Shade
"The Twilight Cage has been re-opened! Shade joins the Brawl!"_Unlock message.
Character Info
A member of the legendary
Nocturnus echidna clan, this female echidna has been living for thousands of years sealed in another realm known as the Twilight Cage. Her clan's corrupted leader, Ix (for short) stole the Chaos Emeralds after managing to escape the Twilight Cage using advanced technology. She joins Sonic and co. in
Sonic Chronicles for the Nintendo DS when she discovers Ix wants to conquer Sonic's world.
Animations
Idle: Shade takes a boxing-esque stance, moving her arms in a defensive manner while slightly hopping foot to foot.
Walking: Shade steps forwards cautiously, fists raised in front of her.
Running: Shade folds her arms back (similar to Sonic's run) as she speeds forward, her locks flapping in the air a bit.
Dizzy/Stunned: Shade stands with her hands at her sides, and her head tilted back slightly, small white stars "exploding" near her head (visual touch-up only).
Crouching: Shade sticks one leg out while bending on the other, with one hand resting on her knee and the other supporing her on the ground.
Rolling: Shade curls up similar to Sonic's spindash and rolls across the ground, quickly unfolding into her stance.
Shielding: Shade puts one foot back as if to brace herself as she folds her arms across her chest and tilts her head forward.
Side-Step: Shade leans into the background, her arms flailing as if she is about to fall of an edge; similar in a way to R.O.B.'s. She stands on one leg, the other kicking backwards and then stepping back onto the arena.
Air-Dodge: The echidna curls up momentarily, trying to make herself harder to hit.
Ledge-Grab: Shade grabs the ledge momentarily, then punches the side to firmly encamp her fist in the wall. Her other hand hands freely, and her feet are firmly against the wall (resembles a wall-cling).
Climb-Up (from ledge): The ex-
nocturnus cartwheels from the ledge onto the stage, a quiet crack sounding when she yanks her hand free from the wall.
Ledge-Roll: Shade leaps into the air slightly, then forward rolls onto the stage.
Ledge-Jump: Shade leaps upwards, one knee brought up, while her arms and other leg are trailing.
Poses
Victory Pose 1: Shade stands facing away from the camera, hand on one hip, the other grasping a devlish looking blade, her laughter resonating quietly in the background.
Victory Pose 2: Shade looks at the other contenders, then looks at the camera, then yawns while she scratches her head.
Victory Pose 3: Shade jumps up, spinning completely around once while in the air, with her fist in the air as she does so. When she lands, she throws her palm forward (resembling Mario's Forward Smash, but without fire), her other hand curling into a fist.
Losing Pose: Shade stands head-up and respectively, clapping quickly for the victor.
Alt. Costumes
Alt. Costume 1: What parts of her costume are hued yellow; black is changed to white.
Alt. Costume 2: Shade's white parts are red, her eyes dark red, and her black is a deep purple.
Alt. Costume 3: Shade's black is blue, and white is grey.
Alt. Costum 4: Shade's black is brown, and the white is lime green, almost glowing. Her eyes are a dark, glowing green.
Miscellaneous
Leech Blade: Shade has a special attribute, and that is her main weapon of choice, the Leech Blade. Any time she uses it in an attack, she does damage to her opponent, while decreasing hers. Note she does NOT gain much health/lose much damage this way.
Stats
*1 being worst, ten being best
Walking Speed: 3/10
Running Speed: 4/10
Primary Jump: 6/10
Secondary (double) Jump: 5/10
Size: 5/10
Range: 6/10
Weight: 5/10
Power: 5/10
Final Smash: 8/10
Abilities
Footstool Jump: Yes
Wall Jump: Yes
Wall Cling: Yes
Crouch: Yes
Crawl: Yes
Specials
Neutral Special: Blade Drop
Shade is propelled forward around 3 stage builder blocks (SBB's), slashing horizontally with her Leech Blade when she enters the last SBB-length of her attack. This move has just above average priority, usually making it safe to use as a reliable approach.
During the first SBB's of this attack, Shade's body is the only hitbox, doing 4 to 9% damage with minimal knockback. However, when Shade reaches the 3rd SBB, she draws her sword, capable of doing 6 to 11% damage. The swords knockback is mediocre, not great but K.O.'able on Mario at around 110% damage.
If Shade uses Blade Drop while airborn, she will propel 6 SBB's downwards, drawing her sword at the 3rd SBB and sheithing it at the end of the 5th SBB, so the end of her attack does not involve the Leech Sword (when airborn). This move does NOT render Shade invulnerable after used in the air.
While on the ground, if Shade happens to be close and facing a ledge when she uses this move, she WILL fall of the edge, but will be able to recover.
Blade Drop has .5 seconds of start-up lag, but virtually no ending lag. While airborn, if you press forwards during that start-up time, when Shade performs the move you'll be propelled forwards instead of downwards. Shade only moves 3 SBB's forwards in the air instead of 6 SBB's downwards.
As stated earlier, this move has above good priority, making it a noteworthy approaching move. The near laggless ending helps bunches as well, however it evens out in that teh beginning of the move has a slight amount of lag, making the move predictable.
Leech Blade: Shade's Leech Blade drains energy from her opponent and transfers it to her. The Leech Blade, however, drains less and less energy from every attack you use it, just like the stale move system.
In Blade Drop, the Leech Blade will restore/decrease 0 to 4% health/damage. Every two attacks, it's effectiveness is lowered by 1%. Every 30 seconds it isn't used it's effectiveness is restored by 1%.
Side Special: Blade Rush
Shade remains stationary, and slashes her Leech Blade up to 5 times very quickly.
An individual slash does 3 to 5% damage, but for every cosecutive slash 1% is added. That makes the damage totals out to be 7 to 9% damage total. The 2nd slash has K.O. potential on Mario at around 132% damage, while the 5th slash has K.O. potential on the same plumber at around 119% damage. The other strikes do not have real K.O. potential, with minimal knockback.
You activate consecutive slashes by tapping B after executing the first slash. This is similar to Marth's side special, except no further directional imput is necessary (as the attack doesn't have alternate directional slashes), and comes out much faster. If you press B + left/right, Shade will slash once; if you hold B (left/right isn't required), and then release after Shade glows yellow-ish, she will execute a strong 2nd slash, capable of K.O.'ing Mario at around 115% and dealing 3 to 6% damage. Note that consecutive slashes can NOT be added after this strong 2nd slash.
The 2nd and 5th slashes have good priority, while the 1st slash has mediocre priority, and the 3rd and 4th slashes have bad prioriy. As fast as you can tap the B button is as fast as Shade will execute the slashes, and there is a .5 time limit between slashes. You have up to .5 seconds to execute the next slash; if you fail to do so, the move ends prematurely.
All slashes come out practically immediately, except the first slash, which has about .5 seconds of start-up lag. When Shade uses this move in the air, she will spin around very fast in the same motion Kirby's Hammer side-special from
Melee. In the air this move does 5 to 11% damage with medium priority.
Now for the Leech Blade: The Leech Blade absorbs 0 to 1% damage on contact for the 1st, 3rd, and 4th slashes. For the 2nd and 5th slashes, it absorbs 0 to 3% damage; every three slashes, the value decreases by 1%, and every 20 seconds it is restored by 1%.
Up Special: Echidna Rush
Shade freezes in the air, then teleports around 4 SBB's ahead in whichever direction you tilt the control stick. An after image remains where she was, then after images zoom up to her. This happens very quickly, with 1 second of start-up lag.
Shade's Echidna Rush does 4 to 9% damage as she teleports (the after image and her appearing both cause damage), and when her after images rush forward towards it, 3 to 7% damage can be caused. Knockback is low, and K.O.'ing with this move isn't likely, so I won't give a percentage.
Echidna Rush has 1 second of start-up lag, as well as a predictable nature; although it happens quickly, once Shade appears opponents will know not to go, and as her after images move towards her she is incapable of moving, not even D.I.'ing. The good thing is Shade's after images catch up to her pretty quick, so it's not TOO big of an issue.
This is a fair recovery, it can travel 4 SBB's in any direction, the if you opponent is dumb enough, they might go for the after image Shade leaves behind when she teleports. Shade herself only has a hitbox as she reappears, and the hitbox is her body. She doesn't have good knockback, and neither do the after images, although the after images will freeze an opponent in place until they have all past (which still goes by pretty quickly).
Shade does NOT use her Leech Blade for this attack, so no point in talking about it here.
Down Special: Cloak
The in-game description of this attack states Shade activates her cloaking device, making her faster and hardy to hit in combat. So that's what happens here. When you activate her Cloak, she kneels down, and waits one second, then she partially fades into the background. When you deactivate the cloak, shade does not kneel over, she just becomes [easily] visible.
Shade's Cloak does no damage... to her opponent. Every second you remain cloaked, 1% damage is piled onto Shade. Shade's Leech Blade is essentual to keeping your damage down, as this move will come in handy.
when Shade is idle, she is almost invicible, her outline "flashing" on different parts of her body constantly, giving a small signal Shade is there. When shade walks, she'll be a bit easier to see, but also walks faster than when uncloaked. When she dashes she'll be easier yet to spot, but dashes much faster than usual. Think of this as a toned-down version of the cloaking device from Melee. The cloak will automatically turn off after 15 seconds, and will need to charge for 5 before it can be used again.
