Omg Cactaur
CACTAUR
Funny, simplistic looking cactus guy with two eyes, a mouth, arms and legs. He likes to run away from battles but is also pretty loaded so if you can kill him before he gets away you can get rich. Like a cactus, Cactuar has spikes. Unlike a cactus, he can shoot them out at high velocity, therefore the 1000 Needles attack which deals exactly 1000 damage.
When thrown or when hitting with a physical attack, Cactuar can deal extra damage according to how many spines he has, although this subtracts the number of spines he has on him. The amount can be estimated visually by how large the three spines on his head are. His walking and running animations are 2 frames each(similar to Final Fantasy animation) while his attack animations aren’t much smoother. Without spines, all of his attacks do mediocre damage. With spines, he can gimp as well as add knockback and damage to attacks.
Ground
Neutral combo: Headbutt. Multiple hits at low percentages due to little knockback. 1 spike can be embedded in enemy per hit.
(3%)
Ftilt: Leans forward and waves his arm out. Has better knockback but still crap range (all of his normals do). Can embed up to 2 spines.
(7%)
Utilt: Hops upward a little headfirst. Can be chained due to little knockback and lag. 2 spines.
(6%)
Dtilt: Sticks his foot out to trip from a crouching position. It stays out with its hitbox and has decent upwards knockback for Cactaur. 3 spines, hits upward.
(10%)
Fsmash: Lunges forward suddenly with a swift shin kick. Powerful knockback but laggy afterwards, and can embed up to 5 spines into an enemy.
(13%)
Usmash: Cactaur launches himself off the ground with a cartwheeling motion. Not enough knockback to be a reliable killing move, but it has some duration to cover it afterwards. Can embed up to 4 spines into an enemy.
(12%)
Dsmash: Cactaur dashes back and forth suddenly several times which will knock enemies away. Knockback is weak for a smash attack although it sends enemies at a low trajectory and can only embed 2 spines.
(14%)
Throws
Grab: Waves arm out. Short ranged and quick.
Running grab: Cartwheel-like motion forward which allows him to grab. More lag at end.
Pummel: Cactaur slap! Grab: Waves arm out. Short ranged and quick.
Fthrow: a kick to the shin knocks the enemy away weakly
(7%)
Bthrow: The equivalent of a suplex for Cactaur. Also weak.
(9%)
Uthrow: Tosses the enemy up and braces himself, enlarging his spines. Enemy lands and receieves damage and vertical knockback. Does not use spines however. A little stronger than his other throws. (7%)
Dthrow: Trips enemy and hops on them a couple of times before they fall away. “Boing” sound effects would be fun. Knockback pushes the enemy away but can be followed at lower percentages.
(10%)
Aerials
Nair: Cactaur’s spines enlarge all over his body one right after the other before reverting to normal size (and get all shiny. Last hitbox involves all spines to enlarge and shrink one last time causing knockback not quite enough to be a kill move. Strangely, will only embed 1 spine.
(up to 14%)
Fair: A weak kick forward with some duration added on and little lag upon landing. 1 spine.
(7%)
Bair: Turns parallel with the ground and shoves both his arms above his head (which at this point will be behind him). More duration, knockback, and damage, as well as embedding up to 2 spines.
(9%)
Uair: Shoots three spines from the top of his head while in a standing position, which propels him downwards as well. Range of spines reaches up to a Luigi-height above him, and decent knockback for Cactaur. Spines do not embed, and attack does not work if Cactaur has no spines.
(11%)
Dair: Cactaur gains some downward movement while doing his running animation incredibly fast. The hitbox is around the feet, and they do multiple weakly spiking hits. No needle embeddment(eh?)
(2-12%)
Specials
Neutral B: Spine Generation: Cactaur plants his feet, and spines enlarge and shrink on him randomly. This generates his spines, which cause 1% damage each when embedded into an opponent.
Hitting with a physical attack or being grabbed makes him lose a certain amount of spines, which embed themselves in the opponent and do extra damage in the case of attacking and causing some damage in return in the case of being grabbed (depends on how powerful the throw used). Press rapidly to generate more spines, and can be done on both ground and in the air. At higher percentages (around 60-80% maybe, obviously I can’t do testing to see if it’s too ineffective or broken), Cactaur produces 2 spines for every B button press.
(no damage, not sure about spine limit)
Side B: X Needles: Cactaur shoots needles forward. Amount and thus damage is equal to how many spines Cactaur has at the moment. It can be powerful if Cactuar has generated a lot and has not engaged in physical combat for awhile.
Needles have pushing effect similar to the Water attacks but also do 1% damage each and a weak flinch effect. (not sure what the max # of needles should be). These needles do not embed, however.
(damage is Variable)
Up B: Float: Cactaur turns 90 degress and runs UPWARD. Also, there's a trail of greenish afterimages he leaves behind him when he does this, to increase the trippiness. Path can be curved, and although Cactaur does not damage foes upon contact, he shoots out a random amount of spines (up to 10) whenever he uses this attack which can cover his retreat but also makes recovering costly in terms of damage output. The longer you hold the B button, the further Cactaur runs. This increases recovery potential, landing lag, and number of spines released.
