They told me that the tower is Swarming with Team Plasma Grunts, and that I might have trouble if I go in without a full team of Pokemon. At first I object, but then realizing that half my team is fatigued from the gym battle, I asked where I could get one in time that would be battle-ready. Luckily, Bianca had a Pokemon on-hand she won in a contest, but was a bit too high level and didn’t listen to her since she only had a few badges. Thus, Cell the Duosion joined the team.
Fighting our way up the tower, Cell’s powerful Psychic abilities and surprising durability helped make short work of the grunts we encountered. Meeting up with Brycen near the top, he held off other grunts as I went to the final floor, where N was waiting with a mysterious, huge Pokemon. After giving a bit of a speech of how he’s going to use the Pokemon to liberate the other Pokemon, he escapes on it’s back and Plasma disperses. After meeting with Alder outside the tower, and taking a trip back to the Ruins to hear more from a Plasma Sage by the name of Ghetsis, me and the full team decide to move on to the next gym to get all 8 badges and stop N from using the mysterious Pokemon to become champion, and thus have the power to act out his plans.
In combat, Cell uses her vast array of Psychic powers to manipulate the foe, and although she makes Havok look like a Lamborghini in terms of movement, she has incredible durability to make up for it thanks to her Up Special, Psychic “traps”, and her ability: Magic Guard. Due to her Psychic ability and odd body, she is able to simply shrug off any attack that is not powerful enough to cause knockback, including Poison Damage or any kind, Flinching attacks and the like. Moves that cause KB at higher damages will still affect her, as will pummels however, but at low % many characters will have a hard time damaging her at all.
SIZE: 4 (Just smaller than Wario due to her short stature)
WEIGHT: 5 (Tie with Ness/Lucas/Pit)
GROUND: 1 (Comparable to Ganon and Jigglypuff, she at least has a good walk speed)
AIR: 6.5 (2 in acceleration, has a standard jump as she telekinetically lifts herself up, and then a massive double jump with slightly less distance than Yoshi’s Flutter Jump, but a bit more speed)
FALL: 1 (Between Peach and Jigglypuff)
Cell doesn’t have any real advantages stat-wise, being slow, small, somewhat light, extremely floaty and with a bit above average air speed, making just about anybody able to run circles around her. However, her psychic moves more than make up for this due to the sheer amount of control she can achieve over the flow of battle, as well as having an amazing second jump and healing factor to add to her durability (not to mention magic guard).
B: FUTURE SIGHT
Cell closes her eyes, concentrating for a moment, she will then create a sparkling circle on the stage resembling a PK effect used by the Mother-boys about the size of a bumper that will flicker for about two seconds before disappearing. After about 7 seconds however, the flash will re-appear explosively (with a little flicker of warning) as the Future Sight attack is unleashed in a blast the size of PSI-Magnet, doing 10% and KB strong enough to kill at 150% on average.
Taking about as long as Din’s Fire to send out, the beauty of this move is that you can have multiple Future Sights in play at once, up to 3 in fact. It’s best to try and stagger these around the stage a bit to throw opponents off, especially at different times (doing 4 in a row or in the same spot will clue the foe in to where they are at all times for example). Mostly this is used to cover yourself or your team mates, as opposed to straight-up offense. The timer on the move creates a “danger zone” for the foe where you can hide out and set up other moves, or heal with Up B, and is just long enough to abuse with a switch either right away or timed within a blast. Overall this really makes up for her mobility issues with the ability to control space without having to actually out maneuver the foe, forcing them instead to maneuver around you.
SIDE B: LIGHT SCREEN
Waving her arms before her, up and down once each, Cell materializes a literal wall of psychic energy the size of pit’s Mirror Shield over the course of half a second. This wall resembles a pikmin-thick sheet of transparent glass, only visible by the slight glimmer it creates as well as how it reflects light effects and characters on it’s surface. Like with Future Sight, this can be placed anywhere you please as well as be angled 45* up or down by angling the input.
