn't even know there was such a massive community behind this thing I used to do casually haha, it's a bit scary TBH to suddenly have to "get serious" about it, and make it for a more professional audience, but I'm sure that given the time, and this helpful Discord and thread, I can manage something ! I'll do my best at the very least hehe

Heh, no problem. Some sets in this contest are over 20k and can take an hour to read! It's pretty nuts. Comments have been a bit slow because the Top 50 for the last contest hasn't been released yet and some people are still working on their first sets for this contest, but we're all pretty happy to help the hyped. Seems like you're pretty eager for MYM. I don't know if I'd say we're professional, but we do have a very different mindset from the casual audience, like appreciating playground sets and projectile manipulation and stuff that might be a bit too tricky to play as on a Smash set, but ah well.

Well, I honestly don't know if I roled her correctly ... I believe that what I wanted to make out of her, could be defined as a Glass Canon, but I'm frankly not entirely sure, my goal while making this moveset, was to make a character that have a lot of powerful tool, that cover a lot of ground, but using them carefully is what is important, since she can administer some nasty punish by getting inside the mind of the opponent, but if it's the reverse that happen, she's gonna be out really quickly, it's something that kinda suit Midna's character as a whole, as you have to get "tricky" while playing her, and use well her kit to not let yourself be surprised, now we'll see how that hold on when I purpose all the moves and add the Knockback/Percentage they deal hehe
I did always have balance in mind, but I made it out of passion, and for people who wouldn't even bother with the stats of the fighter as a whole, prefering to look at the moves, and how they all fit together, which is why I never got to go further than that, but I'm motivated after seing the Discord ! I really want to work on it, and make something nice out of it hehe, it's gonna take some work, but .. I hope to have something good once it's over !

Very interesting thought process! It'll be neat to see how you go about the added details.

Aw thank you ! I'm glad you like the art for the Down and Neutral Special hehe, I thought it would be a good idea to illustrate each of my moves, and since certain one couldn't really be explained with one in-game image .. I decided to put my talents of artists to the test too while working on that, and came up with this ! Pretty proud of how it came in hehe
Like I mentionned, I was sharing this with a casual audience, one that was also very interested in all the other contents each fighters could bring to Smash, which is why on each of the moveset I did, I worked toward making a Stage, Classic Mode, and Spirit concept too ! I'm glad you liked the theme of the Classic Mode hehe, something that follow the character and her growth through her own game, but put into a new Smashing dimension is what I aimed to do, actually won a Classic Mode contest once with that idea !

Thank you so much for having taken the time to comment on all of this, I'll give my best to rework it now, thank you for inspiring me !

Oh, very interesting, I didn't know there were contests for Classic Modes. It seems that a multitude of people appreciate the fine art that is a Smash Ultimate Classic Mode. Not too many sets get art done for them these days, would be wonderful if you continued to do that. We even got a set last contest for an OC where all the moves had stick figure drawings to accompany them, which made for a visual treat.

You're very welcome on the comment!

Spoiler: Marauder

Marauder is pretty good for your first moveset! It's great that you've got the basic details down, and have a playstyle that attempts to capture the way the Marauder is fought in his game. I also like the attention to usage of your basic attacks. It's great that you're having fun with setmaking, too!

• A jab (Jab 2), let alone a move being able to cancel on block, is generally something that is... not seen often, if at all in MYM! If by cancel you mean Marauder has zero end lag, then that would indeed get him a free grab or possibly N-air due to Jab 2 dealing at least a semblance of shield stun. It's surprisingly not a huge deal to me though; if anything, I think you put in a smart spot on a short-ranged Jab, because as far as I know Jab 1 can't connect into Jab 2 because the latter has worse range and the former doesn't make Marauder step forwards to confirm into the latter. It also helps that his moveset is pretty slow, so I can't imagine him getting any crazy follow-ups.
• Smashes typically deal 1-1.4x when uncharged/fully charged. His F-Smash, for instance, would deal around 36% at full charge under those normal rules. I personally have no problem with Smashes having whack damage multipliers (even having, no or negative damage multipliers!), just thought I should throw this out for you.
• If U-Smash is aimed on a 45 degree angle, doesn't that mean it would hit diagonally above Marauder, and thus wouldn't hit a shielding opponent except on Battlefield? I do like the idea of a diagonally-ranged hitbox with a powerful, but hard-to-hit tipper, though!
• N-air reminds me of Ganondorf's N-air, which is a great edgeguarding tool; Maruder's would probably do a better job at it with its disjointed hitbox.
• I wonder if his grabs and throws could have more of a brutal touch to their animations, as I believe the Doom series is very violent? D-throw has a brutal throwing animation though.

Marauder's melee game is serviceable, but there is one big way you enhance the set: Specials. These are the core of any good set and are typically referenced by the rest of the moveset to integrate them into the gameplan. For instance, Marauder could use the high shield stun on his F-tilt to lock an axe'd foe into shield stun to take what is presumably high shield damage from the axe blast, potentially breaking their shield so you can finish them off with an F-Smash. Or you could use U-Smash to intercept foes who jumped over your Neutral Special wolf. I'm not quite sure how his Side Special and Shield Special (only really because of its starting lag seems to make it a bit ineffective) work into his gameplan though.

Neutral Special is a pretty cool and basic summon move, and does work well enough with Marauder being able to punish foes' various reactions with his long-ranged moves or use the time to set up a projectile. It does seem a tad powerful for how fast it can move and only being destroyed when taking 10% though, as it could easily chase a falling opponent and they would have to probably use an aerial to beat it and possibly risk getting punished by Marauder himself. Perhaps you could make it so the wolf can get stunned by weaker moves, and even make it deal significantly weakened shield damage - Marauder has some good options against shields anyway.

It's good that you gave the wolf a cooldown though - that being said, I'm not entirely sure if Marauder has any one big move that can punish greedy opponents as you say he can! Maybe shield bash could just be his go-to counter move and get-off-me against reckless approaches, like say the opponent wanted to close in and hit him while he was going through his wolf cooldown. You could even give the shield bash trample priority - that's when a hitbox beats out other hitboxes, it would make perfect sense for a shield as Palutena has the property on her shield-using moves like Dash Attack and B-air in Ultimate. Instead, shield bash could just have some end lag or is ironically bad against shields, but if the foe threw up their shield expecting shield bash you could just use Jab 2 or a smash attack instead.

Marauder definitely shows promise, plus you've been in the chat for quite a while and have some of the fundamentals down. It's especially promising to hear of Herbert West being considered more ambitious by you and inspired by SkekSil from last contest. As an interested party of general horror movies and Terrordrome, I am massively looking forward to the creation of that set! Hopefully this comment gave you some tips you could use for that set, so that Herbert West can be the best he can be.

NOTE: Lucky Louise has not been posted at the time of writing this comment; her Dash Attack, F-air, U-air and B-air had yet to be filled in. She was only available to read through a link in the MYM Discord.

Spoiler: Lucky Louise

Going by the foxy troll that was Fenn last contest, I am straight up going to assume that Louise is cleverly-disguised OC, because typing up “Fortune’s Favor! GBA” on Google or Youtube bring up nothing. That means everything about her is invented, which is nothing short of… amazing. You practically invented an imaginary game with such detail like you’re referencing a real game. This is exactly what I’d love to see in a Marin remix, but I didn’t expect you to do it for an OC from nowhere! This is arguably one of most fleshed-out “first time OC worlds” in all of MYM, that being she didn’t have anything to work off of unlike say your Witches, plus it feels very original. That alone is massively praiseworthy, to say nothing of the raw work put into the rest of the set.

It also helps that unlike the Witches, Louise actually had an image made for her. Amazing work Zoey!

I actually like the new style of presentation here, reminds me of Jodie from MYM15 (which is a good thing!). It’s good to try new things in MYM. It definitely paid off here for this very long set, making it much easier to discern the animations and interactions and playstyle applications compared to if you had written it in the same way as your sets from last contest. It might hurt the melee attacks a bit, but then again the animations on this set are a lot more elaborate than the norm of your sets.

Starting on the Side Special, I appreciate that you went into the finer details on what could be passed off as an otherwise basic movement Special. This is a REALLY cool move, the hop alone is a great take on movement along with translating dice-based movement perfectly. But then it gets more amazing with the base concept of being able to hop off of your concepts to use a rigged die multiple times in a row; a brilliant way to execute a “one-time buff” concept. It is extremely nice to see the old and very unusual dice concept to get revived in a modern set, it has so much potential even beyond what Louise does with it.

In addition to being your longest set, I would say that Louise has your best characterisation and animations! (which is saying something) Being a jerk certainly helps. I especially enjoyed the safe U-Smash opening up to show off a whole room, and overall Louise having a big “cartoony” feel that you don’t get in anime sets (of course) or anything really since those old MYM11 Looney Tunes and Duck Twacey sets, of which are practically defunct since David isn’t around anymore. There are lots of animation gems in this set, like her F-throw for instance, and the “Kick Me” sign in B-throw, and her Jab among other moves. Rapid Jab is a cool use of the die mechanic, by the way.

This set humorously doesn’t have as many projectiles as you’d expect for despite introducing a ricochet mechanic at the start of the set. You have F-tilt and D-tilt at the moment, as well as sack which is a great inclusion to make use of your constructs while still having to be careful of limitations. If you wanted an extra projectile, you could do this: put current Neutral Special (but you can still tamper with moves via dice by pressing B while using them) on the Shield Special and make a Neutral Special that fires a projectile you can use from the air as well.

Not sure what kind of projectile it could be, there’s already a fair variant in what you can do with your constructs and projectiles, but you could have a fair amount of fun with the dice mechanic. There could even be a charge-and-store projectile that could store a rigged dice, not letting you rig another result until the projectile is fired, but wanting constructs out to make sure you get the most out of the projectile, but it might be a bit too much for how much the set is already packing.

You mentioned Louise as being an experimental set, and it definitely shows. You have several constructs, projectile manipulation and a Side Special and dice mechanics that would favour a more melee-orientated set, having a fair amount of concepts to juggle. Despite this, I do think you did a pretty great job balancing it all! Rigged dice halving your starting lag works well with Louise having slower inputs, and she can’t just spam Neutral Special over to get it as she essentially has to wait every 3 moves, as far as I know. And the typically slower tilts do help to balance out Side Special’s cancel options being pretty potent.

If anything, the packing of all these concepts and constructs and playground/manipulation moves does take away from the focus on certain moves. For instance, Up Special being a tower that punishes you for standing on it when it breaks is a cool concept, would have been amazing if there were (more) moves that exploited that, but it can’t be helped for the approach Louise took. I apologise that there’s not much else I could point out for how to improve Louise, but it might come later.

Louise might not be finished, but for what you've done I think she's a great set! (plus the ideas you had for the 4 remaining inputs were promising) The work put into this set is pretty astonishing, to say nothing of the brilliant characterisation, I would hope that this set gets the respect it deserves for the time you spent on it. For now she is on the level Hauskee and Naomi were for me last contest (which is pretty good!), but I would be very interested in seeing what other people think and whether Louise would get any edits throughout the contest. Excellent work on this one US! Between Louise being more experimental and Bleak more simplistic, it would be incredible to see you at your peak.

 

[GolisoPower]

"Uhhh...do we have to fight? 'Cause I'd rather not."

Reimu Hakurei is the main protagonist of the Touhou series who has appeared in almost every entry in the franchise. A Miko (shrine maiden) worshipping an unknown deity, Reimu maintains the barrier of the mystical land of yokai, Gensokyo. She is a girl of many characterizations, but one thing's for certain: when there's an incident in Gensokyo, there's no doubt that she'll go to resolve it. She may be a mere human amongst a mass horde of yokai, but don't think she won't kick your butt. With Galeem and Dharkon threatening Gensokyo, Reimu ventures into the realm of Smash to resolve this new incident...

Spoiler: Attributes

Size: Young Link
Weight: 90 (Marth)
Walk: 1.241 (Normal), .607 (Focus)
Run: 2.211 (Initial) (Meta Knight), 2.228 (Run) (Greninja), 1.106 (Initial Focus), 1.114 (Run Focus)
Jump Height: 37.28 (Full Hop), 17.43 (Short Hop) (Pichu)
Air Dodge: 2-26 (Fresh) (Sheik), 42 (Total) (Greninja)
Air Acceleration: 0.06 (Young Link)
Air Speed: 1.281 (Wolf), .64 (Focused)
Air Friction: 0.012 (Mr. Game and Watch)
Fast Fall: 2.16 (Squirtle)
Falling Speed: 1.29 (Yoshi)
Spot Dodge: Toon Link
Dodge Roll: 4-14 (Fresh), 8-14 (Stale)
Traction: 0.131 (Isabelle)
Crawl: No
Wall Cling: No
Wall Jump: No

Spoiler: Specials

Her Neutral Special is called, "Hakurei Amulet". Reimu will summon a square amulet no bigger than a fully-charged Charge Beam, in addition to 4 amulets no smaller than K. Rool's Crown surrounding the larger one, and fire them all in an even spread. They all travel as fast as Bowser Jr.'s fully-charged Cannonball, and the total spread across all 5 projectiles is 110 degrees. This is great for limiting where the opponent can traverse and can be rigidly aimed 30 degrees upward or downward. This can also be used in the air, further enhancing its usefulness. Reimu, however, cannot fire another spread until the current amulets disappear. The best use you'll get out of Hakurei Amulet is forcing risk: the even spread of these amulets means even more evasive characters like Sonic and Jigglypuff will have to play with this attack to get close, and with the 44-degree difference between the four at close range, and the larger one in the center having the largest hitbox, they're gonna have a hard time ahead of them.
Damage: 15.5% (Large Amulet), 7% (Small Amulet)
Range: Final Destination x.625 or until hit. (Individually)
Knockback at 0%: 1.45 Bowsers (Large Amulet), .45 Bowsers (Small Amulet)
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 3, but propels at Frame 26. Takes 30 frames to recover.

Her Side Special is called, "Yin-Yang Orb". At an upwards 50-degree angle, Reimu will throw a small yin-yang the size of King K. Rool's Kannonball that is fairly mediocre as a damage option or a kill move but shares the same screen bound properties as Meloetta's Relic Song. Additionally, while it does bounce off the terrain and the edges of the screen, this will disappear the moment a Fighter is hit. This is also very quick, making it a nightmare if used in tandem with Hakurei Amulet. The best use of this move is combo extension, as even if you miss your opponent with it, you can still knock them into the orb. If used in the air, this will instead fire at a downwards 50-degree angle. Reimu cannot fire another Yin-Yang Orb until the first one disappears, which it will after 6 seconds without hitting a fighter.
Damage: 9.8%
Knockback at 0%: .5 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 12, takes 30 frames to recover.

Her Up Special is called, "Floating Wall Jump". Reimu will create a barrier beneath her feet, then jump off it at an 85-degree angle at the speed of a Dolphin Slash. This has some good distance, propelling herself 3 Bowsers, but by pressing B again, Reimu can dive-kick downwards at the same angle. This is also really good when it comes to mind games, as Reimu can perform this move in reverse. By tilting the joystick downwards the moment the barrier is formed, Reimu will instead propel herself at a downwards 85-degree angle and the dive-kick becomes a rising kick at the same angle. While the inverse is risky, this can be very rewarding if you land. The move puts you into helplessness after the kick, so be careful. The mindgames used often in this Up-B is unlike any, as its reverse variant follow-up can help recovery not long after taking a stock. You wouldn't want to use this as a combo starter, but rather as a combo ender from moves like D-tilt, U-throw and Down Smash.
Damage: 13.3% (Ascent), 11.6% (Dive-Kick), 14.5% (Descent), 12.4% (Rising Kick)
Knockback at 0%: 1.3 Bowsers (Ascent), 2.5 Bowsers (Dive-Kick), Meteor Smash (Descent), 1.8 Bowsers (Rising Kick)
Frame Data: Has a 27-frame startup (Ascent and Descent), kick attacks have a 10-frame startup (Dive-kick and rising kick), takes 13 frames to recover.

Her Down Special is called, "Dimensional Rift". Reimu will vanish into thin air upon activation and will have one of two different outcomes based on how long you press the button. Tapping B will have Reimu perform a sliding kick that hits 3 times and propels her 2 Bowsers ahead. Hold B, and she'll instead perform a head-stomp on the closest opponent within 2 Bowsers. If performed in the air, she will only perform the head-stomp. The sliding kick is a very good combo starter and covers some good distance from the point of activation. The head-stomp, upon landing a hit, can propel Reimu 1.5 Bowsers high but doesn't meteor smash. Dimensional Rift is good for either combo starting with the sliding kick and follow up with moves like Side Smash or grab, or killing with the head-stomp.
Damage: 4.2% (Sliding Kick, individual hits), 17% (Head-Stomp)
Knockback at 0%: .3 Bowsers (Sliding Kick), 1.4 Bowsers (Head-Stomp)
Frame Data: Has a 6-frame startup (Disappearance), comes out on Frame 18 (Attack Output), and takes 9 frames to recover.

Her Shield Special is called, "Focus Mode". By holding the Shield button and tapping B afterward, you'll instead reduce the size of her hurtbox and visualize it as a yellow orb the size of Hero's Frizz positioned at her upper body, and halving her movement speed altogether, putting her in a state called Focus. The rest of her body will automatically Perfect Shield any attacks that don't hit that yellow orb, simulating a mainstay mechanic in the Touhou series, Grazing. But don't get too cocky with this gimmick: if this orb is hit even once, all damage she takes from that single hit will be flat-out amplified by 1.5x compared to other characters, and be caught in a Focus Break state. This affects damage-amplifying mechanics such as Ink, vampiric attacks like Wario's Chomp and Robin's Nosferatu, and the damage-over-time effects of Joker's Eiha/Eigaon. This only affects damage, not effects such as bury, freeze, and stun. To put it simply: this is Bowser Jr.'s hurtboxes but much more polarized. This stance lasts until the Shield Button is released.

