As I do with all new characters, I've gathered preliminary frame data for Sephiroth. As per my usual routine, I'm not calculating attack endlags, landing lag, or anything like that as data extraction will be available in a few days with all of these numbers. These are simple hits-on frames and other interesting information relevant to figuring out how to approach actually playing the character. I actually am rather liking Sephiroth, however, so I went a little further than I usually would in getting more numbers; I have a ton of detail about all four specials.
Jab: 5
Ftilt (all angles): 14
Utilt: 10
Utilt (to reach Battlefield top platform): 13
Dtilt: 9
Dash Attack: 14
Fsmash: 24 (16 charge release)
Usmash: 23 (11 charge release)
Dsmash: 21 (13 charge release)
Standing Grab: 7
Running Grab: 10
Pivot Grab: 10 (honestly it's always really hard for me to tell if I have this in frame by frame and really hard to pivot grab a stationary target; take this with a grain of salt)
Nair: 9
Fair: 13
Bair: 15
Uair: 16
Dair: 19
Fair can stick itself into a wall starting on f12. Once stuck in the wall, Sephiroth can either jump or simply drop. Jumping from this state does not consume a mid-air jump, but if the mid-air jump is already used, the wall stick does not refresh it. Sephiroth can only wall stick three times without touching the ground. Grabbing a ledge does not prevent further wall sticks, but it does not refresh the three wall stick counter either. Yes, Sakurai told the truth about the frame data for fair and bair; I'm sure everyone is happy about that.
Flare: 41
Flare (release from charging): 22
Megaflare: 31 (to reach Megaflare state)
Megaflare (release from charging): 21
Gigaflare: 130
Timing is measured from point blank against the front of Bowser on the ground. Obviously if you are standing further away from a target there will be some travel time. Flare's initial number is the minimum time it takes to hit with anything. The charge release is how fast Flare hits once you release B after having charged through the initial start-up animation. Megaflare is the minimum amount of time from animation start you have to hold B to get the Megaflare effect, and then the time it takes to hit after charging to Megaflare is given (yes, oddly, releasing Megaflare hits 1f faster than releasing normal Flare; I tested this many, many times to make sure it's really accurate). If you do the math, the minimum time to actually hit with a Megaflare is 52 frames so it's not much extra commitment to Megaflare instead of normal Flare. Gigaflare is what happens when you fully charge so the timing for just doing that is given. I only tested that once due to the extremely obnoxious nature of counting to 130 so I apologize if I miscounted.
Shadow Flare: 16
Shadow Flare (full charge): 42
Shadow Flare (after hit): 257*
*This is measured against Bowser without accounting for hitlag on the initial Shadow Flare hit. Small variation may exist if you subtract out the hitlag that the initial Shadow Flare hit does not that I'm even sure how hitlag interacts with frame by frame mode, and there's a significant possibility of a frame or two of variation based on the victim character (usually for stuff like this, the distance the orb orbit is a parameter that varies per character, and indeed you can see they orbit much tighter around Pichu than Bowser... this makes predicting which characters are "smaller" for this purpose nearly impossible but also means variations of more than a frame should be very rare). The orb seems to begin attacking around f240 and just takes 17 frames to actually hit to be more precise; that means it should be possible to shield on reaction to the orbs beginning to attack but you have to be paying attention. It doesn't seem like stacking more orbs over time delays this, but I didn't test precisely enough to be sure if there's a small delay effect for stacking more orbs. Counting to 257 frame by frame is very difficult, and I only did that once, so my apologies for any imprecisions.
Blade Dash: 25
Octaslash: 36
Blade Dash (last frame to change direction): 19
Octaslash (last frame to change direction): 31
If the direction you want to go is not held, Sephiroth will re-orient to going straight up. The direction held on f19 is locked as the direction the move goes, assuming B is not held. If B is held for Octaslash, the critical frame for which the direction held will determine the direction Sephiroth travels is f31 instead. Trying to do the move downward while grounded will result in Sephiroth simply charging forward (or backwards if a downward diagonal back is held). The test for whether Blade Dash or Octadash is done is whether B is held on f17 of the move. There is no dynamic partial charges; up special on Sephiroth always hits on either f25 for the Blade Dash version or f36 for the Octadash version. This is obvious just toying with it, but be aware that while Blade Dash ledge snaps very well Octaslash ledge snaps very poorly so charge at your own peril.
Scintilla: 38
Scintilla (begin countering): 7
This counter is directional (Sephiroth can be hit in the back at any time, similar to K.Rool). Sephiroth is actively countering up through the move initially hitting (that is to say the countering frames are active 7-37). Once the actual attack begins, it is as vulnerable as any other move and Sephiroth can be hit freely (if, for instance, Little Mac tries to hit Sephiroth with a jab on f38, they trade). Actually countering doesn't seem to slow the move down at all; that's just a window of time during which Sephiroth soaks up any attacks from the front en route to the inevitable f38 hit. The entire multi-hit of the attack seems to execute once it begins even if Sephiroth gets hit.
About One Winged Angel form:
This thing has some strange mechanics, and I don't think we'll quickly know precisely how it calculates when to activate. Generally getting hit and having a less favorable stock advantage makes it activate sooner. Here are the percent thresholds (in standard 1v1 smash matches) it activates, tested with Fox lasers and no other hits occurring in the match. The plus or minus represents Sephiroth's stock lead (simple self-destructs used to create these differentials):
+2: 104%
+1: 85%
0: 80%
-1: 40%
-2: 30%
What's weird is that having Sephiroth SD, having Fox laser Sephiroth to 40% (activating the form), and then having Sephiroth KO Fox does NOT revert the form even though having 40% damage with an equal stock count usually wouldn't be good enough for the form. However, KOing Fox a second time does revert the form, and even more, no amount of damage Sephiroth took on that stock restored it (I lasered him up to 300%, no wing spawned). I have no idea what to make of this. Also, in training mode, simply using the damage self feature to put Sephiroth to 65% is what activates the wing despite in standard matches 65% not seeming like a relevant number at all. It's not immediately obvious to me a precise and clear rule for when this wing spawns, but having it drastically improves your grounded mobility (oddly, I think outside of the form Sephiroth is a character with a faster foxtrot than simple run, but in the form, the simple run feels faster than his foxtrot) and it gives you an actually very large second mid-air jump (far strong recovery potential than Banjo-Kazooie, Charizard, or Ridley who also have two mid-air jumps). I think this is going to be a critical thing to figure out early on to really understand how to play Sephiroth to potential, but I don't want to dive into hours of research on this point and hold up the more general frame data post.
So that's basically what I have. Sephiroth is a really cool character in my book, and I hope this data will help you guys figure a good starting place for making him work. I'm optimistic as he "feels" really good just toying with him, but of course, the nuances of the meta will be what they will be.
Jab: 5
Ftilt (all angles): 14
Utilt: 10
Utilt (to reach Battlefield top platform): 13
Dtilt: 9
Dash Attack: 14
Fsmash: 24 (16 charge release)
Usmash: 23 (11 charge release)
Dsmash: 21 (13 charge release)
Standing Grab: 7
Running Grab: 10
Pivot Grab: 10 (honestly it's always really hard for me to tell if I have this in frame by frame and really hard to pivot grab a stationary target; take this with a grain of salt)
Nair: 9
Fair: 13
Bair: 15
Uair: 16
Dair: 19
Fair can stick itself into a wall starting on f12. Once stuck in the wall, Sephiroth can either jump or simply drop. Jumping from this state does not consume a mid-air jump, but if the mid-air jump is already used, the wall stick does not refresh it. Sephiroth can only wall stick three times without touching the ground. Grabbing a ledge does not prevent further wall sticks, but it does not refresh the three wall stick counter either. Yes, Sakurai told the truth about the frame data for fair and bair; I'm sure everyone is happy about that.
Flare: 41
Flare (release from charging): 22
Megaflare: 31 (to reach Megaflare state)
Megaflare (release from charging): 21
Gigaflare: 130
Timing is measured from point blank against the front of Bowser on the ground. Obviously if you are standing further away from a target there will be some travel time. Flare's initial number is the minimum time it takes to hit with anything. The charge release is how fast Flare hits once you release B after having charged through the initial start-up animation. Megaflare is the minimum amount of time from animation start you have to hold B to get the Megaflare effect, and then the time it takes to hit after charging to Megaflare is given (yes, oddly, releasing Megaflare hits 1f faster than releasing normal Flare; I tested this many, many times to make sure it's really accurate). If you do the math, the minimum time to actually hit with a Megaflare is 52 frames so it's not much extra commitment to Megaflare instead of normal Flare. Gigaflare is what happens when you fully charge so the timing for just doing that is given. I only tested that once due to the extremely obnoxious nature of counting to 130 so I apologize if I miscounted.