Unlike Future sight however, besides being only able to have 1 out at a time, it behaves like a literal wall as opposed to one put into the opponent’s psyche. A Light Screen stops opponents by not allowing them to pass through unless invincible (you can dodge past and get-up from edge past them), and in general behaves very much like a wall in that you can tech off them, bounce off them, stand on angled ones and so forth. Another bonus is that Light Screens last indefinitely as long as Cell is on the field, or until they are attacked for 20%. When Cell switches out, her psychic energy begins to fade and the wall will disappear over the next 10 seconds. Use it how you will, but this can be an excellent tool for herding foes, as based on it’s placement they will eventually have to react to it in some way, such as leaping over it, hiding behind it (as you may do too in many cases), or being stopped by it during a ballsy off-stage maneuver where you place it to intercept their recovery path.
UP B: RECOVER
Relaxing as she brings her arms inward, over the next quarter second she will begin to have a feint white aura surround her, before finally having small white lines be pulled into her rapidly as she begins to heal her body using psychic energy. Said healing comes in at a steady stream adding up to 6% per second as you hold the input down, with a tap netting you 3% and locking you in the move for a whole second, as the end lag matches the start-up as she comes out of her own little world of health.
Replacing your recovery move with recovery fittingly, doing this move every once in a while should keep you at a reasonable %, augmenting your survival to more than make up for your recover and weight over time. Given your stage control you should find little pauses here and there to recover 5-10% here and there, combined with little threat from most projectiles and DoT moves, you shouldn’t be worried about being at unreasonable health for long.
SWITCH-OUT: TRICK ROOM
Cell is one of the three who have a Switch-Out attack for when she exits the field, meaning that just before switching out of battle she automatically performs this attack while returning to the pokeball.
In her case, she performs Trick Room. While being returned, her arms will glow with dull blue light as she spins into the pokeball, releasing a wavy, transparent blue effect the radius of a Platform around herself. Any foe caught in this effect as it is out will be stop-watched inside it for the duration of 2 seconds, where it will then wear off and they will rapidly catch up to speed.
The best use of this of course is to link directly to the opposite Switch-In attacks other team mates have, as all foes will be in perfect range to be smacked by them. Others can benefit too however, as the free second will give a moment to space, or even just get free hits for momentum once they get out, taking advantage of the one second the foe is stuck in slow-mo.
JAB: DIZZY PUNCH
Winding up her right arm while making a “fist”, she will then slug it forward in an arc that will spin her gelatinous body around herself in a somewhat comical manner, doing 7% and throwing foes for a loop, literally. While taking a bit longer than Sonic’s Fsmash, with KB compared to Ganon’s Jab and good range comparable to Bacon’s Ftilt, Dizzy Punch will also reverse the foe’s direction like Mario’s Cape as they get knocked away, however unlike the cape they are actually reversed for the next half second, like with Palkia on the Spear Pillar. While brief, making left right, up down while a foe is knocked away from you can make the opponent pretty confused in terms of options, as they will definitely focus more on righting themselves than making an immediate counter-strike, giving Cell valuable time to work her magic. The only trick now is landing the move…
FTILT: SNATCH
Reaching out with an outstretched arm, accompanied by a light blue glow effect, Cell will swipe forward doing a mere 5% and little KB on hit. While being much faster than Jab with a bit more reach due to the stretch, at a glance it doesn’t seem all too impressive a move. But like all her moves, there’s a trick to it. Beyond her hand the attack actually stretches out a Platform beyond the hitbox, but will do no damage, and be unnoticed in general unless a certain criteria is met: the foe in range is using an in-direct attack (they will also glow blue briefly indicating they got snatched).
To clarify, this means any input that is not a direct attack will be flagged as “snatch-able”, such as Eelektross’ Charge Beam, Traps, self-buffs/heals and the like, and on hit become Cell’s. This means that for example, she snatches Samus as she shoots a homing missile. Said missile will no longer be Samus’, but Cell’s and home into her if close enough. As for other examples, Charge Beam will now have its effect implanted on Cell if snatched, instead of on Eelektross, etc, etc.