The cloaking device is necessary for Shade; with her normally slow movements and mediocre to low priority PLUS start-up lag, Shade finds it a bit difficult to approach an enemy. The Cloak allows her to persue her enemy.
It is necessary for Shade to score hits when she activates the cloaking device. Every second that passes, Shade recieves 1% damage, so consecutive strikes from her Leech Blade are necessary to keep her in fighting condition. It'll take some practice/skill in order to balance out her Leech Blade attacks with her Cloak, and to know when to use the Cloak as well.
If you never use the cloak and constantly attack with the Leech Blade, you'll find that you're gaining more damage than losing. The Leech Blade only works for so long, and Shade has poor approaches, so you're in for a struggle if you choose not to utilize the Cloak.
It is mentionable that Shade's movements in the air are not affected by the Cloak, as in she will not move through the air faster than normal, or drop faster. Only her grounded movements (and NOT attacks) are sped up.
Walking Speed changes to: 5/10
Running Speed changes to: 6/10
Standard Attacks
Standard A: Shade swipes through the air in a diagonal manner with her Leech Blade.
This swipe has mediocre priority, nothing to brag about, and can be easily side-stepped, as it isn't the quickest standard around, and a slight amount of start-up lag makes it somewhat predictable. Just a tad of ending lag ensues, making Shade's Standard A punishable with a bit of effort put into it.
Shade's standard A does not have any combos like Ct. Falcon's or Kirby's, and does 3 to 7% damage.
Leech Blade: For her standard attack, Shade's Leech Blade restores/decreases 0 to 2% health/damage. Every two attacks, the % decreases by 1; every 20 seconds, the amount is restored by 1%.
Tilts
Forward Tilt: Chao Aid-Ghise
*Chao aid is when a Chao is used to attack.
Ghise is an elemental Chao, it's specialty being water. As you activate this attack, a water bubble splashes upwards and forwards slightly at about one SBB block upwards (from the ground), and twists into Ghise. This happens very quickly.
As soon as Ghis appears, he twists back into the water bubble which then vanishes. There is some start-up lag as usual, and the attack does 2 to 6% water damage.
Shade's forward tilt has low priority, some start-up lag, and low knockback, but does double the damage against fire-based enemies such as Charizard. Ghise also eliminates fire hazards produced by characters, such as Mario's fire ball, and Bowser's flame breath.
While Ghise has the edge over fire, electricity shuts it down, as in the attack will do half the damage it normally does against something like Pikachu, and in the case Ghise is hit by Pikachu's thunder jolt, double the damage will be transfered over to shade. Be careful with this!
Down Tilt: Shade-Shot
Very quickly, Shade drops to her crouching shot and delivers a punch; OW FOR THE GUYS!!! She packages her punch in a sweeping motion, causing characters to fall/trip at low percentages.
Trip PercentagesLight: Trip at 2 to 18%
Middle: Trip at 5 to 14%
Heavy: Trip at 8 to 13%
Shade's down tilt does 3 to 7% damage, with good priority for a d-tilt. It executes fast with less start-up lag than most of her attacks. If this move doesn't trip, it will knock the opponent into the air and away from Shade, but not very far. This move has relatively low knockback.
Up Tilt: Chao Aid-Zimba
Shade lifts her arm above her head, and a tiny grey Chao appears in her outstretched palm; the Chao emits a spark of electricity as it appears, and then disappears in a flash. The electric Chao is Zimba.
Once again, Shade has some start-up lag when using this move. Zimba remains in her palm for only about .5 seconds, and then the move is over. Zimba creates an "orb" of electricity around itself, which shrinks as soon as it appears. When it gets to small to contain teh Chao, he'll disappear as it shrinks into nothingness. Virtually no ending lag is evident in this attack.
Even though it's surrounded by electricity, Zimba has low priority, and to make matters worse for Shade, she is open to attack from landlubbing enemies, as almost the entire hitbox is above her head. The electricity does 4 to 8% damage, with little knockback, and no K.O. potential.
Shade's Up Tilt does twice as much damage to water-based characters such as Squirtle, and stops water projectiles in their tracks. Zimba (Shade's Chao Aid for this move, remember) does 1.5 as much damage to drenched opponents, meaning if they just jumped out of water, Zimba will do more damage than normally.
Smash Attacks
Aerials
Final Smash
*More on the way, let me know how you think!