Shadow Flare: 16
Shadow Flare (full charge): 42
Shadow Flare (after hit): 257*
*This is measured against Bowser without accounting for hitlag on the initial Shadow Flare hit. Small variation may exist if you subtract out the hitlag that the initial Shadow Flare hit does not that I'm even sure how hitlag interacts with frame by frame mode, and there's a significant possibility of a frame or two of variation based on the victim character (usually for stuff like this, the distance the orb orbit is a parameter that varies per character, and indeed you can see they orbit much tighter around Pichu than Bowser... this makes predicting which characters are "smaller" for this purpose nearly impossible but also means variations of more than a frame should be very rare). The orb seems to begin attacking around f240 and just takes 17 frames to actually hit to be more precise; that means it should be possible to shield on reaction to the orbs beginning to attack but you have to be paying attention. It doesn't seem like stacking more orbs over time delays this, but I didn't test precisely enough to be sure if there's a small delay effect for stacking more orbs. Counting to 257 frame by frame is very difficult, and I only did that once, so my apologies for any imprecisions.
Blade Dash: 25
Octaslash: 36
Blade Dash (last frame to change direction): 19
Octaslash (last frame to change direction): 31
If the direction you want to go is not held, Sephiroth will re-orient to going straight up. The direction held on f19 is locked as the direction the move goes, assuming B is not held. If B is held for Octaslash, the critical frame for which the direction held will determine the direction Sephiroth travels is f31 instead. Trying to do the move downward while grounded will result in Sephiroth simply charging forward (or backwards if a downward diagonal back is held). The test for whether Blade Dash or Octadash is done is whether B is held on f17 of the move. There is no dynamic partial charges; up special on Sephiroth always hits on either f25 for the Blade Dash version or f36 for the Octadash version. This is obvious just toying with it, but be aware that while Blade Dash ledge snaps very well Octaslash ledge snaps very poorly so charge at your own peril.
Scintilla: 38
Scintilla (begin countering): 7
This counter is directional (Sephiroth can be hit in the back at any time, similar to K.Rool). Sephiroth is actively countering up through the move initially hitting (that is to say the countering frames are active 7-37). Once the actual attack begins, it is as vulnerable as any other move and Sephiroth can be hit freely (if, for instance, Little Mac tries to hit Sephiroth with a jab on f38, they trade). Actually countering doesn't seem to slow the move down at all; that's just a window of time during which Sephiroth soaks up any attacks from the front en route to the inevitable f38 hit. The entire multi-hit of the attack seems to execute once it begins even if Sephiroth gets hit.
About One Winged Angel form:
This thing has some strange mechanics, and I don't think we'll quickly know precisely how it calculates when to activate. Generally getting hit and having a less favorable stock advantage makes it activate sooner. Here are the percent thresholds (in standard 1v1 smash matches) it activates, tested with Fox lasers and no other hits occurring in the match. The plus or minus represents Sephiroth's stock lead (simple self-destructs used to create these differentials):
+2: 104%
+1: 85%
0: 80%
-1: 40%
-2: 30%
What's weird is that having Sephiroth SD, having Fox laser Sephiroth to 40% (activating the form), and then having Sephiroth KO Fox does NOT revert the form even though having 40% damage with an equal stock count usually wouldn't be good enough for the form. However, KOing Fox a second time does revert the form, and even more, no amount of damage Sephiroth took on that stock restored it (I lasered him up to 300%, no wing spawned). I have no idea what to make of this. Also, in training mode, simply using the damage self feature to put Sephiroth to 65% is what activates the wing despite in standard matches 65% not seeming like a relevant number at all. It's not immediately obvious to me a precise and clear rule for when this wing spawns, but having it drastically improves your grounded mobility (oddly, I think outside of the form Sephiroth is a character with a faster foxtrot than simple run, but in the form, the simple run feels faster than his foxtrot) and it gives you an actually very large second mid-air jump (far strong recovery potential than Banjo-Kazooie, Charizard, or Ridley who also have two mid-air jumps). I think this is going to be a critical thing to figure out early on to really understand how to play Sephiroth to potential, but I don't want to dive into hours of research on this point and hold up the more general frame data post.
So that's basically what I have. Sephiroth is a really cool character in my book, and I hope this data will help you guys figure a good starting place for making him work. I'm optimistic as he "feels" really good just toying with him, but of course, the nuances of the meta will be what they will be.