Beyond the blatant benefits that can befall her by stealing such mechanic-based moves/buffs or making traps her property for a time being, the control aspect over the match is staggering. With a wave of her hand Cell can essentially say “no” to characters who try to set up something against her in the worst way possible: turning their assets against them.
UTILT: PSYSHOCK
Bringing her hands to where her forehead would be for the time it takes DDD to do his Utilt, Cell will create a small pink sphere right above her the size of a Pokeball that, upon contact, will do a measly 2% and flinch the foe.
If a foe is not in the immediate vicinity however, the ball of psychic energy will stay on the field until it hits something, or for at least 15 seconds. Furthermore, they will even home in on foes at Mario’s Dash Speed from up to a platform and a half away, combined with how you can have multiple out at once given you move slightly between castings, you can have a literal swarm of psychic attacks litter the stage. Just be careful not to use this too much, as a staled Psycho Shock has little to no hitstun, but in general this combined with Future Sight and the like will keep the foe dancing around you, and let Cell control the flow of battle that much more.
DTILT: SECRET POWER
Placing both hands on the floor, she will transmit light blue psychic energy to it, taking about as long as Zelda’s Fsmash to do so and creating a dim, blue outline the size of a bumper on its side on the floor. This marker will stay on the spot indefinitely, unless you place it elsewhere, or you activate the secret power.
The secret to it is to switch. With another team mate on the field, stepping onto the marker will highlight them in the same light blue Cell has when using her psychic moves, from here inputting one of their 3 specials (switch moves do not work for this) will map it to the marker, turning it a variety of colors based on the team mate:
Red for Bacon, Green for Ace, Dark Brown for Rampage, White for Arrow, Yellow for Havok
When you come back to Cell, the memory of Secret Power will be intact, and inputting Dtilt again will activate it with a wave of her arms, making a psychic projection of the team mate and their move! Looking like a different colored Fox/Falco illusion, they will perform their recorded special and appear and disappear on the exact frame it starts/ends. There are some nuances to these however based on how some of the moves work, but in general special effects such as Scald’s Burn, Leech Seeds and the like will not take effect. After they’ve performed the secret power, the marker is gone and the process will have to be redone.
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BACON: Take-Down is always Upward Take-down.
ACE: Seed Bomb has him pull out an immediately throw a seed.
Acrobatics has him perform his spinning jump attack.
RAMPAGE: Dig has him plow forward until he can no longer without pause, then pop out and disappear.
ARROW: Acrobatics is performed instantly without having to counter if the foe is in range.
Fly does not activate glide, with him disappearing at the peak.
Rock Throw has him throw 3 stones.
HAVOK: Magnet Rise has him Float upward a Ganon’s height and use Spark.
Acid Spray is angled up and down as he sprays it.
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DASH: GYRO BALL
Holding her arms straight out to the sides, Cell will spin her body clockwise three times in rapid succession (with her spinning the opposite inside), taking about the same time as Ike’s Dsmash in total. While she spins, her arms grow in size a bit due to the motion, but although she has the increased mass, hitting foes with the maneuver does absolutely no damage.
Instead, anyone hit while she takes up an area about the size of a platform will be repelled forcefully away like they just slammed into a bumper, with the same momentum based properties (faster you run into it the harder you’re repelled) accompanied by a fitting boing like sound. Incredibly useful vs shields (pushes them around as if they weren’t even blocking), Gyro Ball also is great for tossing foes back into your mind field in order to approach all over again, or just make space for a switch in a pinch.
FSMASH: PSYWAVE
Slowly raising an arm forward as she charges, upon release Cell will send out a blue wave of psychic energy the size of Charizard’s Fair from her hand, trapping anyone inside in their footstooled animation as they are caught by the psychic force.