(variable damage)
Down B: Echo Prick: Cactaur’s spines all enlarge in all directions for a small hitbox covering all around him. The startup is incredibly quick and it deals a major amount of stun if you hit with it directly. Knockback is not quite moderate, although there is lots of stun time, and the direction of knockback relates to where Cactaur hits the opponent (legs = down, head = up, etc)
Also, utilizing this move will cause all spines in opponents to enlarge as well, dealing 1% damage per spine once again. The knockback of embedded spines with the Down B is determined by from what direction and angle the attack landed on which caused the embedding. For instance, hitting an enemy with a Dair, throwing them off the stage, and then using Down B will cause the enemy to be knocked downward slightly which can gimp recovery. However, if Cactaur jumps after them and Echo Pricks directly on them they will be hit downwards, and in addition the embedded spines will contribute to knockback which makes it similar to a spike. Knocking an opponent to magnifying-glass distance and using this move before knockback ceases can push the enemy over the blast line.
However, despite the killing and disrupting potential of this move, it is not quite as useful unless spines are embedded in the opponent which is determined first of all by how much you use the Neutral B, and second of all spines disappear from an opponent after 3 seconds or so after the attack takes place (Like I can do testing to determine what time frame is appropriate to keep it from being useless or overpowered) so to capitalize the Down B must be done soon after an attack.
Note that hitting directly with this does not embed spines, and that the spines will automatically disappear after this attack is used regardless of how much time they would have left. (actual contact: 5%. Other effects cause variable damage)
FINAL SMASH: GIANT CACTAUR
Cactaur runs off stage and comes back as a Jumbo Cactaur (not as big as Giga Bowser) who leaps off into the background and fires his 10000 needles attack towards the screen. Not all 10000 needles can actually do damage, most of the needles simply doing a pushing effect. However, some of the needles are much larger and denser and will do serious knockback. Overall, an opponent could expect to receive anywhere from 40% to 60% damage on average.
Taunts
Up Taunt: Cactaur brushes his head as if he was a cool dude fixing up his pompadour.
Side Taunt: Cactaur Hopscotch!!!
Down Taunt: Cactaur runs in place for a couple of seconds.
Victory Poses:
1) Cactuar does his two-frame run animation in place.
2) Cactuar waves a bag with a money sign on it tauntingly at the screen (Cactaurs are worth lots of GP/AP in the games if you could actually kill them)
3) I would love to see Cactuar imitate Falcon’s win pose where he does a spinning air kick followed by crouching with a shaky palm.
Pros:
+ Small
+ Fast on ground and air
+ Fast attack speed
+ Spines: unique playing style, can help for gimps and kills
+ X Needles can rack up lots of damage
+ Specials and Normals have lots of synergy
Cons:
- LIGHT
- Horrible range
- Bad priority
- No spammable moves
- Reliant on spines for pretty much everything; spine upkeep problems
Strategery
I'll provide a more indepth explanation of Cactuar's Spine Mechanic here. When Cactuar lands a physical attack on an unblocking foe, it can embed up to a certain amount of spines into the opponent depending on the attack. Cactuar must use his Neutral B to generate spines. Throwing Cactuar also results in some spines being embedded, depending on how powerful the throw is.
Each spine does 1% damage, so if Cactuar has a liberal amount of spines and does his Fsmash on an opponent which does 13%, he will in addition embed 5 spines in the opponent bringing up the total damage to 18%.
Echo Prick is an attack with very limited range, hitting all around Cactuar, comes out incredibly fast, does low knockback in relation to the angle it is at, and enlarges all spines embedded in opponents causing each spine do deal 1% damage again and do knockback according to the angle they were embedded into the foe.
So in using the Fsmash example again. Cactuar just dealt 18% damage (13% from smash, 5% from spines) to an opponent and they are sent flying. Well, they aren't sent flying very far because this IS Cactuar we're talking about. On the other hand, using Echo Prick while the knockback is still in effect will deal 5% more damage if that many spines are still in the opponent, and more importantly increase the knockback in that direction. Provided their back is still facing towards the direction they are being propelled and they were Fsmashed from the front on, the spines will stack their knockback to the point where the opponent might be pushed off the blast line. Of course, if the spines are in the wrong angle this could save the enemy as well.
Spines stay embedded in an opponent for up to 4 seconds (anyone want to recommend a time limit change, or more importantly a maximum amount of spines being able to be generated and the maximum number of spines that can be embedded in a foe all at once?), so in order to take advantage of the Echo Prick you have to use it in a short amount of time after the embedding.
|End Moveset|
Cactuar's Moveset has leveled up! Now he can effectively DrillShine. Are you happy now, Chief Mendez? Do you realize the terror you have wrought?!
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