Her Final Smash is called, "FANTASY SEAL". With the power of the Smash Ball, Reimu will fire a massive barrage of 30 multi-colored energy balls in front of her that tightly track the position of opponents. The first 29 orbs deal 2% damage on hit and the final orb will deal 6% damage and knockback to kill at 95% damage. This Final Smash is absolutely devastating, and the fact that all orbs autotarget opponents makes this a Final Smash on par with Zelda's Triforce Seal Final Smash.

Spoiler: Ground Attacks (Tilts, Grabs and Smashes)

Jab: Reimu will slap the opponent twice before kicking them away. This has very little range, reaching out only by a Purple Pikmin, but this is a fast jab as well and deals some decent damage to boot. For her rapid jab, Reimu will fire a barrage of needles at her opponent before striking the opponent with her gohei. Jab doesn't really have any practical value, neither as a combo starter or ender, but rapid jab is great for building up some good damage for killing with another move much later with many other moves listed below.
Damage: Hit 1: 2.2%, Hit 2: 2.2%, Hit 3: 2.9%, Rapid Jab: .2% per hit, Rapid Finisher: 2.6%
Knockback at 0%: Hit 3: .85 Bowsers, Rapid Finisher: 1.15 Bowsers
Frame Data: Hit 1 comes out in 3 Frames, Hit 2 comes out in 3 Frames, Hit 3 comes out in 5 Frames. Rapid Jab comes out at 4 frames and hits every 2 frames, and Rapid Finisher comes out in 7 Frames.

F-tilt: Reimu will lunge with her gohei, poking from a distance. This has some good range, comparable to the Belmonts' F-tilt, and comes out fairly quickly as well, however it doesn't deal much damage and the tip of the move is a sour spot on the paper strands. The paper strands can cause the opponent to flinch, meaning you can follow up with moves with great range like Side Smash and Grab. The gohei itself, however, is mediocre, only ever being useful for following up with short-hop F-air.
Damage: 9.5% (Gohei), 4.2% (Paper strands)
Range: 1 Bowser
Knockback at 0%: 1.3 Bowsers (Gohei), Flinch (Paper strands)
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 9. Takes 7 frames to recover.

U-tilt: Reimu will jump upwards with both feet outstretched directly above her. This has some good range, reaching 1 Ike above her from her scalp, and it is recommended that this be used as a kill move. While not as good a combo starter as D-tilt, this is still very much a useful attack and would require flying to effectively use her aerial attacks. U-tilt, however, isn't very good outside of mid-flight aerials, and won't find much use otherwise. Though, you can use this to knock them closer to Yin Yang Orb. That does require some precise timing and foresight.
Damage: 7.5%
Knockback at 0%: 1.75 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 8. Takes 6 frames to recover.

D-tilt: Reimu twirls her gohei in front of her, much like Palutena's D-tilt. This, however, sacrifices damage for quickness and hits 5 times in total. This has some nice range as well and is often used as a combo starter. Following this up with Up Smash upon hit is a good BnB combo, second only to another, which will be listed below. D-tilt will be your best friend in this entire moveset, because as long as you land the final hit, D-tilt can be followed up with practically any upwards attack in the set.
Damage: 9.4% total
Knockback at 0%: Flinch (4 hits), 1.45 Bowsers (Final hit)
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 5, hits every frame, takes 7 frames to recover.

Dash attack: Reimu lunges forwards with a single palm strike. This deals very little damage, but the hitstun is enough to make it good for starting combos, and this reaches out fairly well as well, going about 2 Purple Pikmin away. There's a metric ton of attacks you can follow up with, the potential of this attack is absolutely insane. However, if we're using specifics, Dash attack -> Hakurei Amulet -> Up Smash is a very good combo for whittling the opponent down.
Damage: 7%
Knockback at 0%: Hitstun for 7 frames
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 9, takes 12 frames to recover. -12 on Shield.

Grab: Reimu will hold the opponent in place with a giant amulet at their feet. This comes out on Frame 7. For her pummel, she smacks them over the head with her gohei. This is fast, coming out on Frame 1 and lasts for 19 frames before she can pummel again. The pummel deals 1.1% damage per hit.

F-throw: Reimu will reel back her palms and thrust them in front of her, knocking her opponent back and dealing some immense damage on hit. You would often want to use this near the ledge, as this gives you an opportunity to shoot downwards with Hakurei Amulet and aerial Yin Yang Orb, potentially forcing them to expend their air-dodge. Other times, you'll want to use F-air, mid-flight or no, after landing this.
Damage: 9%
Knockback at 0%: 2 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 25

D-throw: Reimu will jump upwards and swing her gohei down on their head in a more forceful manner. This isn't good for killing, but it's great for combos. Attacks like Hakurei Amulet and Up Smash are good enough to follow up with as is, but the best option you'll want is U-tilt. D-throw -> U-tilt is your BnB combo for Reimu, as you can use this without having to engage her Flight gimmick, but you can use this even at later percentages with the gimmick active, but at the risk of going helpless if you fly too far.
Damage: 8%
Knockback at 0%: 0.85 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 21

B-throw: Reimu flies behind the opponent and throws a barrage of Hanafuda cards at her opponent. This is good for racking up damage and is a great combo starter. Use this after reverse Up-B and you can truly trap them in your clutches for this. Hakurei Amulet is a good way to make an attempt to snipe the opponent from afar, but if you really wanna risk it, run up to them and use F-tilt to keep up the momentum.
Damage: 10% total
Knockback at 0%: 1.4 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 24

U-throw: Reimu channels power into the amulet, creating a rising pillar of energy that propels the opponent upwards. This is a great combo ender and it's recommended you use this as a kill move. Using attacks like Yin-Yang Orb in tandem with Dimensional Rift's sliding kick will lead to the opponent's absolute demise at near-100% damage levels, but overall, you'll want to hold off on this until then. Using this after sour-spot F-tilt can lead to great things at later percentages as well.
Damage: 6.5%
Knockback at 0%: 2.6 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 18

Side Smash: Reimu pulls both her palms back, then lunges forwards with them, covering ground much like, and as much as, Terry's Side Smash. This is great for killing opponents on hit, and its damage output makes it amazing for building up damage. Side Smash is exceptional for ending a combo, as oftentimes, using Throws can be good at following up to this. Dimensional Rift's sliding kick can also be followed up with this.
Damage: 17%
Knockback at 0%: 2.55 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 17

Up Smash: Reimu raises her hand while charging power before slamming it down and creating a rising pillar of amulets that hits 4 times and reaches very high upwards. The reach of this Up Smash is second only to Palutena's, and this even hits both sides of Reimu. This is very good for catching characters who are too busy evading your Yin Yang Orb and Hakurei Amulets, and with how good this Smash attack is when it comes to damage and KO potential, this will certainly be your go-to for punishment.
Damage: 21% total
Knockback at 0%: 2.25 Bowsers (Final Hit)
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 23

Down Smash: Reimu channels her power before she summons a traveling amulet along the ground in front of her. This reaches about as far as Simon's whip and hits opponents .5 Pichus from the ground. This is very good for punishing any opponent that has attacks that force them to plummet downwards. If you manage to hit somebody with D-air or plummeting Up-B, you can follow up with this attack if they dodge away from you, but you're screwed in that regard if they dodge towards you, or even cross you up.
Damage: 16%
Knockback at 0%: 2.35 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out at Frame 21

Spoiler: Aerial Attacks

N-air: Reimu pokes her gohei downwards at a 25-degree angle, the end adorned with an amulet. This is a downwards-aiming N-air much like Ryu, Ken, and Terry, but the amulet is a sweet-spot. Landing the sweet spot is good for kill potential at later percentages, as when you use D-tilt in conjunction with this at the ledge, you can put them dangerously close to the blast line, using either anything that meteor smashes, or continue your forward charge with moves like F-air or Floating Wall Jump.
Damage: 8% (Gohei), 11% damage (Amulet)
Knockback at 0%: .7 Bowsers (Gohei), 1.25 Bowsers (Amulet)
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 7. 6 Frames of landing lag.

F-air: Reimu flies forwards with a kick. This covers 1.5 Bowsers and is great for closing in on the opponent. This is comparable to Ken's B-throw, as the propulsion can put you into an even better position if you manage to hit. If you manage to hit while flying, you can follow this up with U-air or use Up Smash the moment you hit the ground to cause even more trouble for your opponent.
Damage: 12.4% damage (Initial), 9.8% damage (Moving)
Knockback at 0%: 1.4 Bowsers (Initial), 1 Bowser (Moving)
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 11. 8 Frames of landing lag.

U-air: Reimu swings a flame-coated kick above herself, dealing fire damage to any opponent hit. This is a powerful attack that is good for killing. You'll want to be in flight for this one, as anything in your airspace is at risk of being hit by this. As mentioned before, following D-throw up with this is your go-to BnB combo, but if your opponent gets struck by Yin Yang Orb beforehand, U-air can be a good means of blowing them away. Another good attack you'll want to use with this is Down-Smash, as anyone caught within its range are easy pickings for this move.
Damage: 15% damage
Knockback at 0%: 2.1 Bowsers
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 13. 7 Frames of landing lag.

B-air: Reimu whirls the gohei behind her. Much like F-tilt, there is a sour spot on the paper frills at the end of the attack. Unlike F-tilt, B-air does not flinch with the paper strands, meaning its combo potential is much more limited. But to compensate, the gohei is good for kill potential, especially with its nice 1.2-Bowser range. Neither hitboxes make this move very good at early percentages, so you're only better off with most everything else in her kit before using this.
Damage: 10% (Gohei), 5% (Paper)
Knockback at 0%: 1.25 Bowsers (Gohei), .5 Bowsers (Paper)
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 9. 6 Frames of landing lag.

D-air: Reimu releases a powerful palm strike beneath her that can meteor smash on hit, but has a windbox surrounding the actual palm. This can be good for gimping if you just barely whiff. D-air can also be a good followup for the upwards Floating Wall Jump if you don't use the follow-up for that Special, but it requires tight execution if you land the Special.
Damage: 11%
Knockback at 0%: Meteor Smash
Frame Data: Comes out on Frame 18. 11 Frames of landing lag.

Spoiler: Gimmicks

Reimu's only gimmick entirely replaces her second jump altogether. Upon attempting a second jump, Reimu will instead enter a flight stance that lasts 8 seconds and has omnidirectional control throughout the stance. While flying, Reimu can only use her aerial attacks and Specials and can fly as fast as she runs on the ground. The moment her flight runs out, or when Reimu flies two Bowsers from the point of activation, she will get out of this stance and go into a freefall state, and cannot access this mechanic until she lands. She can use Focus while in this state, too. While focusing, Reimu's central hurtbox is visible, and her flight speed is reduced to her walk speed. Her Grab while flying is also replaced by an attack where she can fire a barrage of needles that behave like Fox's Blaster and deal .6% non-flinching damage. These needles also autotarget the closest opponent upon activation and constantly track their position. These needles are fired 8 times per second, but because they deal non-flinching damage, they won't save Reimu from being knocked out of the air. Keep in mind that Focus only activates when Reimu hasn't activated her flying.

Spoiler: Animations and Flavours

Intro: Reimu flies in from the top of the screen and lands on her feet, ready for battle.

Idle Stance: Reimu stands towards her opponent, her gohei planted into the ground.

Idle Animation #1: Reimu absentmindedly fiddles with the paper frills on her gohei.

Idle Animation #2: Reimu stretches lazily for a bit.

Taunt #1: Reimu twirls a yin-yang orb and throws it upwards for a bit before putting it away.

Taunt #2: Reimu brandishes a random Spell Card in her hand for a bit.

Taunt #3: Reimu kneels down and takes a nice long sip of tea before getting back up.

Victory Theme: A few bars from the Touhou 6 theme, "Scarlet Beyond a Crimson Dream".

Victory Animation #1: Reimu flies through the air and takes out a horde of fairies before striking her pose from Urban Legend in Limbo

Victory Animation #2: Reimu lands next to a donation box, opens it up for a bit to peek, then sighs in disappointment.

Victory Animation #3: Reimu stretches for a bit before lying down, pulling covers over herself and falling asleep.

Lose Animation: Reimu is leaning on her gohei for support while applauding her opponent.

Colors:

1. Default
2. Blonde hair, black-on-white clothes (Marisa)
3. Icy blue hair, blue-on-white clothes (Cirno)
4. Lavender hair, light pink clothes (Patchouli)
5. Grey hair, midnight blue-on-white clothes (Sakuya)
6. Blonde hair, bright purple-on-pink clothes (Yukari)
7. Cheddar-colored hair, white-on-purple clothes (Suika)
8. Default colors, bright purple hair (PC-98 Reimu)

Spoiler: Final Overview

In short, Reimu is a tricky and technical pixie character with exceptional evasion in the face of overwhelming offense. Her mobility, in addition to her unique hurtboxes and ability to fly, make her the hardest character to hit, and the functions of her attacks open her up to the most creative combo paths ever, in addition to having some good range thanks to her gohei. However, she is rather frail, having a hurtbox that amplifies damage, and she doesn't really have much in terms of defense, making her more of a glass cannon than Pichu. Additionally, her most unique method of mobility, her flying, doesn't last forever and can put her in a bad situation when it runs out. The trick with Reimu is to start with the Yin-Yang Orb, leaving the opponent occupied while you close in and attack with everything you have. Just like in Touhou, evasion is key, and if you're aware of your surroundings and if you can manage to hold out long enough, closing in for the kill is its own reward.

Spoiler: Patch Notes

1.0.0:
- Implemented Reimu.

1.1.0:

• Added synergy descriptions between moves to the best of my ability.
• Adjusted hurtbox size and damage amplification.
• Removed knockback amplification.

1.2.0:
- Reworked Reimu's hurtbox mechanic.

1.2.1:

• Increased the frame data of Side Special and Neutral Special.
• Repurposed Focus Mode into Shield Special.

 

[Chase]

Game Over! Return of Ganon!

The bestial King of Evil and holder of the Triforce of Power has joined the battle!

EDIT: Now with Final Smash, taunts, and victory animations!

 

[UserShadow7989]

Well, Easter is close enough to April Fools, and still vaguely appropriate for this obscure character: put your hands together for the host and current champion of Fortune's Favored: "Lucky" Louise! Who's feeling lucky?!

Note: Still working on the extras as of posting, but the set itself is done.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Lucky Louise
This is definitely your most ambitious set ever, and I only was able to finish this 30k word monstrosity as early as I did because I had already read the vast majority of the set. While for what its worth this set is VERY dense and I would not call it an easy read, what it does succeed at being is consistently entertaining, which softens the blow the massive word count would normally deal. The concepts on display here are quite strong, with the set actually handling RNG in a very respectable way by basically making it so you know what random results you have to deal with, letting you rig the result for some lag, and making it so die results don't have drastic, make or break effects. It feels like while, yes, Louise will occasionally have a chance to get lucky, how effective her set is will almost entirely be determined by how the player uses what they're given, and honestly I'd imagine it sometimes would force a player's hand on creating a slightly different setup than normal, giving her some added depth and gameplay variety. Of course, well-handled RNG is all and good, but I wouldn't be singing this set's praises if that's all it had.

Rather, Louise's primary focus is taking what Kritter did last contest of trying to make an old school MYM setup set work in the modern day, and handles it in both a way better designed fashion and with vastly more depth. The constructs basically being used to get massive mileage out of your projectiles via very particular redirection patterns is cool, a favorite of mine being what happens when a chip tower deconstructs into a ton of smaller constructs that can sometimes also be projectiles, creating some situationally VERY powerful carnage. Of course, Louise's price for that is that her melee is heavily flawed... but flawed doesn't mean badly designed. On the contrary, it gives a good balancing factor to her ability to pile up downright absurd damage with the right setup... and importantly, the set does have a pretty big bridge between the two. That would be Side Special, which basically lets Louise do what her projectiles are doing and bounce off her entire setup to send herself flying right at the foe from all manner of different angles, able to cancel into several different attacks. It gives her a very chaotic, fun playstyle with her constructs around. What's kind of nice about her setup is it doesn't fall into the old MYM trap of "snowball forever and win", instead its carefully setting up your rube goldberg and getting brief outbursts of raw destruction that she needs to harness carefully. Honestly the more that I look at this set, the more I see how measured your approach to it was, and its great stuff.

I have few complaints, and the first one is something I'm not totally sure you SHOULD address. While I thought Side Special was genius, I was actually a little underwhelmed in the end by the amount of mileage you got out of it, as I never really had a big "oh wow that's cool" moment when reading how the Side B cancels would play out later in the set. I still think its handled solidly and given the set's already massive size and well handled structure, I dunno where making a big thing out of the potential of Louise's Side B cancels would actually fit. The set's also honestly a bit too chaotic for its own good, with projectiles flying every which way, random numbers forcing her to change her gameplan on the fly, and Louise's own frantic mobility. I imagine it'd be a bit of a headache to play but I basically never dock points for that in MYM sets, for what its worth. No I find where I run into problems with that is I feel like I may not actually be getting the full picture of what her projectile/construct setups are capable of at times, because I feel not only am I lost on so many variables, the writing itself seems to be at times too. This is why I was kinda tossing around if I really prefer it to Rime/Naomi as your best, because I find it easier to see exactly what those sets are capable of compared to Louise. I don't think its even the amount of complexity, necessarily, just that there isn't much of a "focus funnel" all of her crazy stuff is aimed at.

What convinces me the set is your best ever despite of what I said about the chaos(aside from, you know, actually commenting it and realizing how deliberate a lot of the set's construction is) is the characterization. The amount of detail that went into making this fake game, the personality on display being quite malicious but in a very cartoonish manner, and just so many little details that flesh out the character in a way I don't think one of your sets has done before, its incredibly impressive. Given her basis is in a "Mario Party"-esque game too, it makes sense for her playstyle to be this chaotic, with the underlying core strategic elements of Fortune's Favor being what she needs to tap into to actually win. She's meant to be a combination of lucky and incredibly skilled, after all, so sometimes you win by winning the lottery(and using it right) and sometimes you win with your massive intellect. I at one point heard that one of the struggles with OC sets is they can feel a little too abstract in delving into whatever arcane source they're currently working with, and Louise does a great job of giving very clear and lovingly detailed animation work. This is basically you at your best and a fantastic way to capitalize on your desire to see older concepts brought to the limelight. A+ stuff here.

 

[Kholdstare]

Marauder by dilliam ​

Marauder is dilliam's first moveset, one I was looking forward to taking a gander at. Doom is a much-loved franchise and this new game is the best in the series. Among the marquee enemies of the game are the Marauders so it's great that they got a set. Setwise, you have what you'd expect here. You have plenty of axe swings, brutal body slams and even some use of the shotgun. You evenly disperse the ways the Marauder deals with his enemies throughout the set rather than just leaning on one combat style. The specials and normals are distinct from each other in visuals which is a good sign as well.

Marauder is very grounded in a Smash playstyle and feels like a contender for a good "Fighter Pass" type of character for the existing Smash roster, although I feel like Marauder doesn't do anything more distinct than what's already going on in Smash as it's a missed opportunity. The two moves that help your case in this regard the most are Shield Bash and Axe Throw which are just distinct enough from the rest of the cast to justify an inclusion on a Fighter Pass. The rest of the time I couldn't help but feel like I was retreading another Fire Emblem character.

The moves are brief which is a plus to readability but a negative to fleshing out Marauder's playstyle. There were so many times where I was yearning for the author to explain what moves best compliment each other and what situations this best calls for beyond a simple "this is a good approach option" or "this is an amazing pressure tool". Jab and Forward Tilt are the kind of moves I wish the rest of the set could imitate. Your writing style while easy to read lacks your entertaining personality and I'm not seeing your enthusiasm for the character here like I saw in chat.

Better descriptions of the attacks would work better beyond move interaction details. I'm looking for enticing visualizations and semblance of character. Marauder is a character I feel like you could fill in much more and have some fun with. Describe sound and sight for me beyond the sparse and necessary description of what kind of attack it is. Hell Hound for instance you don't actually describe what the wolf looks like. Images or video reference links would go a long way in helping this.

Other than that, I don't really have any other complaints. The set seems fairly balanced with nothing sticking out and he does fit the playstyle you mentioned in the stats. I like that you included extras (but no Final Smash?) and I'm happy you started working on sets. I'll keep an eye on Marauder for the future to see how it develops.

 

[Almand]

COOKING MAMA DOESN'T QUITE UNDERSTAND WHAT BEING A SMASH BROS. CHARACTER ENTAILS!
(You'll get it later)

Ironically a pretty timely submission, thanks to Cookstar... I promise this entry doesn't mine bitcoin from your device.

Click here to see the moveset!​

 

[IvanQuote]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG​

​

It’s the blue blur you all know and love. For his 15th Anniversary, his adventures in trying to stop the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik bring him to the water-borne Kingdom of Soleanna. In this time, he does many things including run, jump, save the princess, die, and time travel. In commemoration of this prestigious game, the set will be based on Sonic’s outing in this game.

Statistics:​

Size: Sonic
Weight: Sonic
Wall Speed: Sonic
Run Speed: Pikachu
Jump: Sonic
Air Speed: Sonic
Fall Speed: Sonic
Traction: Perfect

Sonic has very similar traits to Sonic. He can even wall jump like Sonic. There are a couple things to note however. He can also Wall Cling similar to how he can jump off of walls in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Also when I say Sonic has perfect traction, I mean if he turns around he will immediately shift to moving in the other direction at the exact same speed with no acceleration between the two. On this note, he doesn’t accelerate. He immediately attains full running speed just like that. Also one tiny difference to note is that he can run off ledges and follow the stage. What I mean is that if you run off of the ledge, he will immediately start running down the wall and on the underside of the stage. Do keep in mind that Sonic will not be able to change direction when on a wall or ceiling or else he will fall off. He needs to keep moving.

Specials:​

Neutral B: Gems Collection

Making use of the colorful Gem Shoes he can buy throughout the game, Sonic gains access to 7 different strange and wonderful powers. Similar to Shulk’s Monado, this appears in a scroll wheel in the following order: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Cyan, Purple. They are locked to the respective directions: Up, Up-Right, Right, Down-Right, Down-Left, Left, Up-Left. Inputting Down will cancel an effect. Also the move has a “soft-memory” system so to speak, where it will stay on the given gem color until you choose a new one. You may notice a gauge on Sonic’s HUD. This is the action gauge. This shows you how long you can use each gem power and is the limit for their awesome might. It starts full at the beginning of the match. Each Gem Power will go over how much it drains from the meter.

Red Gem: Slow

The red gem is very simple in concept. Upon holding down the button, time for all entities apart from Sonic will slow down to 0.9x the original speed. This includes the clock too. While the difference is marginal, it can be very useful messing up the opponent’s flow and making it that much easier to dodge around some tricky attacks. If you think this is too marginal to be useful, remember the 0.9x Knockback Ratio controversy a few years back. The main issue with this move is that unlike the other gem powers, it lasts as long as you hold the B Button. This both twists your hands into a pretzel and locks you out of using the rest of your special moves until you land, so be very careful around using this.

Blue Gem: Mach Speed

The new face of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, Sonic taps into his Mach Speed Potential for this move. When you tap the button, Sonic will instantly dash forward at 4 times his Dash Speed. After moving a distance of 3/5 FD, he will decelerate back to his normal running speed. You can always extend the dash by continually tapping the B Button however. I should note that you cannot slow down or turn around in the middle of a dash; you are locked into it. You can cancel a dash by inputting another B input in the other direction though. This makes for one heck of impressive dash dance.

What happens if you run into an enemy, attack, or wall? Well Sonic has a strange sort of super armor throughout this move. If he hits anything, he will be immediately knocked prone. See Samus charging up a killing charge shot? Use this to ram your face into that sucker and fall prone instead. Also this move does damage to the opponent should you run into them. It will cause 10% and knock them upwards for light fixed knockback. What is the use of this? Well, let’s deviate from the specials to discuss another important move in Sonic’s kit.

Prone Attack: Breakdancer

When Sonic is prone and attacks, he will sweep his legs about his body much like Mario’s Down Smash before scissor kicking upwards like the other Sonic’s Up Air. The sweep does 17%, killing radially at 106% while the upwards hit does 19%, killing upwards at 96%. This is hands down the strongest Prone Attack in the series, but it is also the slowest with lag all around. This makes knocking Sonic down very dangerous. He gets knocked down, but he gets up again. You’re never gonna keep him down. Fortunately there are many ways in Sonic’s kit to make landing this move easier, Mach Speed being a prime example. Run Straight into an opponent and immediately follow up on the fixed knockback to land this devastating move. Or run into a projectile and punish them as they approach to follow up. The possibilities are never ending.

Green Gem: Tornado

By donning the Green Gem, Sonic imbues all his attacks with the power of wind and a green aura envelops Sonic. In this State, he attacks twice as quickly, effectively cutting their animations in half. However, while the boost in speed may sound great, the speed boost is so great that his accuracy becomes abysmal and his attacks are merely glancing blows. In other words, the attacks cause a half of the damage and no knockback. For 60% of the time, the attacks don’t even cause flinching. However, because you’re bound to get a 4-7 attacks every second, the flinching will occur more often than you’d expect, keeping the opponent stuck as you rack up major damage quickly. The exceptions to this rule are the smash attacks, which cause 1/2 of the knockback. Also, no specials can be used in this state like the other gem moves. On the plus side, since all his attacks are enveloped in wind, they are all doubled in range and have windboxes comparable to what their original hitboxes were. This can make it relatively easy to push away and gimp opponents should you be lucky enough to not cause flinching. In disadvantage, this move is terrible for Sonic as the lack of useful flinching will prevent him from gaining traction. This move works a bit differently for Sonic’s Breakdance however. The sweep hit will have an inverse windbox, pulling opponents in from afar for guaranteed flinch. The upwards hit retains full knockback. For slow-fallers, this combo can be deadly. Make sure you look for opportunities to use this power up.

White Gem: Homing Smash

For this gem, this turns all of Sonic’s moves into Smash Attacks. If you hold the attack button for any attack, Sonic will freeze in the First Frame of his animation and glow like he’s charging because he is. This gives the exact same knockback and damage multiplier on Smash Attacks (1.4x) and will extend the charging time of smash attacks akin to the Hyper Smash Attack Spirit ability. With this, you can freak out the opponent by delaying some attacks to make them mess up their spacing. If you start charging an aerial attack, Sonic will fall and hit the ground at normal speed, but Sonic doesn’t have landing lag on any aerial attack. To be more explicit, Sonic will not be canceled out of an aerial attack upon hitting the ground. He will continue with the motions until he is done with the attack. Sonic will never be canceled! This can also be done on the Prone Attack to great effect. Since many tech chases depend on prediction and timing, this throws another wrench into what the opponent has to predict lest they suffer an early death.

Sky Gem: Gun Drive

For this fittingly named gem, Sonic throws the gem as a recovery move. By holding the button, Sonic will enter a throwing stance and hold the gem. A parabolic trajectory line will appear from Sonic’s hand, which you can adjust up and down. The max horizontal distance you can throw is 3/5 FD while the max vertical is 16 units. Upon hitting any sort of terrain, Sonic will immediately leap up along the parabolic arc at twice his run speed and land in the location of the gem. Anyone who runs into Sonic along this burst will suffer 6% and 60* knockback to kill at 156%.

If the Gem lands on the floor, it will be there until Sonic lands there. Any opponent can pick up this gem and rethrow it like any simple item. Wherever it lands next, Sonic will break out of his current parabolic trajectory and fly in the new closest parabolic trajectory to reach the new point of contact. This only works if it hits terrain, so you can’t throw it off the edge to send Sonic flying to his doom. While this does affect where Sonic lands, making it good for trap masters, it is better if a teammate uses this move to help the Sonic. They can continue holding onto the gem after he lands provided they don’t get hit while doing so and rethrow it to make Sonic break out of whatever he is doing to leap after it. If Sonic has poor endlag on one of his attacks, the teammate can break him out of it heaven forbid he whiffs. Just be careful where the teammate drops this, otherwise, Sonic will jump right into ‘em.

If you hit a wall or ceiling with this, Sonic will leap into the structure and start running along it in a manner similar to the statistics. He will run in whichever direction he is facing, allowing him to potentially recover from impossible situations. Just be warned that this is not a perfect recovery: Sonic starts fastfalling when he is readying to throw this gem in the air, he has a bit of starting lag before he can throw it, and the gem moves as fast as any regularly thrown item. If Sonic falls off the bottom blast zone before the gem hits anything, you’re SOL.

Yellow Gem: Thunder Guard

Upon inputting this move, Sonic will be surrounded by a bubble-like shield that is Yellow in single player or against CPU only, or your port color in multiplayer. This is exactly the same as your normal shield, except Sonic can move, jump, and attack while this is out and the shield refills overtime instead of draining overtime at the same rate. With this, Sonic can plow straight through many attacks and projectiles to get to the opponent more quicker. The downside of this is that since you have your shield out all the time, it is very easy to break the thing and leave yourself open to being murdered. Remember you can halt Gem Effects with the down input and use this as wisely as you can.

Purple Gem: Scale

Sonic shrinks as if he had undergone the effects of a Poison Mushroom. On the plus side, he gains 5 mid air jumps, has his air speed doubled, and his fall speed halved. This makes Sonic a rather annoying menace in the air, being difficult to hit and easy to get combed from. One good upwards hit will send him through the skybox though, so make sure to use this as wisely as you can.

Side B: Anti-gravity

Making use of the enigmatic power he gets early on in the game, Sonic performs a frictionless sliding kick (7% early, 9% late). In Smash, this knocks the opponents upwards to give him some slight combo ability leading into the air, killing at around 206%. It is similar to Bayonetta’s grounded side special in this function, knocking them just high enough to allow Sonic to easily follow the opponent at nearly any percent with one or two jumps. However, this attack also has reverse sex kick properties, allowing you to potentially kill earlier at 156%. True to its name however, this move is not affected by gravity in any manner of speaking. If you use this move in midair or slide off of a ledge when using this move, Sonic will remain at the same vertical position and continue sliding. He will stop once he reaches a full distance of 2 FD, so he can drag this on for quite a while. You can also turn around repeatedly and lose no momentum with this move. This effect is a bit finicky to use however, due to the fact that Sonic goes into freefall should he end in the air, so it is something you have to space out really well. The former hitbox is not without its applications though. Due to being reliable, it is pinnacle for Sonic’s ground to air game. It can either be used to start a combo or be used after a punch, jab combo, forward smash, or after one of Sonic’s many strange and interesting moves. In general, this is one of the most important moves in Sonic’s arsenal due to both its combo and stalling potential, so use it when you can.

Up B: Amigo - Tails

Sonic isn’t alone throughout his adventure in Soleanna. He often works alongside his friends to get past tough areas. For his Up Special, he calls upon the good, trusty Miles “Tails” Prower. It is said that Tails can keep up with Sonic when he is flying, and this is no joke. In the air, Tails gives Sonic a lift and can fly really quickly. As in 60 units per second quick. This applies to vertical and horizontal movement, so this gives Sonic an amazing recovery. Unfortunately this is short-lived, as Tails can only fly for 2/3 of a second, so make the most of this move. Due to being so fast and short it can be difficult to control, but getting the hang of it will allow you to run circles around your opponent.

When calling Tails grounded, this move changes drastically. Since he attacks with item boxes in Sonic 06, he will toss out a crate to help out Sonic. The type of crate he throws out will be random with weighted chances:

50% of the time he will throw out your standard issue wooden crate. This is a normal, non-explosive crate that can be used for crate things. You can throw it as a heavy item or block a good projectile with it. In item matches it will also contain items, how lucky!

30% of the time he will throw out a metal crate. This is different from your futuristic-painted crate, at is extremely durable. It can take up to 60% before breaking, making it last on the stage for quite a while. Fill up the stage with crates if you so wish to invalidate all projectiles. That said, and this goes for all crates Tails spawns, the crates act as if they’re on the moon. If thrown or launched by an attack, or upon hitting something, they will rebound and fly in the opposite direction and cause complete havok. The other crates break easily, so the Metal Crates emphasize this property the most.

10% of the time he will spawn an ominous-looking red and black crate. This is explosive and has similar properties to a blast box, taking 30% or a single fire attack to make it blow. This can naturally harm Sonic too, so be very careful around this one. Against opponents that use a lot of fire like Charizard, this can shut them down easily.

10% of the time he will spawn an equally ominous-looking blue and silver crate. This is effectively an electrical version of a blast box, taking 30% or a single electric attack to make it blow in a powerful, stunning explosion. This can naturally harm Sonic too, so be very careful around this one. Against opponents that use a lot of electricity like Pikachu, this can shut them down easily.

Down B: Amigo - Knuckles

Sonic isn’t alone throughout his adventure in Soleanna. He often works alongside his friends to get past tough areas. For his Down Special, he calls upon the good, trusty Knuckles the Echidna. Rather, he calls upon a modified version of his Assist Trophy. Here are his various Statistics:

Size: Sonic
Weight: Chrom
Wall Speed: Sonic
Run Speed: Lucario
Jump: Kirby
Air Speed: Yoshi
Fall Speed: Peach
Traction: Perfect
HP: 60%

Knuckles retains his infamously poor jump height, but his other aerial statistics are nothing to sneeze at. If you input Down B once again while Knux is out, you actually get to control him. Naturally he has much less options as an assist trophy, but his power is not to be underestimated.

Standard: Knuckles Combo

From SA2 comes Knuckles’ famous combo. He delivers 2 straight punches, followed by an uppercut (5, 7, 14%). These 3 hits are admittedly hard to link into each other since Knuckles moves very far on both of his straight punches, but all 3 hits are very powerful. Either of the first two hits kill laterally at 126% while the uppercut kills off the top at 96%. This jab combo can be used in the air too and is unfortunately one of Knuckles’ only forms of recovery. The Uppercut bumps him up around that of Little Mac’s, but that’s no good. Taking advantage of his great air speed helps him grab the ledge more often, but it is still poor distance wise. On the plus side, no opponent in their right mind will want to challenge it.

Air Special: Homing Attack

Borrowing Sonic’s famous move, Knuckles rapidly increases torque and homes in on the nearest opponent (30%). This move is strong enough to kill at 76%, but it is very punishable if whiffed or if hitting shield. It can be used as a form of recovery as well, but the down side is that this is very dependent on where the opponent is at the time in which you use it. This can lead you off the blast zone if you are not careful, which is bad. We will discuss where Knuckles goes when he dies later.

Ground Special: Dig

Knuckles burrows into the ground and disappears. Afterwards, he will pop up underneath the nearest opponent and attack with a mighty uppercut (24%, kill at 86%). You can alter where you appear with the control stick. Counting clockwise starting with the Up direction, Knuckles will pop up underneath Player 1-8. If you choose your respective port, Knuckles will pop up beneath Sonic, leaving him unharmed. If the selected opponent is off the ledge, Knuckles will pop out at the nearest ledge. If opponents try to recover high, this can give them a rude awakening.

Knuckles as a whole has several other features. If you don’t take control of him, he has HP and will teleport back to the stage should he fall off the ledge. If you are controlling him, you will lack the HP, but will take damage as any normal fighter. If you fall off, Sonic explodes and you lose a stock. It may be a good idea when the going gets rough for Knuckles to swap back to Sonic when standing on ground with the Down B input, because Sonic is an idiot by himself and is controlled by a Level 1 CPU when you’re Knuckles. If Sonic dies when you are Knuckles, Knuckles explodes, you lose a stock, and you’re back to Sonic. When switching back from Knuckles, the amount of damage he accrued will be subtracted from his HP, leaving a minimum of 0.1%. Also while Knuckles cannot harm your own Sonic, CPU Sonic is an idiot and is capable of one-way friendly fire. Keep this all in mind and air dodge to victory.

Grab: Amigo – Silver

Sonic isn’t alone throughout his adventure in Soleanna. He often works alongside his friends to get past tough areas. For his Grab Game, he calls upon the good, trusty Silver the Hedgehog. Upon pressing the grab input, Silver will pop up in front of Sonic, stick his hand out, and scream “It’s No Use!” This is a moderate ranged grab that is almost comparable to the likes of tether grabs, so you can grab from a pretty safe distance away. Characters are not the only thing you are able to grab; Silver is also able to grab and throw Knuckles, crates, and even projectiles, making him a reflector of sorts. If multiple items are in his vicinity, he will pick up to 5, but he can only pick up 1 character at a time (Knuckles counts as a character). He will also prioritize picking up characters, but it may be a good idea to have a few crates lying around. He also throws one item at a time, but he can switch up throws per item. That means you can potentially cover all 4 throws sequentially just my switching up the direction inputs each time. If Silver whiffs and fails to grab anything, he will get pissed at Sonic for summoning him for no reason and grab him instead. This guy used to be Sonic’s rival, so it still looks like there’s bad blood between the two. This case can have some uses, but if Sonic is grabbed you are unable to mash out (since A and B Pummel and directions throw), so be very careful. Still, in a pinch

Pummel: Psycho Shock

Silver will repeat “It’s No Use!” and zap the target with psycho-kinetic electricity (6%). This is an extremely slow, laggy pummel, taking about 2 seconds until FAF, but it causes a lot of damage. This pummel in particular has a couple hidden utilities however. First off, for anyone not grabbed, this pummel has a large round hitbox with a center sweetspot that paralyzes (6%) and an outer sourspot that merely flinches (2.6%). If opponents try to approach you too quickly, you can pummel a crate to stun them and then nail them with a thrown crate. More importantly is that Sonic is actually standing in the range of this sourspot, which will desynch him from Silver after being hit. This allows you to move and attack while Silver is independently holding whatever. You are still controlling Silver, so simply moving can make him throw what he’s holding, but that is the genius of the long pummel animation. Silver doesn’t believe in buffered inputs, so while he does a pummel, Sonic has 2 seconds to do anything before he has to decide to throw or pummel again.

Regarding crates, they react differently to Silver’s pummeling. Normal and Explosive crates will shatter after 2 pummels, the Electric Crate explodes immediately after pummeling, and the Metal crate takes 10 pummels. Note that if Silver takes any amount of damage, he will fall down, say “Not now…” and die. This makes the Explosive and Electric Crates not very good tactics to promote desyncing with Silver. That is mainly what the Metal Crate is for. If Silver destroys all his crates before he can throw them, then he simply vanishes, waiting to be called again. Naturally if Sonic is the one being grabbed, he cannot desync with the pummel, but a little caveat is that if he is equipped with the Thunder Guard, he will take no pummel damage. This makes pummeling a much better tool for stunning nearby enemies without fear of stunning Sonic.

Forward Throw: TAKE THIS!

With his psychic prowess, Silver shouts “Take This!” and shoots whatever projectile he has straight forward (16%). This is a strong throw that kills at 126%. If another opponent is struck by this flying projectile, then they will take the same damage and knockback as listed above, in the same direction to boot. If opponents or Sonic himself is used as ammunition, they will enter a “projectile” state for 36 frames, so the distance Silver’s live ammo goes depends on their damage percentage. If you want to try a pro-gamer move, have Silver intentionally whiff at high damage and chuck Sonic across the stage to nail the opponent. If the thrown opponent would die from this knockback, Silver will instead shout “This will end it!”

Back Throw: TAKE THIS!

With his psychic prowess, Silver shouts “Take This!” and shoots whatever projectile he has behind him at a 30* angle (16%). This is a strong throw that kills at 126%. If another opponent is struck by this flying projectile, then they will take the same damage and knockback as listed above, in the same direction to boot. If opponents or Sonic himself is used as ammunition, they will enter a “projectile” state for 36 frames, so the distance Silver’s live ammo goes depends on their damage percentage. If you want to try a pro-gamer move, have Silver intentionally whiff at high damage and chuck Sonic across the stage to nail the opponent. If the thrown opponent would die from this knockback, Silver will instead shout “This will end it!”

Up Throw: TAKE THIS!

With his psychic prowess, Silver shouts “Take This!” and shoots whatever projectile he has straight upwards (16%). This is a strong throw that kills at 126%. If another opponent is struck by this flying projectile, then they will take the same damage and knockback as listed above, in the same direction to boot. If opponents or Sonic himself is used as ammunition, they will enter a “projectile” state for 36 frames, so the distance Silver’s live ammo goes depends on their damage percentage. If you want to try a pro-gamer move, have Silver intentionally whiff at high damage and chuck Sonic across the stage to nail the opponent. If the thrown opponent would die from this knockback, Silver will instead shout “This will end it!”

Down Throw: TAKE THIS!

With his psychic prowess, Silver shouts “Take This!” and raises whatever projectile he has before slamming it into the ground (16%). This is a slightly different type of throw that leaves the opponent prone. If another opponent is struck by this flying projectile, then they will take the same damage as listed above, but they will be launched upwards for weaker knockback killing at 156%. If opponents or Sonic himself is used as ammunition, they will enter a “projectile” state for the duration until they hit the ground, so this is more reliable than the above throws. If you want to try a pro-gamer move, have Silver intentionally whiff at high damage and make sonic fall prone. If you combine this with the stunning pummel and various gems, this can lead into some dangerous situations for making the infamous prone attack.

Jab: One-Two

Sonic will smack the opponent twice with two slaps (2, 2%). Either hit does not do enough knockback to kill at any reasonable percent, but this attack can be used to lead into another tilt. It is somewhat slow to start with its lag however, so this attack should be used only when safe. In general, Sonic has better options to use on the ground.

Forward Tilt: Walloping

Proving he can fight without relying on the gems on his shoes, Sonic dekes the nearest bystander with a mean hook (12%). While it doesn’t back as much utility due to its noticeable lag, this punch is still a powerful forward tilt in its own right. Launching horizontally, the punch will kill at 150%. Since Sonic is so reliant on his Gems Collection to be an oppressive force on the battlefield, this attack is designed around being able to work well in any state. That said, this move is slow in startup and would definitely appreciate Tornado Range or Shield Safety. It is not quite as sluggish as Olimar’s megaton punch, but he goes through a similar wind up with her attack. To put it bluntly, this move has no place in combos: it launches too far to follow up with and is generally too slow to end combos. This move is used as a solo maneuver to mix up and knock opponents away. If you miss and the opponent is too slow to punish, you can quickly shield or jump away. It is better to dodge and regroup on a whiff because most of the rest of Sonic’s moves come with similar frame data issues. Clobber your opposition with this fist.

Up Tilt: Sonic Swipe

Sonic swipes his hand above himself (8%). The attack is almost entirely vertical, covering about a 30* arc in total. This attack is a good, albeit precise juggling tool. It can be used to get larger foes into the air for combos and juggling, but many small or ducking foes will easily dodge it. This attack is weak, killing at 230% vertically. This is an attack that especially benefits from Tornado, as the gale’s range greatly improves the scope of this tilt’s hitbox. The extension will keep him safer from downward blows and provide a greater HP threshold for continued juggling.

Down Tilt: Sweep Kick

He does a sweeping kick in front of him, pushing him forward slightly (6%). This attack has greater horizontal knockback at the tip of the foot, but further up the foot leads to tripping. This move can easily lead into a quick side B, dash attack or a forward aerial when tipped, or a smash attack, jab, or grab when tripped. In Tornado State, mashing this attack can make you “slide” across the stage at Jigglypuff’s walk speed. Apart from looking silly, this attack, if by slim chance it does manage to trip in this mode (26% chance), can leave the opponent open to the possibility of many free hits.

Dash Attack: Swept Kick

As he runs, he does a sweeping kick in front of him, keeping up his momentum all the while (12%). This attack has good vertical knockback throughout. This move can easily lead into a quick side B, dash attack or a forward aerial when tipped, or a smash attack, jab, or grab when tripped. In Scale State, using this attack to duck under opponents attacks is a great way to get them into the air for an impressive onslaught. Apart from looking silly to be pummeled by a blue mosquito, this attack can leave the opponent open to the possibility of many free hits in the air.

Up Smash: Homing Attack

Using the 3D Sonic staple, Sonic will spin so quickly that he launches his body towards the nearest opponent like a heat-seeking cannonball. Visually it is the same as Sonic’s; he curls up into a ball while briefly ascending, homes onto the nearest opponent, and then rams into them, launching them at a 60* angle. While it is similar looking, this move is a bit stronger than Sonic’s special (16%) killing at 106%. Sonic’s’s rendition of the Homing Attack is not anywhere close to being the best move in his kit. The move does have some utility for closing in on opponents quickly, but the homing can be unreliable at times, overshooting the opponent and leaving Sonic open to a much needed beating. If the attack makes its mark, shielding will be a very poor choice as this move does quite a bit of shield damage. Charging this move will allow Sonic to bide his time until the opponent is at the exact right distance to best punish them. With the White Gem equipped, this can be a deceptively fast-moving attack that kills at shockingly early percentages. Just don’t hit Knuckles with it. Use this move sparingly as it can easily be punished. As part of his playstyle, use it to interrupt any oncoming attacks if the foe leaves themselves too open.

Forward Smash: Spin Dash

Sonic performs an old classic, rolling into a ball and charge spinning in a ball really quickly. Once charged, letting go will let Sonic go rolling forwards at a sonic speeds. While going forwards, he cannot turn around, jump, or perform an attack out of it. It is a simple smash attack now. Charging now increases power, speed, and distance, providing 20% damage between all the multiple hits that add up and a travel distance between 1/6 FD to 5/6 FD. Since this move has a constant hitbox it is great at approaching an attacking opponent. Be sure to use this attack if you need an easy approach.

Down Smash: Bounce Attack

Using the 3D Sonic staple, Sonic will spin so quickly that he launches his body towards the ground like a bloodthirsty basketball. Visually it starts the same as Sonic’s Up Smash; he curls up into a ball while briefly ascending, then rapidly descends before bouncing a couple more times (6, 6, 6%). This move doesn’t exactly launch the opponent away. It instead spikes and buries opponents for massive damage. Since Sonic is bouncing in place, it has lackluster range for a Down Smash, but can be brutal if you manage to pull it off. When performing this on the ledge, it can be a great means of killing opponents early by gimping them.

Neutral Air: Around the World, His World

Sonic increases his torque as he spins in the air for his signature spinning attack. This attack is a full-body multi-hitting attack that is great at attacking opponents close to Sonic. The knockback on the final hit kills at 256%, but the attack can cause up to 26% if all of the hits connect. There are quite a number of hits to this move, so it is difficult to get this number out consistently. On the plus side, the great number of hits to this move give a long duration for opponents to be caught up, keeping the queen safe for quite a while. This can also clash with a large number of attacks, making it good for interrupting combos easily. These are the two points where this move shines best: interrupting combos and racking up damage.

Forward Air: Ax Kick

Sonic rears his leg up and performs a massive axe kick (15.6%). This attack is pretty strong, spiking the opponent straight downwards. When an opponent standing on the ground is struck, they are launched vertically, killing at around 106%. Attacking the foe in this manner is not recommended however since it is tricky to hit with this attack close to the ground and due to having very poor ending lag. Similarly, this attack has moderate end lag, not making it good for a tech chase either. Instead, this attack should be used exclusively for spiking, and as a result, disrespect. Throw this move out whenever the opponent is floundering offstage to give them the quick kill that they need. While it may seem predictable, it is. Sonic’s combo game is not nearly as good as Sonic’s, so the only real moves that follow up into this are a series of nairs at low to medium percent or a couple back airs. Do note that the back airs do not directly lead into fair and merely set the opponent in place to be easily killed should the fair connect. Also note that Sonic may have to stop on the ground to turn around to hit the opponent more easily. From throws, use forward to follow into this move easiest. The back throw will also work close to the ledge as well, but Sonic will have to desynch to be in a better position for attack. This is a strong killing off the ledge even at low percentages, so use it to end your foes.

Back Air: Twist Kick

He twists around and does a sweeping kick behind him (16%). This attack has greater horizontal knockback at the tip of the foot (KO at 136%), but further up the foot leads to less notable knockback upwards. This move can easily lead into a quick side B or itself to make for a pseudo fence of pain. In Homing Smash State, charging this attack will not only make Sonic look constipated on the ground, but also charge it up to obscene power levels. Apart from looking silly, this attack is no joke and can KO an opponent at percentages fitting in with superheavyweights.

Up Air: Headbutt

Sonic does an arcing headbutt as if he were knocking away a soccer ball (13.6%). The knockback for this move is 46* upwards and is great for killing off the top of the screen. The range of this move is very small however, so be sure to take this into account alongside his falling speed. Not much will combo into this move besides itself unfortunately, so it is mostly used as a standalone finisher. The best times to use this is if the opponent either tries to recover high, or if they are on a platform above you.

Down Air: Sonic Rocket.

Looks identical to Sonic’s Dair, but this move is not a stall-then-fall, making it a simple downward kick (16% sweet, 6% sour). This kick has a sweetspot at the toe of the foot, in which the move becomes a powerful spike. It is not nearly as strong as the forward air spike, but it is at a 66* angle instead of straight down, giving it more utility on stage. For example, on the left or right platform of Battlefield, if you use up tilt into fair, it will slam the opponent down into the platform. If you do the same with dair however, then the opponent will fly at such an angle that they will go off the edge of the stage. If you do not hit the sweet spot, the opponent will be launched at a much more lenient degree of 20.06. Launch is also not very fitting of a word since it is quite weak, killing at 260%. The late version can be used in succession as an alternative and switching up with nair. Additionally, the late hit can be a bit of a safety harness for your combo game. If you miss the sweet spot, then you can follow up with a more decisive fair to send them plummeting after the sour spot. If you hit an opponent on the ground, they will instead travel at a 60* or 20* upward instead. Since it is one of Scourge’s faster aerial moves, it can be a suitable substitute for the up tilt for knocking the opponent into the air. However, this only applies for the sweet spot version of the move, since the sour spot launches the opponent at an inconvenient angle for follow ups. If you spike an aerial opponent close to the ground, this will provide a tech chase situation due to the comparatively low landing lag. Since you will be closer to the opponent than with the jab tech chase, the options that will work in all situations will come easier for Scourge. However, do keep in mind that landing lag does exist, so you will have to predict and commit to an action. In short, this is an average move that has wide reaching utility in all regards, making it extremely versatile.

Final Smash (Super Sonic):​

When he collects the seven Chaos Emeralds, he transforms into the mighty, gold Super Sonic. While in this state, he gains the positive effects of every single gem effect automatically: Time naturally slows down, his dash is naturally mach speed, his attacks all have extended windboxes, he is immune to knockback and damage, he has 5 midair jumps with greatly boosted air speed and lower fall speed, all attacks gain 1.4x damage and knockback modifier plus double speed, and pressing B allows him to warp immediately to the nearest opponent. Otherwise he is no different from normal Sonic. This lasts 26 seconds.

Gameplay:​

Press buttons and win.

Palette Swap
(Standard) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(Red) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(Blue) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(Green) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(Yellow) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(White) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(Cyan) Blue Fur, Red Shoes
(Purple) Blue Fur, Red Shoes

Taunt:​

Taunt 1: Sonic looks down and taps the tip of his foot on the ground.
Taunt 2: Sonic starts laughing maniacally. This can be extended for several minutes if need be.
Taunt 3: Sonic spins in a ball and says, “Here I come!”

Misc:​

Victory Pose 1: Sonic gives a thumbs up and says “Just Smile!” The freeze frame lands on him winking.
Victory Pose 2: Sonic does a backflip and says “That was incredible!” He’s facing the left hand side of the screen.
Victory Pose 3: Sonic Stands still
Victory Music: The Victory Theme
Entrance Animation: Sonic Pops In
Kirby Hat: Kirby gains Sonic’s Quills. Go nuts with the gems.
Punch Out Title: PLACEHOLDER TEXT
Series symbol: Sonic’s Head

Classic Mode:​

The Classic Mode run is based on the events of the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG game, mainly the major battles. Spoilers ahead.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Fight 1: Red Wolf on Colosseum (Egg Cerberus) – Song: Egg Cerberus Fight
Fight 2: Mewtwo on Delfino Plaza (Silver) – Song: Vs Character
Fight 3: Giant Tahu Nuva on Castle Siege (Iblis) – Song: Vs Iblis
Fight 4: Mega Man Team on Spirit Train (Radical Train) – Song: The Chase
Fight 5: Giant Gold ROB on Gaur Plains BF (Egg Genesis) – Song: Egg Cerberus Fight
Fight 6: Giant Metal Ridley on Rainbow Cruise Hazardless (Egg Wyvern) – Song: Egg Wyvern Fight
Minigame
Final Battle: Galeem – Song: Solaris Phase 2

Spoiler

This entire set is one giant, late April Fools joke. I apologize for the lacking quality and self-plagiarism, but that's part of the joke. Hopefully my next set is better than this swill :D

 

[BKupa666]

"You have heart. I'll take that too."

SKEKMAL,
THE HUNTER
​

skekMal far and away is the most fearsome warrior among the Skeksis, making his debut in the puppet-animated Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. At the time of the Netflix prequel series, the vast majority of Skeksis lord over Thra from the imposing Castle of the Crystal. Not so with the Hunter, who prowls the planet's Endless Forest with a single-minded focus on capturing, butchering and seemingly devouring any prey he deems worthy of "the hunt." Over the trine, skekMal has amassed a large collection of bodily remains, which he values as "trophies" capable of conferring their dead owners' strength upon him. Hunter is treated as a legend among the Gelfling, used to frighten children via ghost stories, and his bloodlust even unsettles most Skeksis, whose political squabbles he views with disdain.

Nevertheless, a disgraced skekSil summons him to the castle to set him after series protagonist Rian, who threatens to expose the Skeksis’ scheme to drain Gelfling for essence. For the remainder of the series, skekMal relentlessly fixates on collecting his promised “trophy” — Rian’s tongue — no matter how many collateral victims he must gut in the process. Unlike the rest of the Skeksis, whose bodies have shriveled into aristocratic prunes over a thousand tribe siphoning the Dark Crystal's energy, Hunter is a physical monster, being the only one among his race whose second pair of arms has not atrophied. The only Skeksis portrayed via a full-body puppet, skekMal is adept at traversing the treetops, quadruple-wielding blades to eviscerate anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path.

STATISTICS​

Size --->>> 9
Weight --->>> 9 / 117 units (6th, between Ganondorf and Charizard)
Fall Speed --->>> 7 / 1.775 units (18th, between Ridley and Bowser)
Aerial Movement --->>> 7 / 1.155 units (19th, tied with Bowser, Mega Man and others)
Jumps --->>> 5 (comparable to Incineroar)
Ground Movement --->>> 3.5 / 1.54 units (62nd, tied with Wolf)

As one might expect, skekMal leaves his fellow Skeksis in the dust in terms of athletic composure. Though not lightning fast by any stretch, Hunter looks like he should move slower than he does on the ground and in the air, as a character barely shorter than Ganondorf and a hair wider. It's a juxtaposition that lends him a fearsome presence as he surges forward after his target. When idle, skekMal hunches over slightly, visibly breathing while holding two daggers in his primary hands and two longer swords in his secondary ones.

Unless otherwise stated, KO percentages are on Mario from the middle of Final Destination.

SPECIALS​

NEUTRAL SPECIAL - BARBARIAN'S BLADES

With a tap of the input, skekMal suddenly hurls his left-hand dagger forward, turning it into a projectile. He's got a touch more startup lag here than Mega Man in throwing a similarly-paced and sized metal blade, with 18 frames to his 16, albeit with super armor during the first half. Hunter hurls his dagger horizontally forward by default and, during startup, can angle his toss in any of eight compass or diagonal directions around him, turning around if necessary. Thrown horizontally, his dagger deals 9% and diagonal knockback KOing around 150% as it travels forward an initial eight training stage squares (or half of Battlefield), before falling and embedding itself in the stage over two additional squares. The dagger will travel up eight squares before falling back down if tossed vertically, and, when hurled diagonally, goes up 2.5 Ganondorfs over four squares before falling that same horizontal distance. And thrown daggers aren't limited just to slicing foes away; should one hit a grounded opponent standing where it's about to become embedded, within five frames of it impacting the stage, they'll take a moment of stun, equivalent to ZSS' paralyzer charged three-quarters to completion.

skekMal certainly isn't limited to throwing his smaller daggers, either. If the input is held for the duration of startup, Hunter instead will hurl his left-hand sword — a more imposing blade by comparison. These bad boys are larger than skekMal's daggers, at around Kirby's size as they travel end over end at the same speed and possible ranges, albeit with a more sobering 23 frames of startup. Swords deal a meatier 14%, plus a bonus 5% in shield damage, and vertical knockback that starts off below average but scales quickly to KO off the screentop around 130%. Grounded foes impaled as a sword is about to become embedded in the stage also are crumpled into their prone state, setting Hunter up for a tech chase situation. Of note, with both swords and daggers, the player can double tap the input during startup for skekMal to throw his blade at one-third its regular speed, essentially tripling its active frame period. In doing so, Hunter gains the ability to menacingly trail behind his projectile and apply pressure at the cost of the blade itself becoming significantly more predictable.

skekMal carries two daggers and two swords into battle with him at once. As such, if he's thrown all of his blades out onto the stage, he must retrieve one or more before he can toss out a projectile again. Missing blades also alter a number of his standard physical attacks, generally in ways that entail less damage potential and different, albeit not necessarily negative tweaks to knockback. Daggers and swords thrown offstage will reappear in Hunter's claws after three and five seconds, respectively; onstage blades also automatically flicker and vanish back into skekMal's possession if left embedded and undisturbed for 15 seconds. Any character, including Hunter, can grab a dagger or sword out of midair, or pick it up out of the ground, as a throwing item. Foes will take damage if they mistime their mid-air item grab input, though Hunter is immune to blades in the air by his own hand. Simultaneously inputting A and B prompts Hunter to stow his blade, returning it to use in his standards, though there often are times he'll want to take a rain check on doing so.

If thrown as an item, the blade takes back on its hitbox and properties as though Hunter had chucked it at its default speed. For skekMal, picking up his own blades comes with a few perks, namely, the ability to re-throw the weapons with virtually no startup and to mix his opponents up with different projectile properties — say, with a dagger thrown as an item, sandwiched in between two slow-thrown swords to preoccupy foes, or simply Z-dropped from above. As with a metal blade, Hunter may throw a sword or dagger directly down at his feet so as to immediately pick it up as an item. A blade thrown downward automatically will embed when it impacts the stage, giving foes plenty of reason for trepidation if they're trying to juggle skekMal and he's carrying a blade as an item above them. Opponents can injure Hunter by throwing his blades back at him as items, though this comes with its own risks, as skekMal has an additional five-frame window to catch them.

What's more, if the player repeats Neutral Special within 10 frames of Hunter's catch, he won't reach for a new blade but rather will re-throw the caught item blade at 1.25 times its default speed. Foes can still catch the faster blade, though if they're struck, perhaps caught offguard by its newfound speed, they take an additional 5% in regular and shield damage, and its KO percentage lowered by 25% — for daggers dealing 14%, KOing at 125%, and swords dealing 19%, KOing at 105%. Though they must be quick with their input, the player can angle Hunter's subsequent re-throw — for example, catching an item blade thrown horizontally and redirecting it diagonally to cover an enemy's jumps. skekMal has other natural mix-ups at his disposal, too: the player can double-tap B after catching a thrown blade so Hunter tosses it back at its slower pace, which both can throw off foes or save his own hide, if the blade has gotten too fast for his liking. He also can play on his foe's expectation that he'll immediately re-throw a caught blade at its faster speed, but instead wait out the 10-frame window before casually throwing the weapon as a normal item or using a regular Neutral Special.

In essence, skekMal's daggers and swords are bread-and-butter tools for him in keeping mid-range opponents at bay. The projectiles are effective at conditioning foes to jump and shield in avoidance, and generally keeping them on their toes, which can open the door for Hunter to punish missteps. For instance, reversed Neutral Specials can cover attempted rolls around skekMal, while a slow-thrown sword can catch landings from poorly-timed air dodges. For opponents, Hunter's blades create layers of counterplay, where they could reap a possible bonus rushing in to pick up the weapons as they're about to land onstage, or shielding to drop a traveling blade at their feet. If they're successful, they gain a throwing item, though if skekMal is crafty in his pursuit, he could end up landing the stronger embedding hitboxes or even initiating a shieldbreak. Exactly how many blades Hunter will want in play versus on his person can fluctuate in different match contexts, against different opponents and depending on how specifically he wants to weave those projectiles in with his altered standards to come out on top.

SIDE SPECIAL - GOBBLED UP BY GOBBLES

skekMal extracts a handful of seeds from one of his waistband pouches and tosses them diagonally to the ground one training stage square away. On contact, they sprout into a two-square patch of Gobbles, a carnivorous plant species found in Thra's Endless Forest, consisting of dozens of bulbous, ravenous mouths. Hunter has a bit more startup on tossing the seeds than Simon in throwing holy water, with a first actionable frame of 58 compared to 46, and though foes cannot grab the seeds out of midair, they can destroy the Pokeball-sized cluster with any attack dealing 5% or more. Once the seeds land, however, the ensuing Gobbles linger significantly longer, at 12 seconds. skekMal may have up to two Gobbles patches onstage at a time, with a second patch merging with his first if thrown partially overtop.

Foes that land on, walk or roll through the Gobbles receive multiple light hits of 3% and extremely low vertical knockback, at a rate of two hits per second. Depending on the victim's size, escaping by DIing to either side of the patch is not excessively difficult, though Hunter still can rely on the Gobbles to deal around 12-15% to an average-sized character who lands dead center in the patch at low to mid-percentages (they'll start popping up high enough to jump or dodge away around 100%). Characters other than skekMal can destroy Gobbles one training stage square at a time by dealing 20% to one side of the patch, which extends three square units off the ground. Gobbles visibly flinch from enemy attacks, losing their hitbox for about as long as a character would remain in regular hitstun — an incentive for foes to dispatch them with quick or disjointed attacks, lest the little carnivores begin chomping again. The plants heal 3% for each nibble they take at a victim (though not past each square's 20 HP threshold). Of note, any minion that wanders atop Gobbles for more than one second is devoured instantly, healing the entire patch of its full HP. A rather steep punishment for MYM's minion masterminds, and all the more incentive for them to keep an extra close watch over their wayward subordinates.

Gobbles do not make for entirely free punishes for Hunter, as he'll still take damage when in contact with the gnashing mouths. Crucially, however, he won't flinch from the hitbox, leaving him able to wander in and punish a stuck foe — he, unlike foes, also can shield inside the patches to stave off that damage, though they'll poke through if he holds it for too long. Of note, any foe knocked into prone overtop the Gobbles instantly will get caught in a jab lock combo, making it significantly easier for skekMal to land a strong blow for the third and final hit. Even left undisturbed, the victim take at least three hits before they're able to DI out of the patch. It's certainly possible to punish Hunter as he's tossing out seeds, or while the seeds are airborne, though WiFi tier running up and shielding won't cut it — the seeds fall to the ground and form into Gobbles underneath the foe, poking up underneath to hit them.

Gobbles contribute one more added perk to skekMal's kit — the ability to spit back thrown blades. Though daggers and swords will soar over the plant patches in their initial trajectory, blades that land among the Gobbles will embed for just a split second. Afterward, the plants visibly ripple and spit it out in the opposite direction — diagonally up or down if the blade fell in from the side or was hurled into a patch occupying a platform, respectively, and vertically if dropped in from above. The blade travels at 1.25 times its default speed, as though Hunter had re-thrown a weapon tossed at him by an enemy, dealing that same damage to foes caught pinned underneath, on top of the impact damage and that from the Gobbles. With one or more blades dropped in from above, the patch will repeatedly spit out the weapons as they land, creating a decently aggravating anti-air zone for foes to work around.

What's more, if skekMal catches and re-throws a blade spit out by Gobbles, it'll increase to 1.5 times its normal speed, and — if thrown once more into a patch — to a maximum of 1.75 times its regular speed. As with before, each successive toss adds 5% in regular and shield damage to the projectile and lowers its KO percentage by 25%, resulting in maximally-thrown daggers dealing 24%, KOing at 75%, and swords dealing 29%, KOing at 55%. This isn't risk-free for skekMal, as he still can take damage from the spat blades if the player doesn't time their item catches properly. Foes, too, can hurl blades into Gobbles patches to speed their trajectories up. That being said, if Hunter positions himself to catch two successive blade spits, he'll find himself in possession of a truly menacing projectile, fully capable of being redirected right at a foe for the KO, especially if they get caught up in the Gobbles rushing in to interrupt.

Of note, skekMal can achieve these faster blade speeds without Gobbles, with a foe who keeps hurling a dagger or sword back within 10 frames of catching it; the plants just give him a means to do so in the scenario the foe plays it safe and holds the blade for longer. In a pinch, Hunter can de-escalate a speeding blade this way, too, though whether he'd want to is another question. He's favored to win these little back-and-forths, after all, with his extra item-catching frames, ability to re-angle or slow down the tosses, or to throw out one or more extra blades in the process. There's also the helpful fact that, once a blade has reached top speed, only skekMal remains capable of catching it, letting him prolong that speed as long as he's got a Gobbles patch at hand. Play ball!

DOWN SPECIAL - SKEKSIS RAGE

Hunter hunkers down, tensing up and snarling while holding any blades he's holding out and inward. If struck during this time, skekMal will let out a bellowing roar while slashing outward, taking on a slight steam visual as he is dealt a fraction of the attack's damage while inflicting 3% and low set knockback. In that way, it's a counter comparable to Incineroar's Revenge, active a smidge longer, at frames 4 through 28, though with a later first actionable frame on whiff, at 63. Tanking attacks does not increase damage for Hunter's attacks but rather their knockback, mirroring the much-beloved rage effect that kicks in as characters take progressively higher damage in Smash 4 and Ultimate — starting after 35% and capping at 150% in both games.

Exactly how high skekMal's rage climbs depends on the timing of his counter. Struck within the first three frames of his counter, Hunter's knockback will increase to 1.1 times its usual rate, same as though he had reached Ultimate's maximum rage level at 150% (the formula for which is 1 + [(p - 35)/115 * 0.1], with p equaling the character's percentage). This level drops by 15% for each subsequent three frames of the counter's 24-frame duration — for instance, a hit between frames 12 and 15 would boost skekMal's to the game's 90% rage level, or approximately 1.05 times his usual knockback. These figures don't tell the whole story, however, as they only really apply before Hunter's natural rage kicks in from regular damage accumulated (something he has a modicum of control over, being able to stand amid his own Gobbles). When that happens, his counter multiplies that rage for what can become some pretty scary knockback — at a maximum, if skekMal has 150% and is struck during his first three counter frames, he'll take on a 1.21 knockback multiplier. Hunter's multiplier is not lowered if an attack hits later into a subsequent counter's active frames, though a lower multiplier can be increased if his next counter lands earlier.

How long skekMal's rage buff lasts depends on the damage of the attack he counters. He's guaranteed a minimum of seven seconds of rage, countering any attack dealing 10% or less, with an additional seven seconds added to his timer for every 10% an attack has above that threshold (getting, for instance, 21 seconds for a 30% attack). This rage timer can be refreshed or built up over multiple counters, capping at 30 seconds and resetting if Hunter loses a stock. skekMal can perform as many rage-boosted attacks as he likes within this window, though his timeframe is shortened both when he whiffs attacks (though hitting shields still counts as a hit) and takes damage — at a rate of five seconds for every two missed attacks or 15% suffered.

Though Hunter won't be reaching the crazy multiplier levels Incineroar can achieve, he can strengthen himself more consistently across multiple attacks, instead of a small number. skekMal also enjoys far greater control over his multiplier, using his counter in tandem with his blades. Surefire ways to start building up rage include timing a counter to a foe's thrown blade or throwing a blade into a Gobbles patch before countering the re-spit. That he can build the blade's damage over multiple tosses before countering for a longer timer adds uncertainty to the mix for foes, who must decide whether the potential benefit from pressuring skekMal with a faster-traveling blade is worth the potential drawback of him going for this buff.

Whether Hunter wants to employ rage, and if yes, how much, will depend on the situation at hand — buffing a dagger's diagonal knockback could more easily enable him to cast a foe into Gobbles on a platform, for instance, but remove his ability to combo out of a slow-thrown sword after certain percentages. Gobbles also exemplify this principle, as plant patches skekMal throws out while enraged deal a hair more vertical knockback per light hit. This in turn reduces the percentage window where he can trap a foe in the multiple hits but could instead pop them up into dangerous airspace for a follow-up (sidebar, the properties of an "enraged" patch will spread to an existing normal patch if they're merged together). Used well, Hunter can exercise control over the trajectory he knocks his prey, letting him pursue different follow-ups as needed. If for whatever reason skekMal wants to rid himself of his rage early, he can spam and whiff faster moves to regain his regular knockback.

In terms of mechanics, if an enraged Hunter throws a blade right before his timer expires, the rage knockback will remain with the blade until it lands onstage or is caught and held by any character longer than 10 frames. In other words, the enhanced knockback remains if skekMal grabs the blade out of midair and immediately chucks it again, whether it's in midair from his own toss or re-thrown by a foe or Gobbles patch. Situationally, this can allow Hunter to preserve one or more projectiles with the rage multiplier, even as he himself maintains his default knockback.

UP SPECIAL - PREDATORY PROWL

skekMal hunches for 15 frames before lunging quickly out approximately a Battlefield platform length in one of eight directions of the player's choosing, falling into helpless afterward. If the player holds the input as Hunter surges forward or downward onstage, or as he impacts a non-drop-through surface during active frames, he'll enter a more bestial running animation on all fours, clinging effortlessly to vertical or upside-down surfaces if necessary. He moves at a slightly faster pace, at Ryu's dash speed, able to turn around as desired at any point, as he wraps around edges or runs up the stage's side.

He's able to hold this state for a maximum of three seconds, or cancel out early with a jump, dodge or second Up Special input. After three seconds, skekMal automatically drops off any non-horizontal surfaces, able to air dodge, use his refreshed jumps or even another Up Special, though it won't cling again until he's set foot back on the stage proper. Hunter has super armor as he runs in this state, able to tank 20% before being launched or forced off his non-horizontal surface (and likely to his doom if offstage).

If he makes contact with a foe on the ground, he'll grab and begin dragging them bodily along the stage, akin to Ridley but slower. Victims take 5% every half second they're in skekMal's grasp, and can mash out with the same difficulty as the space pirate's rush, though they must act quickly, as both characters enter a frame neutral position upon their escape. Dragging a foe into a Gobbles patch automatically releases them, as they take the multiple hits, immediately freeing Hunter up to act. The player can input forward at any point for skekMal to toss the victim for 10% and knockback KOing at 95% at the ledge, where he automatically does the toss. Though Hunter can't run back and forth or down the side of the stage while dragging a foe, the player can hold the control stick forward as he reaches a ledge, foe in tow, for him to continue running after his toss, positioning him to leap out from the stage's side to ledge guard.

On the whole, Up Special gives skekMal a helpful bit of versatility in recovering — rather than aim for the ledge, he instead could recover low, cling to the stage and briefly do that "dart back and forth, whoooo so scary and unpredictable" thing typical of Ultimate's meta as his foe stands above. Depending on how they react, shielding or spamming shorthops or B-Airs, skekMal could burst onto the stage and punish with his dragging grab. Alternatively, he could leap off and up with an aerial or hold down while dashing over the ledge to snap to it, gaining quick access to his regular getup options.

Hunter has other uses for Up Special in midair. Grabbing an airborne victim within skekMal's height of the stage has him land and begin dragging as usual. Any higher, however, and he'll perform a midair grab, pausing briefly to crunch his victim's head between his claws for 14% before kicking them away for 4% and a moderate diagonal downward launch. This knockback scales sufficiently slowly that, depending on his foe's recovery, it won't generally KO offstage until higher percentages. That being said, if landed as a combo finisher close to the blast zone or with a stage-bounce off a platform boosted by rage, skekMal can close off a stock with this function, in a manner not dissimilar to the warlock of MYM ubiquity's Dark Dive. Depositing a foe on an aerial platform also can serve its purposes, especially if they're foolish enough to miss a tech in Hunter's presence.

If Hunter uses aerial Up Special against the underside of a drop-through platform, or the player inputs down during the special's grounded startup standing atop one, he'll hang from its underside — so long as there's more air underneath than he is tall. He can't move along the bottom of a drop-through platform, though he retains his 20% super armor from the previously-covered stage clinging. From this state, Hunter can use any of his specials (Up Special relinquishing his hold), dodge to let go or perform a series of burst options, with the control stick tapped in one of the four cardinal directions. If skekMal wishes to use Up Special past, rather than to cling to a drop-through, the player can simply hold the special input while progressing through.

With left or right inputs, Hunter will swing in a quick horizontal arc from the platform's underside, traveling a tad less far than Diddy's monkey flip but a bit vertically higher. He doesn't carry a grab hitbox in swinging but rather than rush left or right with an aerial to ambush a foe, or potentially start a string. Of note, any blades skekMal throws while carrying momentum from his swing will automatically reach 1.25 times their default speed. This is great for letting him access the projectile's faster speeds in a more expedient manner, to say nothing of the new vantage points his arc gives him for the toss itself.

Conversely, with down or up inputs, Hunter will drop down from or pop back up onto the drop-through with one training stage square of air underneath. skekMal can seek to trick a landing foe by repeatedly hanging from and leaping back onto a drop-through platform, especially on a stage like Town and City, bursting upward with an aerial at the appropriate time. Such an aerial can easily translate to multiple damage-racking hits if Hunter propels himself up through a drop-through holding Gobbles — he can't hang indefinitely to await this option, however, on account of the repeated 3% hits, to say nothing of predictability.

GRAB-GAME​

GRAB - WOODLAND SNARE
skekMal grips a rope net and plunges it forward to capture a target before him, with a hair more range, and lag, when compared to Villager's net grab — coming out on frame 17 with a first actionable frame of 60. If he catches a victim, Hunter will enclose the net around them, clutching them around their neck or neck equivalent. He gets a modest bit more range (and lag) performing this grab from a pivot or dash, and even has access to a third option to expand his net's reach still further.

If the player inputs down during this grab's startup, skekMal will throw his net a short distance in front of him, with a rather committal 22-frame startup. The net travels in a short downward arc, reaching up two and a half training stage squares before falling to the ground two squares away. Foes caught underneath the net as it lands take 5% and brief flinch as they're enclosed, albeit not yet in their grabbed animation. If Hunter runs up and touches the net, he'll automatically grab the foe as usual, but otherwise, the foe can attack, shield and dodge as normal. The hangup is, they can't dash or roll out of the net, or jump higher than a shorthop, as the net is weighed down around them with several stones connected to the outer portions of rope. Characters can break free of the net with any attack that inflicts flinch, and even hit skekMal in the process if he's not careful (projectiles, for instance, break the net while traveling through).

Hunter likely will want to stick with his regular grab if his chief focus is throwing his victim, though his thrown net has plenty of utility on its own, and can mix up foes who predict he's going to use a grab, but aren't sure what form it will take. A key potential upside for Hunter in throwing a net is the ability to force an enemy attack to counter for rage with Down Special, which can result in a little game of chicken. The foe can try reading skekMal's counter attempt before punishing him in their escape attempt, but he can try circumventing this by netting his victim in dangerous circumstances that put pressure on them to break out sooner rather than later — for instance, with a Gobbles patch about to spit a fast blade back at them, or with a blade falling down to land on them via a throw or Hunter's upcoming U-Smash.

Foes struck by an external attack dealing flinch also will cause them to escape, a handy balancing feature that serves to keep them from getting mindlessly stuck under a net against a Gobbles patch. Foes cannot have multiple nets thrown on top of them, and the usual re-grab timer kicks in on their escape so skekMal can't just lurk on the periphery to keep them indefinitely in his grasp. In midair, nets deal their 5% and flinching hitbox, though they won't grab airborne characters. As the nets fall down about two Ganondorfs before vanishing, this can serve as an annoyance to foes offstage, in the same vein as Luigi's plunger, though this is definitely less spammable, given Hunter only can have one net out at once, to say nothing of his startup.

PUMMEL - HOBBLE
skekMal lifts a foot and performs an exaggerated stomp down on his victim's leg or leg equivalent. This deals a hefty 6% over the course of one second, meaning up until high percentages, Hunter is unlikely to get more than one of these off per grab, maybe two if the player buffers a pummel input. Damage-racking isn't really the focus here, anyway. For each pummel skekMal performs, he'll inflict a mini-status effect on his victim: for the next five seconds, they'll lose 0.5 units on their initial dash speed, plus 5 extra dash frames on top of their existing ones, and 5 extra jumpsquat frames on top of Ultimate's universal 3 frames (putting them on the level of Smash 4 Bowser's 8 jumpsquat frames).

This hobbled status caps at 10 seconds, with further pummels refreshing this timer in five-second increments. Hobbled characters signify they're still carrying the effect by taking on a pained-looking idle animation, clutching the impacted leg, and appearing to wince slightly upon dashing or jumping. Hobbling is not entirely crippling as far as enemy mobility goes but can put strain on foes who can't as easily perform Ultimate's trademark brainless darting around to evade Hunter's attacks, or mash shorthop to avoid or catch his blades. He does sacrifice the ability to easily refresh stale moves with this pummel, though given his abundance of strong attacks plus a rage mechanic, it's certainly a fair tradeoff. If it's pummel damage he wants, in any case, skekMal can always try to grab foes overtop a Gobbles patch so long as he doesn't mind his percentage climbing a bit higher alongside his foe's.

FORWARD THROW - TARGET PRACTICE
skekMal lifts his foe quickly overhead and hurls them to the ground at his feet, dealing 3% and bouncing them untechably off the stage. Before the foe can act, Hunter then grabs either a dagger or sword, depending on whether the input is tapped or held, and tosses it at the victim, dealing an extra 9% or 14%, plus the blades' respective knockback from Neutral Special. This is a relatively strong spacing throw that can KO at higher percentages. F-Throw also gives him another means for getting a blade out onstage when he doesn't have the time or space to throw one out as normal.

Because skekMal can act more quickly than his victim, he can move in and grab the thrown blade after it connects, as it falls to the ground and becomes embedded. In FFAs, blades hurled with F-Throw can strike other characters before they connect with Hunter's victim, or as they're falling after impact, letting him threaten multiple characters off of one grab. If Hunter only has daggers or swords in hand, his throw defaults to that blade variety.

With no blades in hand, skekMal simply performs the untechable toss portion of this throw. While poor for damage-racking, this is a simplistic spacer that still can put foes in range of a Gobbles patch or another incoming projectile. On middleweights and up, Hunter has a true combo from barebones F-Throw into dash attack at low percentages.

BACK THROW - DISPATCH
skekMal hoists his victim up by the back of their head, exposing their neck, before slowly dragging a blade across it, with deliberation. As with F-Throw, he slits their throat with a dagger if the input is tapped and a sword if it's held, defaulting to either the dagger or sword if he's only got one of the two blade varieties. Here, the two blades deal damage differently, but in the same amount — blades can deal up to 10% across 10 hits of 1%, over half a second, while swords deal up to 10% across five hits of 2%, over a full second.

The "up to" qualifiers there are entirely up to Hunter, as his victim can't mash out at any point during his slicing. Rather, by repeating the input, the player can prompt skekMal to suddenly stop slicing, modifying the knockback as a result. If either slice is performed to completion, Hunter will slash his blade outward on the final hit, dealing horizontal knockback that can KO around 105% at the ledge. Canceled early, however, he'll simply withdraw his blade, popping the foe up a short distance behind him, in perfect range for a B-Air to reversed Neutral Special up to moderately high percentages.

Used well, Hunter can mix up which of the two knockback angles he pursues, leaving his victim guessing as to how to DI, with potentially disastrous consequences should they guess wrong — DIing inward on what they think will be a completed slice, only to get in even better combo range, or outward on what they think will be a partial slice, only to find themselves soaring to the blast zone at lower percentages. skekMal's sword, and its greater number of multiple hits, grants him more potential for craftiness with these mix-ups, as he can slice up to hit eight or nine to more persuasively appear as though he's about to go for the powerful knockback before canceling.

With no blades in hand, Hunter will instead grip his victim's head with both hands and perform a neck-breaking twist, dealing 10% and placing them in prone behind him. He and his foe have the same FAF as Snake and a D-Throw victim, albeit with no mindless U-Tilt confirm past a given percentage. No matter, as skekMal still can box his victim in with some combination of Gobbles patches and airborne blades. If he's on the mark, his proximity to his victim can lead into a shorthopped aerial or pivoted standard, maybe even a pivot grab or jab lock combo if his opponent is too slow to react.

DOWN THROW - NOTHING BUT NET
Hunter grips his net and begins slamming it, and the victim it holds, alternatively in front of and behind him to the ground. This is what the adherents to Warlord's good old grab-game article would call "the damage throw" — each of skekMal's four slams deals 4%, for a total of 16%, the last of which deals diagonal knockback KOing around 155%. By default, Hunter performs his first slam to the left, with the fourth and final alternating hit landing to the right and launching his victim in front of him. In the few frames before skekMal initiates slam number one, and in the frames before each successive slam, however, the player can input either left or right for him to choose that direction for his attack.

Hunter does not have to alternate directional slams when the player performs them manually, allowing them to aim his slams into outside hitboxes like Gobbles patches or aerial blades to enhance the throw's damage potential further. Of note, though, attacks dealing more than 117 knockback units, or the knockback Mario experiences from Bowser's F-Tilt at 50%, will launch the victim out of the net — a consideration worth keeping in mind in team or FFA settings. Hunter's foe-carrying net also deals 4% and knockback KOing around 155% to external foes it strikes in FFAs.

This is skekMal's one consistent throw, remaining unchanged regardless of the number or type of blades he has, and as such is likely to see regular use. Its lone arguable drawback is that the knockback is neither low enough to be too useful for combo purposes or high enough to KO reliably. Hunter can mix up his slam directions to try throwing off his victim's DI, though given the telegraphed nature of his slams, B-Throw is better in this regard, too.

UP THROW - STABBING PAIN
In one gesture, skekMal thrusts a blade — a dagger if the input is tapped, a sword if it's held and the variety he's holding, if only one — into his victim's gut to launch them skyward. This deals 8% with daggers and 11% with swords, with above average knockback that launches the victim a good ways into the air but scales slowly, leaving it unlikely to KO without rage unless Hunter's on a top platform at high damage levels. The victim regains control at the apex of their launch, though they're not out of the woods yet. With skekMal's blade impaled into them, they must either perform an aerial or air dodge to dislodge it before coming in contact with solid ground. If they succeed, the blade will drop casually to the ground with no falling hitbox, typically in an easy position for the foe to grab as an item (some even can fastfall to catch it before it touches down). If the victim fails, however, they'll suffer the dagger or sword's embedding hitbox from Neutral Special (respectively inflicting stun or a crumple effect, plus additional damage) on contact with the ground, leaving the blade behind in the process.

Hunter is well-served using U-Throw on stages with platforms if he's looking specifically to land this hitbox, though that might not always be the case. Depending on whether his victim attacks or dodges to get rid of their blade, he either can leap up and Down Special counter for enhanced rage or read their maneuver with a follow-up attack. If skekMal manages to use U-Throw while standing atop a Gobbles patch, his foe will find themselves in a double pickle, as even if they dislodge the blade, the plants will spit it back up at them with a hitbox after it falls. And Hunter himself can get sneaky by immediately leaping up after his victim, making as though he's about to attack to bait one reaction or another, when in reality he's looking to grab and throw the blade as it's dislodged. A particularly confident player even could allow the victim to dislodge and pick up his blade, with the intention of initiating a momentum-building game of catch when they lob the weapon Hunter's way. If a blade-impaled character is KOed before returning to solid ground, skekMal's dagger or sword will return to him after Neutral Special's requisite three or five second timer.

With no blades in hand, Hunter will casually toss his victim upward, akin to DK's non-cargo U-Throw, dealing 6% and moderate set knockback that scales slowly. Another rather straightforward blade-free throw option, skekMal here can set up a 50/50 between his U-Air or a vertical blade toss, possibly KOing his victim off the screentop at higher percentages, lowered if he's on a top platform or sufficiently enraged.

STANDARDS​

JAB - FOUR-PRONGED ASSAULT
With each of four taps of A, skekMal stabs outward and downward with his left- and then right-handed dagger, before hunching over further and doing the same with his two swords. The first hitbox comes out on frame three, and the entire animation takes approximately 63 frames to complete. The two dagger hits deal 4% and make victims flinch, while the sword hits deal 6% and diagonal knockback that can KO around 175% (lower with adequate rage). Hunter has a moment of end lag if he ends jab after all but his second stab, from which the player can stop midway through the move to use a different option, like a tilt or grab. Conditioning a victim to throw out a spot dodge or shield, expecting all four hits, can prove a mean setup for skekMal in throwing out a blade for a mix-up.

Hits three and four can combo into each other for the full 20% on heftier foes or those with low damage, though the third soon will start launching them out of range of the fourth. skekMal's jab range expands over the course of the move, from 1.5 training stage squares during the dagger hits to two squares for his swords. Though the fastest enemy attacks can punish Hunter after the two dagger hits, his swords here are safe on shield, dealing a bit of push plus 5% in extra shield damage per hit — meaning opponents can't just stand in his face and shield the entire jab before punishing.

If skekMal has thrown one or both of his daggers, one or both of his first two hits are replaced with a clawed smack. These smacks deal 3% a pop, with the first inflicting flinch while the second deals low horizontal knockback that, at middling percents, can send foes into prone if they fail to tech. A second-hit smack comes out faster than a second-hit dagger, somewhat increasing its ease of use in jab lock combos, though because both smacks have a mite less range, a foe near the outskirts of hit one could slip away. The launch from smack two often precludes skekMal from comboing into his sword hits, though he situationally can smack a foe into a returning spat dagger, catch and stow that blade and then restart jab with it in hand for added damage. Hunter throws his left-handed dagger first via Neutral Special, so with just one dagger on his person, he'll smack first, stab second, though the player can hold rather than tap A if they'd rather inverse this order to make use of smack two's hitbox.

Meanwhile, with one sword, Hunter simply is left to perform one, rather than two stabs, with the same properties as his "full" jab. Holding rather than tapping A once jab's sword phase starts prompts skekMal to momentarily stagger this third stab. Naturally, this creates a greater window for foes to retaliate before he starts using his sword. Uninterrupted, however, he'll plunge the blade down for bonus damage and knockback — 10%, plus 15% in shield damage if his victim is a shield spammer, and launch KOing at 145%. With both swords thrown, Hunter will perform a simple backarm with the speed of Ganondorf's jab, dealing 6% and low set knockback. As with his smacks, skekMal's arm has a bit less range than his swords and is decidedly unsafe on shield on account of its lack of push. His arm does have a one-third chance of tripping a target in front of skekMal, preparing him to go to town with any number of options.

In summary, jab's versatility will vary for Hunter over the course of a match, depending on which blades he's thrown out at any given time. Indeed, which jab hitboxes skekMal wants could be one determining factor as to how many, if any daggers and swords he tosses in specific contexts, not to mention whether he stows or re-throws a blade after catching it.

DASH ATTACK - CIRCLING PREY
Hunter hunches over and spins, slashing outward with his blades while deftly darting forward a platform over the timeframe of Snake's dash attack. By default, he performs one spin, slicing a short distance with a dagger to deal 6% and cause his foe to flinch briefly. The player also can input A a second time as skekMal is performing his first spin for him to immediately transition into a second, making use of a sword to reach a bit further. This additional hit deals 10%, plus 10% in shield damage, and above average knockback KOing around 100% at the ledge. skekMal can lash out just with his first hit, stopping short of crossing up his victim to combo into another option or second dash attack if they don't react, or — if they're skittish about the second hit — punishing a shield with a grab or a spot dodge with a Smash. An alternative possibility involves initiating spin one out of range of a foe so spin two, with the sword, is the one that lands and launches.

The two hits can combo into each other, though given that Hunter crosses up foes and shields, he'll have to connect with the outer tip of the dagger's hitbox to strike with the sword before passing behind his target. A quick foe still can shield hit two, but will eat robust shield damage from the sword for their trouble. Should Hunter instead opt to forego the sword hit and cross up his opponent, the player can buffer Up Special to immediately start prowling away on all fours, perhaps to evade a kneejerk B-Air before turning around to land the command grab. Against foes a hair slower to react, a pivot grab or shorthopped B-Air also can pay off.

If skekMal is lacking both daggers, both swords or has no blades, period, those respective dash attack hits are replaced with tail spins — the first reaching before him ever so slightly more than his dagger hit, and the second swinging back behind him a tad shorter than his blade hit. Both spins deal 6%, with the first popping foes up lightly and the second dealing light forward knockback over skekMal's head. Though Hunter's tail lacks the disjointed hitboxes of his blades, they still have their uses in a pinch — lightly tossing foes into the air with hit one sets skekMal up to pass underneath and pursue with an aerial or diagonal blade toss. Meanwhile, the backward tail hit can punish foes too early to drop shield after the cross-up, and can set up one of those crafty, very hardcore-sounding 50/50s. Depending on skekMal's read, he either can combo into an immediate aerial or make his victim regret a careless air dodge with a charged Smash to catch their landing, quite realistically for the KO.

FORWARD TILT - GUT OPENER
With a tapped input, skekMal points his two daggers forward and spreads his frontal arms wide apart to swipe outward, while with a held input, he leans forward and performs the same animation, using his secondary arms' two swords. The daggers reach out approximately as far as Chrom's jab, dealing 8% and low horizontal knockback that can KO at the ledge around 110%. The swords, meanwhile, extend ever so slightly shorter than Ike's F-Tilt, dealing 13%, plus 15% in extra shield damage, and stronger knockback KOing at ledges closer to 85%. Compared with the radiant sword user's slash, Hunter's daggers come out slightly faster, at frame 9 vs. 12, with the swords falling a bit behind at frame 14; similarly, the former blades have a first actionable frame of 38 vs. 41, while the latter blades lag a touch more, with a frame 50 FAF.

It's definitely not a tilt to be thrown out willy-nilly, though there is a silver lining — skekMal is able to buffer a repeated input during a first F-Tilt's end lag, for either variant, to immediately bust out a second one (though not a third if he tries this yet again). He's able to mix and match the dagger and sword F-Tilt options this way, in both cases able to punish foes who spot dodge or parry just once. A faster dagger F-Tilt can prompt a knee-jerk shield, leaving the victim to eat a sword F-Tilt if they're too hasty to punish or a chunk of shield damage if they're too slow to drop their defenses.

A single dagger F-Tilt can effectively serve as a combo extender, shoving a foe lightly into a thrown blade or Gobbles; two dagger swipes even can help skekMal land the first two hits of a jab lock combos, as a less quick but more ranged option for doing so compared to jab hits one and two. With rage, the daggers' knockback starting at mid-percentages also can reliably send foes into prone if they miss their tech. By comparison, a sword F-Tilt can double as a combo finisher or KO move, potentially prefaced with a shield break — which two consecutive sword swipes will accomplish. This tilt's primary properties remain the same, whether Hunter has one or both daggers or swords. If he's carrying both, though, the tilt variants respectively take on a point-blank 3% or 4% hitbox at the blades' tips, three frames before the moves begin, holding foes in place to be hit by the main slash, comparably to Shulk's F-Smash.

With no blades whatsoever, skekMal simply rends outward with his claws, at a range and with lag falling in between that of the daggers and swords. This deals a lesser 7% and knockback KOing at the ledge at higher percentages, closer to 135% — not as juicy of an option, though given the weaker knockback, Hunter can string two consecutive claw slashes together up until higher percentages than two dagger F-Tilts.

DOWN TILT - WOODLAND EXECUTION

skekMal whips his tail along the ground, twisting to the side slightly, and — if the input is repeated during cooldown — immediately turns back, lifting his swords skyward in one fluid motion over 22 frames before slamming them down at his feet. His tail whip resembles a slightly slower version of Mewtwo's D-Tilt, with a hitbox that pushes foes forward a touch rather than popping them into the air. Hunter's tail deals 6% and has a 40% chance of tripping characters up to moderate percentages (around 65% on Mario) before they start getting weakly launched away — a threshold that drops lower when skekMal has indulged his rage, creating a greater likelihood that his tail knocks them into prone instead. Otherwise, this first D-Tilt hit helps Hunter chain standards together, comboing both into or from jab, and flowing nicely into F-Tilt, a burst dash attack or a returning spat blade. Initiating Up Special also can allow skekMal to tank a tripped foe's get-up attack before swooping in to grab them. Recovering foes are sent at a distinctly unhelpful downward angle if Hunter manages to two-frame with his tail, freeing him up to Up Special run down the ledge in pursuit and leap off with an aerial for the gimp.

A tripped foe can near-instantly roll to avoid the slower second hit of Hunter's D-Tilt, though he can lock off one or both of these get-up options with Gobbles patches with proper foresight. In any case, skekMal's sword slam with both blades deals a brutal 16%, plus 14% in extra shield damage, and vertical knockback KOing around 110%; one sword reduces this down to 12%, with 8% in bonus shield damage and diagonal knockback KOing at 140% — less effective as a finishing blow but situationally better for casting a foe into an aerial thrown blade or Gobbles on a platform. There's some legwork involved in landing either variant of D-Tilt's second hit, though Hunter is aided in that his sword or swords will graze ever so slightly through lower platforms, making shielding above him a dicey proposition.

With no swords, skekMal simply will whip his tail back in the opposite direction for 7% and low set knockback. This second tail hit won't KO on non-walkoffs until rather high percentages, closer to 185%, though like Bowser's D-Tilt, it in combination with Hunter's initial tail whip can come in handy as a two-hit bid for breathing room during an intense match.

UP TILT - TENDERIZER
skekMal grips one dagger his palm and thrusts it upward, snarling as he does so. A tapped input has Hunter poke a short distance with his dagger, dealing a paltry 6% and minor vertical knockback, but over a surprisingly quick timeframe, comparable to a Mario U-Tilt. His dagger reaches up his barely enough to poke through a low Battlefield platform, and doesn't have much in the way of hitbox width — on the whole, skekMal isn't great at covering the air directly in front of him beyond his blade projectiles — though he can effectively juggle foes for two or three hits before going for a 50/50, using a shorthopped aerial or vertically-thrown blade depending on his foe's reaction.

With a held input, Hunter will pause to pull his dagger back over 13 frames before stabbing it more forcefully upward, as though into a target's vital organs. This alternative to his previous poke reaches up about one training stage square, dealing 15%, 10% in added shield damage and vertical knockback KOing around 110%. skekMal has a fair bit more cooldown here, though this stab is a potent shield breaker on foes standing above him, especially if their defensive bubble has been previously whittled down through weaker U-Tilt variants or possibly a thrown sword. Of note, strong U-Tilt stales rather quickly in comparison to most other standards — a reality Hunter can delay but not stave off forever through Down Special rage.

This won't always be a negative, however; while weak U-Tilt is the more versatile juggling move, strong U-Tilt's greater vertical range lets skekMal intercept falling foes from higher up. At mid-percentages, he'll knock foes high enough up to escape immediate punishment; navigating around underneath, he then can threaten to use another strong U-Tilt, and then either do so or surprise his victim with a different option, depending on what is most expedient. A flashy KO setup on foes with higher damage levels involves throwing up a blade (probably a sword, for its larger hitbox) and then using strong U-Tilt to stab a foe upward into the blade closer to the screentop, at the apex of its trajectory.

With no daggers in hand, Hunter will rake one clawed hand through the air in an arc, similarly to a slightly slower but more ranged Luigi U-Tilt. Foes struck will take 9% and a moderate set amount of diagonal downward knockback. Though somewhat tricky to land onstage, this will bounce foes off the ground into an ideal position to be pelted with a thrown blade, unless of course they're sent careening into a Gobbles patch first. The knockback here isn't strong enough to send foes past the point of no return offstage if landed near the ledge, though it can give skekMal a window to run down with Up Special and seal his recovering foe's doom for good measure.

SMASHES​

FORWARD SMASH - TAKEDOWN
skekMal scuffs one foot along the ground while charging, before stabbing outward with one dagger while beginning to walk forward. His stab comes out on frame 12, reaching out as far as Pit's F-Smash to deal 19-26% and knockback KOing from 115-80%. He's able to walk forward up to one second, with his speed varying depending on the move's charge, from his regular walk speed on par with Simon's to that of Incineroar's dash. Fully charged and uninterrupted, Hunter can walk just shy of half Battlefield's distance, with super armor to attacks dealing less than 10% in the process, though if the player would rather not walk into a trap, they can input down at any point after releasing the Smash for skekMal to immediately enter the move's cooldown (whenever he stops walking, he's got 30 frames of end lag before he can act).

Hunter also cannot turn around while walking; instead, if the player holds the control stick backward upon release, he'll stagger his dagger stab until they let go — a situationally good option if the foe is shielding in skekMal's face, and he wants to play a game of chicken seeing when they'll let their guard down. Letting Hunter delay his stab also means, if he breaks a shield at mid- to close-range, he can jump right into charging F-Smash, letting the move itself push the foe closer to the ledge before timing the dagger stab for the KO.

Depending on whether he's carrying both daggers, Hunter has one or two more hits he can pursue during F-Smash, either while walking forward or during the first half of end lag if stopped in place. With both blades in hand, a second input of A will have him perform an extra stab, functionally identical to his first, alternating the dagger he uses in doing so. Outside of really low damage levels on heavier characters, these two stabs won't combo into each other; rather, they can give skekMal a relatively scary means for punishing foes who rush in after a stationary stab one, or for shaving down a shield in his face as he walks.

Depending on how much time Hunter leaves in between stabs one and two, foes can grab him out of this move, though the player can dramatically reduce this risk by buffering stab two after release. Of note, though skekMal still will take damage from blades thrown or spat at him, over the course of F-Smash, he'll laglessly catch blades he himself has thrown upward — meaning, if he snags a dagger midway through walking, he'll suddenly become able to use this second hit. A pretty high-level maneuver involves Z-dropping a dagger Hunter is holding as an item, fastfalling beneath it and initiating a turnaround F-Smash to perform both hits, likely eating through spot dodges or enemy shields below.

With neither dagger, skekMal performs an unorthodox sort of drop kick, using his secondary arms to support his body as he thrusts one foot forward as far and fast as Terry's F-Smash. This deals marginally more damage than Hunter's stabs, at 20-28%, to compensate for the lack of two hits, with knockback KOing from 110-75%. He's still able to walk forward before landing the kick, though it's decidedly less safe on shield, coming out at a slightly slower frame 18. Unlike with his stabs, skekMal does not continue walking forward until his FAF and, because of the one-second cap on doing so, he's likely to traverse far less of the stage with his move variant unless he holds the kick off until the very end. Hunter cannot kick twice over the course of one F-Smash, though if he catches a dagger over the course of kicking or walking, he can transition into the second stab for some "get off me" equity.

Meanwhile, skekMal's third and final F-Smash hit — or second, if he's missing one or both daggers — has him leap into the air at a trajectory and speed similar to Power Dunk, brandishing his swords above his head, before burying them in anything underneath with great force. He's got a rising hitbox of 5%, and then a powerful one on landing dealing 30-42%, plus 5% more if he's carrying both swords and 5% in shield damage. As Hunter's strongest move, period, foes gutted here take knockback KOing from 75-40%, lower with boosted rage. This prospect is all the more scary given his ability to walk forward and influence where he's going to land (leaping up onto a platform, for instance, can really crush a careless foe, given the shorter distance from jump apex to ground).

Tapping the control stick in the opposite direction within the first three frames of this final hit also lets skekMal leap in the reverse direction from his walk. Coupling this with Hunter's ability to time his leap during his walk, this final F-Smash hit perhaps is best used for covering a foe's options in getting out of prone, rather than as a hard punish. With good timing, he also is able to follow behind a slow-thrown Neutral Special sword with his two walking stabs before leaping up and over the projectile for the final hit, covering a significant area with one hitbox or another. As mentioned earlier, Gobbles can restrict enemy movement during get-up to make this finisher easier. Even if skekMal misjudges his leap, he can reduce his risk from F-Smash by hopping into a Gobbles pit, requiring his attacker put themselves in at least some danger to punish him at the cost of some damage himself.

As one might expect, Hunter's end lag here is rather unpleasant, at 45 frames of cooldown upon whiffing. He's near guaranteed to eat a counterstrike if he leaps mindlessly, though as a slight silver lining, the player can input B once or twice during this end lag for skekMal to leave one or both of his swords embedded in the stage. From there, he can pick one out as a throwing item, a feature that won't necessarily save him from a foe charging a Smash in his face, but could give them pause about doing so — or alternatively, invite them to pluck the sword out instead, with all the risks and rewards inherent there. If he leaps into thin air, skekMal falls down a similar distance to Power Dunk, cutting out on end lag if he falls down far enough offstage. His powerful hitbox only is triggered upon hitting the ground, inhibiting him from absurdly early F-Smash KOs offstage. That being said, Hunter can terrify recovering or ledge-hanging foes by F-Smash walking at them. Depending on their reaction, and his spacing, he either can leap up and stab down right at the ledge to cover a get-up option, or leap off the stage entirely, buffering Up Special so as to run back onstage and grab as a mix-up.

Up Special also comes into play when skekMal has no swords in hand. He still can perform this F-Smash leap, though rather than driving blades into a victim, he gains access to an alternative hitgrab variant. He'll plummet down onto a victim, dealing 20-28% and transitioning immediately into his dragging Up Special grab if he connects. It's a less effective Smash in terms of damage and KO potential, though potentially better as far as manhandling a victim and positioning them elsewhere on stage. Given the lack of embedded swords, he also suffers a lesser 30 frames of cooldown on landing. And, unlike regular the F-Smash leap, skekMal does have a second midair hitbox here as he falls, transitioning into his head-crunching aerial Up Special grab if he snags a foe. This becomes another offstage KO tool in his repertoire, capable of catching foes out of mid- to high recoveries, at the cost of Hunter removing himself from the safety of the stage in the process.

DOWN SMASH - BLADE BOOMERANGS
skekMal turns to face the screen, twisting his upper torso slightly, before spinning once with oomph, hurling his blades as ground-grazing horizontal projectiles as he does so. He'll throw his daggers up until half charge and swords beyond that threshold, sending out one blade to each side if he's carrying both and the lone blade in front of him if he has just one. The thrown daggers and swords come out with hitboxes as large as those from Neutral Special — metal blade and Kirby — and respectively travel slightly more or less than Simon's cross, and at a slightly slower or faster pace, depending on charge. As with the Fabio lookalike's projectile, the blades will travel out to maximum range before pausing briefly and boomeranging back to their owner at the same speed. The daggers deal 9-15%, while the swords do 14-20%, with both dealing knockback in the direction they were traveling on impact. A dagger or sword traveling outward will KO from 155-120% or 135-100%, respectively — KO percentages that grow higher when the blades are traveling back to skekMal, with the tradeoff of him being able to combo off of them more easily.

Compared to simply throwing the blades with Neutral Special, Down Smash offers Hunter a few noteworthy alternative projectile properties, for better or worse. Blades tossed via Down Smash only can travel horizontally, giving them limited directional versatility. That being said, they can't be caught out of midair, instead just returning to skekMal if he remains in place after using Down Smash. His FAF comes approximately as the blades reach maximum range in their trajectory, giving him the option to leap over the returning projectiles so they pass underneath him for prolonged duration — in which case, both will travel half as far horizontally in the opposite direction before vanishing (for three seconds for daggers and five for swords).

skekMal automatically will catch D-Smash blades he touches after moving away, too. In getting out of their trajectory, Hunter can find value in using a non-sword melee attack to set foes up for a returning blade, like smacking foes down into one with a claw U-Tilt or popping them into trajectory with a tail dash attack hit. Unlike during Neutral Special throws, D-Smash blades will pass through enemy shields, coaxing those who insist on staying grounded in range to either hold shield or shield twice, like with K. Rool's crown. Spot dodges also can work, though the returning blade likely will punish those who dodge just once near its maximum range.

The blades travel low enough to the ground to where Gobbles patches will grab and spit them back horizontally — something they normally won't do unless Hunter times a shorthop in throwing a blade into the side of a patch on a platform (as regular thrown blades travel over patches when initially thrown, and then are spit back diagonally when their arc lands them in a patch). The Gobbles convert the blade's D-Smash hitbox into that of a thrown blade sped up one increment, rendering it able to damage skekMal but letting him quickly transition into a blade back-and-forth out of D-Smash if desired. The added shield damage from the re-spat blade makes it a dicier move to stand in the blades' path while shielding, especially if Hunter moves so they're stuck dodging the differently-paced Gobbles blade and opposite returning blade at once. If skekMal's timing is particularly good, he can catch the Gobbles' blade and hurl it back at a target as the opposite blade is approaching, too, significantly increasing his odds of landing at least one hit or a shieldbreak.

With no blades, Hunter growls angrily while performing a powerful tail lash, whipping his reptilian appendage to either side in a manner reminiscent of Yoshi's D-Smash. skekMal's variant naturally is slower, approximately as fast as Bowser's D-Smash, but reaches out rather than the green dino's move to deal 12-17% along most of its length, with a sweetspot at the tail's very tip dealing 15-21%. That sweetspot will KO horizontally from 115-80% — lower if Hunter is successful in two-framing with its low hitbox — while the remainder of his tail tends not to KO until high percentages but will knock foes inward, similar to the second hit of blade-less dash attack. Depending on foes' weight and damage percentage, skekMal can then pursue a mixture of 50/50s or follow-up options, not the least of which involve a newly-returned blade thrown upward, an U-Tilt or a shorthopped aerial. Or. . .

UP SMASH - BLADE BLUR
Hunter squats in place, peering upward, before pointing his blades upward and spinning in place with great force, like a more brutal version of Banjo's U-Smash. His momentum is sufficient to send one of his blades careening skyward, spinning vertically as opposed to end-over-end for a taller, thinner hitbox compared to a thrown weapon. Compared to D-Smash, skekMal only will throw up one blade, but similarly, he'll throw a dagger up until half charge and a sword past that point — with the daggers' hitbox being about as tall as a Pikmin, and a bit wider, while the swords are 1.5 times this height and a bit wider still. Charge also determines the thrown blade's height and travel speed, from one to three Ganondorfs at Mario to Fox's dash speed. The blades deal one single strike while traveling upward, with daggers doing 14-20% and vertical knockback KOing from 130-95% and swords inflicting 18-25% and knockback KOing from 110-75%.

Traveling downward, however, the blade's spinning slows its descent down significantly compared to a regular falling projectile, to about half of Jigglypuff's fall speed. At this time, the blade starts dealing three light flinching hits of 3% per second, likely catching foes at low to mid-damage levels a few times before they can DI or fastfall away. This won't trap them for long periods of time but can waylay them just long enough for Hunter to peg them with a more punishing hitbox, or — close to the ground — for the descending blade to sandwich them in against a more powerful thrown or re-spat blade for added damage.

Of course, skekMal can move around and U-Smash repeatedly to send up a barrage of blades, in a manner similar to Snake's U-Smash, though given his FAF comes before the blades start to fall, he then can move around and leap up to pressure a foe into the multi-hit projectiles with his aerials for added damage. The more blades he sends up, the fewer he'll have to use against foes struggling to land, though even with all weapons deployed, grab or Up Special still can work against foes looking to do nothing more than fastfall down and shield the falling blades. The spinning daggers and swords will vanish on impact with the ground, and Hunter will automatically catch them if he touches them while falling. Blades sent spinning up into the underside of Gobbles on a platform will be caught and spat upward, as though skekMal had dropped them in from above.

This situationally can give Hunter great vertical reach, even able to KO foes close to the top blast zone. He can create a real danger zone if he throws multiple blades up into the same patch, though he himself could have trouble catching one or more of these blades unscathed with so many moving up and down close together in quick succession. Another feature of interest — both U-Smash and D-Smash are good options for skekMal to use while trying to hang on to his Down Special rage buffs, given their potentially lengthy active hitboxes and, thus, narrower odds of whiffing compared to his other more succinct attacks.

With no blades in hand, skekMal performs a predatory leap one to two training stage squares into the air, reaching upward with his secondary arms as he does so. This is another hitgrab move in his arsenal; if it connects, Hunter clenches his victim and viciously rams the teeth of his skull helmet into their flesh to deal 21-30%. Rather than knockback, however, the crude impalement inflicts a midair crumple effect on foes, stunning them briefly in place before they're launched a light set distance away. Hunter leaps upward after a brief moment's pause, on frame 12, but has a punishable 54 frames of cooldown as he falls back down to earth and braces himself, restricting it from being a mindless anti-air tool to throw out for casual stun.

Used smartly, however, like amid an airspace of falling U-Smash blades, skekMal can snag a victim and set up a myriad of follow-up possibilities. He has a slight frame advantage on landing the grab, enough to let him land and perform an U-Tilt or shorthopped aerial from underneath. He won't have enough time to stand beneath his stunned foe and charge another U-Smash — the one-second re-grab timer comes into effect here, anyway — though if he reads the foe's knockback trajectory right, he can try following up with another U-Smash, with or without blades, to rack up damage at an exhilarating pace. Even if skekMal plays more conservatively, a scared foe who jumps or dodges in anticipation can render themselves a prime target for a well-placed blade toss.

AERIALS​

NEUTRAL AIR - SHRED
skekMal curls into a ball, extending any blades he's holding out around him before flipping in place to slice outward with all of them at once. Each blade he's carrying expands his hitbox as a disjoint in one of the four cardinal directions, contributing an additional multi-hit to the aerial in the process. His two daggers each deal 3%, reaching out about as far as one of Falco's wings in N-Air, while his swords deal 4% a pop. If the input is tapped, Hunter will flip just once, dealing four rapid hits, starting with his dagger and alternating blade types with each successive hit. The first three hits stun foes in place while the last deals diagonal knockback KOing at the ledge around 120%. Getting hit by any of the blades at close range guarantees that foe will take all upcoming N-Air hits, while the first sword hit will pull targets in slightly from farther away so they're hit with both the following dagger and sword hits. The last sword hit also can land as a lone launching hitbox within a short distance.

At low percentages, Hunter can string multiple tapped N-Airs together in a manner resembling Palutena, but far less cancerous, as his final sword hit will start launching characters out of range earlier. skekMal's N-Air also is a mite slower, with a FAF of 62 — as such, if he's missing a blade or two, a foe can retaliate with a quick attack; a grounded foe even could shield Hunter's first N-Air hit out of shorthop and punish with a quick U-Smash, akin to Ganondorf's N-Air. Throwing one dagger will subtract N-Air's third hitbox, while throwing one sword removes the second hitbox, leaving the first and final hits intact unless those blades, too, are discarded. In any case, using N-Air without cover of all four blades creates some risk for Hunter, though with the potential reward of holding the foe briefly in place to combo into the missing blade or blades as they're returning or falling.

If the input is held, skekMal won't stop at one flip, but rather will repeatedly spin in place to slice as he descends, resembling Bayonetta's spinning gunshots. In doing so, he'll alternate dagger and sword hits, with the same properties as outlined above, though without the final launching sword hitbox unless he exits the move early — a 15-frame process. This variant of Hunter's N-Air lets him use the multi-hits as a drag-down tool, escorting foes from the air to the stage as he buffers a follow-up jab or D-Tilt, or a grab or charged Smash to punish a hasty shield. Of course, if skekMal is missing blades — for example, if he's thrown a dagger and only has N-Air hits one, two and four — he'll have to modify his trajectory in trying to pull foes to the ground, lest they punish his openings. Of note, if skekMal uses this N-Air variant with momentum from swinging off a platform underside with Up Special, he can much more easily cross up enemy shields, or even drag victims a short way horizontally offstage. There, a follow-up N-Air could prove deadly as a multi-hit stage spike tool.

With no blades in his possession, both variants of skekMal's N-Air deliver a single hit, dealing 9% and low outward knockback that won't KO until around 180%. The range here is far more negligible compared to its disjointed counterparts, though Hunter still can find applications for this regular flip at close range. It's an OK move to throw out to quickly strike foes getting up from prone on platforms, or out of shorthop to knock foes back at a low angle, comboing into dash attack at low to mid-percentages.

FORWARD AIR - FULL-MOON SLASH
skekMal extends one blade forward a short distance — a dagger if the input is held, a sword if it's tapped and the remaining blade type by default if both of the other have been thrown — spins it once in a gradual, measured circle, finishing by flicking the blade upward with force. The entirety of the move takes place over 57 frames, with a lingering initial hitbox coming out quickly, on frame 4, and a sweetspot emerging later, on frame 35, in what could be considered a reverse sex kick of sorts. A dagger hit at first will deal 7% and below average knockback, followed by a 12% sweetspot with above average horizontal knockback that will KO at the ledge around 95%. Swords, meanwhile, reach out a bit further (imagine the range of a Marth aerial vs. a Joker one), dealing 11% and moderate diagonal knockback KOing around 140% at the ledge, and then a 16% sweetspot dealing strong vertical knockback KOing in the vicinity of 90%.

F-Air is a good example of a move where skekMal isn't straight-up buffed attacking with a sword vs. a dagger, instead being able to pick and choose which aerial variant he goes for, based on his foe's positioning and which blast zone he'd rather they visit. The delay between the two hitboxes gives Hunter some mix-up potential, especially out of a set-up attack like D-Throw, blade-less dash attack's first hit or rage-buffed Gobbles. In these situations, skekMal can either fade back after landing F-Air's first hitbox or push forward in the hopes of landing the sweetspot, too. Outside of low percentages and large opponents, the two hitboxes won't combo into each other unless skekMal initiates F-Air at point-blank range and pushes inward on his target with some aerial momentum — meaning, if he tries this and his foe shields on the ground, the move becomes decidedly unsafe. F-Air can, however, catch foes offguard if Hunter uses Up Special to swing from underneath a platform, letting him either suddenly burst into a foe's face with F-Air to land the sweetspot, or else using the sweetspot to snag them out of a terrified air dodge.

Offstage, skekMal enjoys F-Air as a mix-up for getting back onto the stage, either from ledge or running up the stage with Up Special, being able to leap up and use F-Air in place to punish careless reactions or at least take a bite out of the standard casual "roll up against the ledge and hold shield" tactic. Hunter puts himself at risk leaping off the stage's side to use F-Air at foes recovering low. By leaping higher up and staggering F-Air, however, he can try baiting an air dodge to ledge before nicking his victim with the sweetspot's periphery — easier to do with a sword, though the vertical knockback could inadvertently save his opponent if their damage isn't too high.

With no blades in hand, skekMal performs a straightforward downward slash with one claw, comparable in function to Wolf's F-Air but over a much more reasonable 53 frames (compared to 41). His swipe deals 14% and diagonal knockback KOing at the ledge around 130%. Though Hunter is unlikely to chain more than two of these F-Airs together past low percentages, it's a workable enough follow-up from some of the moves outlined above, and even a KO option if he's offstage and reads his foe's recovery right.

BACK AIR - PUNCTURE
skekMal turns to face the screen while stabbing a blade behind him at a diagonal downward angle over 42 frames, using the same dagger-vs.-sword control scheme outlined in F-Air. As with its forward counterpart, both B-Air variants have two distinct hitboxes, though the former leaves a bit to be desired. The body of Hunter's dagger or sword deals a respective 5% or 8%, with low to below average diagonal knockback that won't KO until higher percentages. The blades' tips, however, are strikingly powerful at point-blank range, dealing a respective 12% and 17% and spiking knockback that will KO from a stage-bounce at 145% to 125% — obviously far lower if there's no solid ground under the target.

The presence of the vanilla weaker hitbox means Hunter can string together a B-Air or two in close quarters, especially out of a dash attack cross-up or a canceled B-Throw. The sword variant, too, can poke down through drop-through platforms to discourage those running underneath to juggle or U-Smash skekMal. He can't, however, spam the move to wall off foes near the ledge or score mindless KOs after running down the stage's side. Even still, the positioning of the sweetspot does allow for some clever fakeouts with practice.

At close range, skekMal generally must perform at least a full-hop to successfully stick them with the pointy end. This, in turn, lets him far more credibly threaten his opponent when hopping up as the precursor to a so-called-by-slang-spouting-tournament-nerds tomahawk grab, creating a 50/50 in the scenario they try evading such a grab by leaping upward. Against recovering opponents, skekMal's B-Air sweetspot can prove quite frightening, generally serving to deter foes from recovering low. Depending on his foe, Hunter may be well-served hanging around on the stage side close to the ledge, giving him the option either to leap out with B-Air against a target underneath him or — if he's successfully conditioning his foe to recover high, rushing back onto the stage to await them with an equally punishing option.

With no blades, skekMal turns around and performs a trio of claw scratches over 49 frames, trapping foes with two light 4% hits and before launching them a below average diagonal distance with the third, dealing 5% for an acceptable 13% total. Hunter's claws don't have fantastic range, compared to his blades, though landed at close range, the knockback angle can position targets nicely for a diagonally thrown blade (if one returns to skekMal after landing the aerial, or else he's holding one as an item). A claw B-Air also can throw off foes dropping off the ledge to try attacking Hunter as he's clinging to the stage with Up Special, being a rather irritating move for which to time a tech in avoidance of a stage spike on account of the multiple hits.

UP AIR - SKULL SLAM
skekMal tilts his head down slightly, pointing the two shoulder piece horns behind his skull helmet upward, before thrusting his head upward so his noggin collides painfully with a victim. The animation resembles Bowser's old Melee U-Air, taking place over 47, albeit with a two-hit structure more akin to Fox's U-Air. Hunter's horns reach a short distance above him, dealing 5% and stunning victims momentarily, while his headbutt itself deals a powerful 16% and vertical knockback KOing at 90% — lower on platforms or with rage. These two hits won't combo into each other if the foe hits the upper portion of the horns, though the stun stalls them in midair long enough that, unless they're quick to dodge or get out of the way, Hunter can fastfall and jump back up with a successive U-Air to nab them.

The fear of skekMal doing precisely that is enough to put foes on edge if he empty-hops up into their airspace, especially given his option to catch them with a falling U-Air on his way down, though it's somewhat of a commitment, given a relatively narrow auto-cancel window on landing. Hunter has a particularly scary mix-up hanging underneath a top platform, where at any given time he either could fling himself up vertically for a boosted U-Air or simply drop off, jump up and U-Air regularly (or even an aerial Up Special as a third option). This very well could scare foes away from navigating platforms above him, especially if they're hobbled from pummel and not as easily able to slip safely off the sides. This, however, can keep them in closer horizontal range for skekMal's blades. Depending on how high Hunter leaps up, U-Air can be a prime KO follow-up against a foe hit inward from a returning Down Smash blade or trapped in the multiple slices of a falling U-Smash blade.

DOWN AIR - UNDERFOOT CRUSH

skekMal twists himself in midair, spinning once in place as he plummets downward for his own variant of the tried-and-true stall-then-fall. He drops two training stage squares fewer than Ridley's D-Air before regaining control, still likely resulting in a self-destruct if used from the stage proper but giving Hunter some ability to use D-Air offstage from higher up, buffering Up Special to lunge at the stage's side and recover. His body carries a few different hitboxes for opponents to contend with: Hunter's bottom half deals 15%, spiking midair foes to fall alongside him with above average force and, against grounded foes, diagonal knockback KOing around 130%. Those impacted by skekMal's mid-section a bit higher up, however, are whipped back lightly by his tail, taking 7% in the process as their attempt to knock him out of the move falls flat.

On that note, D-Air is perhaps most effective when implemented into Hunter's gameplan as a bait-and-punish type move. Though skekMal poses briefly upon landing, as with Game & Watch's D-Air, he has surprisingly low landing lag for what one might expect with such a move, at 25 frames — punishable against a prepared or fast opponent, but easily capable of flustering a victim into a precarious reaction when thrown out less predictably. This lower lag also renders D-Air a good option for Hunter in suddenly dropping out of horizontal or vertical momentum from an Up Special platform swing, especially if a foe is moving in on him. And more generally, D-Air can spike foes down into a Gobbles patch alongside skekMal, priming him for a jab lock combo on account of his lack of flinch, or even to the bottom blast zone for a last-ditch sacrificial option off of clinging to the stage's side.

FINAL SMASH​

FINAL SMASH - CLAIMING OF TROPHIES
skekMal lets out a roar echoing with the Final Smash effect before rapidly charging forward three-quarters of Final Destination, knocking up to three foes struck into a cutscene. The victim or victims can be seen bodily bound and struggling against ropes, dangling in the dark space underneath the roots of a massive tree. Metallic scraping noises can be heard offscreen, before the camera turns to show Hunter, approaching past a campfire while brandishing his blades and muttering, "At last, you are awake. We can begin." He darts offscreen at the characters, as an abundance of flesh-tearing sounds ring out alongside the victims' KO noises.

The characters take 55% in total across numerous hits and, upon returning to the stage, are launched powerfully, with force sufficient to KO around 50%. skekMal also heals 25% for each victim he's nabbed, making this a potentially dominant Final Smash in FFA settings. Speaking of which, if Hunter grabs the Smash Ball or fills his meter multiple times over the course of a match, "trophies" of any characters previously caught in the attack can be seen dangling from the tree roots — Bowser's horns, Yoshi's tongue, Meta Knight's wings or just distinctive severed body parts for the more human characters. All the hunters...warriors...now their strength is skekMal's own.

EXTRAS​

UP TAUNT - PREDATORY PRIORITIES
skekMal folds his primary arms, pointing forward with one of his secondary claws and declaring, "When will you learn? Only the hunt matters..."

SIDE TAUNT - WOODLAND WHETSTONE

skekMal extracts a blade at random and grinds it slowly across a round stone in his other hand, causing visual sparks to fly out around him. If he's thrown all of his blades, he'll simply take out the stone and gaze at it briefly before stowing it in one of his waistband pouches.

DOWN TAUNT - WARRIOR'S SLIGHT
skekMal clenches his four claws into fists and grunts out, "Coward!"

ENTRANCE - SKEKSIS SUMMONS
The faint sound of tribal horns — those at the Skeksis' castle — can be heard in the background, presumably as one of skekMal's brethren call him from afar. Simultaneously, Hunter skulks onto the stage from in between some underbrush appearing out of hammerspace, before slicing it away with a sword and threatening, "I've come for my prize!"

VICTORY POSE #1 - PREDATORY PROCLAMATION
skekMal holds his daggers and swords skyward with all four arms, bellowing for all to hear, "Nothing can stop the hunt!"

VICTORY POSE #2 - SWINGING SKEKSIS
The camera focuses in on skekMal as he swings from and crawls clinging around a number of above-ground tree limbs. After a time, he leaps down with a snarl, landing and posing on all fours.

VICTORY POSE #3 - POST-HUNT CLEANUP
skekMal can be seen running a wet cloth over his two swords, both of which appear to be dripping a red liquid (alternatively colored, depending on the losers), before stowing them in sheaths on his back with a reptilian hiss.

VICTORY THEME - DRAMATIC DARK CRYSTAL
skekMal shares an orchestrated snippet from the main Dark Crystal theme with the rest of his race.

LOSS POSE - SEETHING SKEKSIS
skekMal applauds slowly, with his skull helmet tilted downward so players can just barely make out his irate eyes glinting from underneath.

LINK TO CHANGE LOG (last updated 1/1/2021):
1. Slightly decreased hit rate for Gobbles, giving foes greater leeway to escape stunning patches
2. Slightly decreased HP for Gobbles, tweaked design so foes can attack Gobbles without taking damage
3. Slightly nerfed dash, jumpsquat frame debuffs on pummel's "hobble" status effect