From here on, you are free to actually move the foe for a full half second in a manner similar to how pit can angle his Light Arrow before firing. You can just keep them forward, raise them straight up above you with two hands, or hold back to swap arms and fire behind you, in the end launching them with 10-15% dealt and with the ability to kill at about 150% near a blast zone. Another great way to ensnare foes for a moment, but with the added bonus of being able to directly send them where you want in case your traps were being ignored by them, and were out of the way when they got snagged.
USMASH: SHADOW BALL
Raising her arms up, palms facing each other, Cell will create a dark blue orb of condensed psionic power that seemingly pulls material from thin air as it forms. Regardless of charge, Cell takes about as long as Zelda’s Usmash to form the sphere upon release, and like with Utilt the orb will simply float above her head as an ominous, Kirby-sized hitbox.
Just like with Psyshock, foes within 1.5 platforms run the risk of having the Shadow Ball home in at them, but for an impressive 8-12% with knockback similar to Lucario’s Aura Sphere (without aura backing it of course). However, the orb floats much slower than Psyshocks at Kirby’s dash speed, but have the odd property of actually attracting Psychocks to it. As the Shadow Ball closes in, any nearby Psyshocks will follow the orb’s path, and inevitably speed by and peg the foe, setting up for the much bigger hit from the shadow ball. Unfortunately, while lasting 15 seconds like the Psyshocks you can only have one of these orbs out at a time, a trade for the much higher power and combination with it’s faster counterpart.
DSMASH: NIGHSHADE
Touching the floor with both hands flat to either side, Cell will build up dark blue psychic energy again as she charges, and upon release leaks it to the stage below in a slow moving pulse. In total taking as long as Link’s Dsmash to send out, the pulse will ultimately travel out to be as widespread as DK’s Down B, over the course of an entire second, with Cell being free to move after finishing casting it.
As the nightshade spreads, anyone hit by the Squirtle-wide pulse will receive a static 10%, but with knockback ranging from a good deal of hitstun to knocking the target upwards with enough force to kill at around 210% based on charge. Like with Future Sight, this is a great way to force control of a portion of the stage by essentially playing “the floor is lava” for a bit, making foes hesitate just enough for you to go about your business of spreading your maze of pain around, but unlike Future Sight you can only have one Nightshade out at once, not even able to replace a current one by inputting Dsmash again. A price to pay for prime real estate.
NAIR: PSYCHIC
Closing her eyes and holding her arms straight out with open palms, Cell will glow blue and halt momentum in a manner similar to GW’s Bucket Brake in mid-air. Invisibly, the attack will stretch out to form a sphere around her the radius of her outstretched arms, and will halt the momentum of anyone or anything in it along with her, as well as deal 9%. A useful defensive tactic, as it lasts as long as GW’s fishbowl and comes out just as fast, the big radius is great for disrupting would-be attackers offstage, or even onstage when returning to the ground, using your mind to stop them in their tracks as well as give ‘em some pain.
FAIR: CONFUSION
Putting both palms forward ala Ness, a flash of blue energy will emit from them with a bit of disjointed range, hitting foes for a mere 7%, but forcing them into their footstool animation like with Psywave before knocking them away for medium KB that shouldn’t be killing any time soon. Useful in similar ways to Fsmash, with a duration similar to Mario’s Fair, while being on the move (well, as much as Cell can be on the move).
BAIR: REFLECT
Spinning around and sweeping her arm diagonally upwards as she does so, trailing her arm will be the shimmering energy used in Light Screen that lasts for the move’s duration, which is similar to Ganon’s Bair. Like the name suggests, the move creates a brief barrier behind Cell, but unlike Light Screen this can be used offensively to a degree.
If a foe is hit by the shining energy as it forms, they will receive a mere 4%, but be repelled diagonally downwards with semi-spike KB, being able to gimp foes with fragile recoveries well if done at the right time. But like light screen it also has a defensive use as it can actually block most attacks under 10% while airborne, which is always useful in case foes manage to sneak up on you.
UAIR: TELEKINESIS
Raising her arms up in a manner looking like a big V, a wave of blue energy will be seen rising up from her briefly for about her height until fading away, although the effects of this move have a range of 3 platforms straight up. Foes caught in the wave will take a mere 2% and some hitstun, but the main effect travels through the entire distance: halving foe fall speed for a full second. Using this on some foes can easily buy you time to set up or just keep them afloat to buy time for future sights/Psyshocks/Shadow Ball to get them, as well as frustrate them which always works in your favor.
DAIR: GRAVITY
As the opposite of Telekinesis, putting her arms down in a large upside down V, she does the same effect with the same range as it’s double, even having the same lag (Ganon’s Dair). However, Gravity is much harsher on foes, doubling their fall speed for a half second, and flooring foes who are standing for 5% if hit with the wave itself. Combined with Bair this can be a death sentence at the right % after you’ve chased a foe offstage by making it too dangerous to stay still, just be sure not to fall yourself when using the move on your foes.
GRAB/PUMMEL: CALM MIND
Cell’s grab is oddly comparable to her Fair, while not being the fatsest grab, it has good reach and a longer duration than most to actually snag the foe. Once snagged, she doesn’t actually hold onto them, rather they are covered in blue psychic energy and float in their “grabbed” animation before her.
Once she has a foe, pressing A will have her concentrate like with Future sight, and glow blue briefly, with seemingly no effect toward the foe. Trading the ability to naturally keep the foe in her grasp longer, she gains the ability to increase the power of her throws by 1.25x with each pummel by using Calm Mind. With a rate of 2 per second, snagging a foe for a mere 1 second can make a throw go from 10 to 15% just like that.
FTHROW: CONFUSE RAY
As the foe floats in place before her, pressing forward will have her place both palms at their face, and transmit a flash of blue energy at them, stunning them and sending them forward for set KB of a platform and a half forward on their *** for 10%. As they try to get up however, they may find it to be a bit more difficult than usual.
Confuse Ray, as the name suggests, confuses the opponent by scrambling their controls for the next whole second the moment they’re released by the flash of blue. This means Left can be Down, B can be Jump, A is shield, L is specials and all sorts of other confusing things. Once they manage to get up somehow, Cell definitely has a moment to capitalize on their flailing around momentarily to either send out more of her psychic bombs, or just to heal up.
BTHROW: PAIN SPLIT
Speaking of healing, pressing Back will have Cell shake the opponent’s hand/vine/potato in typical Reuniclus fashion, forming a mind-link with them. This mind-link will then allow Cell to share something special with her opponent: her pain.
Based on the difference of HP between her and the foe, this will do variable damage. The most being a trade of 10% with a difference of 50% or more, and the minimum being 2% with 5% difference or less, and yes Calm Mind does boost this both ways. However, this may not always be beneficial for Cell directly as if the character she grabbed is more beat up than her; she’ll transfer health to them instead. But then again, what’s not good for a foe is great for an ally. After transferring health, she will then simply spin back with foe in hand and toss them behind with similar power to Bowser’s Bthrow.
UTHROW: MAGIC ROOM
Levitating the foe above herself, Cell will then set up 6 small Light Screens around them, trapping them in a psychic box! Dealing 8%, the foe will be trapped with a bit harder escape difficulty to Yoshi’s Egg and hover at about equal height to a Platform above ground, all the while being immune to KB but prone to just about any attack. The box also shifts in size slightly to accommodate character size, but in general will squeeze them up a bit to fit, and you can comically see them through the walls being scrunched up to fit.
DTHROW: IMPRISON
Imprison is her most tricky move yet, as the foes won’t even realize you did it until it’s too late. After inputting the throw, there will be a half second to do another input direction (or not) before anything happens, looking as if you just continued to hold them in your grab.
Once the time is up or the input is selected, a blue flash will occur at either the foe’s center, back, front head or feet, indicating the selection before the foe is pushed away lightly for 2% damage. What the input indicated was what Cell shut-down for the opponent for the next 3 seconds: the ability to use said input on their attacks. This means that for example, Up was selected, the victim is shut off from using Utilt, Usmash, Uspec, Uthrow and Uair. Nothing selected? No Jab, Dash Attack, NSpec, Pummel or Nair, and so on. (Back Air and Throw are the only specific inputs requiring Back to be input, whereas either of the “side” inputs will affect Ftilt/Smash)
This can be an amazing tool vs some characters who overly rely on an input or two, depriving them momentarily and letting Cell run the show for a bit longer.
CONTROLLER
Cell’s whole game is control: control of the stage, control of the foe, control of her time and even her own health. In order to accomplish her goal of spreading her influence to dominate the arena, she must first get inside the opponent’s head.
While her stats at a glance make it seem like she’ll have trouble capitalizing on any mistakes the foe makes, her moves say otherwise. Future Sight, Light Screen, Psyshock, Nightshade and to a lesser extent Shadow Ball all can force the foes into bad situations for you. They hesitate before jumping over a nighshade? Get hit by the Future Sight they forgot was there. Dance around where they think a Future Sight is? Get pegged by Psyshocks. Jump over a lightscreen? Land on Nightshade.
Once you got them dancing around like a puppet on a string, you can branch out to two options. The first, being to simply switch out and let a more offensively inclined team mate take advantage of the playing field you set up, as your traps do not harm your team mates. The second being to continue to lure them close only to send them back into the fray you’ve made by baiting. Despite her Magic Guard and ability to heal via Recover (which is always an option while the foe is trying to attack you through your psychic influence on the stage), Cell has the glaring weakness of a weak recovery to take advantage of, which both you and the opponent should abuse. Setting yourself up for “failure” can actually lead the foe on to thinking they can easily attack you outright, when instead you were waiting until that future sight went off you were stalling on, or catch them with a Dizzy Punch, Grab or Psywave as they get battered through your defenses getting to you, only to become scrambled even further.
That being said however, Cell is at her worst vs characters with little need to set up, and that could simple rush through to her and begin a strong offensive due to her naturally slow moveset. Granted this is an ideal situation to set up and switch due to Trick Room, bad time management with her will get cell in a lot of trouble vs some offenses. That said, she really appreciates an offensively inclined character to be teamed with her, such as Rampage or Havok, to take advantage of this flaw. It’s not all bad for her though as with one good read the foe can be in a world of confusion with messed up inputs and the inability to navigate past her psychic minefield. Finishing them off however is another story for Cell, as 95% of her moveset if defensive, meaning she’ll have to play a war of attrition and eventually rack enough damage and frustrate the foe enough to actually land a kill move at rather high %.
In the end, Cell is an amazing asset to any team and a great anchor to build around given her stage control and other assets, and can easily turn the tide of a fight in the team’s favor with good prediction.
FINAL SMASH: WONDER ROOM
Glowing a bright pink this time instead of her trademark blue, Cell will spin around and let out her cry as it spreads throughout the field, turning everything a slight shade of pink for the next ten seconds. During this time, any foes on stage will suffer from the combined effects of Dizzy Punch, Confuse Ray and even Imprison at random, scrambling their brains and leaving them at the mercy of their controller, as Cell is free to do as she pleases (but with the inability to switch as she maintain the Wonder Room).
TAUNTS
UP: Cell happily bounces up and down inside her translucent body, as it in turn waves it’s arms about in seeming celebration.
DOWN: Cell glows blue, floating upwards a bit as she says her name and clenching her fists.
SIDE: Spinning horizontally in two different directions, her body goes clockwise as on the inside she goes opposite, she says her name and stops as she eventually seems to get a bit dizzy.
ALTERNATE COSTUMES
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Red Team --------
Green Team --------
Black/White --------
Gold
okeball:3-MAN TEAM:
