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Make Your Move 13 - Most Recent Movesets: The Advertisement Period Begins

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
[collapse="Flozar the Toucan"]OCs are more than welcome, Waver - you should have seen the original Make Your Move contest, it was full of them! (none of them were as child-friendly as this guy though) He reminds me of the Fruit Loop bird. Pretty awesome drawing.

Flozar's Specials and even his regular moves stand out enough so he's not infringing on any of the Brawl fighters with his super simple set. If one looks closely, there's very little instance of Flozar wanting to get in the enemy's face (minus D-air), instead being a hit-and-run character who plays it safe - lack of self-conscious playstyle makes it a bit more difficult to comprehend though, as even this simple playstyle could be made more enjoyable if put together with reason. The description given for his combat skills actually matches the contents of the set though, and doesn't go against his character or anything. Speaking of character, it seems a little strange for him to appear happy-go-lucky in his picture yet be described as somewhat the opposite, though it's a nitpick and changing the picture would be difficult as it is. Being an OC, some extras could have been great to show off his character, as unlike most sets where they take an existing character you're the only one who knows of this guy's source material! Why not show us your little universe if you're going to post more characters from its universe, and maybe make the Ice Reaper into a boss. That'd be cool to see. Just little stuff that'd make your next set more anticipated.[/collapse]


[collapse="Skull Kid"]This set was totally posted while I was typing up my comment for the previous one. And does it look promising. A bit more hands-on interaction-wise than I'm used to with your sets, but not in a disruptive way here. Gotta say that a counter that creates clones is very cool, a total projectile-buster that can go out of control if foes use their projectiles carelessly (and yet you say projectiles will ruin him...). You could say it's broken as it is, but you could also say it's the foe's fault for triggering it in the first place - imagine the terror of a newbie Pit player when they realize their arrow spamming summoned a new foe against them they don't even have the skill to beat! Von Karma's cops were only LV6 at most for a good reason. I don't think Skull Kid actually needs more than one shadow clone simply because of potentially broken it can be, though I see no problem in his counter having other effects while one is out such as healing the shadow clone for however much damage it dealt or teleporting the foe to it/the clone to the foe while it has brief invincibility frames. Not to mention Skull Kid is pretty competent at damage-racking/KO'ing anyway.

Laughing at your foe's mistake and sitting back after having caused chaos is all good for Skull Kid. Perhaps most of the Specials don't seem all that special in comparison to the Neutral, though what makes Skull Kid interesting is how he uses his tries to go about his attempts to counter: foes won't want to pressure him with projectiles, so he instead goes up to their face due to his lack of any real ones to use. His F-air might make him seem vulnerable when he brings a foe to his face, but helps trigger his counter or perform one of his follow-ups, spiking foes if he's offstage. Heck, that part of his game is still useful even when his foe is up against their own doppelganger, as he can just reel them in towards him for more trouble. Skull Kid seems like he'd want to be in the air more than on the ground given foes can't grab him from there, but then again he'd lose access to 13 moves.

You could say that Skull Kid plays competently enough with or without his shadow doppelgangers due to not being massively reliant on either, and flows pretty well/multipurpose with his aerials and counter, enough so that perhaps the playstyle section didn't do it justice. Doppelgangers could easily be fixed, but otherwise this is a very strong set, dangerously close to your best.[/collapse]
 

smashbot226

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
3,027
Location
Waiting for you to slip up.
A bit late and missing something but why not

One Ring to Rule Them All

One Ring to Find Them

One Ring to Bring Them All

and in the Darkness Bind Them



Sauron, The Lord of the Rings

Sauron is the eponymous "Lord of the Rings" and main antagonist throughout the franchise. A being of immense and potentially unrivaled power in his realm, Sauron sought to create a ring that served as a container of sorts for a majority of his power. Alas, his ring was severed from his hand and eventually destroyed by the hobbit Frodo Baggins. But even between his death and total destruction, Sauron kept a watchful eye on the lands, always wary of potential threats to his domination over the land. And now, he has turned his attention toward Make Your Move, and in his physical form no less. Can anyone stop this hulking monstrosity?

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THE DARK STATS
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Ground Speed: 0.5 (In all that hulking armor, it's no surprise that Sauron is incredibly slow. His walk is at half the pace of Bowser's and he can't even dash!)

Aerial Speed: 0 (Irrelevant)

Aerial Control: 0.1 (Irrelevant)

Power: 17 (His power level scoffs at 9000. He can kill Jigglypuff with an uncharged smash attack at zero. Fully charged, he can take out Bowser at zero. He is easily the strongest character you can face.)

Attack Speed: 1/6 (He has two ratings: one for natural attack speed and the other for when the Eye of Sauron gazes upon him. More on that later.)

Jump Skills: 0 (He can't jump.)

Weight: 50 (Killing becomes a slightly unrealistic option at 300% for this guy.)

Height: 30 (His helmet's spikes graze the bottom of Battlefield's top platform. He is a big dude.)

Grab Resistance: Yes (A man once burned to death when he touched Sauron. And the Dark Lord was wearing armor at the time. Naturally, this means opponents have an extraordinarily difficult time of grabbing Sauron and keeping them in their grasp. Single opponents can hold onto Sauron but the Dark Lord remains unphased. However, a second enemy can hold Sauron at the same time and keep Sauron in a grabbed state.

Constant Super Armor Until: 150% (That's right, he's not instant combo fodder now- he can brush off any attack while he's below 150% regardless of how strong the attack is or whatever armor-breaking properties it may have. Hell, he can still retain super armor through certain methods!)


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THE DARK SPECIALS
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NSpec: Barad-Dur/The Eye of Sauron​

The Dark Lord raises an ironclad fist into the air and mutters ominous gibberish. Before long, the background behind him begins to crumble and give way, revealing a spire three Bowsers wide and an almost immeasurable distance high- almost five Giga Bowsers tall- that passively erects itself over an eight second period. While the finished product has a massive 500% health, foes can attack the spire while it's building to begin the destruction early, as it will retain any damage it took while building. As this is an incredibly importance centerpiece to the Dark Lord's playstyle, you cannot allow this to happen: other than the One Ring, Barad-dur- the name of the spire in question- provides Sauron with multiple bonuses. When the spire reaches 0%, it will begin to crumble and break apart, the debris scattering a short distance near the tower's ground level. Getting hit by the debris will cause a bit of damage and knockback. The ruination results in the tower slowly lowering itself into the ground as an anguished Dark Lord screeches for a moment, leaving himself open for a split second. After a spire is destroyed, he will require a recharge time of twenty seconds before he can erect a subsequent tower.

So you have the gargantuan structure up and now you have a lidless red eye with a gaze that covers any battleground in the game. Instead of building a secondary tower, the NSpec input now gives Sauron one of two, potentially more than that, options. If he taps it once, the Eye of Sauron will focus its gaze upon him, imbuing him with even more godlike power than before. He will retain permanent super armor so long as the Eye watches over him, a massive increase in attack speed that reduces most attack speeds by 70%, fully charged smashed attacks that come out as if they were C-sticked, and some changes to his army's attacks. There is no downside to having the Eye watch over its master other than not being able to benefit from when the Eye watches the Dark Lord's opponents.

Yes, you read that right: tapping NSpec once more causes the Eye to switch its stare from Sauron to his enemy, with subsequent inputs of NSpec causing the Eye to switch to different foes and back to Sauron if it's a FFA or Team Battle. However, instead of a mere shine around them, the Eye of Sauron appears highlighted over the selected enemy, causing a scope slightly large than Giga Bowser to cover the enemy, meaning any of his friends caught in the scope also take more damage. Foes with the gaze upon them are unable to deal any sort of knockback or hitstun to Sauron. They'll also deal a paltry 1% per two seconds, though there's no way to shake off the inevitable damage. Even better, utility wise, is that the Eye will automatically switch its gaze to invisible or clone-using opponents, with the Eye always looking upon the true foe in the latter case. However, there is one resounding issue that could potentially prove fatal: when the tower is attacked, the Eye will shift its gaze to the one who last attacked it. This action will cause Sauron to lose his buffs or whoever the Eye was targeting to lose their debuffs unless they were the ones attacking the spire.

USpec: Powers of the Maiar​

Foreword: this is one of Sauron's few moves not influenced by the Eye. /foreword. When Sauron first inputs this, his free hand puts its palm facing the floor as a large rune depicting the Eye of Sauron appears in front of him. At about one and a half Bowsers wide, the rune does nothing of value at first. Foes cannot attack it, but standing or generally being near it does nothing for neither Sauron nor his enemies. The only way it can disappear is if Sauron dies on his current stock or if he makes another USpec input with a seal onstage. Once he does, the Dark Lord will laglessly teleport directly to wherever he placed the seal. If he had the Eye of Sauron watching him at the time, it will also seamlessly transition its gaze to where its master reappears.

Godlike recovery for a godlike being seems appropriate, right? Especially when Sauron has that stupid weight rating and potentially indefinite super armor to boot. The worst part- for your rivals- is that's not the full extent of the input. Holding down USpec instead spawns a floating white ball similar to Din's Fire that Sauron can maneuver around the battleground to any spot of his choosing. Like with the rune, it's indestructible until Sauron's current stock is lost or if he makes the second input of USpec. As you can tell, and if you recall he cannot jump, this is the only way for Sauron to effectively move around the vertical plane. While you may be wondering what the hell would happen if he spawned in the air, so let me reply with the following: very, very fast falling speed. Combine the fact that he'll usually have the Eye of Sauron gazing upon him and you have a very potent recovery. Of course, this isn't the biggest reason to use this USpec outside of recovery: Sauron is able to transition his moves from one spot to the other. In other words, Sauron can make the USpec input while in the middle of performing a move and laglessly perform the rest of the move wherever he may teleport. This only makes Sauron an even more difficult target to kill and an even more difficult target to avoid.

DSpec: Ring of Power​

Sauron extends his free hand, dropping a fabled Ring of Power in front of him as it levitates in place. Who could it possibly be for? For whoever accepts the ring, naturally! Anyone who tries attacking Sauron during his gesture has their attack deal no damage whatsoever, as Sauron teleports backward a safe distance and drops the ring where he once stood. While your intended target may not have been so polite in his refusal, his allies may appreciate the gift much more. However, opponents who stand in front of Sauron and tap grab take the ring from his hand and place it on one of their hands/claws/appendages, stepping back and reveling in the awesome power. While it's no One Ring, the wielder of the Ring of Power now has enough at their disposal to potentially threaten Sauron on their own. Unfortunately, only one foe can have a Ring of Power on the field at once: Sauron's generosity can only go so far, you know.

So now you've given a single foe a Ring of Power. They're no able to bypass your super armor, regardless of whether or not you're below 150% and have the Eye of Sauron gazing upon you, and resists whatever debuffs the Eye can inflict upon an empowered foe. They still have the same stats, but for the most part have an easier time dealing with Sauron than his teammates. Unfortunately, the foe's greed let one small thing slip his mind: Sauron wields the One Ring to Rule Them All. And the foe's ring is no exception to All: over time the player will have second-long spurts of loss of control obrt their character over the course of fifteen seconds. After the thirty seconds are up, the character in question has become a deathly shade of grey and now serves Sauron as his faithful slave. An additional fifteen seconds later, they transform into a Nazgul.



Nazgul, A Faithful Servant of the Dark Lord

Nazgul are the servants of Sauron, once kings of men who fell to greed and turned into spectral minions of the Dark Lord. While Nazgul are technically classified as former men, given the large variety of potential ring-bearers available, Sauron has manipulated the fabric of this reality to create Nazguls from any sentient being.

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SERVANT'S STATS
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Ground Speed: 5 (They have the appearance of a ghost, but they can have fleet of foot when required..)

Aerial Speed: 0 (Nazgul don't need to jump. You'll learn why in a moment.)

Aerial Control: 0 (Irrelevant)

Power: 7 (Their greatest strength is the fear they inspire in others. Otherwise, they're as normal as any other summon. Except this one has its own section...)

Attack Speed: 6 (Nazgul wield a variety of weapons. This one starts out with a broadsword, but they just so happen to have miniature sets of their own.)

Jump Skills: 0 (Nazgul cannot jump. Instead, to reach a foe on a higher elevation, they simply disintegrate and reappear in a wisp of smoke near the foe.)

Weight: 0 (Nazgul are immune to hitstun and knockback, much like their master.)

Height: 7 (Nazgul were former humans. As such, they're of a similar size to Marth, Ike, and other humans.)

Grab Immunity: Yes (Unlike their master, however, opponents simply go through a whiff animation for a missed grab when trying to latch onto a Nazgul.)

Starting Health: 100% (Nazgul are weak to enchanted weapons... normally. However, the differences in environment have bent their immunity to allow any other MYM or Brawl fighter to normally deal damage. Regardless, they start with 100% health and disappear once it reaches zero.)

Nazgul are limited to several attacks:

Broadsword Sweep: The Nazgul performs two sweeping maneuvers with his hefty weapon that cover his entire hurtbox and a single Bowser-length behind and in front of him. Deals 14% damage and formidable knockback, enough to possibly kill at 150%. Leaves himself very open during the ending lag, however. Will use this move after emerging from a teleportation, surrounded by foes, or is facing a single foe at close range.

Morgul Dagger: A miniature version of the blade that almost killed Frodo, the Nazgul quickly unsheathes a parrying dagger from within his wavy sleeve before jutting it forward a small distance. While the damage (4%) and hitstun are minor at best, the dagger has two secondary effects- during the unsheathing, any attacks bounce right off the Nazgul and if successfully struck, the Nazgul's victim will become terribly poisoned. The poison will subsist for up to five seconds or until the Nazgul perishes. In the first case, the victim will suffer 10% extra damage from the poison over time. Will use this when a foe is distracted, either when fighting another enemy or the Dark Lord.

Terrifying Cry: A Nazgul's abilities are not merely limited to their weaponry: every Nazgul can emit a high-pitched cry to inspire fear in mortals. Here, it does something a bit more practical: anyone in range of the scream is forced into stun and takes no damage. The stun itself is bad enough with a guy like Sauron around anyway, right? Nazgul will use this upon entering the battlefield and, on occasion, after a teleport. Even though this has a greater range than either weapon, it also leaves the Nazgul open the longest. A foe who can maneuver around a screeching Nazgul can easily take down a specter with ease.

The Black Breath: The Nazgul passively emit a sickening aura around their body while on the field. This only appears after a Nazgul teleports and will subsist for three seconds. Any opponent within a Mario distance to the Nazgul with an active Black Breath will lose consciousness and fall asleep, taking a guaranteed 5% damage when they wake up. Since this is a passive ability, Nazgul do not need to put themselves at risk to activate this. In addition, upon death they will release a cloud of Black Breath to ensure their opponent's victory was not without cost.


Woo, glad I got that out of the way when I could. On a final note, foes that become a Nazgul will still respawn, but the Nazgul will only target his former allies while entirely ignoring the being he was made from. And using the DSpec input while a Nazgul is on the field results in a two second animation where Sauron causes the Nazgul to dissipate, recovering Sauron by 50%.

SSpec: Fires of Doom​

While Sauron retains a humanoid form, he is anything but; with a relatively swift motion, the Dark Lord uses his free hand to lift the dreaded helm from his shoulders, revealing a ball of fire that obscures his face from view. Unfortunately for his enemies, this isn't even the beginning of the move: upon the removal of the helm, his fiery visage spews forth a cone of flame that reaches a staggering four Bowser lengths, with a maximum vertical range of two Ganondorfs at the very edge of the cone. Anyone caught inside this zone of pain suffers 3% per half a second as well as constant hitstun that makes it difficult for foes to escape from Sauron's fires once caught. Naturally, Sauron isn't able to move around while he breathes his deadly fire. Instead of moving, the movement stick allows him to direct the spread of his inferno. But of course, this is no mere tyrant turtle of dragon: this is the Dark Lord and as such, his flames are immune to extinguishing and leave behind evidence in the form of remnant flames.

These flames subsist over a small amount of time, a mere two seconds, before dissipating to wherever flames more vile than that of hell go. This can happen if they're either attacked by an enemy- a jointed hitbox will always result in trading hits and inflicting the soon-to-be mentioned damage- or if they ram into a solid non-stage object, dealing 10% upon impact and a further 5% over time. However, with the power of the One Ring at his command, Sauron is able to manipulate his flames to inflict further harm upon his foes. Should the ring bear its gaze upon any of the Dark Lord's enemies, the fires will slowly make their way toward the foe with the eye gazing upon them at the speed of Luigi's crawl, and will not disappear unless their foe takes the brunt of the burn or if something else stands in their way. If the Eye of Sauron gazes upon its dark master, the flames will instead move toward their creator at the same speed. Instead of dealing damage, obviously, they swirl around Sauron's armor, creating a blazing shield that will absorb 20% damage before detonating itself in a Smart Bomb explosion-sized area around Sauron, instantly causing 25% damage and quite a bit of knockback.

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THE DARK TILTS
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Jab: Might of the Maiar​

Sauron swings his mace upward, taking one step forward to increase the distance. For a jab, its properties are incredible: the mace covers a large area in front of and above Sauron and retains its 9% damage and high killing potential throughout the entirety of the swing. Even better is that its Sauron's quickest method of poking at his opponents through his super armor, with very little beginning lag relative to the rest of the Dark Lord's set. Unfortunately, he still suffers quite a bit of ending lag, even if you continuously follow it up. Oh right, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Like some jabs, Sauron is able to perform a nearly identical upward swing for similar results if you follow it up with an identical input. And then you can do it again, and again, and again. That's right, Sauron has an indefinitely ending jab that constantly moves him forward. Combine that with his constant super armor and you have a reliable approach for the Dark Lord to utilize. Worried if you fall off when using it near an edge? Don't fret: Sauron will instead automatically turn around and continue his walking barrage.

FTilt: Quaking Terror​

Sauron raises his terrible mace over his head and slams it into the ground in front of him. Like his Jab, Sauron's FTilt covers a large space above and in front of him, but comes out considerably slower, requiring a full second until it comes out. Fortunately, it's also incredibly powerful for a tilt: 15% damage, enough knockback to murder Bowser at a mere 80%, and and stupidly good priority. If you want to crush through enemy attacks, look no further. Of course, there's a reason this move is called "quaking" terror: as soon as Sauron's mace strikes the ground, a ground-level projectile shoots across the stage until it hits the edge of the stage or disappears, in case you're on a walk-off level. Just like the mace strike, the quake has a tremendous amount of priority, especially for a projectile, acting as an excellent poke if an opponent prefers keeping his distance with his own brand of ranging. If the quake happens to run underneath a tower, the Eye of Sauron briefly shines its gaze upon the quake, increasing its velocity and size by half before turning back to whatever or wherever it was looking before. Additionally, quakes that travel underneath flames cause them to scatter and become more widespread but last half as long, while lava jumps upward a full Bowser-height for a brief second before coming back to the ground. Using it on lingering flames causes them to scatter across different portions of the stage. As you may imagine, though, the quake has less killing power than the strike, only retaining about half the strike's knockback. And as usual, Sauron requires a hefty second to recover from the entire attack.

UTilt: Master of Illusion​

Sauron's One Ring flashes brilliantly, blinding anyone in a two Bowser-radius around the Dark Lord for 5% damage and a two second-long hitstun, before he stands there like a mook for a two second ending lag. By which I mean he'll only stand there if you don't make a follow-up directional input, in which case he'll instantly teleport a single Farore's Wind-distance in the direction you desire. Upon reappearance, Sauron creates an invisible force field for half a second that pushes back anyone in his selected spot for 10% damage and rather low knockback (At least for Sauron). Luckily, he's flat-out invincible during his reappearance for the first second; he still has the two second ending lag, but at least he won't take any damage for the first one. Additionally, performing this teleport and reappearing on top of any flames/lava causes said obstacle to split apart in different directions, effectively increasing the amount of problems your opponent has to deal with. Oh, and this is Sauron's only way- outside of letting yourself get beaten that badly and planting a safety USpec- to reach a higher elevation if he so desires, though given the properties of lava you'll always want to do that once your tower begins building itself. Ah, speaking of your tower, the teleport is amplified considerably if Sauron happens to teleport while in a single Bowser-length away from it. Instead of a single Farore's Wind, Sauron is capable of teleporting to any point on the map, which is indicated by a glowing white ball that starts at wherever Sauron made the input and lasts for five seconds. With the ball traveling at Super Sonic speeds, Sauron shouldn't have too much trouble deciding where he spawns.

DTilt: Scorching Presence​

Sauron's free hand clenches up as the ground in front of him opens up to shoot out boiling lava in a cone, seeping across the stage at Bowser's walk rate before cooling off twenty seconds. The lava, even as it spreads, never thins out or outright disappears, meaning lava can remain indefinitely in any given area. Foes who remain in the lava for too long are set on fire akin to the flames of SSpec, and character-specific objects such as Mouse Man's holes, Death's portals, or Shiftry's shrubs go up in smoke upon contact with the lava. On the other hand, lava can also hide Sauron's USpec runes and friendly traps, leaving them completely obscured by the lava. Stepping in it for even a moment causes hitstun for every second and a half while you're exposed, so seeping your feet in lava for even a moment guarantees inflammation, while the damage constantly comes out at 2% per quarter of a second. There are obvious exceptions to this, however: enemies with a Ring of Power are completely impervious to the lava as well as enemies with levitation moves. Obviously, Sauron can walk among the lava without reprisal, as he summoned the damn substance. Additionally, lava that's summoned on higher elevations can drip down to lower parts of the stage, acting as walls that knock back your opponents while instantly setting them aflame. But the most lethal combination is combining lava at any location with some flames from SSpec. At this point, noth the flames and lava become permanent so long as a single flame persists on-stage and is connected with the lava at any point of the flow. This means your enemies will be forced to extinguish any open flames that Sauron may summon, and there is no real limit to how often the Dark Lord may do this.

Dash: He Can't Dash *****​

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THE DARK SMASHES
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FSmash: The Mace of Dol Guldur​

Dol Guldur is one of Sauron's most fastidious strongholds in Middle Earth. With a name like that, one can only imagine how shattering this attack might be, and shattering it is: Sauron swings his mace around his head during the charge animation before slamming it down in front of him. While the range on the downward swing is quite incredible, reaching out to a Bowser-length and a half, there is no getting around the horrendous lag times outside of NSpec. The attack has a second and a half beginning lag with two seconds of ending lag to it, meaning if you manage to land this cleanly on an opponent, they're most likely comatose. Then again, if they're not then they will be after getting hit by this attack: uncharged, FSmash kills Jigglypuff at zero while dealing a minimum of 32% damage. A fully charged FSmash results in Sauron instant killing the most conventionally heavy characters in brawl such as Bowser and Donkey Kong. The NSpec, while staring upon Sauron, not only causes instantly fully charged smashes but a much faster attack speed- it comes out after a full second and requires a second and a half of ending lag, with the actual attack portion flowing much more quickly. And if your opponent tries to run, feel free to corner them in lava or teleport to their location.

Naturally, this isn't the extent of this otherwise bland FSmash. If Sauron performs his FSmash on lingering flames, it'll cause an explosive burst the size of a Smart Bomb explosion that increases the range of the attack, but immediately quash the flame in question. Upon landing an FSmash on lava, the Dark Lord creates a tidal wave of lava the size of Giga Bowser, traveling forward at Ganon's dash speed and increasing in size/speed the more lava/flames it collects. On the other hand, any lava or flames the wave collects disappear once the wave leaves the stage, which it can if it falls off the edge or off the stage if you're playing on a walk-off.

USmash: Spirits of the Dead Marsh​

Sauron raises his clenched free hand at waist level as a circular radius expands around him to a maximum of one Giga Bowser radius and a minimum of a single Bowser radius. After the charging animation, or instantly if the Eye gazes upon its owner, Sauron's hand shoots into the air as spectral hands the size of a crouching Pichu rise from beneath the ground at Snake's walk speed, continuing to rise for three seconds until shooting back toward Sauron at Sonic's dash speed. The action does nothing to Sauron except bring enemies closer to Sauron's location, as he obviously won't be still for the entire duration. As for the hands, they each cause a low 7% damage but knockback reliant on Sauron's current position, meaning that the hands will usually cause inward knockback. And there are a LOT of them, with fully charged or Eye'd USmashes resulting in fifty of these hands spawning at once. Combine that with Sauron's ability to transport himself with USpec during the middle of the animation, since the radius from which the hands spawn doesn't move with the Dark Lord, you can drag your opponent into lava or potentially to their deaths.

DSmash: Crushing Blow of Cirith Ungol​

In case you haven't guessed, Sauron's mace is a perpetual source of magical energies, as is its wielder. Using this ability, Sauron slams the tip of the mace's head into the ground, creating a Ganon-tall shockwave that spreads out a four-Bowser distance. Even uncharged, the killing potential behind this attack is severe at 17% and killing Bowser at 70%. In addition, if these shockwaves happen to come across lava, it'll create a wave equal to the size of the shockwave though not the duration, meaning you can potentially keep enemies off of you by creating constantly rising barriers. Any lingering flames that happen to be in the shockwave's path are scattered, placing smaller and weaker flames across the arena. Fortunately, they still retain their "always keeps lava around so long as it's touching even a bit of it" capabilities. Unfortunately, the shockwave will eliminate any flame/lava that happens to be in its path of destruction. In the scenario that a Sauron who has the eye staring upon him performs this attack, however, that issue dissolves entirely. Aside from your generic size boost (lava waves increase by half a Ganon in height and lingering flames don't lose any of their initial size when scattered), waves created by an eye'd DSmash exist forever, continuing right off the stage and onto lower levels.

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THE DARK LORD'S ARSENAL
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A little foreword about Sauron's aerials before we get into them: they're not actual aerials. In fact, it could almost be considered a special stance of sorts. Players who hold up on the movement stick/the jump button for three-fourths of a second has the Dark Lord stand perfectly still with his hand held over his head as though he were about to signal an offscreen army to attack. Performing the same action moves Sauron out of his stance, the Dark Lord's hand falling to his side. Sauron's opponents will find it easy to hit the hulking boss out of this stance- a single strike, regardless of damage or knockback, will force Sauron out of his stance and into however much knockback the attack dealt. If it's a simple jab or a move that deals a minimal amount of hitstun, he simply exits out of it. With that out of the way...​

NAir: Arrow Volley​

Sauron's hand suddenly shoots out toward the direction he's facing, an armored finger pointing toward the Dark Lord's intended target. Roughly two Bowser-lengths away, a single arrow drops from the sky, piercing any pass-through platforms until it reaches a solid part of the stage or outright flies offstage. The single arrow deals a meager 4% and minor hitstun but sticks to the opponent. A second later, a storm of arrows rains down from the sky, each arrow traveling at the speed of Sonic's dash and covering the area around where the initial arrow stuck in a Giga Bowser-length radius, dealing an equal amount of damage and hitstun per arrow. On it's own, a precisely placed Arrow Volley can become a deadly stalling tactic and a nasty tool for gimping. When you take into account that the volley itself lasts for a whopping two seconds and Sauron is capable of traveling underneath his own storms unhindered, there's more to this move than initially meets the eye.

FAir: Catapult​

Sauron’s hand shoots forward, a startling bellow in place of a command. Though it makes little difference, as no more than a second later does an earth-shattering boulder sail over the Dark Lord’s head from off-screen, size measuring in at a mushroom-powered Bowser and boasting a weight rating so great it cannot be moved via conventional means. Nor will the boulder stop for any barrier aside from solid ground: it will crash through any potential pass through platforms until hitting a solid part of the stage. Your foes would do best to avoid the off-screen catapult’s payload, as the projectile deals 27% damage during its flight and while it lands, as well as killing super heavyweights at 50%. The boulder remains on stage for a subsequent five seconds or until it suffers an attack dealing 20% or more in a single strike. If the boulder happens to land in a lava pool, it will cause tidal waves on both sides from where it landed and quash/scatter lingering flames. Be wary of where you signal your catapults, as it might destroy your best-laid plans. And this precludes the influences from the lidless eye: any foe unlucky enough to have earned its stare has the boulder dropped directly on top of then. Only a well-timed roll can save them from their otherwise inevitable doom, though Sauron can only call upon his catapult every ten seconds from his last order. Players who would have the eye gaze upon its master attain the benefit of these summoned boulders shooting forth from the side of the screen that Sauron is facing, as opposed to the one he’s facing away from.

BAir: Fellbeast Raid​

A clenched fist of dark metal is thrown into the air as Sauron makes a haunting command, followed by a Fellbeast- a creature the size of Meta Ridley. The monstrosity swoops in with its claws and moves along the ground, one of its claws acting as a constant hitbox that drags any given foe with it. After it reaches the end of any given plane, the Fellbeast flies away off-screen. A Fellbeast’s strength is great enough to carry off many foes in a single claw and every creature will carry them to their deaths unless the foe escapes with a 2.5x grab difficulty. Even still, any prey raked along the ground suffers 3% for every half a second. Worse still, at least for your opposition, there is no stopping a Fellbeast: such creatures come from dark magic and cannot be stunned, knocked back, or otherwise affected by any attack otherwise meant for the Dark Lord. These beasts’ behavior also change depending on the lidless eye- if Sauron has the eye covering its master, nothing happens upon using the command unless Sauron is hit at any point after the player makes the input. In which case, a Fellbeast is near-instantly summoned to storm the battleground and punish the fool(s) responsible. Poor saps with the eye turned on them have the pleasure of being the relative “spawn point” for every Fellbeast that may appear. Layman’s terms: Fellbeasts show up from the side of the screen that the eyed foe has their back toward.

UAir: Hell Fire​

Sauron’s hand unfurls, revealing a meager ball of flame in the palm of his hand. This is not an attack, as you no doubt figure- a moment later, a rain of fiery rocks come from above the top border of the screen, continuously pelting the space in front of the Dark Lord for three seconds. Each rock is the size of a Kirby in stone form and much like the boulder from Catapult, lingers for five seconds upon landing. Unfortunately, each rock deals a rather paltry 11% and the fires burning from each rock act like lingering flames without the benefit of creating everlasting lava traps. Fortunately, each individual meteor has incredibly high knockback for individual comets- comparable to PK Starstorm- and unlike boulders will not quash flames or displace/remove lava. As for the compulsory tower interaction, any Sauron user who prefers to bathe in the gaze of the eye will attain the benefit of having every firestorm surround Sauron as he walks, acting as a moving barrier of sorts. Foes unfortunate enough to be found in the vision of the eye are treated likewise, except they’re subjected to continuous, and painful, meteors.

DAir: Belay​

While mighty, the Dark Lord knows best when to rescind an order: his raised hand is clenched into a fist before falling to his side, Sauron commanding his off-screen militia to hold. While one may look at the alternatives and wonder why it’s not worth it to simply muscle through, either with the super armor or Sauron’s staggering weight, though the answer is simple: all of Sauron’s commands have a rather lengthy ending lag. His recall is near lagless, which is a boon for the Dark Lord to have if he wishes to fool is opponent into thinking that the walking terror wishes to use his army.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
THE DARK LORD'S GRASP
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Pummel: Malicious Hold​

It needs not be said that Sauron looks like a rather imposing figure. However, it’s said that his strength rivals his intimidating appearance: a gauntlet sweeps across a surprising Bowser-and-a-half length, enjoying super armor regardless of the Dark Lord’s current percentage. Anyone foolish enough caught in Sauron’s grasp soon starts to enjoy his agonizing host: alongside a 3x grab escape difficulty his pummel is a clench to his subject’s throat/torso/what have you. Combine a burning grasp with immense strength and it results in 12% damage per tap. However, the worst part of this stranglehold is that Sauron uses his foe’s current percentage to reduce their struggle progress by that amount. Yes, 100% health means their progress is reset. But this is what teammates are for, correct?

FThrow: Carrion Toss​

Sauron lifts his foe higher into the air as the two transitions into a DK Carry type state. For one, the grab escape difficulty is boosted to 4.5x, though at least now the Dark Lord loses access to his pummel. Unlike that ignorant ape, the wielder of the One Ring also enjoys permanent armor in this state unless some third party can deal 20% in the timespan of a second. Also unlike Donkey Kong, this cargo-carrying throw has access to directional follow-ups. The forward/backward throws deal 12% and enough knockback to force the enemy past potential lava traps, though it’s only enough for one wall. His upward toss deals a smaller amount, 7%, and has similar properties, though foes will not pass through lava walls. The downward slam deals the most damage at 17% and can even spike opponents right off the stage. Of course, Sauron could always stroll into a lava box and hold his captive against flowing lava to rack up the hurt.

BThrow: Vaiar's Gauntlet​

It seems as though his enemies have incurred the Dark Lord’s wrath. Choking the life out of his current object of brutalization, Sauron needs only wrap tightly once before discarding his enemy like a ragdoll, dealing a massive 21% and fixed knockback that could leave the enemy anywhere. What smarter players might abuse is the “fixed” part of the knockback: while one could get away with using this throw for the damage alone, others can trap foes in lava blocks or pools- or out of them, if it serves their designs best.

UThrow: Arcing Doom​

With deceptive swiftness, Sauron swings his mace in an upward arc, hurling the foe into the air for a meaty 16% and causing so much pain, the victim won’t be able to use DI until they’re at the peak of their ascent. Much like the forward/backward throws from Carrion Toss, the Dark Lord can toss foes into lava traps if that would serve them best. However, there is another use for this throw, arguably its primary and most helpful use. Sauron recovers quickly enough from Launching Strike to not only defend himself from third parties, but to call upon an aerial to cause further damage to his temporarily debilitated foe. What better way to follow up a two-ton mace strike than hurling a rock of equal force toward them?

DThrow: Wrath of Minas Morgul​

His anger great at this act of insolence, Sauron’s gauntlet becomes engulfed with flame along with the foe in his grasp. After a second and a half of scorching agony, the Dark Lord choke slams his current victim into the ground below for a total of 24% damage. Aside from being his most damaging throw, Sauron can use this to add on massive pain to anyone already trapped inside of a lava trap or to stall for more time for lava to spread out. DThrow is his longest-lasting throw at two seconds, after all, and is completely impossible to interrupt or escape from. A lovely reminder that wading within reach of the Dark Lord is folly you pay for with blood.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
THE FOURTH AGE
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The Dark Lord's Reach​

Adding the power of the Smash Ball has only amplified the Dark Lord's already near-godlike powers. He channels the energy into the One Ring as a burst of crimson light envelops the stage. In a near instant, all of Sauron's enemies are covered in the same enigmatic cloud. However, there is a far more noticeable change in the arena: instead of the locale of choice, the black gates appear before Sauron and his "guests," while Mount Doom looms ever present beyond the steel wall. Only three platforms, all at Ganon head level, provide them solace from the constantly flowing lava that flows along the bottom level.

While Sauron is free to stroll within his realm as he well pleases, his opponents lack such an option. The lava below keeps them constantly moving and the Tower of Barad-dur looms in the background, acting as Sauron's temporary replacement tower for the duration of the final smash. Though at least here, none can even touch it. And while nimbler foes may try and avoid Sauron to the best of their ability, the Dark Lord hardly needs to pursue them to do any lasting damage. The festering crimson cloud around them deals continuous- and very rapid- damage over time at 2% per half a second. Worse still, the character itself starts to decay, as though they were fading into the folds of death.

After his enemies are granted twenty seconds in his realm, they double over, the crimson mists entering their body against their will. An excellent tool, as it will possess even those who have yet to lose their spawn invulnerability. In an even quicker flash, the battle returns to its normal stage, but the mist-enveloped foes undergo a similar, though more permanent change: their forms are twisted into Nazguls, one for each possessed foe. Naturally, this essentially acts as a K.O. and each foe affected loses a stock for it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
THE DARK REIGN
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


To be filled in at a later point this day








































God, please forgive me!
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
- Tiger Blood -

Tiger Blood is a brand new mechanic used by men who think dying's for fools and amateurs. To trigger it, put up your shield - see that calm orange aura emanating from its outer perimeter? That means you have a Tiger Shield. You could call it the eye of the tiger, but this is more simple.

Tiger Shields are tough - they shrug off 5% more than other shields do and don't budge easily. They don't start shrinking for a fair while when left out compared to normal shields at full health, either. Tiger Shields almost never reach half health just from one powerful blow, but if the player tries leaving it out after taking a blow their it'll drain a fair bit quicker than a normal shield, often depending on the attack's strength. It takes more than twice as long for a Tiger Shield to regenerate, but as it shrinks the aura around them grows! What could that be? Well you see, this mechanic ain't called Tiger Blood for nothing: once the character's shield breaks, they let out a ferocious bestial roar that puts any non-dodging foes within a Smart Bomb of them into their shield-broken state - the Tiger Blooded character doesn't even enter shield-broken stance themselves!


I can hear you already: extremely broken shield mechanic that punishes the foe for something they should instead be rewarded for. Heck, the shield draining out quicker from taking stronger blows even encourages players to break it themselves! Aside from the vulnerability of being grabbed however, Tiger Shields are surprisingly small, making them incredibly easy to shield-poke - with a small bit of health left, it becomes almost impossible for foes not to attack the Tiger Shielder, disrupting their attempt to wear out their own shield. Tiger Shielders also tend to have very poor rolls, making them easy to intercept. Successfully pulling off a Tiger Shield usually leaves the victim at your mercy to pull off a charged Smash Attack on them or something, or simply watch them fall to their inevitable death if they were trying to recover. Also, while shields usually have 30HP after being broken instead of the full 70, the Tiger Shielder starts off full so they can't infinite victims, and they can't stun foes who are in the middle of such.

Tiger Shields serve a dual-purpose: they can shrug off powerful attacks fairly easily, but can also be used to intimidate, pressuring foes into attacking the character before they can break their own shield or forcing them to back off if they can't do so in time. They need to be used strategically though: while a Tiger Shield can be triggered just fine by projectile assaults so the character can start lowering it by themselves, the stunning roar does not have infinite range and the character can be pressured by said projectiles when their shield is small enough. At the same time however, they can't just expect to have it broken from a front-up assault due to how easy they are to shield-poke. Tiger Shields will almost always be broken because of the player rather than their opponents. Use it well and you'll have a menace in your hands.


1: Evasion
2: Absorption
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Doomgiver

I guess it has been a while since I ripped a set a new one and Sauron is oh-so-deserving of it, though I applaud that a lot of effort seems to have gone into it. I get the impression you're a big Lord of the Rings fan.

Let's start with some good things. The Neutral Special is cool: I like the boosts it gives Sauron, how it takes time to work and even what it does to the foe. Up Special is nice. Side Special is good as long as the foe can take it off(And the timer continues if they pick it up again), otherwise there isn't enough risk-reward to it. And SSpec is...well, it needs number crunching and the animation feels odd to me, but it's not bad conceptually. That's about the extent of good things.

Let's get on with the bad, then. The numbers for almost everything on this set is horribly wonky. The lag on the Forward Tilt renders it almost unusuable as foes will gladly projectile spam him or just whack him from behind while laughing at his Warlock Punch level starting and ending lag. Up Tilt places the foe in hitstun for two seconds, but gives Sauron two second end lag to really drive the point home that this move is for stalling for the towers, unless you use the follow-up which is solely there to make this not totally stupid if you miss. Forward Smash is horribly balanced because it is either easy enough to land it's usable and will overtake Sauron's playstyle or so hard to land that there's no point in using it since Down Smash also makes a lava wave. Sauron's Up Smash creates 50 Pichu sized hands as long as the eye is on him, making the move utterly ridiculous: 50 Pichus covers everywhere on FD or Battlefield and can probably cover Final Destination TWICE. Still, this is not nearly as bad as the grab game, which includes a 12% damage pummel which has 3x grab escape dificulty AND can reset your grab release. Sure, friends can theoritically help, but Sauron has super armor until 150%, so it's not going to be for a long time. To really drive the point home, Sauron has a 24% damage dealing Down Throw which lasts two seconds and is completely and utterly uninterruptable, so you can really get it in your head that Sauron is just going to be grabbing people and horribly murder them. He also has a carge carry with 4.5x grab difficulty. In addition, his Back Throw tells us of Sauron's fixed knockback...which can have the foe land anywhere! Yes, very fixed...

Sauron's aerials are also weird, as Sauron decides to call on his offscreen army to horribly murder the foes with projectiles or a Fellbeast which will basically OHKO any slightly damaged foe. Now I've never finished Lord of the Rings, I wasn't able to find the third movie on TV when I watched the first two and did not get the DVDs for all of them for quite a while, but I question why Sauron doesn't call on his army to just rush the field. It seems much more Sauron-y, I guess. Also, that back aerial is horribly broken.

As for the playstyle...the lava is okay, but Sauron will pretty much always go for just hitting the foe, and his moves are often either so laggy he'll never work if his super armor dies or so good he'll beat the foe to death without any of his interesting stuff. Why would I create Nazghuls when I can just grab the foe, pummel them twice for 24% damage then D-Throw them for 24% more, with KO moves avalibile from it too?

So while I appreciate what went into it, the set felt like a failure on multiple levels to me. Still, I hope we will see more from you Smashbot.

The Ace Part One

I'll first give a slight discussion on Ace Trainer JOE as presented in the first post, then comment each Pokemon, and then finally return to commenting Ace Trainer JOE as a whole and how I feel it works together. I'm a big fan of the original Trainer JOE!, so I'm excited to see where all this goes: The only one I read before was Alakazam at first and I've forgotten it so much I need to reread it.

Double battles are a perfectly logical place to go from Trainer JOE and handled fairly well. Switching is intuitive enough and the presence of two Pokemon is handled well. Shall we see JOE tackle Triple Battles or Rotation in the future? As for the Smash 4 changes...I'm iffy on the Super Smash, but it works enough. I do question why it says you can only air dodge once without pushing a direction when logic dictates you should be able to do it infinitely without a direction, like Brawl, but lose the ability to if you choose a direction, like Melee. Glad to see L-Cancelling back.

Should't his Final Smash also use Revives...? Or does it not revive the fallen and only heal those still around?

"30 different pairings, and a total of 120 different teams leads to an incredibly deep, yet rewarding character to master. He's not an Ace Trainer for nothing!"

Realistically speaking it just means Ace Trainer JOE is impossible to master competitively, but since this is MYM I'll just assume he can be mastered anyhow.

Gonna Reach Out and Grab Ya!

The first Pokemon in Ace Trainer JOE's arsenal is Alakazam, up there with Tauros as the most staple of RBY Pokemon. Alakazam is cool and one of my more liked Pokemon.

I wish it was mentioned what happened if Alakazam made his spoon miss coming back to him on his Forward Tilt. His tilts are also too weak IMO: They should do at least 6%-7% damage, as 4% is very weak for a Tilt and even Kinesis doesn't bring it up much. 6% x 2 is 12%, which is pretty average for a tilt which usually doesn't need to hit on return for full damage.

What's the point of Up Aerial's fall speed reduction?

Disable seems too easy to horribly abuse...

Ah, that's the end of the movesets. It's...okay. Psybeam is cool, but Alakazam seems more like a team player than a sweeper, as his only really strong moves are his smashes. Most of his other moves do mediocre knockback and mediocre to low damage. Forward Smash is probably his most useful, as it functions as a KO move with fire, range with ice and damage with thunder. I would have liked more done with Psyshock: It's key ability is that it hits the foe's defense instead of it's special defense, so maybe it could hit shields while the foe is unshielded and the foe when they are shielded? It would add an excellent bit to Alakazam's mindgameness and help increase his ability to be a KOer by letting him get by shields. Also, I wish Psycho Cut had been a special move instead. Ultimately though, the moveset isn't bad...but I didn't particularly enjoy it either.

Oudal

Feraligatr always was my least favorite of the Johto starters. I started with Chikorita and always though Typholosion and Quilava looked cool. Feraligatr isn't bad, just not as cool as the other two.

Hydro Pump is cool.

The tilts seem a bit weak damage %-wise, given it's Feraligatr and the average is around 10%-11%. I'm dissapointed Rage doesn't interact with his damage or getting hit at all, since that would be fun given Hydro Pump charges faster as he is more damaged and his ability is Torrent and so on. Isn't Forward Throw horribly strong against a ledge since it's knockback isn't true knockback but it has a large set distance, especially if Hydro Charged. Whirlpool is a fun Super Smash.

So in total...Feraligatr is good, probably better than Alakazam, but I felt myself longing for a bit more. Rage changing with damage percentage would have been fun, not clashed with the set and fit with Hydro Pump's torrent usage. The smashes didn't feel as interesting as I had hoped and I don't feel the set takes advantage of it's movement as much as I had hoped. I would have loved if the Smashes had more of an advanced when combined when your odd movement patterns, not even via interaction but just via hitboxes or somesuch, The playstyle section also totally foregoes the fact that Hydro Pump helps your other moves when charged, with the moveset itself somewhat forgetting this at times. I would have liked to have seen it built on more to create a real choice between keeping a fully charged Hydro Pump in reserve for using it as a move booster and shooting it as watery artillery. If there is any such choice, it's not evident or strong enough to break out for me. I enjoyed it slightly more than Alakazam though.

SPORESPORESPORESPORELEECHSEED

Breloom is one of my favorite Pokemon to use simply because it's so fun to use while being extremely effective. SubSeedPunch!

Focus Punch has lag similiar to Warlock Punch...I'm not sure how viable it is even with Team2. And I'll be blunt: I hate how Spore is handled. It's Breloom. It's Spore. It should put people to sleep. It's what Breloom is famous for in and out of the game! The core of it's use in the games! If you wanted to use Effect Spore, there's a lot better ways to do it: A chance when Breloom is physically hit, some kind of counter, that kind of thing. But I don't like Spore as-is.

I don't like how Drain Punch is handled either. Why not make it simply heal damage when it hits like Drain Punch? As-is it feels like something that should be Breloom's SSpec over Focus Punch. D-Smash has random Oran Berries and is otherwise unnotable...this isn't feeling very Breloom-ish.

"Each hit does 5% and nearly any KB" Nearly any!

DO A BARREL ROLL

I think the problem with Breloom is it's playstyle is disconnected from the pokemon. Breloom in game is a somewhat slow, hard hitter with an excellent trump card with Spore and almost cerebral and hard hitting Substitute and Focus Punch shenanigans, not to mention SubSeed sets. This Breloom is a fast hitting combo-er without anything really interesting to it and elements that I don't particularly enjoy, like Down Smash or the entire way Focus Punch and Spore is handled, that breeds a disconnect between the moveset and the Pokemon. It also doesn't feel nearly as fast as it a fast combo character would to me. As you may have guessed, I overall disliked the moveset, which certainly puts it below Feraligatr and Alakazam.

Now we're ghetto?

Porygon-Z is cool, though I'm fairly neutral on it. The Porygon line as a whole is neat, though.

Conversion is good, but I will admit it was a bit hard to wrap my head around at first. Can Porygon-Z choose to go to electric with teammates if he wants? But once you wrap your head around it, the interactions between Tri-Attack, Conversion and Trick Room are quite nice. Shadow Ball is probably my favorite projectile of all of them, being simple and yet extremely effective and having a good fun Trick Room attack. I also love the tilts, because IASA frames are extremely underused in MYM despite being excellent for MYM. The grab game is also great fun, with Drag and Drop gimping being a happy point. Nasty Plot is an amazing and deadly Super Smash. Dragon's Rain is...okay.

But as a whole I greatly enjoyed Porygon-Z. IASA frames and a good grab game give him a thick playstyle to go with Trick Room's trickiness and the ability to mess with his own coding to create all new ways to mess with the foe, which are unique enough to not feel generic but generic enough to fit in with the playstyle and never have a single projectile take over. I do wonder if Porygon-Z's conversion type carries over when he goes to Team2: Imagien the possibilites of his Team2 support when combined with all those projectile types! If I have to have a criticism...Up/Forward smash feel a bit weak, as do the aerials. The stat change is not as intuitive as I would like. And the wheel itself seems a bit out of place in Brawl, but that's a necessary evil. Still, I'd wager it is my favorite so far...

Not-Chess Man

Bisharp is okay, I don't have much of an opinion on it.

Dual Commands really should have been included in the first part...why not make it so the four directional Taunts can all activate a Special? It would add even more depth to the teamwork that Dual Commands creates, though honestly I feel Dual Commands would mostly cause Team 2 Pokemon to do stuff you don't want them to do while grabbing/dodging/and so on instead of being helpful...

Metal Burst and Defiant is an amazing combination. I also like the use of Sucker Punch as a Team2 move.

Ooooh, the way Bisharp takes advantage of Dual Commands is pretty clever. Bisharp's Super Smashes are also pretty good, although I don't particularly like Hone Claws as amusing as the animation sounds. The rest of the set feels...lackluster. The bleed damage on Down Smash feels so utterly random given Bisharp doesn't really take advantage of it and nothing else causes it. F-Smash feels a bit TOO strong with the parry. And the tilts, aside from F-Tilt, and aerials don't feel like they mesh with Metal Burst and Metal Claw. So ultimately it was a good idea that I felt had lackluster execution with Metal Burst and Defiant, but on a set I ultimately enjoyed.

Because There Just Weren't Enough To Choose From

This set has the best orgynation, bar none, of the JOE sets. Yarp.

Feraligatr + Armantle sounds scary for the Armantle boost. Stage creaton? In Trainer JOE? Didn't expect that one! It seems simple and good enough, though. I think Armantle has a much richer playstyle without taking into account his teammates when the stage construction, lava flow and ability to switch between stances are all taken into account. F-Smash is a great move for creating subtle changes to the battlefield that can really be used to change the flow of your battle...or your lava. Also, how does Down Smash work if you change the stage with Forward Smash under it?

A deadly game of hot potato indeed. Alakzam and Armantle's Super Smash is awesome, but how does Gatr and Armantle's work when Armantle is Team1? I guess you take control of Gatr anyway? Anyway, Armantle's playstyle...pretty good, I'd say. Armantle takes advantage of his unique characteristics, 3 modes to swich between and teammates, like a boss by creating a sharp strength in damage racking and terraforming but a similiarly sharp weakness in a lack of KO power and recovery, so you definitely want to take advantage of them as a team. I do feel like the set's aerials are a low point, the only real relevance is destroying stage alterations and otherwise lacks flow, and the grab game is only okay, though I do like the difference between all the grabs...but overall Armantle is probably my favorite Trainer JOE Pokemon for an excellent presentation, good and well executed playstyle and generally being good.

Now then...

The Ace Part Two

Let us discuss Ace Trainer JOE as a whole. Well, and read the strategy guide. The team builder is a fun little exercise, by the by.

As for Ace Trainer JOE...I do feel it is quite a good set overall. The Pokemon in general play very well together, but I do feel at times choices feel a bit off, most prominently Breloom filling in an entirely un-Breloom-ish role. I also feel many of the Pokemon did not fully display their potential: Even in in-smash terms, I felt many oppourtunities were missed, with Feraligatr perhaps having been able to make use of his mobility more, Alakazam the ability to mess with Porygon-Z's projectiles better, Bisharp taking more advantage of Metal Burst...while it's ultimately a very enjoyable set, missed chances and me greatly disliking Breloom bring it down.

It's also quite good organizationally and I enjoy the plethora of extras, such as alternate costumes and event matches, that show a lot of tender care placed in this set. The teamwork aspects, though sometimes shaky at times, along with the ultimately pleasing Super Smashes, turn Ace Trainer JOE into a set more than the whole of it's parts. As an aside, my team would be Armantle, Alakazam and Porygon-Z. A fun team, I'd say.

I wish I had more to say here, but I think my comments on all the Pokemon say all I could say here. Enjoy your 8 stars.
 

Jimnymebob

Smash Champion
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
2,020
NNID
Jimnymebob
Jak and Daxter



What did you expect, Crash Bandicoot?

Series Plot​

Alright, I'll give you guys a quick rundown. Me and my boy Jak came from a small village called Sandover, nice place and all, and when we were doing some 'recon' for the village Sage, Samos, I happened to fall into a massive vat of Dark Eco. Seriously, the biggest, nastiest stuff you've ever seen. This turned me into the furry little guy I am today; everyone else doesn't have that much luck with the stuff, but I'll get to that in a sec. Anyways, as I was saying, I became an Ottsel, we spent like three weeks searching for the Sage of Dark Eco, this charming fella named Gol, in the hopes he'd be able to get me less 'fluffy'. Turns out he's the big bad, and I have to sacrifice my chance of turning back just to save the world.

See how crap that is?!

So now, this Gol guy's been taken out, and we find some big doohickey portal thingamajig. Kiera, Samos' lovely daughter, helped make some device that'd work with that portal. With a touch of my 'magic', I get the portal to activate, sorry about that Jak, and some massive monster with fangs bigger than your head, and nasty, googly eyes, bursts out of said portal, and starts threatening us. We go straight through him, and ride that stupid roller coaster into the portal, were it breaks up, and separates me and Jak from Kiera and Samos. We land in a city called Haven, ironic I know, and the guards there arrest Jak, and I hightail it out of there like Jak would've wanted without looking back.

WHAT?!

Two years later I get myself ready to break Jak out. Turns out the head of the city, Baron Praxis, has been pumping Dark Eco into his blood stream, giving him the lovely ability of turning grey and evil when he gets angry, which back then seemed like all the time. Jak also decides talking's for cool kids, so he starts opening his gob more. We break out, and pull a Grand Theft Auto in the city, getting guns, hijacking cars, getting the ladies. Ah, the ladies. We also start taking odd jobs from practically everybody we come across for no explainable reason, other than to find the leader of this group we got involved in: The Underground. Turns out that the leader of this group is none other than good ol' green Samos.

From the future.

Where he was younger.

Yeah, that got me beat too for a while- turns out Haven City is Sandover Village in the future. So we keep doing these jobs, we find the real Samos and Kiera, make a ragtag group of misfits, no offence, and confront Baron Praxis. He's having a meeting with one of the guys who was with us, some old geezer named Kor. Suddenly, Kor hunches over and sprouts some wings, claws, and becomes the monster we saw in the portal back home. He takes out Praxis, and flies off. Praxis has a bomb that we can use to help stop him, so we set off to do so, manage to beat the crazy Metal Head leader, and find out that the little kid he was taking care of was Jak.

From the future.

Where he was younger.

Yeah, this was getting ridiculous. Samos the younger decides to take Jak back to the past, continuing the circle of life. Or stupidity if you ask me. And we get wasted or something, crap happens, and we get thrown out of the city for our crimes.

Thanks for that you blowhards.

So we end up getting sent to the Wasteland and left for dead. Until two grizzled men find us, the older of the two being the head of the Wastelands lone settlement, Spargus City. We do some more odd jobs, boy were we good at those, learn more about the Precursors, some ancient race of complete idiots who built all this crap, and have a fight with this Precursor obsessed smarmy nut job, Count Vegan or something. Anyway, the guy who got us sent to this craphole in the first place. We give him the ol' one-two, and end up getting back to Haven City, which has been screwed over good and proper. We end up doing more stuff for people because Jak here just can't say no, and end up finding out that the guy who arrested Jak when we first arrived in Haven, and who was completely forgettable for 90% of that adventure, has actually come back from the dead. Or more accurately he has been rebuilt as a cyborg, Krimzon Guard monstrosity, and has deemed himself to be the big bad. OK, we could dig that, he practically killed himself last time. Count Vulgar decides to go pay the Precursors a direct visit, because all ancient races are still alive, and me, Jak, Damas, and that stupid parrot decide to drive after him. The car totals, and crushes Damas, who in his dying breath reveals that he'd been exiled from Haven City when he was younger, and was taken away from his son, who was holding a family seal awfully similar to the one young Jak was holding back in Haven City.

Yeah, Damas died before he found out he was Jak's dad.

So Count Eager was now on his way to the centre of the planet, so we follow him through a mix between Tron and a Gummi Ship segment, and manage to get there before him. The Precursors appear, and begin to talk to Jak, who is technically Mar, the guy who built the frickin' planet, and now has Light Eco powers to counter balance the Dark Eco, and ask him to become a Precursor.

That was pretty shocking.

Of course, my boy says no; or to be more accurate, Count Veger steps into the scene, and demands that the Precursors transform him. We get the Precursors to show themselves, and it turns out that they are actually Ottsels, like me. Now this is were it gets funny: I'm technically a god, and Veger has just been duped out of 'ultimate power' or something, and is turned to an Ottsel like me. And he can't do squat now. We're told that the key to saving the planet is to head to this thing in the sky called the Day Star, were we end up finding Cyber-Errol. He takes a massive Dark Maker Robot, and heads back into the Wasteland, where we follow him, kill him.

AGAIN!

And generally save the day.

We all celebrate, and the Precursors come back to us, asking Jak if he wants to 'fulfil his destiny' or something. Jak reluctantly agrees. I hope it was reluctantly Jak. But no sooner had he gone he returned, walking up from behind us.

Finally, Tess, my lovely girlfriend, gets turned into an Ottsel like me.

Because I used my wish to the Precursors to ask for a snazzy pair of pants.

And she wanted in on them.


Stats​

Right, now that you've gotten a little bit of backstory, it's time for this moveset business. OK, this shouldn't be so hard, Super Smash Bros. Is a pretty slick game. Better than that crap with that yellow rat and his robot nerd sidekick. “Oh look at me I'm a stupid yellow rat and all my race are extinct except the 20 of them that I see throughout my games because I'm stupid.”

First off, I'll run over this 'stats' business, my stats- perfect 10's, no doubt about it. Jak here on the other hand is slightly 'lacking', to put it nicely, especially in some departments if you catch my drift. Anyway, considering Jak's an elf, sorry, a man of short stature, I'd give his height as a 6, and he'd weigh about a 5 I'd say; kid needs some more meat on his bones. Being a great platforming hero, my jumps are like 99/10, but Jak ain't half bad either, a definite 9 for sure. For falling speed I'd say... Wait! Falling speed?! How does that even make sense? Never mind, considering we're not on the moon or something we fall at a 4. Jak needs to be nimble to run away from those nasty Metal Heads while I do all the heavy lifting, so his walk speed is a 6, and his run speed is a 7. Strength wise I'd give him a 2. Fine, I'll give him a 7- but only because I'm being nice and his morph gun is pretty sweet, more on that later. Now I need to go and figure out what the crap these numbers actually mean.

Jak's Unique Crap​

Now, for the stuff that only Jak can do because he's special section, were I go over the different things that Jak can do that no one else in the game can. Or at the very least the things that he does differently. Jak unfortunately has some 'issues' that may be messing him up inside, but I'll be damned if his powers aren't fun as Hell to use. Throughout the match Jak will gain either light eco, or dark eco, which fills up his little doohickey next to his character icon, which has dark eco at the bottom, neutral in the middle, and light eco at the top. If he goes all crazy and in his opponents ugly mugs he'll build up his dark meter, and will be able to transform into Dark Jak, but if he wusses out he'll build up his light meter, and transform into Light Jak. It takes Jak 30 seconds to build up his meter to transform; say if you're trying to get to Dark Jak by staying on the offensive for 25 seconds, then you start running away and playing defensively, the meter'll start going back down towards neutral, so after 25 seconds you'll be back with no meter, and another 30 seconds of that'll fill your light eco meter. In these two forms Jak'll be able to use all sorts of new and exciting stuff, and he can turn back into regular ol' Jak at the touch of a button. However, you need to keep in mind that he can only transform when his meter is filled to the top. Because people hate fun.

Finally, he has a morph gun, a gun that transforms into various different forms for various different effects that do varying amounts of damage for various amounts of satisfaction. Guaranteed!

Specials​

Aren't all of Jak's moves special? Only the ones that contain yours truly, but these are technically counted as his special moves. So to get the ball rolling we have his Up Special: Blue Eco Launch Pad- Taking a page from the good old days, Jak raises his hand and grabs the piece of blue eco that appears above him. A blue eco launch pad then spawns beneath his feet and Jak, all charged up with electrical blue eco, launches straight up in the air about the height of two and a half Ganondorfs insanely quick. This deals 21%, and if Jak hits someone with it before he leaves the ground, they'll be sent skyward with him, otherwise, they'll be knocked back slightly. Jak can't do crap all once he's done this though, he just needs to fall and take those hits like a champ.

Now we have his Neutral Special: Morph Gun- Keeping you in suspense, ain't I? Fine, I'll cover the damn gun. Jak brings out his trusty morph gun, otherwise known as the 'why couldn't we get Sig's Peace Maker?!', in it's Scatter Gun mod at first, but after that he'll use whatever he last used. Because convenience! If you hold down the button Jak'll stand still, looking as confused as he always does, but you can then use your trusty control stick to change mods, tapping a direction up to 3 times to cycle through. That's right, we can change this bad boy to do more fun stuff. Up controls the Red Mods, which are Scatter Gun, a shotgun, Wave Concussor, a shockwave maker, and Plasmite RPG, a grenade launcher. Right controls the Yellow Mods, which are Blaster, your standard long ranged rifle, Beam Reflexor, the same thing with a higher rate of fire and ricochet, and Gyro Burster, a flying saucer that locks onto enemies and shoots a barrage of bullets on both sides. Down controls the Blue Mods, which are Vulkan Fury, a gatling gun with a high rate of fire but a charge time, Arc Wielder, an electrical beam that passes onto close by enemies, and Needle Lazer, with a 'Z', which shoots a crap load of tiny homing needles. Finally, left controls the Dark Mods, which are Peace Maker, a chargeable electrical orb that damages nearby nasties and packs a powerful punch, Mass Inverter, a gun that creates a field of altered gravity, were enemies just float around leisurely with no control, and Super Nova, which is a freaking NUKE! Sadly, that's all we have time for on the morph gun topic, but stay tuned, because later I finally spill the beans on how to use it, outside of pull the trigger of course.

Let's do the side special next. God I hate doing this live. Alright people, next up is Side Special: Roll- Jak rolls forwards. Just testing ya, he actually does a short roll forwards, which looks the same as his regular roll, cool eh? The nifty thing about this is that if you press the special button again Jak'll do a long jumping lunge, or dive, forwards, about the length of a platform in Battlefield; maybe even a tad bit more. This pushes foes back, and deals 16% damage. It's a pretty quick attack, not too shabby there Jak. Keep working on it though, buddy.

Are we done yet? I need some me time. Sheesh, fine, here's your crappy Down Special: Transform- Doing this causes Jak to transform into either Light Jak or Dark Jak, blah, blah, blah, something about holding Down Special and Attack at the same time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, turn him into Light Jak. If Jak has no meter, because he's being useless, I'll step into action and save the day, and do a flurry of 5 punches while Jak tries to transform. Each punch hits like a freight train, if I say so myself, and deals 2%. Man was that boring!

Standards​

Righteo, we're done with those specials for now, which according to the manual, means that we're up to Jak's standard attacks. Let's get this started with his Jab: Spin Kick- Jak totally rips off Crash Bandicoot for this one, and does a spin kick on the spot. This does 6%, and Jak can get right back to what he does best, running away, almost instantly. This still doesn't excuse the fact I'm spun round with him, extending the range this move has slightly.

Keep it rolling peeps, we're up to these lovely directional strong attacks, or tilts for the uninformed, and we'll kick it off with his Up Tilt: Daxter Spiral- That's right folks, I do the hard work for this move. Pew pew, screech!!! “Oh Dax I'm useless and there's bad guys approaching from above, please save me!” Well fear no longer my hopeless, pointy eared pal; I'll save the day by quickly spiralling up Jak's face, and clinging on to it with my feet, whilst stretching my body up to do an uppercut. This awesome attack does 8%, and it is super quick. Za za zing!

Now it's time for Jak's signature move, his Side Tilt: Punch- Totally the best name for a move ever. Ten outta ten- would read again. Jak punches, nay, lunges forward with his fist stretched out. His hand grows larger for absolutely no reason what so ever, and he slides forward as far as Bowser is wide, dealing 12% in the process. This move is kinda slow for one of these tilt moves, and Jak can do squat for the duration of the move, but as soon as he connects with the punch he can cancel a hop straight out of it. Pretty nifty. If you're a frog.

The last of these wonderful tilts is his Down Tilt: Sliding Ottsel- Why did I even call this his move!? Jak does nothing here, slacking off as per usual. Instead, I totally pull off my best Pete Townshend impression and slide forward on my knees, dealing 7% damage, but I don't manage to slide far at all, about half the distance of Jak's punch. Because the floors rocky. And I didn't want to hurt my knees. Yeah, that reason- Jak'd be nowhere if I wasn't there to slide on my knees to save his sorry ***.

Should we cover the whole get up and ledge attacks? Do people even care about these anymore?!

Fine, we'll cover the stupid moves. But I'm not happy, and I'm gonna be quick about it.

Get Up Attack: Flip up- Jak flips himself up like the acrobatic wonder he is, with a handspring, and if he hits someone with his feet they'll receive 2% damage. Bleugh.

Ledge Attack: Daxter Scout- As Jak's hanging on the ledge for dear life, I do the most heroic thing possible. Leave him there and hop onto the ledge myself. But don't worry Jak, I'm not leaving you behind there buddy. I'm doing recon. Yeah, recon, I'll check out the ledge, and claw the ankle of whoever's there for 3% damage, before hopping back onto Jak's shoulder. What'd I tell ya, we're in this together. Or until @£$% hits the fan big style.

Smashes​

Yes, we've got that crap outta the road. Now we can carry on with this crappy moveset, because I just know you're all itching to get to the gun part.

And what a great way to start Jak's smash attacks with his Up Smash: Uppercut- Or should that be “Jak-ercut”. Yeeees... That's the one. This is comedy gold here people. Jak steps forward quickly, then launches into the air with an uppercut; the tip of his fist being one and a half Jaks high. Do we not have a measuring system for this crap? Anyway, this does 19%. If you charge this, which takes a little while, Jak'll do a quick dash forward, covering the same distance as his regular roll, before doing an uppercut that is two Jaks high, and deals 25%. I need to quit saying Jaks high.

Curses...

What goes up must come Side Smash: Jak's An *** And I'll Be Damned If We're On Speaking Terms For The Next Five Minutes- Jak grabs me off his shoulder, and begins stretching my body. “What's he doing this for?” I hear you ask. Well, you see, the idiot is using me as a slingshot. Yeah, a slingshot. For the uncharged version Jak keeps a hold of my neck, not only choking me, but causing me to violently flick forward twice the length of me, before I snap back and hop back on his shoulder, dealing 21%. For the charged version Jak'll leave go and I'll travel up to the length of a Battlefield Platform, and deal 29% damage. Then I have to walk back to Jak, reluctantly I might add.

Finally, we have his final ground move, Down Smash: Breakdance Pose- My god we're awesome. By utilising the power of swag, Jak hops to the ground, spins on his back, lifts himself up into the air using his hands to propel himself the height of a normal jump, then we drop down and do the most badass pose ever, which we'll hold for up to 1 and a half seconds, depending on the charge. The breakdance does 18% uncharged, and 24% charged, and the landing from the pose does 15%, or 20% charged, and will bury the opponents under our style.

Aerials​

We'll run through aerials now, because it's in the manual. Seriously, it is.

So, Jak here jumps in the air. If he doesn't want to get beat to a pulp he'd better use some of these attacks, like the Neutral Aerial: Spin Descent- ANOTHER SPIN MOVE?! What is he, Brawl Sonic? Anywho, this functions like the ground version, except I'm thankfully not swung round with him, which I'm sure you're all glad to hear. It's also a bit slower than his ground one, but deals 8% damage, so the payoff is worth it. However, to keep this move fresh, I, Orange Lightning, will add in a stupid additional effect to please the masses! When Jak here does this, he won't be able to use any other attacks or dodge in the air, but his fall speed will be dropped by half, whilst still retaining his air manoeuvrability; handy for getting back onto a ledge safely from high up, or avoiding hazards. Of course, you could just short hop it if Jak keeps getting swatted out of the sky.

Lets go to Jak's Up Air: Yellow Eco Burst- A ball of yellow eco appears above Jak's head, and he raises his fist straight through it and shoots a small energy ball upwards at half his height, which deals 13% damage. It's a quick move, but it's quicker for him to shoot the projectile than it is for him to punch through it.

Next up, we're on to the Forward Aerial: Jetboard Trick- Jak whips out his trusty Jetboard, and pulls off a pretty neat trick. Sweet moves you got their Jak, keep practicing and you may reach my level of cool. Ha! Doubt it. But still, his trick varies; if you've played on any of our games, which you oughta have, you know what these look like. Hint: it's the Jetboard Tricks that aren't the boring 360 flip or spin. Each of these have the same hitbox, so don't worry, and it deals 17%. You can sweetspot this crap though if you hit them at the very edge of the hitbox in front of you. This only deals 14%, but you can chain this for up to three sweetspotted hits, which would be a total of 42% if you pull it off.

Let's go on down to his Down Aerial: Stomp- Ah, Jak's famous stomp. Or should I say inFAMOUS. We can't get sued for that, can we buddy? Anyways, Jak spins around in the air quickly until he's upside down, them slams to the ground really quickly with both fists hitting the ground, or opponent if you're doing it right, first, for 20% damage, and it meteor smashes opponents. However, if you do this over a pit, and Jak here misses to hit anyone, well, we can kiss our ***** goodbye!

Finally, we have Jak's Back Aerial: Made You Look- Someone's jumping up behind us, and are gonna strike. Before we know it, all five of them are hot on our trail. Jak's too busy jumping, so it's up to me, Daxter, to take out the twenty enemies who are behind us, and save the day. I spin round on Jak's shoulder, and scream “AAAARGH! IT'S A METAL HEAD!” This distracts the attackers, and causes them to turn round, but it acts like a counter; the opponent needs to be using an attack for this to work, it doesn't spin non attacking opponents around. We can use this move out of a short hop to counter ground attacks too.

Throws​

By my calculations, which are pretty accurate if I say so myself, we're up to throws now. So let's start with Jak's Grab and Pummel: Face Hug- Because Jak might have his hands full gripping the barrel of his gun, the ladies love it when I do that. With my gun of course. Where was I? Oh yeah: if Jak's busy during the fight, it's up to me to grab the opponent, by flinging myself at their face. When I'm there, it'll be me who'll do the pummel, scratching their face for 2% each time.

Once I'm attached to their face, it's up to Jak to follow up with a throw. Hopefully he'll give me fair warning and I don't know, LET ME GET OFF THEIR FACE FIRST!

The first throw he has an option to use, well not really- he has an equal option to use any of them, but the first one I'm listing, is the Up Throw: Scatter Blast- OK Jak, I've got 'em, throw 'em upwards! Wait, Jak! Is that the Morph Gun?! I swear if you damage this beautiful fur of mine, I'll be @£$%ed! Jak takes out the Scatter Gun for this attack, or changes his Morph Gun to this mod if he has it out already, and points the gun straight under the opponents chin. As he's aiming the gun upwards, I scream, to distract them. Yeah. And I jump back onto Jak's shoulder as he pulls the trigger, launching them skywards and dealing 7% and being the throw with the most knockback.

His second throw is the Forward Throw: Blaster Fling- I jump onto Jak's shoulder again, I'll do this for all the throws hopefully, so I'll stop repeating myself. So once I'm on Jak's shoulder, he'll pull out his Blaster Gun, and shoot them 3 times, for 3% each. The bullets are kinda slow, and don't knock the enemy that far away, but they are quite long, so any opponent who're unlucky enough to fall into the bullets will take the hit for the thrown opponent. I guess this could be used as a strategy in a team match, as they could take the hit for their teammate and save them for being knocked off the stage. I'd do the same for you Jak. Sure I would.

And in the next corner, we have the Down Throw: Vulkan Assault- I assure you guys, that is not a typo. It really is spelt with a 'k'. Jak pulls out his Vulkan Fury, and I jump off their face, and slide between Jak's legs and hop up to his shoulder. Unfortunately. As I'm doing that, and the opponent is looking down at me, Jak slams them to the ground with his fist, before shooting them with 10 super fast bullets, which deal 1% each.

Finally, the last move in Jak's arsenal. Heh, arsenal. Well technically not the last because of his whole transformation and Morph Gun and whatever, but sheesh, his last normal move is his Back Throw: Peace Maker Shot- This is Jak's most damaging throw, but it works a little differently to other throws. Basically, Jak takes out his Peace Maker, rolls under past the opponent, and elbows them, sending them backwards at a slight arc very slowly. This deals 2% damage. As they are flying through the air, Jak can then hold the attack button to charge a Peace Maker shot, as Jak can't use anything else until they hit the ground, a wall, or fall off the stage, or until 2 and a half seconds have passed, at which point the opponent will fall like normal and Jak will return to a neutral state. Holding the attack button causes the energy shot to grow larger, the smallest shot dealing 4%, and the largest shot dealing 13%. The larger the shot, the slower it travels, and the shots travel at a forward zig-zag. You want to time your shot so that you'll hit them as they are in the air and can't avoid it, or you can take the risk and charge a full shot and hope that they walk into it when they land.

Dark Jak


I bet you're all thinking now, “wouldn't it have been hilarious if I'd have used the Precursor Alphabet for move headers?”

Well no. No it wouldn't, and I'm ashamed you'd even suggest that. Still, we have more of the moveset to go through, so we can't slack off yet sadly. Now, we'll cover Dark Jak. Because he's clearly the more popular of the two. If you remember from earlier, then you know how to transform into Dark Jak and what requirements you need to transform. I shouldn't tell you because you should have been reading carefully, but I'll tell you anyway. 'Cause I'm a nice Ottsel. Staying on the offensive builds up your Dark Eco Meter, and you use Down Special to transform into Dark Jak, and back out of it if you don't want to wait 'til your time runs out. Which takes 15 seconds.

When Jak transforms, he loses access to quite a few moves, as in doing the input does squat, and other moves are replaced entirely. The transformations are mostly special based, with some basic standard attack ability. Movement wise his traction goes down, while his movement speed increases. He also gets a more feral pose and crawl. He's hungry like the wolf I tell's ya!

Hey Jak, c-calm down there buddy. You wouldn't wanna hit your ol' pal Dax with your Up Special: Dark Bomb- Would ya? Two of Dark Jak's specials are all crazy powerful, dealing a ton of damage and knockback. The downside to this is that they revert him back to normal Jak, I use that term loosely, and drain all of his meter. This means it's a good idea to save these specials until you are nearly out of time, or are desperate to get a kill. With Dark Bomb, Dark Jak jumps up into the air, gets enveloped in purple electricity, and slams into the ground, creating a shockwave the size of a Battlefield platform on either side of him. The attack deals more damage and knockback in the centre, 42%, which diminishes to 28% and less knockback, and almost dealing none whatsoever, the further from the radius it hits. There's a bit of ending lag on the move too, as Jak shakes himself off and returns to normal. No, not in that way.

Old grey and angsty also has his Forward Special: Dark Blast- Dark Jak dashes forward, the same as his Up Smash, before launching into the air and spinning around rapidly. He gets enveloped in purple electricity, it's a recurring theme, and begins to shoot bolts of electricity from his body. Like a mix between Cole MacGrath and Taz. If someone gets caught in these bolts of lightning they will be froze in place for the length of time that it takes Dark Jak here to spin. So 3 seconds. A long time to be getting zapped with that crappy dark eco if you ask me. Heck, if you look at me. The attack deals 37% damage, and has a fair kick to it. When he lands he'll do his laggy *** transformation.

Dark Jak also has a special that doesn't instantly drain his dark eco meter, Neutral Special: Dark Strike- Yay! A projectile Dark Jak can spam! Didn't we just need one of those? We needed one of those, didn't we? But let's march onwards! This move looks like a small energy ball, like the cut Pokemon and the Pokemon who replaced the cut Pokemon and the guy in the space suit from Metroid have as their neutral specials. Fear not though, it is different. Ish. Different-ish. It's still better then being the same though. It takes just over 2 seconds to charge, deals 13% uncharged, and 32% fully charged. You can't store this projectile like the characters I just mentioned, and charging only affects the size of the projectile, uncharged being slightly bigger than a Pokeball, and fully charged being the size of Kirby more or less; it always travels at a relatively slow pace. When you hit an opponent or a wall with a fully charged Dark Strike it gets a Smart Bomb styled explosion, but on half the scale. The explosion is what deals the knockback, as well as 5% per second for two seconds, which scales depending how close you are to the centre of the explosion. Obviously. You can be real tricky with this though, even if someone dodges the energy ball, they could still fall into explosion.

Dark Jak has two standard attacks to go with those three specials, the first of which is his Jab: Dark Frenzy- This is his main means of racking up damage, and it covers a variety of angles around him. Well, left and right, but still. You can press attack up to three times, with each part of the combo having significantly more ending lag than the next. It's not too bad, but it's noticeable; especially if you screw up and miss a lot. The first hit is a 360 spin with a short hop forward, this deals 4%. For the second and the third hit, you can tilt the control stick the opposite way, and Dark Jak will lunge that way instead. Pretty neat, huh? The second hit is a short lunge forward, with Dark Jak raising his claws before slashing them on the ground, this deals 10%. The final hit is a jumping slam which travels slightly further than the second hit, and deals 13%. Dark Jak can be hit on the upwards arc of his jump, and if you go off the edge you won't be able to recover, so be careful.

Before we say goodbye to this sweet, sweet form of Jak's, I'll cover his Neutral Aerial: Dark Spiral- Hang on, I just received breaking news here peeps- that guy from Metroid I was talkin' about earlier, like two paragraphs ago, isn't a guy at all. It's a girl! Can you believe that? Next they'll be telling me that Zelda isn't the guy you play as on The Legend of Zelda! Where was I? Oh right, moveset. More specifically, a move were Dark Jak turns invisible for a split second, before reappearing and spiralling upwards slightly, his arms stretched above his head. This deals 17%, but has good knockback.


Light Jak


For every Yin there's a Yang. While that could imply that there's a lame, not cool version of me out there, I'm talking about Light Jak. Whereas Dark Jak is quick and angry, Light Jak rewards your defensive playing style by being even slower, more at peace, than regular Jak. Aah... The soothing nature of Light Jak is good for ones soul. He is slower than normal, but his jumps get improved, if not a tad floatier. He also gets 3 extra jumps, with big flaps of his wings. Light Jak actually keeps a good number of his moves. Instead of having a Get Up Attack and a Ledge Attack, Light Jak just slowly floats onto his feet, being invincible as he does so. Again, Jak can stay in this form for 15 seconds. Not bad, eh?

I'll list those moves here, 'cause I'm a swell guy:
Neutral Special: Morph Gun.
Jab: Spin Kick/Shoot.
Side Tilt: Punch.
Up Smash: Uppercut.
Neutral Aerial: Spin Descent.
Down Aerial: Stomp.


Light Jak gets two new specials, and one new standard attack, to balance out the fact that he keeps so much of his original moveset. To start off, we have his Up Special: Flash Freeze- With a clap of his hands, Light Jak becomes surrounded in a blue aura dome the size of a Smart Bomb explosion. Being a dome, it only covers the top above Light Jak; if he was on a floating platform it wouldn't go under the platform. Anybody who gets trapped in this temporal field, yeah, I can use complicated words too, has their movement speed as a whole cut down to 75%. This means that everything is slowed to a crawl, their walk speed, jump speed, fall speed, attacks, dodges, and they'll even get launched slower. If they get out of the radius they'll regain normal momentum. Light Jak can cancel this whenever he wants by turning back to regular Jak, or inputting the command again, and using Flash Freeze causes Light Jak's light eco meter to drop at twice the speed, so be careful not to overdo it pal.

Wanna ram into people and be generally annoying? Well, take a hint from me, the master of that, and try using Light Jak's Side Special: Light Shield- Light Jak gets surrounded with a spherical shield which just manages to cover all of him. When shielded, Light Jak is immune to all attacks and projectiles. How is this fair, I hear you cry. Well, fret not my clueless companions, for I have the answer. And I shall tell you right now. Once the shield is up, Light Jak's movement speed is cut to a crawl, about a 2 stats wise, he loses his extra flight jumps, and his jump height is cut in half. As well as that, Light Jak can't use any attacks whatsoever when he's using Light Shield, so most characters can easily run away from him. The shield does deal damage though, 1% whenever someone walks into it, and it pushes them backwards a set amount, literally being a small push. If you can trap someone in a corner with this then you can rack up a fair amount of damage. You should try it.

And to conclude, we have Light Jak's Down Smash: Light Regeneration- A ray of blue light shines down on Light Jak as he hovers off the ground, his arms stretched out at a diagonal angle. The uncharged version of this heals 3%, but has a fair amount of startup lag, so it's better to stick with the charged version. This heals 6% every second you hold it down, so if you somehow manage to heal yourself for the full duration of the transformation, you'll heal 90%. But that'll never happen. Unless you're playing against Torn or something.

Morph Gun​


So, I guess that's it then. That was fun.

Just kidding, I've still not covered the Morph Gun mods yet.

To recap, the Morph Gun has twelve mods in total; 4 key ones, and 3 variations of those. Up selects the Red Mods, right selects the Yellow Mods, down selects the Blue Mods, and right selects the Dark Mods. To shoot the gun you use the Neutral Attack button, which replaces his Jab.

Up controls the Red Mods, which are Scatter Gun, a shotgun, Wave Concussor, a shockwave maker, and Plasmite RPG, a grenade launcher.

Right controls the Yellow Mods, which are Blaster, your standard long ranged rifle, Beam Reflexor, the same thing with a higher rate of fire and ricochet, and Gyro Burster, a flying saucer that locks onto enemies and shoots a barrage of bullets on both sides.

Down controls the Blue Mods, which are Vulkan Fury, a gatling gun with a high rate of fire but a charge time, Arc Wielder, an electrical beam that passes onto close by enemies, and Needle Lazer, with a 'Z', which shoots a crap load of tiny homing needles.

Left controls the Dark Mods, which are Peace Maker, a chargeable electrical orb that damages nearby nasties and packs a powerful punch, Mass Inverter, a gun that creates a field of altered gravity, were enemies just float around leisurely with no control, and Super Nova, which is a freaking NUKE!

A friendly reminder of what the mods do in a nutshell, courtesy of your friend, Daxter.

The mods specialise in two different areas, range and knockback, although there are some exceptions which I'll let you all know later. The Red Mods are close range, with high knockback. The Yellow Mods are long range, with low knockback. The Blue Mods are close range, with low knockback. The Dark Mods are long range, with high knockback. As I said, there are some exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb, this is how it stands people.

Red Mod​

So lets start with the Red Mod: Scatter Gun- Ah, the trusty Scatter Gun. This is what Jak'll bring out as his default mod when selecting it with his Neutral Special, but only with his Up Throw. This is a shotgun in everything but name, it has a short cone radius, and a slow fire rate, which deals 17% each hit and has good knockback. The second Red Mod: Wave Concussor- Is an odd one. This has the same range as the Scatter Gun, so directly in front of Jak, but the shot comes from the ground, being a sort of energy hoop that raises upwards to Jak's waist. You can charge this one, uncharged deals 7% and props the enemy up above Jak's head, as the energy wave lifts quite slowly. The charged version makes the energy wave shoot up, deals 13%, and has slightly higher knockback than the Scatter Gun, although it only launches them directly upwards. Finally, the third Red Mod: Plasmite RPG- This can be used at long range, as it is a grenade, with a 1 second fuse once it hits a surface, that Jak shoots up at an angle, but it travels slowly through the air, so you've got a good chance of missing. Plus, the explosion doesn't damage you. This mod has some cooldown time, about the time it'd take you to shoot three Scatter Gun blasts, but pays off in high knockback, some slight splash damage, and dealing 25%.

Yellow Mod​

We'll scurry on over to the Yellow Mod: Blaster- Jak's go to projectile, if I say so myself. The Blaster covers the entire length of the stage in a direct line, only stopping when it hits something, and travels a teensy bit slower than Fox's laser. It deals 5%, and other than that there's not really much else to say about it. So I'll move onto the next Yellow Mod: Beam Reflexor- Ignoring the hardcore spelling of that mod, the Beam Reflexor is an upgraded version of the Blaster. It's a bit slower than the Blaster, and only deals 4%. The catch? You can tap the control stick up or down just as you shoot it, and the shot will travel at a 45 degree angle above or below Jak, and as it hits something solid, be it a wall or unlucky opponent, it will ricochet off them, and continue travelling until it makes it way off stage, or after 10 seconds, incase it gets stuck somewhere. Jak can pull off some tricky shots using this bad boy. The last of these is the third Yellow Mod: Gyro Burster- This is a radical departure from the other two Yellow Mods, and I love it for that reason. Not to mention it's basically a hovering drone that shoots out a load of Blaster bullets. Beautiful, isn't it? When you shoot the drone, it hovers slightly above Jak's head, a few steps in front of him. The drone will start to whizz round and start shooting bullets in a cone underneath the drone, each bullet dealing 1% and no hitstun whatsoever, meaning that your foes can walk straight through it and take those hits like a man. It will hover in place, but if someone comes in close proximity to it the drone'll chase 'em down, and it'll keep up with all but the fastest of people. The Gyro Burster will stay out for 5 seconds, before it blows up internally, and plops to the ground in a puff of smoke. Still. It's a pretty nifty thing to have out, both if you're going on the offensive, or staying on the defensive.

Practicality!

Blue Mod​

Yo listen' up here's a story, about a guy who fights with a Blue Mod: Vulkan Fury- Yeah, I went there. This is a gatling gun, for the stupid folk out there. I could go into some philosophical crap, but I won't- it's a gatling gun. You have to charge for just under 2 seconds to get the barrel warmed up, and then Jak's ready to shoot his load out. A quick finisher if you ask me, eh Jak? Anyway, Jak's ji-I mean bullets deal damage. Specifically 3% per second, and the longer you hold it the higher the rate of fire'll be, because logic. The bullets don't travel that far though sadly, about 2 Bowser's in front of him. But of course, you can still move while shooting, which'll help close the gap. His second Blue Mod: Arc Wielder- Is a really short range electrical beam that goes arms length in front of Jak. It deals a nice 7% if it hits though with stun, and if there are multiple opponents together it'll travel through all of them, dealing 3% to the rest. It's not a game changer, but it'll stun them to give you a chance to think, and deal damage to people who are paying more attention to each other than you. Finally, we have the final Blue Mod: Needle Lazer- This is a sweet weapon. Learn it, and love it. Like me, learn and love me, too. Each time you tap the button, Jak will shoot out 3 tiny blue energy needles, that will curve upwards out of the gun, and travel upwards at a 45 degree angle, before travelling off the stage, or hitting a ceiling and or wall and disintegrating. However, if there's an enemy nearby the needles will home in on them lightning fast, dealing 6% and stunning them slightly, like the Arc Welder does. Of course, you can still outrun the needles, but you'll need to be fast to do so. Like Orange Lightning!

Dark Mod​

Sooooo clooooose. I can practically taste the end now. And it tastes nice; like strawberries whipped in some chocolate sauce. And now I'm hungry. So I'll be quick. Dark Mod: Peace Maker- Jak transforms his Morph Gun into the sexy and totally awesome Peace Maker, and there's smiles all round. Well, me and Jak here enjoy it. The Peace Maker can be charged up, and Jak can still move and jump at a slower pace while charging it, although unlike some of the charged moves in the game, you can't store it; once you leave go or do a dodge he takes the shot. Uncharged, the shot deals 13%, and will only hit one target, but when it's charged it'll deal 29%, and the lightning that comes from it will pass through to nearby enemies as well, dealing 7% to them. Of course, there needs to be enemies close together. Sheesh, who am I working with here?! The second Dark Mod: Mass Inverter- This does no damage, and only has a radius the height of Jak and the width of Bowser both sides of Jak. Yeah, this sucks. But wait, it doesn't, 'cause this lifts the opponent of the ground in a slow-mo altered gravity field. Which is freakin' awesome! When they're in the air, which lasts 3 seconds or until they've been knocked out of the field, Jak can proceed to hit them with moves as per usual, and they have to just stand there, well, float there, but you get my drift. Get it, drift? Float? God, I'm a comedy genius. Where was I? Oh yeah, Jak can hit them, or just walk into them to push them out of the field, if he was a complete moron. The real kicker with this is that if you manage to push them out of the field with a move, it will double the speed of their knockback. Likewise, this move affects everyone who comes into contact with it, even your team mates. Although this can screw over your team mates, and to be fair they deserve it half of the time, but it can also be used as a sort of glove to catch them in it they've been smashed along the stage. It only works when Jak's standing still though, and you can only use it every 15 seconds. Well, here we are folks, Jak's final Dark Mod: Super Nova- It's a nuke. Do I really have to say any more?! Fine, it shoots in an upward arc, like an upside down U, it deals 50% and huge knockback if they get caught in the mushroom cloud/centre of the blast, and if they're caught outside the centre it'll deal 25%, no knockback, but for the next 20 seconds they'll take 1% of damage per second. You do the maths. The screen'll also turn a brilliant shade of white. Sadly, like the Mass Inverter, Jak can only use this sporadically, every 40 seconds to be exact.

Final Smash


Tha- that's it. I'm feeling misty eyed already. And now I've just reminded myself of Misty Island. Ya happy now?! But wait! There's one final move left. Something so great it made Jak grow a second goatee. Seriously, it did. And it wasn't pretty. We conclude this moveset business on Jak's Final Smash: Matrix Daxter- Yeah, I know you were worried that you wouldn't get to play as lil' old me. Don't fret- you can! But not at tournaments though, because those blowhards don't like Smash Balls. When Jak grabs the Smash Ball he jumps towards the screen, and out of view. Where he jumps to I'm damned if I know, but he does, so just deal with it, OK?! Suddenly, the screen turns black, and a bunch of Matrix code begins running down it. Once that fade, the textures in the stage have been replaced with gritty, urban textures, and everyone on the stage gets an Agent costume. That's when I burst down from the heavens, hitting the ground with a satisfying thud. Once I land, decked out in my awesome Neo outfit, I'm free to run round and kung fu all these idiots who are moving in slow motion. I'm invincible during this too, I can dodge punches and stop bullets with my hand. MY HAND! Do you not realise how awesome this is? I'm quicker than Jak, but due to being more appropriately sized it takes me longer to get from A to B, if that makes sense. Talking about A and B, mashing A lets me do a flurry of attacks, each hit dealing 5%, with knockback only taking place when you stop mashing, and dealing knockback corresponding with the amount of damage I did to them, and pressing B allows me to fly around the stage at a moderate pace infinitely, which I can also use mid A combo to lift them up with me and hit them while we're both floating up into the air. Unfortunately, this brilliance only lasts for 15 seconds, so make good use of it.

Playstyle​

Yeah, we're totally finished now. I guess it's time to write one of those playstyle sections. Which is bound to go great considering how long I've been yacking for. So, without further ado, Playstyle: Jak of All Trades- Yeah, I went there. Bite me. Well then, Jak's like a torch with a dead battery; he doesn't really shine at anything, but he has a multitude of uses. Heh. To start off with, he can do a load of crap, like seriously, if you read any of this crap you'd know that. The main choice Jak faces is the whole Dark Jak, Light Jak business. Do you want to have an increased offence, or are you fine just staying back and playing things safe? If you want to, you can try to swap between playstyles, but this'll probably be more of a hinderance, so you're probably better off going for either one or the other. Jak's quite nimble, so you can use this to your advantage, either to get up close and personal, or to get the hell outta there. He also shines at his ranged game, having a whole load of guns that he can pew pew his opponents with, so use those. Hell, use everything! Just mash buttons, OK. It always works for me.

Extras​

Now, for extras, because we love those. Really, we do.

Oh, you want costume colours, do ya? You know Playstation All Stars Battle Royale? Those colours!

Music? It's called YouTube.

And that's your lot. What do you think I am, a charity?

Finale​

Finally. Finally finally. We're done. That's it. There's nothing left to see here. Was I meant to balance this crap? Oops. If I didn't explain anything properly then tough, use your head and figure it out. It's not Professor Layton for crying out loud. Erm... What else can I say? Vote for me. Please. I'm not desperate or anything. I just need the money to fund my dream house. And Jak's drinking habits. You've not seen how he gets.
 

JOE!

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Wee! Discussion about it finally :D

Doomgiver

I guess it has been a while since I ripped a...
Who the hell is this guy?

The Ace Part One

I'll first give a slight discussion on Ace Trainer JOE as presented in the first post, then comment each Pokemon, and then finally return to commenting Ace Trainer JOE as a whole and how I feel it works together. I'm a big fan of the original Trainer JOE!, so I'm excited to see where all this goes: The only one I read before was Alakazam at first and I've forgotten it so much I need to reread it.
Ah, here we go.

Double battles are a perfectly logical place to go from Trainer JOE and handled fairly well. Switching is intuitive enough and the presence of two Pokemon is handled well. Shall we see JOE tackle Triple Battles or Rotation in the future? As for the Smash 4 changes...I'm iffy on the Super Smash, but it works enough. I do question why it says you can only air dodge once without pushing a direction when logic dictates you should be able to do it infinitely without a direction, like Brawl, but lose the ability to if you choose a direction, like Melee. Glad to see L-Cancelling back.

Should't his Final Smash also use Revives...? Or does it not revive the fallen and only heal those still around?

"30 different pairings, and a total of 120 different teams leads to an incredibly deep, yet rewarding character to master. He's not an Ace Trainer for nothing!"

Realistically speaking it just means Ace Trainer JOE is impossible to master competitively, but since this is MYM I'll just assume he can be mastered anyhow.
@Airdodging: I originally had it so that you could airdodge neutrally as much as you want, but then came to realize it didn't mesh with the directionals, and made them highly situational. Making it act like, Sonic's Up B in that you don't go into "special fall" still makes it a better bet than the directionals as you can attack out of it, but not overwhelmingly so. (Also, I picture Smash4 to be less floaty so returning to the ground wont take too long/wont hardly notice/yadda yadda).

@Revives: I had pondered revives, but ultimately decided against it as that would be a little -too- good when he otherwise can just reset all his % back to 0. It also gives a little strategy to it seeing as one could still play without activating it thanks to B+A activation, and using it just before **** hits the fan to do a big reset.

@Mastery: It is technically impossible to "truly" master ATJ, but it is certainly viable to master 3 of the mons in combination, which is what I push throughout the set by mentioning pairings and the like. He's all about choice, just like an in-game Pokemon trainer would be. How you set up your team should be unique to you: AFter toying around with him for 10 minutes you'll find a pokemon you like, and probably work your team from there, finding the next you like, then the last of the remaining 4. Alternately, you could always change your team slightly based on playstyle or need at a higher level.

Gonna Reach Out and Grab Ya!

The first Pokemon in Ace Trainer JOE's arsenal is Alakazam, up there with Tauros as the most staple of RBY Pokemon. Alakazam is cool and one of my more liked Pokemon.

I wish it was mentioned what happened if Alakazam made his spoon miss coming back to him on his Forward Tilt. His tilts are also too weak IMO: They should do at least 6%-7% damage, as 4% is very weak for a Tilt and even Kinesis doesn't bring it up much. 6% x 2 is 12%, which is pretty average for a tilt which usually doesn't need to hit on return for full damage.

What's the point of Up Aerial's fall speed reduction?

Disable seems too easy to horribly abuse...

Ah, that's the end of the movesets. It's...okay. Psybeam is cool, but Alakazam seems more like a team player than a sweeper, as his only really strong moves are his smashes. Most of his other moves do mediocre knockback and mediocre to low damage. Forward Smash is probably his most useful, as it functions as a KO move with fire, range with ice and damage with thunder. I would have liked more done with Psyshock: It's key ability is that it hits the foe's defense instead of it's special defense, so maybe it could hit shields while the foe is unshielded and the foe when they are shielded? It would add an excellent bit to Alakazam's mindgameness and help increase his ability to be a KOer by letting him get by shields. Also, I wish Psycho Cut had been a special move instead. Ultimately though, the moveset isn't bad...but I didn't particularly enjoy it either.
@Tilts: Just to clarify, his tilts hit twice: once going out, again coming in so 8% total if spaced just right. This on top of it being a ranged tilt with godlike priority, range and speed. He could stuff -any- approach realistically when done right and that being able to do a ton of damage on it's own would be ludicrous over time. That and he can always set one out as a kinesis trap and confusion foes into them for added damage to the Confusion throw.

@Uair: Lowering the foe's fall speed uses his psychic powers of levitation, just as Dair makes them fall faster. Both rely on him sweet-spotting the move and both set up for the next hit better: juggling/spiking respectively. The former is also sweet when combined with his Zair/Uthrow/Usmash/Spoons as while the foe is coming down, it's trivial for Alakazam to set up a bit and intercept them as he will be able to move so much faster and do all sorts of nasty things. Like Utilt > Kinesis in an area they cant really avoid, then jump up and do Psychic from that as a combo for a KO. (Odd you didnt mention his Nair btw, it's like a PK Flash on command)

@Disable: Its the point of it. The stun lasts long enough to do anything only at normal KO% anyways, and they have anti-grab armor longer than it lasts at most % to boot. It guarantees a hit much like many throws do, just in a different flavor.

@Last part: His KO moves are Bair, Dair, Nair, Fsmash, Usmash, and possibly Fthrow/Confusion for gimping recoveries. Of those, Nair is giant and can be set up into, Usmash has a wonderful arcing hitbox like Link's Utilt and when done facing inward to the stage near a ledge, the swing having directional KB means they get sent outward once more while trying to recover: a risky proposition if it doesn't outright kill them. Fsmash is of course the go-to, and can be set up for the fire punch with careful planning (and disabling), while the rest are a tad more situational but still good finishers in their own right. Dsmash is a "grinder" Dsmash muck like Peach/Bowser in that it creates a well, meat-grinder effect around himself to get foes off his back, or just pop them up for additional hits (SHFFL Uair juggles), the disjointed multi-hit also eats through shields and he has a disjointed grab and Confusion already, and you're talking about him needing help vs shields? (hippo) That said, the move moreso has the name of Psyshock more than the effects as I didn't really feel the need to make it all too special without it being a bit tacky.

Glad you liked him :)

Oudal

Feraligatr always was my least favorite of the Johto starters. I started with Chikorita and always though Typholosion and Quilava looked cool. Feraligatr isn't bad, just not as cool as the other two.
Uh oh.

Hydro Pump is cool.

The tilts seem a bit weak damage %-wise, given it's Feraligatr and the average is around 10%-11%. I'm dissapointed Rage doesn't interact with his damage or getting hit at all, since that would be fun given Hydro Pump charges faster as he is more damaged and his ability is Torrent and so on. Isn't Forward Throw horribly strong against a ledge since it's knockback isn't true knockback but it has a large set distance, especially if Hydro Charged. Whirlpool is a fun Super Smash.

So in total...Feraligatr is good, probably better than Alakazam, but I felt myself longing for a bit more. Rage changing with damage percentage would have been fun, not clashed with the set and fit with Hydro Pump's torrent usage. The smashes didn't feel as interesting as I had hoped and I don't feel the set takes advantage of it's movement as much as I had hoped. I would have loved if the Smashes had more of an advanced when combined when your odd movement patterns, not even via interaction but just via hitboxes or somesuch, The playstyle section also totally foregoes the fact that Hydro Pump helps your other moves when charged, with the moveset itself somewhat forgetting this at times. I would have liked to have seen it built on more to create a real choice between keeping a fully charged Hydro Pump in reserve for using it as a move booster and shooting it as watery artillery. If there is any such choice, it's not evident or strong enough to break out for me. I enjoyed it slightly more than Alakazam though.
@Hydro Pump: (h)

@Tilts: Ftilt does 14% if that counts, and unlike most heavies his tilts are all pretty fast with decent enough power, a bit lower damage is a bit of a tradeoff. Utilt also has a monster hitbox and is fairly spammable sooo....

@Rage: Rage is similar to Psyshock in that it's more of a "name only" deal. I originally thought of giving him SA during it but it would have been a little random that just one attack had it, and he's supposed to be "bulky", not "tanky".

@Fthrow: Yes, it is very strong when at an edge, much like Peach's Fthrow, Ness Bthrow and so on :)

@Last bit: Hydro pump effects all specials, smashes, and two of his throws, over half the moveset. So there is definatley choice involved on how to use it, but thankfully it becomes more expendable the more you fight. The "sliding" I'm guessing smashes would have been cool, but he has Surf for that: just Wavedash out of it into a smash.

Will talk more later, got to go for now.
 

FrozenRoy

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The priority of Alakazam's tilts are actually not that strong. It doesn't have transcendant priority so it's priority is based off of it's 4% damage and clashes with anything that deals 13% or more while being outprioritized by anything that deals 14% or more. So a Marth in tipper range doesn't have to fear it, Ike can tilt through it and a lot of characters won't mind clashing a dash attack against it or something. It's priority is decent due to clashing with a good amount of tilts, but it doesn't clash with much of any smashes and of course clashing with it removes the second hit, not to mention it's still harder to hit with thanks to the returning. It does have great range though.

NAir honestly felt really situational to me. I didn't say he needed help against shields, just that it would fit the theme of him being a "sweeper" to be able to smack shields around. Shields ARE very useful against his lower-damage higher-knockback moves and all of the tilts, though...

Yes, Hydro Pump effects all of those, but it's not really built on in much of a manner, to the point the playstyle section doesn't even mention the trade-off. It felt like an after effect added on to the end of moves without though in a lot of cases. And even if it wasn't called Rage, having another attack to go with Torrent like Hydro Pump would be cool.
 

JOE!

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The spoons also have iasa as soon as he throws them, allowing the jab to work as well as do more tilts. Foes will need to be wary of that as well (ftilt swapping with dtilt works wonders to go around hitboxes). That combined with how many moves will clash make them great since foes have to commit to swatting them away, and he has a teleporting WD and dash attack :p

That said the % could always be buffed :awesome:

Nair: psychic is pretty much an on-command PK flash, and you can uthrow/sh zair into it (sinister)

Hydro pump was also meant to be a thing you'd want, but then have to choose what to spend it on while having to commit charging it when its safe, while in peril you have a bit more leeway (but also troublesome as foes know you'll try to charge more). The trade off is deciding which move to blow it on vs not having it.


:phone:
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
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Australia
[collapse="Jak and Daxter"]Pretty sure the last time I saw you was back in MYM6 when you posted Mushroom which Rool really liked. This is a pleasant surprise though, because the writing and presentation are absolutely perfect for these two (the cuss is indeed in-character despite being tacked on in the second game and beyond) - quick, witty and to the point without ever straying off-the-topic (sans some parts on Dark Jak, but eh). I love it. There are even some PSABR references thrown in, implying that perhaps this set was inspired from that game. I've never played it though.

The playstyle is simple enough for a video game protagonist, especially when you're trying to put in a whole lot of stuff - after all, these two are represented somewhat differently between the first and second game (main set minus specials and grabs shows more of the former). The set does well in representing that, though perhaps you could have condensed some of the material a bit more - I know the Side Special is a bit of a staple in the series, but it feels like a Dash Attack (Jak doesn't even have a Dash Attack!), much like what Brawl did with Snake. Perhaps you could have used the Jak Board as the Side Special instead of F-air, giving Jak a way to fire his weapon while moving about and an alternate recovery. That would have been cool. Easy way to transition into one of the two forms you want.

My other nitpick is that the guns are a bit too drawn-out throughout the set, not only having their Special not really tell you what they do at the start of the set but make you wait at the end to read a section arguably longer than the main set. Based on their length, it seems you're trying to implement every gun in the game! Twelve projectiles in all. That kind of versatility seems sweet, though players won't want to slog through that many weapons on one input, and there's bound to be ones better than others. Also I don't know how you change between the 3 guns on one mod. That might not even be mentioned, maybe in the Neutral Special. Speaking of versatility, the dark and light transformations are fine how they are, the former rewarding offensive play and the latter rewarding defensive play since you'd probably want to run away to transform and heal, or even stall. The extras are also...eye-opening.

This is definitely a nice comeback after over 3 years of absence, with a very good sense of presentation sans maybe the guns. Yes Daxter, I'll very much vote for you. I also lol'd when you said "I need to quit saying Jaks high."[/collapse]


[collapse="Sauron"]I remember previewing this set before the contest began. I had a hard time believing this guy was so huge let alone had so much power given the limited view in his picture, so it took me a while to get around to it. The set was half complete back then, with Aerials, Grab and Final Smash added as of now. Although you only vaguely imply it a few times, this could be considered you token 3v1 set (because this contest seems to be getting a burst of such) given how you intended for Sauron to be overpowered and that everyone totally needs one. It's the new cool.

Sauron's writing style improves over your other sets, and is even golden with its descriptions at times - there are too many examples in the set for me to count. The Eye is an interesting centerpiece, as although it protects Sauron regardless of whom its shining down upon it forces foes to decide whether they want it gazing upon them or for Sauron to reap its benefits with his powerful Smashes. This is even capitalized later on in the set with the Side Special fires. Sauron acts like a boss for the most part with his Super Amour and very laggy attacks that are more likely to hit foes if they're too busy attacking you, though I do wonder whether all of them would be able to hit foes below given how tall Sauron is. Then again, that's what you have fires and lava for, so it's pretty straightforward.

I wish I could say more positive things about this set, but there are a few things about it I need to address. The Ring of Power is a great service to the character and is delivered strongly through your writing, but is only backed down by one tiny little quibble: foes can choose whether or not to take the ring at all, and will most likely not. That's all. A similar problem Coachman had. Also the ring levitating in place where Sauron dropped it means foes will have to jump pretty far to get it, seeing how tall he is. While Sauron could force the ring onto foes, that would kind of ruin its representation in the series and feel pretty silly for a Dark Lord to do seeing as how he could obliterate his foes in an instant. Why not make it so the Nazguls get summoned as minions for Sauron instead (he already has an army, so summoning these guys onto the battlefield isn't that much different, and it would add a good flavor to the set), and have the Ring of Power be an item featured as an Extra at the end of the set? The use of the army is a bit of a lesser case, as while it shows Sauron does have one (perhaps you could have said so in the description), it feels a bit strange for him to rely on something like that when he's already so powerful. He wields black magic and stuff like lava, so something as barbaric as a boulder coming down or a rain of arrows that are just as strong if not stronger makes the dark lord look petty (maybe he does fight in the midst of his army, but still). Playstyle-wise though, it'd be nigh impossible for Sauron to actually activate these aerials seeing as how enemies will be attacking him a lot, though they're not that slow either.

Sauron's a character of extremes for sure, threatening foes with a lot of stuff you can have fun with. It's hard to make a cohesive playstyle out of something where you're nigh invulnerable and it only takes one move to kill the foe, though.[/collapse]
 

JOE!

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SPORESPORESPORESPORELEECHSEED

Breloom is one of my favorite Pokemon to use simply because it's so fun to use while being extremely effective. SubSeedPunch!

Focus Punch has lag similiar to Warlock Punch...I'm not sure how viable it is even with Team2. And I'll be blunt: I hate how Spore is handled. It's Breloom. It's Spore. It should put people to sleep. It's what Breloom is famous for in and out of the game! The core of it's use in the games! If you wanted to use Effect Spore, there's a lot better ways to do it: A chance when Breloom is physically hit, some kind of counter, that kind of thing. But I don't like Spore as-is.

I don't like how Drain Punch is handled either. Why not make it simply heal damage when it hits like Drain Punch? As-is it feels like something that should be Breloom's SSpec over Focus Punch. D-Smash has random Oran Berries and is otherwise unnotable...this isn't feeling very Breloom-ish.

"Each hit does 5% and nearly any KB" Nearly any!

DO A BARREL ROLL

I think the problem with Breloom is it's playstyle is disconnected from the pokemon. Breloom in game is a somewhat slow, hard hitter with an excellent trump card with Spore and almost cerebral and hard hitting Substitute and Focus Punch shenanigans, not to mention SubSeed sets. This Breloom is a fast hitting combo-er without anything really interesting to it and elements that I don't particularly enjoy, like Down Smash or the entire way Focus Punch and Spore is handled, that breeds a disconnect between the moveset and the Pokemon. It also doesn't feel nearly as fast as it a fast combo character would to me. As you may have guessed, I overall disliked the moveset, which certainly puts it below Feraligatr and Alakazam.
@Focus Punch: edited in the flubbed punch thanks to you (swt), but it's warlock punch lag is mitigated by how you can use a Team2 mon like a substitute (Esp the likes of Armantle, Gatr and Bisharp) as well as walk and jump like DDD's Jet Hammer.

@Spore: For the longest time I wanted effect spore to be a passive ability when he's hit, yet also wanted Spore to be Down Special. However, both could put foes to sleep, and hitting Breloom and getting poisoned/stunned for it seemed kinda dumb, so I decided to make the move Spore reflect his ability: Effect Spore. It functions as a counter as you can tap it and he poofs a cloud of spore around himself the size of a mid-charge waft, which is about a character width to either side of him, that will paralyze or even put the foe to sleep past 60%. Before then the poison aspect will get them to that range very fast combined with his combo game. He still has Effect Spore on his tail tho, as hitting the club will cause additional DoT on foes hit.

@Smashes: Drain Punch and Bullet Seed I took as ways he would actually use the moves, esp since he could leech seed and it kinda makes sense that drain punch for him could incorporate that as the method. Bullet seed was kind of based on sheik's needles given Breloom's ovb asian-fighter inspiration, using them like throwing stars/kunai to either side (also a fist full for Fsmash) seems natural in my mind *shrug*. As said, the Oran berries are more an easter egg due to the seeds planting in the ground.

@Breloom's feels: Looking at his natural learnset, it's full of stuff like Tackle, Sky Uppercut, Mach Punch, etc. That combined with his look/typing (he's a kangarooasaur with kung-fu influences + grass), as well as the fact that his "punches" are done with vine-like arms for range like Dhalsim, I'm surprised that people see something else from him. The way i looked at it is that his slow speed comes from relatively bad mobility overall, but he makes up for it by being able to reach out with fast punches like Ftilt, Fair, etc. The combo nature derived from this mimics his high attack (technician gives power to his low-power moves, in the form of linking combos in such in favor of giant hitters), and seed bombs/spore effects/leeching covers his trademark grass abilities in a manner like smoke bombs and ninja stars would, fitting the theme. *shrug*


Now we're ghetto?

Porygon-Z is cool, though I'm fairly neutral on it. The Porygon line as a whole is neat, though.

Conversion is good, but I will admit it was a bit hard to wrap my head around at first. Can Porygon-Z choose to go to electric with teammates if he wants? But once you wrap your head around it, the interactions between Tri-Attack, Conversion and Trick Room are quite nice. Shadow Ball is probably my favorite projectile of all of them, being simple and yet extremely effective and having a good fun Trick Room attack. I also love the tilts, because IASA frames are extremely underused in MYM despite being excellent for MYM. The grab game is also great fun, with Drag and Drop gimping being a happy point. Nasty Plot is an amazing and deadly Super Smash. Dragon's Rain is...okay.

But as a whole I greatly enjoyed Porygon-Z. IASA frames and a good grab game give him a thick playstyle to go with Trick Room's trickiness and the ability to mess with his own coding to create all new ways to mess with the foe, which are unique enough to not feel generic but generic enough to fit in with the playstyle and never have a single projectile take over. I do wonder if Porygon-Z's conversion type carries over when he goes to Team2: Imagien the possibilites of his Team2 support when combined with all those projectile types! If I have to have a criticism...Up/Forward smash feel a bit weak, as do the aerials. The stat change is not as intuitive as I would like. And the wheel itself seems a bit out of place in Brawl, but that's a necessary evil. Still, I'd wager it is my favorite so far...
@Electric: No, Electric is there for when he is by himself, it pretty much just changes his "stance". And yes, Porygon remains his typing until he uses Conversion once again. :D And I agree, IASA needs to be used much more (like with Alakazam's tilts as well).

@The rest: Fsmash was obligatory due to Porygon2 in maylay (hippo). But yeah, overall Pory isn't known to be too Smash-Happy.


Not-Chess Man

Bisharp is okay, I don't have much of an opinion on it.

Dual Commands really should have been included in the first part...why not make it so the four directional Taunts can all activate a Special? It would add even more depth to the teamwork that Dual Commands creates, though honestly I feel Dual Commands would mostly cause Team 2 Pokemon to do stuff you don't want them to do while grabbing/dodging/and so on instead of being helpful...

Metal Burst and Defiant is an amazing combination. I also like the use of Sucker Punch as a Team2 move.

Ooooh, the way Bisharp takes advantage of Dual Commands is pretty clever. Bisharp's Super Smashes are also pretty good, although I don't particularly like Hone Claws as amusing as the animation sounds. The rest of the set feels...lackluster. The bleed damage on Down Smash feels so utterly random given Bisharp doesn't really take advantage of it and nothing else causes it. F-Smash feels a bit TOO strong with the parry. And the tilts, aside from F-Tilt, and aerials don't feel like they mesh with Metal Burst and Metal Claw. So ultimately it was a good idea that I felt had lackluster execution with Metal Burst and Defiant, but on a set I ultimately enjoyed.
@Dual Commands: As you might have noticed, each set was actually themed around the generation of the Pokemon. Alakazam was a simple first step, Breloom was bright and colorful and new, Z was a lot more technical and meta-gamey, Bisharp had the "fresh start" of 5th gen to carry (as well as mirror my own timeline in MYM with the image header organization). That said, I figured I would also wait on dual commands until they became truly relevant, seeing as Bisharp is the one with special ones anyways. As for them getting in the way, many don't even do too much unless you have them already doing a dual command (throws and such), and they only work within a certain area anyways. The separate specials was an immediate thought for them, but would have been awkward given the variety of Up specials, Team2 already using Dspec, and just choosing F or Nspec would be odd. You can also buffer said inputs during another move if you didn't figure out from the taunt input's aerial description as well ;)

@Metal Madness: The smashes each had a unique mini-mechanic to them. Usmash sucked in foes, Fsmash did pre-emtive shield damage (when they bring it up, its already hurt!) and Dsmash would cause bleeding (along with Dthrow) for extra nastyness. Metal Claw is meant as a pressure tool as he could just whip them out and force foes to make a move, and Metal Burst was there to make the punish he did extra powerful, no matter the move due to him being nigh guaranteed to smash through their reaction. HE essentially plays up his dark typing with just being a pain in the *** to play against if the Bisharp player gets into your head.

Because There Just Weren't Enough To Choose From

This set has the best orgynation, bar none, of the JOE sets. Yarp.

Feraligatr + Armantle sounds scary for the Armantle boost. Stage creaton? In Trainer JOE? Didn't expect that one! It seems simple and good enough, though. I think Armantle has a much richer playstyle without taking into account his teammates when the stage construction, lava flow and ability to switch between stances are all taken into account. F-Smash is a great move for creating subtle changes to the battlefield that can really be used to change the flow of your battle...or your lava. Also, how does Down Smash work if you change the stage with Forward Smash under it?

A deadly game of hot potato indeed. Alakzam and Armantle's Super Smash is awesome, but how does Gatr and Armantle's work when Armantle is Team1? I guess you take control of Gatr anyway? Anyway, Armantle's playstyle...pretty good, I'd say. Armantle takes advantage of his unique characteristics, 3 modes to swich between and teammates, like a boss by creating a sharp strength in damage racking and terraforming but a similiarly sharp weakness in a lack of KO power and recovery, so you definitely want to take advantage of them as a team. I do feel like the set's aerials are a low point, the only real relevance is destroying stage alterations and otherwise lacks flow, and the grab game is only okay, though I do like the difference between all the grabs...but overall Armantle is probably my favorite Trainer JOE Pokemon for an excellent presentation, good and well executed playstyle and generally being good.

Now then...
@Orgynations: Yep, he reflects my image sets :D. The team interactions are also hinted with his Collaborate ability, but due to well, orgynation issues were spared for the strategy guide.

@Stage creation: Dsmash simply gets angled with the fault, but splits if the new angle goes through it halfway or so. And yeah, the aerials are lackluster since he'll be wanting to stay grounded, where he can best defend himself and damage the baddies.

@Strength: Yes, you take control of Gatr, but go back to Armantle if you initiated with him after.

The Ace Part Two

Let us discuss Ace Trainer JOE as a whole. Well, and read the strategy guide. The team builder is a fun little exercise, by the by.

As for Ace Trainer JOE...I do feel it is quite a good set overall. The Pokemon in general play very well together, but I do feel at times choices feel a bit off, most prominently Breloom filling in an entirely un-Breloom-ish role. I also feel many of the Pokemon did not fully display their potential: Even in in-smash terms, I felt many oppourtunities were missed, with Feraligatr perhaps having been able to make use of his mobility more, Alakazam the ability to mess with Porygon-Z's projectiles better, Bisharp taking more advantage of Metal Burst...while it's ultimately a very enjoyable set, missed chances and me greatly disliking Breloom bring it down.

It's also quite good organizationally and I enjoy the plethora of extras, such as alternate costumes and event matches, that show a lot of tender care placed in this set. The teamwork aspects, though sometimes shaky at times, along with the ultimately pleasing Super Smashes, turn Ace Trainer JOE into a set more than the whole of it's parts. As an aside, my team would be Armantle, Alakazam and Porygon-Z. A fun team, I'd say.

I wish I had more to say here, but I think my comments on all the Pokemon say all I could say here. Enjoy your 8 stars.
@Missed opportunities: Feraligatr has a bit more mobility than you give him credit for. Being able to jump-cancel a horizontal and vertical movement tool are amazing assets for a character with reach such as himself, and can let him control a huge amount of area at once as you cant really safely run away when the Gatr player closes in at the right angle with a safety net of being able to Jump and dodge/shield/whatever and counter your counter attack. That said, he does lack small-area mobility ironically enough, but the watery nature of Hydro Pump and Dash attack mess with the foe's mobility as well due to the push effects that let his shine a bit more once you manage to get a handle on how to use the bursts.

I wanted to avoid messing with Porygon's Projectiles as much as I could from outside sources as that would get too complex way too fast on this kind of project, as well as put too much emphasis on always having Alakazam and Porygon together when they should work well in any combo.

Bisharp and Breloom... I covered above :p

@The rest: Woot 8 stars! Glad you liked the extras (especially the team builder). And thanks for pointing out Focus Punch... pretty much facepalmed at the oversight lol. If anything, I may go through and update the sets a tad more for little number tweaks and such :p
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
As an FYI for everyone, a link to the MYM13 Weighted Rankings is now present in my signature: Just click the Roy image!

The Tragic Clown

No, it's not another Joker comment, it's a Luke Atmey comment! I read this a long time ago, then forgot about it, so it's time for a REREADING.

Zvarri! A moveset has once again been elegantly revealed to me!

I'll confess that I had a hard time reading this the first time, so to no great surprise I did the second time too. This set has some odd stuff to it: Why can Luke Atmey make a wooden crate randomly appear under him? The blinding ring seems like it would be weird on a good amount of stages or situations. Even the painting seems somewhat odd. I do enjoy the safe though: It's an innovative way to use items, especially combined with the Broach Bomb, and it ties together the DeMasque playstyle nicely. While I do enjoy focused playstyles, Atmey does at times feel almost TOO focused, as I'm not sure how well he can function unless his item generation goes very well, and matches feel like they will all be very similiar regardless of the opponent. This set is hard to comment, just as it was to read...there's a lot of things in here and I honestly often find it hard to tell how much substance there is too it. On one hand, the non-item moves honestly seemed quite weak, except for the few that support the DeMasque playstyle...on the other hand, I found the DeMasque playstyle much more enjoyable on a reread, because the items seem fairly well developed and there's a good amount of ways to manipulate them.

I'm out of ideas of what to say for this set. I overall enjoyed it. So...yay.
 

Jimnymebob

Smash Champion
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
2,020
NNID
Jimnymebob
Thanks Kat.
I remembered that I hadn't give him a dash attack when I was on the bus earlier XD. I'll fix that as soon as possible lol. I started the set in October 2011 according to the date on the file, so I wasn't really influenced by PSASBR, although the up special was practically just ripped from that XP.
You swap through weapons by holding B, then tapping the corresponding direction to cycle through, i.e tapping down twice to get to the 2nd blue mod.

If the balance is screwy it's because I've only played Smash like 5 times since I posted my last set, and I can't remember the damage averages DX.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback.
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
Why can Luke Atmey make a wooden crate randomly appear under him?
He discovers it like Sonic discovers a spring underneath him when recovering. That, or he placed it down there before the match began. Ace Attorney characters have that right.
 

Yurya

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Oct 23, 2012
Messages
187
I am not going to go into the greatest detail here but my "new" character is the great Ganondorf.
Well really what I am doing is adding Black Shadow from F-Zero but I would be giving him the current Smash Ganon's moveset in every way leaving Ganon in need of an entirely new one so...

Ganondorf is a sword character with gargantuan power but also using magic at range.
Up-b and side-b will both be very useful at ranged pressure while neutral B and down-b both relieve Ganon of pressure on himself.
His general playstyle will be using projectiles to bait a foolish approach which Ganon can punish with his Behemoth of a sword.

Neutral B: A very quick sweeping backhand in front of Ganon. Works well as a gfto move but also reflects very well.

Up-B: Ganon leaps up charging a projectile above his head the longer he charges it the stronger it gets but he can fire it at any point during his rise. The projectile itself will bounce off the stage and doesn't wear out.

Side-B: Slow large arcing projectile, can be charged but not stored, uncharged comes out pretty quick and is good for zoning, fully charged is a heavy hit.

Down-B: Airborne Ganon plummets straight down with high priority landing with both fists creating an earthquake effect. Grounded version has the same effect as Ganon slams the ground. Does have endlag though even though start-up is minimal.

His basic attacks don't need too much description as they will be generally slow extreme ranged power sword attacks with some quicker surprises built in.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
The weighted rankings have been updated with Katapultar's Rankings now being taken into account. I have NOT, however, re-ordered the list/updated the T10 moveset scores yet: I'm tired, so I will do it during the playoffs tomorrow. I also will double check all the scores to make sure they are correct and correct any defects.
 

Rychu

Thane of Smashville
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
810
3DS FC
1908-0105-4965
Forever can't be that long, right?

"We're a lot alike, you and I. You tested me. I tested you. You killed me. I—oh, no, wait. I guess I haven't killed you yet. Well. Food for thought."



GLaDOS

GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is the main antagonist of the Portal series, acting as the testing supervisor for the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. GLaDOS is a snarky AI who is at constant odds with the player, whom she puts through many different tsting chambers "for science". She serves as the final boss of the first game, and is a major character in the second, where much of her backstory is revealed.

In MYM Brawl, GLaDOS is a 3v1 Boss Character, making her one of many 3v1 Exclusives, though she has great reason to be classified as such: she's basically a living Stage!

The Central AI Chamber


When GLaDOS is chosen to fight, she can only be fought in one location: The Central AI Chamber, pictured above. By default, the match is always a stamina match, each fighter against GLaDOS getting 300% stamina. The room is about the size of 4 Final Destinations, though obviously GLaDOS is not to scale in the picture. There are minor changes to the arena, as there are 2 incinerators 1.5 SBUs tall and one SBU wide, one on each side. The rest is completely flat, with walls that reach up 2.5 FDs on either side - in other words, the stage is freaking huge.

GLaDOS herself is mostly in the background, with only her head and the "neck" of her body sticking in the battlefield, which is the size of R.O.B, and has full motion around the stage, which she can move around at a speed of 5. However, if she stays too far up for too long (9 seconds) she'll begin drifting back down to her original position, 1.5 SBUs above the center of the stage. She changes the way she faces when she moves, left, right, up and down and will stay looking that way until she moves in a different direction.

KOing GLaDOS is unique among Bosses, in that there are specific objectives, though it's not overly complicated in any way. Every 300% damage she takes, a personality core falls off, prompting both of the incinerators to open up. GLaDOS' opponents can then pick the core up and throw it in, like any normal throwing item, causing GLaDOS to violently shake and contort, as the screen flashes red. Doing this 3 times will grant victory to the opponents, as GLaDOS shrivels up and explodes into the background.


0NEUTRALSPECIAL0PORTAL
With no lag whatsoever, GLaDOS creates an orange portal on the nearest white wall, ceiling, or floor. The portal is 1 SBU in length, and for now, does nothing besides glow a pretty color. Anyone who has played Portal can guess what happens on the next press, as GLaDOS creates a second portal, this time a blue one with the exact same proportions. This coloring alternates, as with the next press, a new orange one will appear, replacing the old one and so on and so forth, alternating. GLaDOS, maybe to some degree of surprise, has two sets of portals she can use, by holding the shield button and using the neutral special (on the Wiimote, this is achieved by holding B and A simultaneously), which have the same properties as the others, these ones being of red and violet hues.

The two pairs of portals are connected to each other, orange with blue and red with violet. Going through one will instantaneously transport you through the other one no matter where it is or what you're doing, even knockback and momentum building will continue, and continue to build in the case of the latter. Even objects, projectiles, and laser beams are transported in the exact state they were in from the other portal, giving all new meaning and threat to the range of some projectiles. GLaDOS herself will never be seen transported through one of these due to her size and inability to touch the ground, but pretty much everything that will fit can and will go through at least one of these portals sometime in the match.

0UPSPECIAL0WALL PANEL
Laglessly, a wall panel, whichever one GLADOS is looking directly at, begins to rise. This can mean one of a few things depending on where she's looking: On the floor or ceiling, an upright wall the thickness of a BFP and 1.2 SBUs tall creeps out of the ground, reaching it's full height after 1 second of rising. The wall is indestructible, and is white on either side, allowing for portals to be shot onto it. Any number of these can be made, though each must be 2.5 SBUs far away from another one. The same can be done on the walls of the room, only instead of upright, they lay horizontal, possessing the same properties and rules as the upright ones. These can now act as solid platforms for things to stand on.

In addition to this, holding a shield button while using this move creates a panel out of the wall directly behind her, making it right next to her in whatever direction she was facing but up. These automatically come out verticle, but pressing down on the controller causes it to flip horizontally. The same ruses apply to these panels as they do to the others. GLaDOS can get rid of any wall panel sticking out of a wall of floor by looking at it and pressing the Up Special, and the same for a freefloating by holding the shield button and doing the same.

The main purpose of this move is to give more practicality as well as versatility to the placing of your portals, along with creating what can accurately be described as "chambers" in which to trap your opponents in. GLaDOS, although it has not been yet demonstrated, has many tools for which can be used to occupy opponents in these chambers.

0DOWNSPECIAL0TURRET
In a move that will effect the closest horizontal part of the stage, GLaDOS laglessly commands a turret to pop out of the ground in a quick fashion. These turrets will automatically face to the right, though pulling left on the control stick as they come up will turn them around. The turrets are about the height of Olimar and as wide as his body all the way through. GLaDOS can have up to 6 of these guys out on the stage at a time, with the creation of a new one causing the oldest to explode in a small, bob-omb sized explosion that deals 5% damage and okay knockback.

The turrets sit perfectly still, a very thin, red beam focused in an infinite straight line coming from the center of their eye. If any opponent should cross this path, the turret suddenly excites, and after . 5 seconds begins firing bullets with infinite range and almost impossible to track speed in short spurts of ten, each firing separated by .75 seconds, each bullet dealing .5% damage (totaling 5% damage total each volley), along with very slight pushback equal to that of a very weak FLUDD.

Turrets have only two caveats, though they are both very big: they are very easy to outmaneuver, and they are very, very easy to destroy. Turrets have a mere 15% health, and dealing them that will cause any turret to shut down and explode after one second of countdown. Any damage dealt to a turret under 5% damage simply knocks them over, rendering them useless unless someone is nice enough to help it back up or GLaDOS is able to set it straight (which she is very capable of doing). Turrets are excellent tools to grind down damage, and the amount of range they can see and fire at with the aid of portals is astounding, potentially able to see across the stage two times over. They do, however, need lots of attention.

0SIDESPECIAL0GELS
Upon input, a tube attached to GLaDOS's body enters the battlefield, shooting out one of three kinds of gels. How you access these gels is dependent on how you input the attack: if you pressed forward compared to where GLaDOS is looking, you got the propulsion gel. If you pressed back in comparison, you got the repulsion gel. If you were holding our dear old friend the shield button, you got the conversion gel. In any case, GLaDOS will shoot the conversion gel chosen forward, the gel landing about an SBU away from her and covering about 4 SBUs. The effects of the gel are different, quite obviously, or I wouldn't have gone out of my way to make distinctions.

Propulsion Gel is orange, and increases the speed of the object moving forward on it to Sonic with a bunny-hat speeds, and slipping more than a light Luigi on ice. This gel is non only great for getting opponents into some of your traps, but also for letting them slide after a landing. If an opponent is covered in this gel, they get a significant increase in speed, to a total of 10 stat-wise, but their traction is also reduced to a 1.

Repulsion Gel is blue, and will bounce anything that lands on it up and down, without stop, though opponents are able to move left and right. Their jumps are also greatly increased, jumping up 5 point levels in stats. Objects will bounce up and down indefinitely, so items like your turrets are given an all new meaning to unpredictability. Opponents covered in this gel will get the same type of effects everywhere, and pretty much will never be able to land straight onto the ground after jumping and falling, bouncing straight back up.

Conversion Gel is white, and acts as a sort of "white out" for the other two, erasing them and making them white, as well as making any other non-white surface white. This is extremely useful seeing as your portals can only be shot onto white surfaces partially made out of ground up moon dust, which this gel certainly is (watch out, you might just catch a little bit of cancer!). Covering the gels with each other unfortunately does not stack their effects, rather, it overwrites them. Opponents covered in this gel are dealt a constant 2% damage per second they are covered in it, due to inhaling the insane amounts of moon dust in it.



0JAB0BOMB
Though, yes, this is technically a move
Wheatley
used in the sequel, it was still an apparent ability of the master AI because, well, he was the master AI.

Upon input, GLaDOS launches a bomb from somewhere on her main body, which travels as a Mario fireball would through the air, being the same size and speed as one, as well. The bombs explode upon contact with ANYTHING, dealing 7% damage and decent knockback to anyone in range of the explosion. Being covered in repulsion gel does make them bounce on the ground, whereupon they will explode on the third bounce. They are susceptible to all manner of GLaDOS's various traps throughout the stage.

0FORWARDTILT0HIGH ENERGY PELLET
GLaDOS unlocks yet another hidden plate in the wall or floor she's looking at, this time a sort of launcher that is .5 SBUs long. After .5 seconds, this opens up and fires a High Energy Pellet in a completely straight line, travelling at the speed of one of Yoshi's eggs. This will never get any faster, though this ball has some of the best priority in the game, dealing 10% damage to anyone it hits and dealing great knockback, though never straying from it's course.

When it hits a solid object, it bounces back in the exact same angle it came (say had it hit at a 45 degree angle on the floor, it would still move forward after the bounce, staying at that 45 degree angle). Should the pellet come back to the launcher, the launcher will act as a catcher until GLaDOS uses this move looking at the same spot. Using this move a second time, the old launcher simply retreats back into the wall, a new one emerging in the new location. These launchers have 30% health.

0UPTILT0CUBE
Upon input, a trap door on the ceiling opens directly above GLaDOS, dropping out a cube, either a regular or companion on a 75-25 chance ratio, though the two do the same thing, it's just an interesting tidbit of information. As the cube falls, it gradually gets faster, increasing speed as it goes through portals and such, capping at about Sonic's Dash with a bunny hood, and dealing more damage as it picks up speed, going from 5% and almost nothing to 25% and very high knockback at full speed.

Throwing a bunch of these around and getting them at high speeds is a generically good way to make certain points of the stage very very dangerous, something GLaDOS is very good at already, and along with the rest of her vast armory of attacks can be an extremely effective way to drain health quickly. These cubes have 15% HP, and there can be up to 7 on the field at once.

0NEUTRALZ0AERIAL FAITH PLATE
Upon the press of down and A, the panel that GLaDOS is looking directly at suddenly flips, sending whatever is on it flying through they air, though not as if they'd taken knockback, still fully able to attack and such, though the momentum of the launch makes this damn near impossible to DI out of. This attack on it's own deals no damage. Whatever was on that panel, which is about an SBU long, is launched in a long arc, as wide as 1.5 Smart Bomb Blasts, actually landing turrets right side up should they have been knocked over. The arc and speed of flight are always the same, though can be prolonged with the use of portals, but is by default launched to the right, GLaDOS having to doubletap Z to get it to launch to the right. Launching a cube off of an aerial faith plate will get it to half it's total speed right off the bat.


0NEUTRALZ0CLAW GRAB
Especially evident in the middle and last parts of Portal 2, GLaDOS is in possession of a single claw-like protrusion in her Central AI Chamber. Pressing and holding Z causes this claw to pop out underneath GLaDOS's head, staying in the background, open, and covering a distance of 1 SBU in between the two "fingers" on the mechanism. GLaDOS can send this anywhere around the stage, the claw moving around at very high speeds. Upon release, the claw snaps shut, grabbing anything within it's opening, also moving into the foreground, dealing 10% to enemy characters (she's a bit more delicate with the more breakable machinery she uses).

She can now moved the claw around again, taking whatever she's holding to wherever she needs it to go. Enemies can mash A to attempt an escape at 2X grab difficulty, dealing 5% to GLaDOS,though her pressing Z again will drop opponents wherever they are. The biggest downside to this is that GLaDOS can literally do nothing else while she controls the claw, leaving her very defenseless, to a degree. Once she's riddled the stage with dangerous traps and passive damage builders, along with turrets....she's not so defenseless anymore, and this claw gives her a quick way to rearrange her traps and do general micromanagement.

0DOWNTILT0UNSTATIONARY PLATFORM
Much like her ability to produce platforms in the middle of the stage, GLaDOS can...produce platforms in the middle of the stage. Except these ones move. Upon input, a 1 SBU long platform as thin as a BFP protrudes from the wall behind her. GLaDOS can then draw out a quick route for the platform - one that can be up to 6 SBUs long - which the platform will travel back and forth across at the speed of a stage builder elevator. GLaDOS can use this elevator for various purposes, such as transportation into traps (like her amazing fire trap from the first game), or a moving platform for your turrets. By now, you've gotta admit, she's got a lot that she can do with all of her tools.

0UPZ0EXCURSION FUNNEL
A .75 SBU long panel opens up on whatever part of the ceiling GLaDOS is looking at, sending out a tubular, see-through blue tunnel-like beam the same width straight out, this beam having infinite range. The beam almost operates on a "grab" hitbox, stopping anything's momentum immediately on contact, but not immobilizing them, them being extremely capable of DIing out of it, albiet slowly, as well as having the ability to attack. Anything caught in this beam also is pushed while they are in, almost conveyor-belt like, automatically to the right or up, but the player can choose the direction manually by moving the control stick while preforming this attack during the short period of time before the beam comes out.

Due to it's very nature, this has interactions with a great many of GLaDOS's moves. Lets get to the more general ones first. With your portals, they unfortunately can't pass through the beam, though this is possible visa-versa, as the portals can shoot them around the stage, as they are GLaDOS's main way to transport things around around the stage, including your cubes and turrets. Speaking of turrets, this is a great way to get opponents trapped in a place with turrets, as they will be aiming straight down the tunnel in the direction it is pulling, ready to shoot. Since your high energy pellets are made of pure energy, and therefore have no mass, the gravitational pull of the beam will not effect them, because that's how science works.

Another great way to use this move is to move gels around. Gels caught in the beam will be slowly pushed through, and splattered on the wall that the beam leads to, of the gel makes it that far. If the beam is shut off by GLaDOS, the gel simply fall and splatters straight on whatever it is it lands on. If GLaDOS wasn't able to cover opponents in gel normally, this is a very easy way to do so.

0SIDEZ0LIGHT BRIDGE
On whatever level GLaDOS is currently on, a light bridge generator comes out of the wall, directly beneath where her head is, and it, well, generates a blue light bridge. The light bridge, as you could guess, is a solid blue platform that stretches infinitely, made out of concentrated light. It acts as a ceiling to anything below it, and a floor to anything above it. However, this bridge will immediately halt if any solid wall or platform is blocking it's way. These have the ability to travel through portals, meaning that if you do it right you are very capable of making these vertically as well, where all the same basic rules apply to it. The generator it comes from is .5 SBUs long, and has 30% health, letting opponents potentially trapped at least have a chance of escape.

In addition, the light bridges have 750 stamina, should opponents get trapped, there is at least a chance to break out if GLaDOS has trapped them without a generator nearby. GLaDOS can't pass through the bridge, either, so she's technically cut off from whatever when she's blocked by it. GLaDOS can only have one light bridge out at a time. All 3 gels will effect the light bridge.


0DOWNSPECIALSMASH0PIT
Upon input, the ground directly underneath GLaDOS falls through, revealing a bit of a trap door, sizing up at about 1 SBU. After .5 seconds, sickly green water fills the pit, which is about .2 SBUs deep. The water acts nothing like Brawl water, as opponents simply fall into it, able to move around at half their normal speed (the pit is itself .2 SBUs deep to the floor, meaning some characters are submerged deeper than others, though this has no real affect on them). Opponents in the water are dealt constant damage, 2% per second they are trapped in it. These pits add further customization to the room, along with your walls and making for a more tailor-suited challenge for your opponents. In addition, stepping into it will immediately wash away any gel that may be covering opponents.

0UPSPECIALSMASH0RAISE
This time, upon input, the 1 SBU of floor directly below GLADOS begins to raise up, with a dark, almost black blocky wall raising up with it. The wall raises anywhere from 1 to 3 SBUs up, depending on how long you hold the button down. If it comes into contact with a light bridge, it passes through, blocking it's further reach. This not only allows for even further customization of the room, but allows you to trap opponents in what can very accurately be described as "test chambers". Your aerial faith plates will work on these raised platforms, though your down special smash will not. Using your conversion gel on the black part of the floor, then you are able to shoot portals onto it.

0SIDESPECIALSMASH0ANGLE
This move affects whichever section that GLaDOS is looking at. Upon input, that panel with spark with electricity and begin to flip, sticking out of the wall if it is on and simply raising to a 45 degree angle if it is on the ground. This can effect any wall or floating platform that has been summoned, leading to what will likely be some very interesting portal placement, especially when things like your hard light bridge, excursion beam, turrets and energy pellets that can now be aimed and shot in this new angle, specifically your energy pellets, where this move and their predictable movement pattern make them a very, very useful weapon and one that is very easy to control, despite being an uncontrolled projectile.


0SIDESMASH0THERMAL DISCOURAGEMENT BEAM
GLaDOS fires a laser from the eye on her head, making this a rare direct attack. And direct it is, as the laser reaches an infinite stretch, fires quickly (speed of light, you know), and is the width of a laser shot from Wolf. Anyone caught by the beam is dealt 15% damage and decent knockback. The laser is obviously not affected by the excursion funnel, as it's made of light and therefore having no mass, though the hard light bridge does a damn fine job of blocking it, as does any solid object, so t's unable to pass through and hit more than one enemy. It works wonders in tandem with the excursion funnel, though. The laser disappears after 1 second.

0DOWNSMASH0(S)MASHY SPIKE PLATE
Another vwey direct attack coming from GLaDOS, upon input, a 3 SBU long plate with spikes protruding from the bottom flies out of the ceiling, attached to a pole, crashing to the bottom of the screen and destroying everything in it's path, including turrets, cubes, panels, anything, before reaching the ground. The only thing that stops this crashing plate is a Hard Light Bridge, and THAT can be destroyed too if the damage to it is high enough. Characters caught by it are dealt 45% damage, nearly a tenth of the health they started with! Good thing this thing has a recharge time of a minute and a half.

As a side note, characters can ride up the plate as it ascends. Normally, the game will correct and the characters will be pushed off automatically as the spike plate goes up. However, there is a 1 in 10 chance that characters will be brought to one of Rattman's dens, a small, 2 SBU room without much in it, and a vent that falls through if you step on it, bringing you back to the fight. This doesn't really have a purpose, besides unlocking Portal Man in standard play.

0UPSMASH0INCINERATE
As a move that affects only the incinerators, this isn't a move that will be used much. Upon input, 1 SBU long pillars of fire burst into the battlefield from the openings of the incinerators, dealing 20% damage and good knockback away. To be perfectly honest, this is the only time that knockback really matters in the entire moveset: this is one of your last ditch efforts to keep opponents from destroying a core, bringing you closer to death. Of course, cores aren't affected by the knockback at all, and con simply be thrown in by standard item throwing means, but the opponent doesn't have to know that.


0FIRSTLOSS0ROCKET SENTRY
After GLaDOS loses her first personality core, the patch of floor in the center immediately realigns itself to be stable, should it have been moved around, and opens up, as a Rocket Sentry rises from the ground. This particular sentry is much sturdier than your average turret, taking a good 30% damage to destroy, and even then respawning after only 7 seconds have passed. Every 8 seconds, the sentry will lock onto a new target, which can be anything on the enemy team, including characters, summons, minions, props, traps, buildings or the like, firing a rocket straight at them. Should the rocket hit, it explodes, dealing 40% damage to anything in caught by the 2 SBU wide blast.

0SECONDLOSS0DEADLY NEUROTOXIN
Upon losing her second personality core, GLaDOS unleashes her most deadly weapon: the neurotoxin that killed all of the scientists in Aperture, allowing her to take over. Tubes reveal themselves from both corners of the room, letting in an almost clear, but distinctly green gas, which very quickly fills the room. This essentially turns the entire stage into a giant trap, dealing constant 1% damage every two seconds.

0THIRDLOSS0SELF DESTRUCT
GLaDOS doesn't want you to win. At all. Even if it means she dies too. Once she loses her third and final core, all hell breaks lose. Alarms go off, the music gets intense (the playlist in the headers is the standard playlist chosen randomly for the bossfight, after this loss, original, fast paced music begins), and the lights begin to flash red. Screens in the background pop out, showing the number 60...then 59...then 58. Of course, it's a countdown, and once it goes down to zero, everything, GLaDOS and the opponents included, are destroyed so thoroughly that all that remains is a white screen, resulting in a draw.

Should the opponents destroy the final core, GlaDOS dies in a vein similar to the end of Portal 1, wherin she explodes, and the players, by now exhausted from the epic fight, are relieved to see sunlight for the first time in a while.

Author's Note<that's a link, guys​
Let me start out by saying that I'm not making a playstyle section. GLaDOS is a toybox, and the reader can make their own playstyle out of the massive amount of tools I've given them here. Suffice to say, everything interacts with nearly everything else, whether it be hard or soft, direct of indirect...a bit like a puzzel, really.

When I left, this set kept nagging me. I had it almost finished, and it was one I needed to get done. I really felt that way, as a challenge to myself, as I was only a few inputs from being away. I had gotten Portal 2 for Christmas, and I played through it again, in one sitting...and inspiration struck. So, realizing I wanted a farewell, I sat down and finished the set. And as I wrote, I realized...I was having fun finishing this set, something I hadn't in a while. I'm still not coming back, making a full return, at least for a while, and really, this was something I had done to pass the time on a slow day, but...I don't know. I said in my article I wasn't totally done, and I still mean it. I just won't be around, won't be voting, or really won't be reading new sets as they come along (I do still occasionally glance at the thread, still...), but here is one thing I will say: I'm not done making sets. I may not be part of the contest anymore, and certainly not a regular, but thses last three moves have made me realize that I've still got some in me...when I'm motivated. Whenever that inpiration strikes, and it's not very often, I may make a new one. This is a once or twice a contest thing, guys, realize that...jeeze, im turning into an enigma.​
 

Big Mac

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
38
ROOTING

You are rooted to the ground so long as you're crouching, as your character inserts some certain appendage into the ground. While rooted, you heal 1% every third of a second, and if you take knockback you cannot be knocked more than a platform away from where you're rooted before you'll come flying back. Your attacks are limited from this stance due to having to hold down (Dtilt, Dsmash, and Down B), but you can still shield, dodge, and roll for some degree of versatility (Press Down and right/left simultaneously while hitting the shield button). If foes wish to uproot you, they need to attack the portion of the ground you're rooted to. 21 damage will do the trick, though this 21 stamina heals at the same rate you heal while rooted.

Rooting can also be triggered by using your character's wall cling. This significantly increases the amount of attacks you can use while rooted, but prevents you from using your shield and dodges. Beware that when your wall cling wears off, you will be forced to uproot, so this position sadly does not last forever to prevent stalling under the stage.

Type: Healing, Negation
 

Hyper_Ridley

Smash Champion
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
2,288
Location
Hippo Island
Nimble Fighter


This ability applies 2 bonus traits to any movement attack performed by wielders of this ability. First, they take 2% less from attacks during one. Second, they can cancel the attack into a dodge, retaining all momentum of the attack during it. This dodge functions like an air-dodge even if performed from a grounded attack. Even better, if the attack would normally end when the character is in this special dodge, the momentum won't actually go away until the dodge itself ends, allowing for some surprising boosts of mobility around the stage. There's no real disadvantage to Nimble Fighter, instead requiring movesets utilizing it to compensate on a case-by-case basis.

Fun fact: This is named after a passive ability belonging to Fizz, a champion in League of Legends. The "canon" version lets him ignore collision with other units and he takes 6 less damage from basic attacks.

Type: Evasion, Negation
 

ForwardArrow

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
502
[Absorbing Guard]

A character with Absorbing Guard has the same type of shield as a regular Brawl character on first glance. However, as the shield takes damage, it actually will provide an aura around the character based on the damage the shield took that will give a 10% resistance to the character for every 8% worth of damage their shield takes. This also applies to knockback. The amount of resistance decreases by 5% every 2 seconds, once every 3 seconds if the character has less than 20% resistance from this. As a general rule, this encourages the character in question to use their shield more often, but this is actually going to become rather risky, because they only 3/4 the shield health of a normal character. Still, strategic use of an Absorbing Guard can be a defensive boon to the user far outweighing the weakened shield.

Category: Absorbtion, Resistance
 

Smady

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
3,306
Location
K Rool Avenue



Weight: 8
Size: 7
Ground Speed: 3
Air Speed: 3
Fall Speed: 7/9

Banballow alone is a standard heavyweight as far as statistics go. He's comparable to Ike in terms of weight and fall speed, though his ground speed is severely hampered by his mangled left leg, meaning he walks and runs with a limp. Ever present is his gas canister - trailing behind him after a battlefield platform-length wire connecting it to its nozzle. As he moves forward, it moves forward with him and even negatively affects his fall speed if he gets more than a battlefield platform high into the air. Otherwise, it simply dangles down off of the side of the platform he's on.

Speaking of the gas canister, it also has its own particular movement attributes and weight. It weighs as much as Kirby does and is like a much smaller barrel in shape and size, being barely shorter than Kirby too - foes can walk on the small connecting wire and stand on the gas canister, though as soon as Banballow starts moving they are liable to fall off it. Simply standing still on the wire and letting Banballow move forward will mean you get pushed backward on the wire and likely into the gas canister, then pulled along by it with varying success, with heavier characters being a bigger load for Banballow to heave. Attacking the gas canister won't cause it to explode, but it does take knockback [though without a percentage, it will always be comparable to Kirby at 0%] and this affects Banballow if hit beyond the full length of the wire. Though this isn't strongly effective due to Banballow weighing more than the gas canister and mostly just is useful for knocking the gas canister into awkward places if you're an opponent. Also keep in mind that Banballow will naturally pull himself and his wire / canister / potato up onto the stage when he pulls up from a ledge, and it will not dangle over the side unless – though this is possible [and will be covered later on]. Though if just in mid-air, the wire acts as a temporary wall allowing you to cut off parts of the stage for your opponent and forcing them to face you head on.

If Banballow himself walks over his wire, he simply walks alongside it, pushing the wire already there more into the foreground and leaving both he and his gas canister in play [as a rule, the gas canister is always in play], so no background shenanigans or stacks of wire here. If you dodge around an opponent, however, you can potentially leave the majority of your wire behind them like this and thus make it easier to push them around with your canister, though, at this point in the moveset, that will be nigh impossible unless they literally stand still and allow you to do it.

SPECIALS

Neutral Special: Firepower

This is the standard fire-breath input you'd expect out of a character like Banballow, given an extra edge by the fact that he can move while performing it. Pressing the input causes a spray of fire to come out of the nozzle and hitting foes within a platform of Banballow - the fire comes out in a thin triangular arc, with the top of the triangle being at the nozzle, expanding out over the platform-sized hitbox to hit foes half a platform above Banballow's height as well as the ground at its apex. The hitbox also extends into the background at it's very end, enabling you to hit foes dodging right around where your gas canister would normally be - a useful function indeed. This deals 4% per second to foes hit by it and knockback pushing foes back at the rate of Mario's running speed, to twice that depending on percentage and also causes flinching every half-a-second. While this may seem quite powerful, it also takes about half-a-second to actually fire the flamethrower as Banballow starts it up and has nearly as much end lag. This means you will largely want to be tactical with how you use the move, as keeping it going will many times be the better option over suffering the end lag and starting it up again later.

Down Special: Pathogen

Using his stubby left leg [which lacks a foot], Banballow steps on the connecting wire to his flamethrower, standing on whichever part of it is directly below him - with a fully stretched out wire behind him, he will turn around and step on the part of the wire right before it ascends into his flamethrower. Now when he walks, he will also drag the wire along with his foot in that place, meaning he isn't impairing his movement. This means that whenever he next uses his neutral special, he builds up a cluster of sorts in the wire of gas - growing in size so that after one second, it is the size of Kirby, and can grow to a maximum of twice that in two seconds. By pressing the input again to stand off of the wire or when you next jump, he can then use his neutral special to move the cluster further along the wire - this causing foes to be pulled forward by it and even works on prone opponents, but not Banballow himself. This also stops the knockback in your neutral special from working, your foe being stuck in place until they can dodge or jump out, made difficult by the flinching. The clusters travel at Ganondorf's running speed, giving you ample time to build up multiple gas clusters in your wire.

Depending on the size of the cluster, its effect when it comes out of your flamethrower differ. It creates a large blast directly in front of Banballow - being as small as Wario to as big as Bowser - which causes 15-25% damage and knockback that can KO at 160-120%. While the cluster is moving along in your flamethrower you use your neutral special, it will fire its usual triangular arc of fire until the cluster goes into the nozzle. Though keep in mind that, if you have your foot on one part of the wire, eventually the amount of regular gas you have after the gas canister will run out - imagine you have your foot halfway down the wire, you can only further use the neutral special for as long as it would take Ganondorf to run that distance of wire, so not too long. Once you run out of gas, your neutral special simply burns out a tiny amount of fire at the end of the nozzle and sends smoke forward a half-a-platform in width and the length of Kirby, dealing 2% a second - this causes the opponent to go dizzy for 0.5 seconds if their head is submerged entirely in the smoke for more than 2.0 seconds, though this is obviously quite difficult to achieve. When dodging behind your opponent, it is possible to leave a small amount of wire and a cluster in the foreground, then push them into your gas canister with it, trapping them between the two and making it easy to hit with your regular neutral special as they are forced to jump out of it. Also, now when turning around with your wire, it will no longer be pushed into the foreground, but instead be pushed forward as Banballow's leg pushes it all forward, allowing you to pull around the full length of the wire more liberally.

Using the input in mid-air, or when the wire is entirely hanging off of a platform, makes Banballow grab the wire right next to the nozzle with his normal-looking hand, building up the cluster to blow as soon as he releases the input, or to simply pressure the opponent with. As a note, clusters that are in the background [where you're near to your gas canister and have wire in the background], will push into the foreground and effect opponents normally. So for example, with clusters built up next to your gas can, if you walk toward your gas canister and then turn around when you're next to it, you can push away opponents with your clusters by first sending them out normally from where your canister is, but then making them come toward Banballow after that when there's the bend in the wire coming back to Banballow's flamethrower. You can potentially pincer an opponent into place by doing this – by having two clusters pushing the foe into one another, dealing them 7% for every second they stand still and reducing their first jump to half its normal height.

Side Special: Infestation

Unplugging the flamethrower from his wire, Banballow quickly snaps apart the intestines hanging out of his stomach, now plugging both the wire and flamethrower into his intestines. Now use of his neutral special results in an odd, sickly-green liquid being shot out of his flamethrower with similar properties to Mario FLUDD - travelling forward for a platform and pushing opponents away at Captain Falcon's dashing speed while dealing constant 1% damage. The ooze quickly evaporates on the ground after causing a splash, with the fluid only being about the width of a yellow Pikmin when shot out of Banballow's flamethrower. Opponents become drenched in the greeb ooze for a further 1.5 seconds after being contaminated, taking damage until the ooze runs out. Banballow can use this move to mostly forego the persistent problems of running out of gas on his flamethrower, simply switching to his own personal stocks - pressing the input again will make him plug the flamethrower back into the wire like normal.

If the opponent stands on your wire whilst drenched in your goo, they create an area of wire also the sickly green colour and spitting as a further visual cue, as big as the opponent themselves and staying like this for a further 1.0 second after the opponent leaves the area. Any gas clusters from your down special that enter this area of the wire now adopt new properties though with their former size - turning green themselves and also violently bursting with chemicals. Of course, as the opponent is standing on that area, first order of business is getting them off of it - but simply pushing them out of the way with a gas cluster would do the trick, either in actually pushing them or making them jump away, and instantly created a gas bubble in the process. These green bubbles are not affected by your flamethrower and are instead affected by gravity, or the movement of regular clusters not affected by Banballow's ooze - moving down at twice Sonic's dashing speed if the wire is hanging straight vertically. The bubbles exist on the same plane as the clusters, but are actually on top of the wire, allowing them to have more biological properties. Green bubbles can also combine, unlike regular clusters - becoming potentially as big as Bowser. If either Banballow or an opponent touches the green bubble, it will explode and deal damage between 10-25% and KOs at 160-120% vertically. Prone opponents touched by the bubble are trapped inside them like, you know, real bubbles - having to mash out at quarter-half grab difficulty [depending on the bubble's size], bursting out and not exploding it if successful. Or you can simply go after the bubble yourself when they're trapped inside it. Specifically, green bubbles are insanely potent against shields, being able to entirely destroy one if at its maximum size.

Up Special: The Silent Scream

Banballow picks up the wire behind him, holding it at chest height and causing anyone on the wire to slip back and trip if they hit any clusters on the way down for 5% damage. Holding the input makes you carry it around like this – letting go of the input makes Banballow drop the wire. Walking around with it functions as a bit of a wall, letting you pull in opponents as normal, but then preventing them from immediately grabbing you, so is also effective to use when luring opponents. Angled correctly, you can also potentially slide opponents off of the stage by tripping them off next to the edge, this leading into the true function of this move – creating a new ledge for your opponent using your wire. By letting go of the input close to an edge, Banballow will carefully drop the wire so that it hangs over it, with the can hanging down the side. From here, you can move and pull the wire up like you'd expect, or get close and push it down even more. Foes can use the ledge like normal, or even stand on your gas canister: they will fall off of the canister, though, if you start to move it around too much, though they can simply jump back up and grab the ledge. Note: this does not work on platforms without ledges, or those that are fall-through and Banballow cannot jump while using his up special.

With your wire hung over the ledge, pressing the input again will cause you to pull it back on stage and behind you like normal, pulling any opponents still hanging on the ledge with on it, but in prone and entirely vulnerable. They act just like they would normally on the wire in prone – they can be kept away with clusters, or kept close depending on your plans for them. Similarly, using your clusters to move where the ledge is (underneath the opponent while they're grabbing it) causes them to let go and fall – simply moving yourself will do the trick here, so no need to waste your neutral special. Your opponent can always just stand on your canister to bide time, but it's entirely in your favour as you can use the opportunity to set up with your down special and if they try to jump up – from the ledge or your canister – you can always greet them with your neutral special. And yes, though it may be obvious, you can potentially use your clusters to pressure them to jump up off the ledge while at the same time using your neutral special to stop them, making it a very precarious position to be in. Moving around will pull your gas canister up and down the side of the ledge, meaning you can potentially just make it a step down for the opponent, or extend its length fully so the opponents is trapped a long way down. The longer the extension, however, the longer it takes to pull it back up. Using the move in mid-air functions as a make-do tether, pulling you onto the stage if your canister is already on it, which is mostly useful if you've jumped off-stage for a gimp, but left your canister on-stage.

GRAB GAME

Grab: Spider's Web

Crouching and grabbing his wire with one hand, Banballow then swings the entire length of the wire up into the air – even pulling up the gas canister at the same time. By holding the input, you can extend the height of the swing – it ranging from one Bowser off the ground to one Ganondorf, with some minor charging time as recompense. This takes roughly half a second to perform – at any point being hit by the gas canister causes 8% and either high vertical knockback that can KO at 170-130% depending on charge time, or pitfall a foe if they're caught underneath it. This can be performed during your up special too – when your wire is comprising the ledge – forcing foes into a free fall if successfully hit by the broad side of the canister as it's swinging.

The actual grab part of the move comes from the wire – anyone caught by the wire while it's being tossed like this is grabbed – being tangled up in it and struggling to escape as the foe button mashes. Now Banballow is free to use any of his moves on the opponent while they're stuck on top of his wire, though holding the grab input and pressing a direction also initiates a standard set of throws too, while the standard input initiates your pummel. Opponents will be pushed along by your bubbles whilst on the wire and even put off-stage with your up special. When the foe escapes the grab, they untangle themselves, but of course can easily be re-grabbed if they simply hang around. While stuck on your wire, opponents are still influenced by knockback from your attacks, disconnecting from the wire when hit – so feel free to reel them in and hit them with your neutral special, or any combination of other powerful KO moves. Use your down special on them to keep them from moving at all, if you want to. Keep in mind that, aside from your pummel, your throws don't work on a foe who is not on the same ground level that you are, even if they are still on your wire. Also, your grab doesn't work while you're using your up special to dangle your wire over the side. Once an opponent escapes from the grab they enter prone on your wire and there's a cooldown of 1.3 seconds before Banballow can use it again (due to how taxing moving around frigging Bowser is), meaning you can't just immediately re-grab an opponent.

Pummel: Tying the Knot

Tugging on his wire, Banballow puts the pressure on his opponent literally as their entanglement becomes tighter and tighter – dealing 3% every time he uses it, though generally this is quite a slow pummel. For every pummel, however, the opponent will be forced to further exhert themselves to escape – meaning that they jump slightly upon escaping your grab. Depending on the amount of pummels, this can be as low as a short hop, or as high as a fully-held jump if you hit them with the move multiple times. This has an obvious use off-stage with your up special as you force them to jump away from the stage and to their dooms. A more easily-laid plan is that at low percentages, you simply pummel them a few times if they get tangled up far away on your wire and then hit them with moves like your neutral special where they're forced to jump into it.

Forward Throw: Full of Hot Air

Banballow walks up to the opponent, wherever they are on his wire, turning a nozzle on his flamethrower and then shoving it into their mouths and turning on the gas. This will continue until the opponent escapes from the grab normally – the initial sticking in their mouths part dealing 7% just out of sheer repugnance on their part. Once they do escape the grab, they find themselves coughing in a similar fashion to the superspicy curry item. Every time they walk, run or jump more than a Bowser in distance, they have to stop and cough for 0.3 seconds before they can move again, this lasting for 6-11 seconds depending on how long it took them to escape the grab. This is rather a general effect, but has profound benefits to the way Banballow stalks his prey – they can no longer continuously run and are now far more easy to catch out. If an opponent has been pummelled enough, you can potentially force them to jump right into a coughing session – a big opportunity in which to gain a KO.

Back Throw: Tunnel Vision

Banballow goes up to his opponent and pulls the off the wire – dropping them on the floor and then lifting his wire on top of them. This causes all of the clusters in the wire to turn upside down momentarily, as they dangle in mid-air. Using his flamethrower nozzle like a bat, he then strikes away at the opponent, sending them vaulting along the ground and taking 5% damage every time they hit a cluster on the way. If they hit the gas canister at the end of this, they are dealt a straight 8% damage and mild vertical knockback as they are flung into the air, entering a short free fall, but nonetheless not very threatening. If you did use your up special, however, your opponent will - instead of hitting the gas canister - veer off of the side of the stage and you can KO them at 160-120% this way. The problem with this is that if they do hit your clusters during this, their knockback at the end of the move is severely hampered - meaning this is best used when you've already used up all your clusters, or when they're all at the gas canister end of the wire and thus can't affect the move. With bubbles from your side special, however, you can potentially launch them right into a KO very easily.

Up Throw: The Mummy

Circling the opponent, Banballow wraps them in the wire from both ends of the flamethrower, eventually covering their lower portions [however much of them that is] and then squeezing, dealing three consecutive hits of damage for 5-15% overall, depending on how much wire is evenly distributed on either side. If the opponent is too near to Banballow, the move barely covers them at all, leading to the very low damage - the best result comes when the opponent is right next to the gas canister, whereby Banballow has the maximum amount of wire he could have. After squeezing them, Banballow pulls the wire straight again in a quick motion, which can KO at around 160%. However, if during that squeezing session you managed to also tangle up any clusters, the move instead ends with those "deflating" on the opponent, as they are squashed between them. This leaves the wire flat, but your opponent standing on your wire in a dizzy state for 0.4 seconds. If an opponent is under the ooze effect from your side special, the wire they touch will become contaminated once it flattens out, potentially contaminating most of the wire.

Down Throw: A Fair Tug of War

Similarly to his up throw, Banballow starts to wrap his opponent in wire - though this time wrapping just one time around their waist (with different sizes taken into account). Once finished, hits the foe over the head with his flamethrower nozzle for 4% damage, knocking them "out" of the grab. Once they get up, they will realise they are in fact now still connected to the wire and can't jump, but now have much more control over it - their movement having just as much influence on the wire as Banballow: the wire moving along with them like it does when Banballow uses his down special on the wire and moves around with it. By using your down special in front of them, however, you allow them to run toward you, as the wire now loses its tension as they run over it [if they escape it or are thrown out of the wire, this temporary stacking ends as the wire just flops back down flat again]. The weightier characters can even drag along Banballow with them, though considering he's close they should just hit him, right? Gas clusters don't even affect them in this state! In all, though, this is exactly what Banballow wants - them constantly tethered to the ground and the opponent can't escape unless they stand still for 0.7 seconds - uninterrupted - and take off the wire themselves, and this is all at once. Also keep in mind that Banballow can just use his up special and immediately dangle them off-stage too, leaving them helpless and forced to use their aerials, or stand still to unwrap themselves in mid-air. So if it's a KO you're after, tying them up at the gas canister end of the wire may be the best option with this input. Just keep in mind that – at that length [unless they are super wide and take up much of the wire] you will need some traps already set to go off when they're there, otherwise you will have trouble actually interrupting their taking off of the wire.

Obviously too, if they are really a heavy opponent trying to pull you around, using your forward throw beforehand can really help in slowing them down. The higher percentage you are, the easier to pull around and vice versa with your opponent. Though also keep in mind that the opponent does not take knockback regularly while under the effects of your down throw – they are simply pushed further back in the wire, at three-quarters of the knockback they'd be dealt normally and then will start pushing back the gas canister as well, pushing along any clusters behind them too to the ledge. While this could seem to spell doom for you, at any time you can just re-grab them if you're afraid they're dragging you to death. If an opponent is under the effects of your side special and constantly contaminating - as long as they stand in place, though, they won't actually allow any clusters to be turned into green bubbles while they're on the wire, but obviously Banballow can just knock them out of place then move his bubbles into position, putting him squarely in control.

STANDARDS

Jab: Take Aim

Using his flamethrower nozzle like a machete, Banballow slashes in an "X" pattern in front of him, hitting opponents for 4% a piece and flinching, with each strike taking about 0.3 seconds to come out with minimal-no end lag, making this, in layman's Smash, a good move if you just want a quick close-range move. This also combines with your various ways of shooting fire, ooze and smoke from your flamethrower, however, to give you better curvature. By pressing this input while shooting your flamethrower, you do the same slashing motion [though with a less exaggerated animation], but this also effects the trajectory of said projectiles - sending them up into the air, or down onto the ground. This is useful for prone opponents, those on higher platforms and those who are hanging on the ledge or indeed involved in your up special and standing on your canister, allowing you to drop some of that green ooze onto them while they're down there by shooting up into the air and letting it fall. This lets you push them down with your FLUDD-impersonator rather well, while also keeping you far out of harm's way. This all works as you tap the input while already using the neutral special's input, and is the only move you can use while already performing the neutral special.

Dash Attack: Jimmy!

Losing his usual suave nature as stalker and kidnapper, Banballow is suddenly consumed by the need to see his son, wandering forward at double his normal dash speed with one hand held out in front. He continues running like this for a platform, with end lag of 0.4 seconds as he re-collects himself. If Banballow touches an opponent, he forcibly grabs and shakes them for rapid 1% damage every half-a-second, also pulling them along with him and now the run is extended until he reaches a hard surface, continuously saying variations of "you're not Jimmy!" If you do continue to the edge, Banballow suffers that same end lag from before and gives the opponent the advantage - however, if a cluster or your canister is in the way, you will trip your foe and leave them in foe and safely hidden behind one of your gas clusters or canister to boot. That, or just running them right into your green gas bubbles for a KO.

Down Tilt: Gas Leak

Typically Banballow actually holds his flamethrower two-handed, with one hand on the handle of the nozzle and one on a very sharp extension out of the side of it. Using this sharp bit, he lunges forward and strikes directly in front of him for 10% damage, hitting anyone right in front of him or below, but with pitifully low range. If his wire is in front of him, he will pierce into it, creating a tear that allows for gas to escape from it. Above the tear, a yellow Pikmin-sized plume of gas appears, causing any opponent who comes into contact with it to fall into a dizzy state for 0.8 seconds. This doesn't affect the flow to your flamethrower too much - logically, clusters and bubbles will now only work in the wire after the tear. Clusters and bubbles that pass through the tear enlargen the size of the gas temporarily, now causing 3% damage per second and flinching, lasting from 0.5-1.1 seconds depending on the size of the cluster or bubble, before dissipating and leaving the regular old gas leak. This follows into the dizzy state to render your opponent truly immobile and useless to defend against your onslaught. Also quite obviously, if you have no gas left in that part of the wire [your down special], the tear will no longer work. The move also works on foes trapped by your grab, being a good way to keep them from escaping it prematurely.

Forward Tilt: Burning Embers

Banballow shakes his flamethrower nozzle to produce spurts of fire from ashy remains built up over time within that Coca Cola can. This translates into three fireball-sized clumps of fiery ash being shot out of the flamethrower over 0.8 seconds, hitting opponents for 8% damage and causing them to flinch. When the embers hit the floor, they remain there, damaging opponents who stand on them for 2% a second – when moving over the tears created in your down tilt, they automatically descend into them, burning the material around them and mending the tear. When on the floor, the embers are a little smaller than Kirby in width and disappear after 3.0 seconds on the field. Embers can also be moved around by your gas clusters or bubbles, making it very easy to multi-task moving an opponent around while at the same time fixing parts of the wire and allowing the cluster to carry them further or a bubble to explode in their face. If you'd rather not have them ruining the tears, using your down special on any point of the embers will cause a sizzling sound as you crush them into the ground or wire, causing them to disappear prematurely.

Up Tilt: Haemorrhaging Gas

Knowingly - what with his obsession with the thing - Banballow pulls forcefully on his flamethrower wire over 0.6 seconds and makes the wire halfway unplug itself where it usually connects into the gas canister. This causes a constant spurting of gas upward the size of Luigi, dealing 5% a second and knockback that can KO at around 140%. The cost of this is, however, that all of the gas in your wire - including your clusters - will travel toward the new opening at twice its normal speed, meaning that your flamethrower and neutral special are back to producing smoke again like in your down special. By using your down special, however, you can stop gas from leaking backward like this, though you are limited to the gas in the latter part of the wire. When clusters pass through this gaping hole, they also don't have any special effect - though you can more effectively pull them in toward your down tilt tears, or generally just back in the opposite direction if you need to push an opponent away. Just by pressing the input again, however, Banballow will carefully pull on the wire, then click it back into place, stopping the cluster upheaval. While this move is rather competent at KOing, its situational use under normal circumstances and its major draw backs keep it from being useful. Where it's really useful is in combination with your up special and on foes intent on standing on your gas canister, as the move will push them away from the ledge. It also makes it very recommendable to pull up the gas canister on foes who are trying to edge-hog for whatever reason, though considering its telegraphed nature it's mostly useful once you've exhausted most other options.

SMASHES

Side Smash: Drag Me To Hell

Taking the connecting wire by hand, Banballow tugs on it using his full strength - holding it for 1.1-2.0 seconds before pulling it under him and so that its full length is now behind him, at a speed of Sonic's dash to twice that depending on charge time. If an opponent is on the wire at the time, they will trip over the gas canister as it passes underneath them. Though this is a good set-up, you can further protract this through your clusters - like your canister, they will also make your opponents trip, but this time they will also be reeled in as your gas canister pulls them in along with your wire. This not only leaves them right in front of you in prone, but also traps them between your gas canister and you, with that awkward, but delicious combination of wire behind you. Not to mention, this makes it particularly easy to trap opponents in green gas bubbles. Combining clusters can indeed also land them between two clusters, allowing you to pull them toward you further or pressure them into making a flight into more possible danger. Using this on an opponent on the ledge with your up special causes you to pull up the wire, throwing all of it behind you bar the opponent themselves, who are also now in prone and perfectly vulnerable.

When used in tandem with your down special, you can have an entirely different effect produced. Even without an opponent on the wire, your foot will stop the gas canister directly in front of you, allowing you to then turn around and have practically a fall length of wire to play with where clusters will head away from you and push opponents away from you if so need be. If there are clusters in your wire, your foot will also stop them from passing behind you, instead pushing them back so that they're touching the gas canister and thus giving you plentiful time in which to use them. If standing next to the gas canister, using your down special and then using this input, you can also push clusters so that they're right next to your flamethrower, as you're now pushing them in the opposite direction. Besides all this somewhat complex stuff, you can also simply use this move to throw your wire underneath an opponent who's jumping, or cause them to trip onto it, as the gas canister acts as a tripping hitbox as it transitions from beneath you and to the other side as well. Keep in mind that you can't throw your gas canister off the ledge using this move – Banballow refuses to, simply throwing it to the ledge and then stopping it. Still, this makes it far easier to create the “pincer” mentioned in the statistics, as you can easily get near to the edge and then throw the canister at it, but leave a huge amount of wire behind it which will all sink into the background.

Up Smash: Turning the Dial

Banballow goes over to his canister if it's not right next to him, turning the round object on top of it, doing so for 1.2-2.2 seconds. After he's finished, the gas canister starts to erupt a very fast-moving, translucent gas out of a hole now created on top of the gas canister, the width of a yellow Pikmin, travelling upward at four times Sonic's dashing speed and pulling an opponents caught in it up at Sonic's dashing speed to twice that depending on their percentage. This is persistent for a further 3-5.0 seconds depending on charge time and works in tandem with other moves too - opponents tripping over your gas canister in the side smash will instead be pushed upward in a free fall. This also makes it extremely dangerous for opponents in your up special, who can't dare to edge hog whatsoever when you have the down smash active, as you can very easily just slide the gas canister up and push them away to their deaths. Combining the move with any of your fire attacks will end it early, but also spread the fire up at double the rate of the gas [almost instantly], hitting anyone it touches along the way for 5% damage a second. The fire spreads quickly up the gas, but lingers for a further fraction of a second, allowing you to further damage opponents who are at a lower percentage and thus travelling more slowly up the gas. In terms of KOing potential, the move is mostly useful for just generically punishing air lovers and opponents above you two-fold, as you can pull around the gas canister as normal and zone them out, making the only safe place directly above your wire [which we know isn't true].

Down Smash: Upheaval

Starting off the move, Banballow twists the nozzle for 1.0-1.5 seconds so that it produces gas in a similar appearance to his up smash - this time wobbling the screen like you'd see in a heatwave. Banballow then aims his flamethrower down, covering his entire length of wire in the wobbly effect, leaving it invisible beyond the wire - all of your clusters, bubbles or other effects disappearing from view for the next 2.5-3.5 seconds depending on charge time. So use this opportunity to launch a surprise attack! Opponents stuck in the wobbly effect also suffer some minor status effects, with their movement speed reduced by a quarter as long as they're standing in it as well as a nominal 4-5% damage for every second they spend in it. While this is all well and good, the real use of this move is interacting with your gas bubbles - when they're hit by the gas, they start to dislodge and will completely after 1.0 second in the gas, becoming full, spherical bubbles in their own right. At first, they will simply float up at Mario's running speed, but after doing so for a Ganondorf, fall back down at twice that speed and if hitting the wire, will reconnect as normal. Only when they float up to their fall height do they evade any remaining wobbly effect and enter into sight for you and the opponent, though you will have had control over it up to that point so should be one step ahead of your foe. The most obvious thing to do here is just push your opponent underneath the bubble as it comes back down, though it will probably take longer than your down smash's invisibility allows, so you will have to be fast about it. However, while in the air they function exactly as when on top of the wire, dealing the same heavy knockback and damage to opponents who touch them.

The gas bubbles will also keep any prone opponents caught in them previously enveloped, floating up at the same speed with the foe trapped inside of them. If they escape the bubble in mid-air, they simply appear above the bubble as it is now sent down at its usual fall speed. By combination of multiple moves of yours, however, you can keep the bubble up in the air, and even potentially blow them up off the top blast zone. The bubble reacts to moves like your down smash and down tilt like an opponent at 0% when hit by them - not popping - however, if an opponent is inside of them, it now takes on their percentage when being hit by these attacks. So potentially, you can combo a bubble with a high-damage opponent into a down tilt, then an up tilt and finally into your down smash, which should be able to finish them off at a very good percentage. Even if they come out of the bubble at the top of the down smash, it's going to be hard to get back down again. This is actually a fairly realistic combo too, given that using your side smash, you can pull a prone opponent into one of your bubbles, then hit them with the down smash and the aforementioned combo of gassy attacks. Or you could, say, push them over a gas cluster with your dash attack, push them into a bubble, while prone, with your neutral special and then go into the down smash - if nothing else, it's also simply a threat that will keep your opponents well and truly pressured.

AERIALS

Neutral Aerial: Jumping Rope with Jimmy

Banballow grabs his wire and pulls it all up above him in the air so that the gas canister is now in hand, swinging the entire length of wire like a jump rope below him until it has swung all the way behind him after 0.5 seconds and then turning around as he slams it down below him, all in around 0.7 seconds. The wire during the move is actually not just another way to grab - though it is a grab hitbox, picking up opponents it catches and flinging them behind Banballow in mid-air, KOing at 150% and dealing 8% damage - though the situational nature of the move makes it less than viable to use this way. You can release your grab at this time to also fling opponents held in your wire. If Banballow hits the ground during the move, he will instead slam the wire on the ground. If the foe was caught in it by its grab hitbox in mid-air, they will roll out along with the wire on-stage after hitting the ground in the middle of the wire, dizzied for 0.4 seconds and taking 10% damage, with Banballow standing facing them - releasing them from your grab if they were held in it before starting the move. With the full length of wire in front of him and the foe right at the centre of it, this is a marvelous set-up move. You can slam the wire on the ground in front of you, or behind you if you give enough time for Banballow to swing it behind him during the first part of the move, dealing generic flinching and 9% damage to anyone it hits on-stage. If you use the ground variant of the move and hit the ledge with it while throwing it on the ground, Banballow will pull on the wire from both ends with the canister still in his hand, then using this tension in the wire to pull it back over the ledge onto the stage like a slingshot, all taking 0.3 seconds. The wire glides along on the ground and due to the curled nature of it, will now also pull opponents who are dodging back into the foreground - the wire travelling a full platform before stopping, leaving any opponents caught by this right next to Banballow. They are, however, now standing at the very crossroads of the wire in the background and that leading to Banballow, making them perfectly vulnerable to being pincered.

If an opponent is already in the wire from your grab and you curl it around the ledge like this, they will be dealt 4% damage a second as Banballow instead squeezes them in the wire there, rather than pulling it back on-stage. From here, if the opponent mashes out of the grab, they will automatically hold the ledge as they fall out of the wire onto it - if they are successfully squeezed 5-3 times [depending on percentage] they will, however, enter a free fall. Either way, once the move is over, the wire is now in the same position it is in with your up special - meaning that a foe can just free fall onto your gas canister and this now carries on into your up special, as Banballow lets hold of the canister and allows it to be pulled off the side of the ledge as your opponent is grabbing it. However, with careful preparation of your up tilt, this can be a worrisome situation to be in for your opponent. Depending on where they are on the wire, the way that Banballow squeezes then will vary - if within a Kirby of the canister, Banballow will let the canister go go, allowing it to fall behind them on the ledge, then pulling on the wire and using the canister to crush them. The opponent continues mashing out of the grab all the while, it not refreshing - once successful, the gas canister simply is pulled back on stage, leaving them on the ledge without any wire. If nearer to Banballow, he will abandon the canister on the ground - walking close up to the ledge, so that he can use a smaller amount of wire [allowing for better tension]. If they escape here, Banballow pulls them back onto stage so that his wire is beneath them, but his canister his behind him - releasing them from the grab, but putting him in a good position to attack them nonetheless.

If your opponent is in your down throw when you throw your wire over the ledge, Banballow will again tense the wire against the ledge, but now just let go of the gas canister, letting the tension caused by pulling against the ledge with the wire pull it back. Depending on the weight and percentage of your opponent, they will be pulled along with the gas canister as it slides down into its up special position - if pulled to the ledge, they will be forced to grab it and be in prime position for your usual shenanigans. Obviously to stop this, they'll have to run toward Banballow, foregoing any kind of offence they may have planned, as they're reduced to using their dash attack. If under the effects of your forward throw, they will also be constantly taking coughing breaks with basically no way of telling when it's going to happen due to not being able to tell when they've walked a Bowser. Of course, this is balanced out by the fact that you are also attached and can walk back at the same time as using your down special, causing your opponent to run towards you by mistake and hopefully into an ambush.

Up Aerial: Swinging the Bat

Banballow swings the entire length of his wire overhead - including the gas canister and any opponents caught in his wire. It takes about 0.3 seconds for the wire to travel ninety-degrees around Banballow, with the momentum continues even when Banballow hits ground and stops swinging the wire around. After landing you can, however, then use your grab and create somewhat of a moving grab hitbox, as the wire sways forward while also leaping upward due to your grab. Any foes hit by the gas canister while it's swinging like this are dealt 10% damage and flinching, though being hit by the bottom of the canister while it's being swung counts as a meteor smash. While that is implausible at best, what is possible is landing your gas canister on stage when off the side, at which point you can use your up special to recover. Opponents who are caught in the wire due to your grab are also swung overhead, making it easier to position them. Opponents under the effect of your down throw cannot be thrown with your up aerial - they simply are pulled toward you, leading them to be directly under you and susceptible to your other aerials.

Down Aerial: Flying on Smoke

Banballow points his flamethrower down in mid-air and gives it a heave back then forth, causing a blast of mostly soot and smoke to exhale out of it. This travels down, falling at Mario's falling speed. If the smoke and soot hits a surface, it expands left and right, pushes opponents it hits along with it and dealing 6% damage. As long as your opponent is below you in the air, the bubbles will naturally fall down toward the opponents, so being able to keep them down and push them into your vertical wire - functioning as a wall here - and letting the bubble fall on top of them during flinching is a god way to score a KO. This move also works on airborne bubbles, pushing them back down at double their normal falling speed to hit opponents trying to duck under them while the bubbles ascend, or pushing them sideways along with the soot as it expands to hit opponents trying to run away from them. It is always open for you to, say, shoot some soot down at an opponent caught by your grab, but then push a bubble away with the expanding smoke if it's on top of them but awkwardly timed so that it will barely miss them on its way down - after the move's over, the bubble will still be in play and you can use your pummel to make your opponent jump into it.

Forward Aerial: A Bone to Pick

Banballow extends out his more boney arm - where it is showing due to his skin being shaved off by the flames. He then pokes through his hand rather grotesquely [though it is obscured], revealing the pointed end of the bone coming through his wrist. He then slashes with it at anyone directly behind him, hitting for 7% damage and some generic spike potential if you're in it for that. After 0.3 seconds of slashing, he returns the bone back into its normal place, again obscured for the children's sake. However, if a bubble is directly behind him, Banballow will actually use the sharp bone-y part of his arm to poke into the bubble without popping it, attaching it to the end of his flamethrower's nozzle as he pulls back in his bone and his arm returns to normal. Now any moves making use of the flamethrower's nozzle will instead affect the fate of the newly-attached bubble, which will remain on Banballow until he uses a move like that or hints an opponent, which is all too easy to do using moves like side smash, jab and grab. This may seem powerful, but considering how much set-up he has to do to actually get the bubble like this, it will require some finesse to pull off to say the least. If an opponent is within the bubble, Banballow will still pick it up and put it on his nozzle, but it will eventually fall from the nozzle within 1.2-2.0 seconds depending on the opponents weight.

While the bubble may just stand there on the end of your flamethrower, your moves that involve your flamethrower will interact with it differently. At any point, dumping a gas cluster into the bubble or using your forward tilt will cause it to float away at Captain Falcon's dashing speed before falling back down after a platform in distance. If at any point the bubble touches a surface that is not the wire, it will pop - however, with an opponent inside the bubble, just blowing them off-stage can be a good option, especially if you've got your up smash or up special to guard the side of the stage if they don't die. Filling the bubble with any of your three types of ammunition will cause it to react as follows. With smoke, the bubble will float away at Mario's dashing speed, continuing to float at a purely horizontal trajectory for the next two platforms before falling down, providing a great zoning tool. Filling it with fire will cause it to gurgle and simply stay in place, its hitbox expanding rather haphazardly so that random parts of it stretch out to hit twice as far as they usually would, staying in this state of entropy for 1.5 seconds before popping automatically. Filling it with ooze will cause it to float forward a platform at Ganondorf's walking speed before falling - however, due to its increased weight, it will now float up in your down smash half as fast as before, only travelling up at Ganondorf's running speed and thus being an amazing trap if you're able to push the faster-falling foes into the down smash, almost guaranteeing they'll hit the bubble along the way. Also keep in mind, while doing all of this, you can use your jab to direct the trajectory of the bubble up or down.

Back Aerial: Tunnel Snake

Banballow again grabs the full length of his wire, this time chucking it overhead so that it extends fully in mid-air and lands upside down behind him, with the gas canister simply twisting around when it hits the ground so that it's upright, but the bubbles and clusters remaining facing down. Opponents hit by the clusters or canister at any point are dealt 7% and trapped as it falls back down onto the ground. By trapped, that means that opponents will be locked into prone underneath the wire, with the clusters and bubbles now also overturned. You retain the ability to move them around - however, they can no longer use their get-up attack under there and cannot roll back or forward further than the clusters allow, being slid back in this little tunnel area if colliding with a bubble, while taking the same damage as before. If an opponent tries to get up normally, they take a while longer than they normally would. At any point, Banballow can press his down special to stomp down on the closest part of the wire with a cluster or bubble underneath, causing the cluster to appear above the wire at a slightly further point in place of the one underneath, while bubbles will simply expand for a short time, growing to one-and-a-half times their normal width under there before popping, coming into contact with an opponent or not. This creates a nice cat-and-mouse dynamic with your opponent, who will be trying to avoid being hit by your bubbles at any cost.

If you use your up special, it will simply function like normal when you hang it off the ledge - with Banballow correctly twisting the wire so it's the right way around. You can cancel out of all this upside down stuff if you want to very quickly by simply using your down special, then your side smash, bursting all bubbles underneath the wire and bringing all the clusters back on top as they transition behind you. Of course, simply using your back aerial again in mid-air accomplishes the same thing - or any of your other aerials which manipulate the wire, as Banballow twists the wire back into the right position like he does with your up special. You can still build bubbles and clusters with some underneath, but not at the same place as there are cluster or bubbles underneath the wire. Unlike Banballow's other aerials, if the wire goes over the ledge, the gas canister immediately bounces back up onto the stage, keeping you from engaging in any shenanigans involving opponents grabbing the ledge with the wire on top of them. Opponents already in the wire are treated the same way here as normal opponents, except that they have the added difficulty of having to escape their grab at the same time and thus are basically screwed if there are any bubbles close to them.

FINAL SMASH

Final Smash: Burning Inn

When Banballow gets the smash ball, he and his wire glow in that ominous light, signifying that you'll need to get opponents on it to initiate the move. This goes for opponents within two Ganondorfs of the wire in the air too, with the neutral input initiating it once they're in rage. Once they are, the camera zooms in on Banballow as he exclaims that he will get his revenge, the camera now panning out to reveal that a wooden house the width of Banballow's entire wire and as tall as two Ganondorfs, taking the appearance of Banballow's inn burned down by the teenagers. Opponents are now trapped inside it, as it catches light, causing the entire structure to catch on fire. The side of the house facing the screen can be seen through, with the wall gone in a sitcom-like fashion so you can see what's going on inside the house, the inside being hollowed out. Banballow can turn around and shoot fire into the house from the outside, his fire burning through the otherwise solid walls of the house. Your wire becomes the floor of the house, with the clusters and bubbles now travelling around the entire inner outline of the house like it's part of the wire. If you are able to explode a bubble at any part of the wall or ceiling, it will create a hole, causing smoke to rush out of that part of the house and pulling any opponents near it out of there, KOing at 80%.

Foes trapped in the house are also dealt a constant 4% damage per second, until they can escape the house. The only way to do this, however, is to escape out of the holes Banballow is creating himself [possibly into greater danger], or to try and jump up the chimney. However, the chimney is constantly pulling smoke up it and creating a hitbox like that created by the aforementioned bubble holes, making it a difficult escape at best. As the house continues to burn - accelerated by bubbles blowing parts of it up - it will collapse on itself, hitting opponents with parts falling down for 10% damage and high knockback depending on the angle and height of the piece of debris - each time it does, creating another vaccuum of smoke. Without much interference from Banballow, this all takes about 20 seconds, it taking less long with Banballow's shenanigans. Once at least two platforms worth of the wall and roof of the have fallen in, Banballow can use his side smash to throw the entire house off-stage along with the opponent, debris acting as a barrage for them to have to dodge around to recover - which is nigh impossible.

PLAYSTYLE

Playstyle: Obsessive Parent

Banballow is a character who needs no prompting or effort to pressure: he does it automatically as long as he's using his specials, pushing his opponents around with his clusters or controlling their movement by putting his traps into precarious positions. This duality of attacking while also reeling in the opponent is key in understanding and playing a truly versatile Banballow - it may appear to be accidental, but with precision and planning, he can combo into a KO from pretty much any situation. What is essential is knowing the entire breadth of what his wire can do: there's a lot to learn, but much of it simply comes naturally. It can be used as a spacing tool using your aerials, or a simple pressuring game with your specials, or a gimping tool with your grab, very generally speaking. It's extremely versatile; having infinite range when taking into consideration your up aerial, being able to charge your grab and the ability to grab at any point when your opponent is standing on it. This is the key pressure of all of it - your grab has a multitude of ways to put the heat on your opponent whatever the situation and will be the driving force in keeping them on the defensive, as they desperately trying to stay off it. Few can succeed when it is simply so far-reaching and Banballow has so many options, however - once your opponent gives up, it's time to move in for the kill.

Beyond the simple philosophy of the set as the stalker who then pounces on his prey at the opportune moment, you have with your down special a very open-ended mechanic from which to spread your own choice of chaos unto your wire, which will decide the fate of the match. Building up a hell of a lot of clusters gives you a good edge in close-combat, but you'll be hard-pressed reeling them in when you're constantly giving them every reason to stay away from you. What you have to do is play smart - pulling on your up tilt to pressure opponents forward, as they are now being pushed back by the clusters. Bubbles obviously play a big part too - forcing the opponent to make a jumping start toward Banballow, who will be waiting for them with a well-aimed jab and neutral special. Of course, as long as they're on your wire, your side special will also play a huge part in determining just how that length of wire grows - bubbles are mostly instrumental in forcing your opponent into other areas, being a great way to force them onto what they think is a safe area of wire, before doing something unexpected. You have no shortage of ways to manipulate the wire, and generally speaking your options don't even have to involve your neutral special and down special KO move to begin to build a competent KO round-up.

Moves like your side smash and dash attack are great as ways to push opponents past a cluster and into a bubble, at which point the match should take a turning even if it at lower percentage, as you can pulling them around with you as much as you like - without even needing to grab them. Likewise, moves like your back aerial - which works well with any amalgamation of clusters, bubbles and other traps - and neutral aerial are great at simply striking your opponent from a distance and setting them up for your up special, being pushed around on your wire, giving your opponent little room to run. Not to forget either just how great Banballow is at simultaneously pressuring and attacking with the more generic elements of his neutral special, which can potentially be firing at all times. Even with the gas running out, he can simply switch to side special [which, God forbid, can then perfectly transitioning into building up bubbles] or simply rely on smoke, all the while pushing his clusters and bubbles closer together. Moves like your down tilt are also great if you're just looking to build some damage, creating dead zones on the wire where any cluster or bubble will render them dizzy. That is also a running theme in the set - dizzying your opponent to further push them around. Because as soon as they start pushing back - giving up on fighting against your wire, or against you - that is when Banballow's outwardly confused and haphazard nature becomes apparently false, using this façade to build a monstrously diverse set of wire traps with who-knows-what plans to execute with it. Without an opponent to challenge you in setting up, well, any character with as much set-up as Banballow is bound to win.

When you do have a respectable amount of wire for whatever purpose, your options are truly opened up. You have the simple: a lot of bubbles, big kaboom when you push your opponent into your wire with down air. You have the complex: hitting your opponent with the side special then building up a complex amount of clusters and pushing them at your opponent with up tilt, away from you, then using the down smash and pulling the cluster back with neutral special to build a giant bubble and trip your opponent into it, then using forward aerial to blow the bubble off-screen. There's also the in-between, like letting an up smash go, throwing down an up aerial to hit an airborne opponent, but then transitioning into grab. It would be facetious to say that this is all extremely easy to pull off, but with any amount of time to set-up it's possible, and seeing as you're pretty much able to set-up whenever you like and gain help through dizzying, a good Banballow will be able to pull off such inventive traps as this. There are a few ways which are absolutely devastating - bubbles in particular play into strategies like using your up special to let slip a bunch of them onto an opponent hanging on the ledge. If they resist, having some clusters on standby next to your flamethrower will prevent them from getting too far up and away, being that gravity does not affect clusters. At a glance, Banballow may seem like he's not suited to the air, but his aerials allow for complete dominance and control over his opponent's position, particularly his back aerial and neutral aerial - so if they do jump away from the ledge, put them right back where they belong.

When you're running low on wire or have barely any left, that's when your earlier moves used to simply set up and stall your opponent become a threat to them - your up special in particular, while good simply to keep your opponents at bay as they try to get back on-stage, at high percentages they will be simply trying to survive against an onslaught of bubbles, your up tilt and your side smash. Throwing a bubble over the ledge and letting it drop on them can prove essential in then using that opportunity to pull them back on with side smash - into another bubble, or simply retaliating with a cluster into your neutral special for the KO. Your back throw in particular is a potent KO when you have no clusters in your wire, though it works just as well with a single bubble. At all times, your opponent will be avoid the wire at high percentages as much as they can, but as they get further away they get closer and closer to your unconventional canister KO moves which have a huge range and distance. Your down tilt can also lead into great combination with pushing around oozed opponents from your side special, as you stack a lot of dizzy on them and wait out the amount of time they drench the wire, then push them back beyond it with clusters, which immediately become bubbles as they push them back, exploding on contact afterwards. What makes KOing with Banballow different is that he really doesn't need any charge time at all - just the correct positioning of his opponents.

Now, this last paragraph is reserved mostly entirely for Banballow's grab game, which is a thing in of itself. It flows into pretty much every strategy he has - particularly, the pummel, potentially launching foes into bubbles and off-stage in your up special. Being able to re-grab an opponent at pretty much any point as long as they're on top of your wire is absolutely killer, and gives you the edge in pressure no matter how offensive your opponent may be. Your down throw in particular makes for great chemistry with the rest of the moveset - especially in combination with a previous forward throw, this locks down the opponent and really does turn them into a fly on your spider's web. Being able to cover much of the wire in ooze with your forward throw is also potentially devastating, especially when this also deflates your regular clusters as well - being able to then re-grab and use your back throw for the KO, as your wire lacks clusters. With how easy it is to re-grab, doing a combo of throws has never been so easy and felt so natural with how the wire is so easily positioned anywhere on the stage you want it - it's a constant fear in the back of your opponent's mind and will shape match-ups. Banballow's grab game adds another layer of depth to his entire playstyle which is a large part of what makes him so unique to play as or against. As with the rest of Banballow's moveset, though, playing against your foes expectations and leading them into elaborate traps with your wire is certainly better than going for the obvious and where Banballow flourishes most in competition.

BOSS MOVESET

[COLLAPSE="Boss Mode"]Boss Moveset: Going Fully Psycho

While he usually adopts a confused and stupefied demeanour in singles or doubles, when faced with three opponents, Banballow is overwhelmed by the challenge and starts to confuse the situation even more. Rather than perhaps thinking that his opponents are his son Jimmy or just some random obstacle to getting Jimmy, he now thinks that they're the teenagers who killed his son. His entrance is now him tensing his wire with some audible stretching rubber noise, as he states that the enemy will face their revenge for killing his son, with vindication - scary coming out of someone as insane already as Banballow. His flamethrower has been vastly improved upon - now sporting a black wire connecting his new nozzle and canister, showing that he has actually been looking for his three opponents and wrongly thinks they're all murderers.

Statistical Changes: Creating a Monster

  • Banballow weight is kept the same, but his canister now weighs as much as Giga Bowser and his wire three-quarters of that. This makes it impossible to KO Banballow until insanely high percentages unless he brings his wire off-stage, which he has little reason to do.
  • Banballow can be grabbed but this deals no hitstun to him.
  • Banballow ground speed and air speed are vastly improved so that they're now above average.
  • Hitstun only has 85% of its normal proficiency, with hitstun dealt during previous hitstun not stacking. Banballow can be stunned by multi-hit moves, but using it on him four or more times in five seconds will result in him becoming completely immune to hitstun. Moves that deal flinching also do not work until he reaches 90%.
  • Banballow doesn't take knockback from moves with set knockback under 100%, and only a quarter of it at 200%. This doubles in effectiveness every 100%.
  • Status effects such as being prone, pitfalled or frozen do not work. Banballow can swim twice as long as other characters.
  • KO mechanics require twice as many units [Haunter's fear state for example] before they work. Negative status effects last half as long.
  • If hit by any kind of grab, Banballow takes half as long to escape it.

Moveset Changes: The Important Stuff

  • Banballow's wire is now almost twice as long at one-and-a-half battlefield platforms in length.
  • The gas canister now swings twice as fast in the up aerial and deals double the damage and knockback in relevant moves where it is used as a hitbox.
  • Foes prone on the wire now act like clusters in that they trip opponents if used in tandem with your dash attack or side smash.
  • The neutral special now pushes along clusters at the speed of Fox's dash and can shoot normal fire at double the distance. Clusters and bubbles can grow to 1.5x their previous size, also doubling the damage and knockback dealt when coming out of your flamethrower. The flames, ooze and smoke will also will reach everyone within reach - not being walled off by opponents closer to you. The arc on the move is also doubled in height, now able to hit opponents a platform higher than him at its furthest extension.
  • Ooze from your side special now lasts for twice as long on opponents. Bubbles can now envelope up to three opponents at once at near-maximum size, scaling down to two at just above what the previous maximum was and are 1.5x as difficult to escape from.
  • The foes share the ledge just as normal. If pushed to an already occupied ledge they will fall behind the ledge with regular physics for ledge-hogging between allied opponents.
  • The grab can now grab multiple enemies at once. If you use a grab, Banballow will do it on the opponent closest to him in the wire and leave the other two alone.
  • Grab can be launched twice as high by holding it but with the same charge time.
  • Your pummel applies to all opponents on the wire at once, them all being launched off when they are able to escape it and not all at once.
  • Back throw remains the same, but hitting opponents into other opponents on the wire acts the same as hitting clusters, dealing damage to both opponents involved.
  • Opponents in your down throw will hold up the wire even with other opponents on it. With two opponents in your down throw, it will be split evenly in control between the two. With all three in your down throw, though, Banballow retains control to stop the flow of the wire by force, even when all three are pulling in the opposite direction.
  • Banballow's jab now involves Banballow sliding forward a Kirby in distance and can hit two opponents at once if they're standing next to each other.
  • Dash attack no longer involves Banballow calling out for Jimmy, but instead is much faster and involves flipping the opponent so that they're facing the opposite direction, with any immediate knee-jerk attack having friendly fire properties if it's not on already. Aside from that, the rest of the move is the same, though.
  • Down tilt's hole now seals over by itself after 5.0 seconds. Your forward tilt's embers now act as a hitbox on the wire and dealing constant damage to anyone standing on them, even if wrapped up in your up throw or down throw.
  • Up tilt will now pull clusters back toward it at Fox's dash speed.
  • Your side smash will continue tripping opponents until the last one on the wire has either left the wire [jumped off etc.] or been tripped, but they will not be able to actually try and stamp up until the last opponent on the wire has been tripped [so as to not give them frame advantage]. This leaves them all lined up in prone. Wonder what that could be used for.
  • In your neutral aerial with several people grabbed by the wire, the move performed when you hit the ledge will be decided by who is furthest away, the other two remaining now in your grab.

Boss Playstyle: Premeditated

Compared to in singles, Banballow takes a drastically more aggressive approach in his boss moveset, being that he has such amazing range and his neutral special is now absolutely Godly in terms of range. Opponents are going to find it incredibly difficult to escape his grab without being knocked out, not to mention that his crowd control is amazing when he has all three on his wire at once, being able to pull them around. In fact, other members of the same team now act as serious deterrents to one another, as they potentially pull each other toward danger in the down throw if others are on the wire, can back-stab with the new dash attack and ledge-hogging becomes a serious problem when Banballow can casually throw all of them on the ledge whenever he likes pretty much. The ability to also hit every member of the enemy team with one powerful damage-racking attack in the neutral special also prevents them from ever standing in a line, though Banballow can force them to with his wire and other moves obviously. So the enemy team will require more teamwork and coordination than ever before if they're to stand any chance, currying favour to more diverse teams who have members who are good in the air and ground. Obviously with such a high grab, though, they will be hard pressed to try and fly above Banballow. Not to mention the pure Godliness of his new up aerial and neutral aerial due to their range, being able to hit foes at double the distance as before.

With his new back aerial, he's also almost guaranteed to be able to hit the ledge of the stage by strength of range and with the height of his new neutral special he will effectively be able to camp and stall opponents there from a long distance. Due to the longer wire, he will also be able to dip his opponents even lower down, before batting them off with his up tilt. Being able to fit multiple opponents into bubbles also acts as a great way of simply sectioning off members of the enemy team you don't like while focusing on one in particular. The fact you also have so much distance on your wire allows you to do some things unimaginable with the regular length. If you have a member on your up special ledge, you can easily fend off an opponent on-stage just as well with plenty of space and not being tied down to that ledge, purely on the basis of your new wire. Also as a reuslt of your new neutral special, you can hit opponents on the ledge whilst also hitting opponents on the same horizontal level as you - heck, you can potentially just combo them and kill them one at a time with clusters! This is all very easy stuff, however and rather telegraphed - what makes it really juicy is your ability to pop bubbles with opponents in them, with other opponents on the same team. So feel free to put an opponent in a bubble, throw them away, then unexpectedly reel up an opponent and pummel them right into the bubble, potentially KOing them both.

Of course, all the while, within this chaos, Banballow's modus operandi of setting up his wire for specific purposes only grows twice as powerful when his bubbles and clusters do. The sheer size of them now is enough to make them walls against opponents, forcing them to jump over them, with space being a major concern for your opponents as Banballow can easily build up a fortress of blocks to stop them from attacking. Not to mention his new longer wire makes stages with platforms extremely easy to block off with his wire - his down aerial being useful here once again, pushing opponents down from high up platforms like the top one at battlefield, and into his wire. It also can't be underestimated just how far Banballow can now recover, what with that super long wire extending his up aerial to make it absolutely monstrous. Opponents are going to have to go out of their way to gimp you, made easier perhaps by his now longer wire - though he does still has his forward air sans bubbles as a generic spike if he's brought into generic close range air combat. This is the opponent best bet - though keep in mind, they also will not want to KO you if you have, say, one of their team mates in your wire. Thus keeping them as bait is recommended.

Banballow is above all not really concerned with priority in his boss moveset, more with just generally dealing with every opponent in the most logical way for their part in the enemy team. You'll obviously want to keep the best enemy gimper as the bait in your wire at all costs at higher percentages, whilst keeping the damage rackers at low percentages. The bubble could be said to be reserved for the most troublesome, though - however, it's much easier just to set, say, the most light to your down throw too. Size does come into it a lot: choose the biggest to wrap the wire around like a mummy: contaminating more wire if they've been hit by your side special. It's easy to hit all opponents with your wire if you really try to, at which point they're rather screwed, but playing priority is fine too. You can specifically keep opponents in your up smash if they like the air, keep opponents who like to be close to you in a bubble and fire away at the far off guy who loves to camp all at once without much thought or pre-planning. However, as in the regular playstyle, the best plans are ones devised with good strategy and making use of complex strategies - the one big and remarkable difference here is that you can make a weapon out of all your opponent team, and use them on each other like the sociopath he is.[/COLLAPSE]
 

Big Mac

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
38
Joint Production with Smash Daddy




Queen Worm is a giant worm affectionately titled “Rachel” by her adoptive father David Rodriguez, a 68 year old man. Dave treated her as if she were his own. . .Though granted, he was having her spawn babies en mass which he could sell for people to eat. Worm burgers are the next hot thing, dontcha know. Rachel apparently wasn’t an especially giant worm originally, and gained her size through gasoline intake. No, not some unexplained chemicals, gasoline, and the more gasoline she drinks the larger she gets.

Despite this, Dave still treats the Queen Worm herself quite well and is genuinely concerned about her well being. Eventually, a company called Doronto buys out Dave’s worm farm and forces them to work for them as part of a contract. Dave, being a 68 year old man, dies of being overworked, causing the Queen Worm to go out on a rampage against those who killed her father. Dave, apparently having otherworldly powers to talk from beyond the grave, requests that the player end Rachel’s misery by incinerating her with a flamethrower so they can reunite in hell.


Queen Worm is only as tall as Wario, but as long as 2.5 platforms. As such, she does not take hitstun unless her head is attacked, but has no shield or dodges of any kind, though she can “DI” to lean back during hitstun to avoid infinites. The Worm has shield attacks instead of aerials, and cannot jump.

That said, the worm can still go in the air just fine. You directly control the worm’s head, and it moves about at Mario’s dashing speed, able to go up into the air as far as her body will let her. The rest of her body logically follows behind. The worm must have at least a quarter of her mass standing on the ground at all times, enabling her to go up to 1.9 platforms into the air. When the worm is attacked, that specific portion of her body is knocked back, with the rest of her body getting dragged if necessary via realistic physics.


Up Special - Burrow



Queen Worm leaps into the ground in front of her, dealing 5% damage to foes and GTFO knockback. If Queen Worm hits ground on her descent, she will burrow into it and create a layer of dirty, a mound, as she trails across the top of the stage. She has DI in the air, if she dived off stage, allowing her to burrow into the side of the stage on her way down. The part of the stage that she's burrowed into is made transparent, revealing the Worm to be travelling just under the top of the stage at Fox's dash speed, having mediocre traction if you turn around. Queen Worm creates a mound of dirt on the top of the stage as big as she is while she's burrowing, allowing you to create a thicker stage when you're playing on a stage with thinner platforms like Delfino Plaza. The widened stage is comprised is the ground being buffed out as Queen Worm travels, creating a hollow tunnel wherever she goes and giving any room to terraform on any sized stage. Parts of this mound as wide as Kirby can be destroyed and forced to collapse in by dealing 10% or more damage to them, making it a hassle for Queen Worm to constantly keep the mound up on the whole stage as a foe can potentially hit multiple areas at once.

Using the up special while burrowing causes Queen Worm to dive into the air, creating a Kirby-sized of empty space between Queen Worm and the ground. This has minimal start lag but can result in a suicide if it's used off the edge of the stage and the player fails to DI back to safety. Any enemies hit by Worm during this leap are dealt 15% and the move Star KOs at 120%. Used with enough ground in front, this lets Queen Worm leap into the air and back into the ground, protected by its hitbox. Using the up special in the air causes Queen Worm's teeth to fan out, lettubg you bury the worm's head into the side of a touching piece of stage as she rips through the ground. If a foe comes into contact instead, she bites them for 15% damage and KOs vertically at 140%. You can tunnel through the stage either by doing the above and falling down to the side of the stage first, or by pressing down on the directional input while burrowing, Queen Worm burrows further into the stage, remaining visible as she creates a tunnel as wide as Bowser. You can tunnel for a maximum of 12 seconds before Queen Worm is forced to resurface, before Queen Worm is forced to burrow straight up until she reaches the top of the platform.

Resurfacing can also be performed out of a burrow on top of the stage by pressing up, and it happens automatically when you reach the side of the stage. This causes an eruption of Pokéball-sized ground chunks around Queen Worm that deals 10% damage and medium knockback, not enough to reasonably KO, the chunks disappearing soon after. This has bad end lag, but is mostly covered up by the eruption of rocks. The top of mounds is open for foes and they can follow her if they're as big as or smaller than Bowser, as she terraforms the inside of the stage.

Side Special - Vomit

Queen Worm vomits up some acid at a selectable trajectory. On contact with a foe as it flies, it just does a simple 8% and knockback that KOs at 200%. If it hits the ground, though, it forms a trap that lasts 10 seconds in a Kirby width patch on the ground. If you want more of it, feel free to generate it, as the move’s quite spammable. The acid is sticky, and will stick to any surface no matter the angle, even the bottom of the stage.

On contact with the “trap” acid, foes will be stuck to it. They can still attack, but they can’t move more than a platform from it in any direction, getting snapped back to it immediately once they stop moving. In order to get away from it, foes must dash against/use some form of momentum boosting against the edge of the acid’s range for a full second. Upon escaping acid, foes are immune to all acid on the ground for 5 seconds.

If foes really hate this for whatever reason, they can go out of their way to shield the move or even let themselves be hit by it to prevent you from generating the trap. If they’re in your grab range, though, shielding isn’t such a hot idea, obviously.

Down Special – Gas Canister

Queen Worm attaches herself to the ground with her disgusting, suckling open mouth, full of fangs. Over the next 0.6 seconds, a large, red object can be seen travelling through her body then spat out, ending the move. That is, if an opponent isn't in the way – if they are, the object is seen in a silhouette of the inside of Queen Worm's mouth, barging the foe into the ground, leaving them pitfalled at the end of the move and taking 10% damage. The object is a rectangular fuel cannister, as big as Wario. It can block off your tunnels generically or act as a throwing item like a lighter crate for opponents. If attacked with an attack that deals 5% or greater, it explodes in a fiery explosion as big as Bowser, dealing the damage of an exploded Bob-Omb. This leaves small embers of fire in a platform radius of the blast, dealing constant 1% damage and flinching until they dissipate a few seconds later. The cannister is also vulnerable to Queen Worm's own attack and largely can be defended simply by summoning it behind you, and is easily dragged about in your mound form.

The cannister has a hidden use, though, that comes about simply by walking up to and pushing it over – it's uncapped, and the fuel inside will leak out onto the stage. It's a liquid – it flows at the speed you'd imagine, slower than water would, and can clump up in places where there are natural pits. It is also affected by wind or similar hitboxes. The fuel makes tripping twice as likely and pushing everything in the direction it is going, at a quarter the strength of FLUDD. This can be powered up by creating a course of downward slopes – failing that, simply tipping over the cannister at the top of your tunnels can potentially cover your entire creation in the stuff, or push opponents out through a well-placed hole at the end of the 'course.' As it is a fossil fuel, it follows two strict rules: it is expendable, and it is flammable. You can only pour the equivalent of Final Destination's length; once this resource diminishes, the cannister dissipates and there's a cooldown of ten seconds after the death of one cannister, before another can be summoned.

Now you've got all that fuel on the stage, we touch on that second rule: flammability. Any fire hitbox, including the one from your exploding gas cannister created in this very special. This fire will cause fuel to ignite, and connecting fuel; links in the chain where the fuel is falling to a lower surface, will further ignite in flames, creating a trail of the aforementioned embers. Foes will get dragged along and take the brunt of the damage, but can DI out – this can be countered slightly with a well-placed minion, talked about in the next move, creating a mound that pushes the foe forward, as well as simply fighting the foe. Places where the fuel have gathered up in pits ignite in an explosion, dealing 10-20% damage and being as big as Wario-twice Bowser's size depending on the pit's size. Depending on the stage you can create a course in tunnels that ends in a huge pit like this, if only as a pressuring device to keep the foe away. These explosions actually help to stop destroying all of the fuel you've spilled, as it pushes oil further down the 'line' so that it doesn't ignite.

You'll go most of the match not being able to create a cannister as you have one out or it's leaking or you're waiting on the cooldown. If that's the case, the move is quite different – Queen Worm does the same animation, but instead she actually does suckle onto whatever she grabs. On opponents this siphons HP at a steady 3% a go, acting as a pummel-only grab hitbox. Likewise, this works in the opposite way on your minions, pumping them up with health at the expense of Queen Worm's percentage and can be cancelled out of by pressing the input a second time. By sucking up items, Queen Worm will keep them inside of her until she dies and they fall down from where her respawn platform appears, or is regurgitated up along with the cannister if she summons one.

Suckling up the ground usually does nothing, but on fuel, it fills up the inside of Queen Worm's body. Now, just like the cannister, Queen Worm is somewhat flammable. A fire-based attack ignites her and causes her body to explode. The damage and knockback from this depends on the amount of fuel Queen Worm ingested and is obviously not advised against, say, Fire Man, but is a great suicide move. At maximum fuel levels, Queen Worm can light up a gigantic area in an explosion that will KO foes from an absurdly low percentage. By using this special while ingesting fuel, she spits it out similarly to FLUDD, pushing the foe back and covering them in oil. This allows you to both push them off the stage very comfortably – the more fuel you have sucked up, the more fuel you can spit – and means that they are now ignited by fire too. Fuel will wash off the opponent in ten seconds, less if they move haphazardly and excite the fuel off. While fire attacks against a covered foe won't cause them to explode, they will suffer a culmination of 15% and flinching knockback as they take constant damage over five seconds, giving you easy defence on the cannister, as Queen Worm's only access to fire.

Neutral Special – Queen’s Subjects


Queen Worm summons forth a worm minion to come up from the ground in front of her, which is a third as large at her at .8 platforms long but less than a Kirby in height. These worms will burrow back underground after showing themselves to their commander, then proceed to get under the foe’s location at Ganon’s walking speed, tunneling as they go the same way their queen does but on a much smaller scale. Once they get under the desired foe, they will leap up from the ground, their entire body's a hitbox that deal 7% and knockback that KOs at 155%. Shortly after their leap, as they come back down to the ground, they’ll dive head-first back into the ground and burrow back inside before proceeding to approach the foe again.

These worms only have 16 HP, but their hurtboxes are so constantly covered that it’s not much of an issue. Note that the worms will still manage to dive back into the stage even if it means that it’s the side of the stage, making them beastly edgeguarders, or even under it. This makes foes typically want to recover high to go over the ledge, and considering Queen Worm can use her ground game from very high in the air with her unique movement system that’s a rather scary prospect. These minions will burrow into the stage if a foe follows Queen Worm in her terraformed ant farm, attempting to pop up in a place where they'd hit the foe on the way out.

By pouring gas on a minion, or letting it douse the ground where a minion is burrowing, they grow in size, potentially to be half as large as Queen Worm at max and gaining an extra 10-20HP. The worm will soak up an appropriate amount of gas on its way, though this is worth it to increase their hitbox and to proportionately increase the amount of ground the worms terraform through.


Forward Smash – Rodriguez Spin

Queen Worm lies flat on the ground and readies herself for the charge time. She chases into the background and back around on herself, going in a 3D circle horizontal to the screen. If a foe is hit by this, they are stunned and dealt increments of 5% damage every so often that she is spinning, potentially racking up to 50% damage depending on charge time, at the end taking diagonal knockback that KOs at 150-130%. As Queen Worm moves into the background or foreground, her head becomes invulnerable, causing her to become temporarily immune to stun. Queen Worm can decide on the amount of turns she does, potentially ending up at her starting position or facing the opposite way, while her tail becomes a hitbox before it reaches her new placement, being a good way of escaping an aggressive foe, but leaving Queen Worm in considerable end lag.

Underground the move works much the same, except that you move into the foreground and background of the inside of the stage. This means that you can move into an entirely new part of the inside stage, without having to actually terraform there, making it great for blocking off opponents as you set up or simply get away from them as they transform for a short period. By pressing the up and down input, Queen Worm can slightly re-arrange the position of her head while she's spinning around underground and unlike above ground, she can pull the foe along with her as she goes in a circle. You can potentially push a foe around to the newly-terraformed cavern you've created and retreat back to a safe distance. This forces the dodge to roll back, going into the background or foreground as they do this and leaving them very unsafe.

Up Smash – Ensnare


This move has two different functions on the surface and underground. On the surface, Queen Worm starts to bunch up the back and front end of her body in the charge time, creating a zig-zag pattern. The player retains control over her head still during the start-up. This lets you direct where her 'back' is pointing to, which is the direction of the eventual knockback in this move and lets you move around too. Releasing the input, Queen Worm straightens out her back, dealing 20-30% knockback and KOs at 125-100%, to opponents who were on her back when she straightened it out or those who simply came into the way of its hitbox. This move also works to send lingering item traps like bombs back up into the sky, and 'flattens' out any burrowed stage below you - if the foe has destroyed parts of the expanded ground, Queen Worm can recover it if there are neighbouring unaffected segments. If you manage to trap the foe on your back before the move's start-up, possibly if they're trying to escape the underground and you get in the way, you will instead be squeezed between parts of Queen Worm's huddled together body, dealing 15-25% damage and medium knockback, usually back down into the abyss.

Underground it's a simpler move. The same effect is had, though you can move around slightly faster underground, except if you have a small enough space in the tunnel you zig-zag up against the walls of the inner stage. If this is the case, Queen Worm will spring up and her teeth will form a solid piercing shape you render through the stage very easily. Hitting foes with the top of Queen Worm's head, she deals 22-32% damage and histun and she drags them along for the move until the end. Along the way she can push the foe through the stage, terraforms with the foe themselves, dealing 5% to the foe for every platform they are dragged through and medium knockback at the end of it. This makes the move a very easy way to push foes out of the bottom or top of the stage, and if the player doesn't press anything, lets Queen Worm immediately slink back into the terraformed stage, making it a good defensive camping move.

If you press the input again like Link's forward smash and others like it in Brawl, you perform the second phase of the smash. This is Queen Worm using the part of her body still in the ground as an anchoring point, as she collapses onto the ground in front of her. If she's next to the ledge, this move will also collapse over the side of the stage to dissuade hogs. This causes 15% damage and KOs at 145%, a good enough KO move to pressure foes off of the top of the stage. The huge size of the hitbox, Queen Worm's 2.5 platform width potentially as height and the fact she can curl around the stage makes this a prime move to use to pressure foes inside your terraformed underground.

Down Smash – Cave In

This move will not function if Queen Worm isn’t grounded, though given Queen Worm’s movement system it’s very rare you won’t be. For the move, Queen Worm embeds her rear end inside the ground if it’s not already in a tunnel before the entirety of the platform she’s on proceeds to quake. This makes it a hitbox that deals 10-20% and vertical knockback that KOs at 160-130%. Not massively impressive, but any tunnels on that platform will instantly collapse, causing anyone inside to take 1.5X the regular damage and get pitfalled on top of the platform. Yes, this means if you burrow out a tunnel inside of the stage before collapsing it that you can create slopes and such. If you just want to destroy stage without putting in much effort, you can have minions tunnel around before crushing them as a “reward” for their hard work. You can even potentially collapse out a whole portion of the stage, quite nice if somebody’s stuck to said portion from Side B Acid.

If Queen Worm uses this move inside a tunnel, she will get pitfalled. If you just had a tip of her body underground, this will just prevent you from using that portion of her body and moving more than the length of your body from the spot while the rest is free to move until you escape the pitfall. If more of your body was underground than the tip, Queen Worm’s body will be cut off at that point. If it was her entire body but her head that was submerged, she will get traditionally pitfalled.

If Queen Worm doesn’t button mash out, she can potentially remain in this “pitfalled” state forever, essentially embedding herself underground. If foes wish to uproot her, they must attack the portion of her body that is pitfalled. Rather than dealing knockback to her, this will uproot a Wario’s worth of Queen Worm for every platform worth of knockback the attack would have dealt. If you do this under the stage, beware that you will slowly slip out of your pitfall at a rate of one Kirby per second.

If a foe pitfalls Queen Worm, this all works the same if the foe pitfalls her end, but if they pitfall her, say, in the middle of her body, then things change. In said case, only what is in front of the pitfalled portion of her body will become usable, while the rest of her body goes limp until you get out of the pitfall.



Grab – Coil

Queen Worm goes to coil up around her midsection, creating a grab hitbox the size of Bowser there. This hitbox lingers quite a while, so spot dodging doesn’t work, though it can still be rolled out of obviously. Even if the attack misses, Queen Worm will remain coiled up, enabling you to reduce the length of your hurtbox before you start automatically uncoiling as you begin to move around again.

Pummel – Squeeze

Queen Worm tightens her grip around the foe, being a generic pummel that does 3%. If this is spammed, her grip will get tighter and tighter, causing her to take up less and less width, though the longer you go without pummeling while the foe is still grabbed the more you will start going to your default grab stance.

Forward Throw – Take him away

The worm throws the victim forwards with knockback that KOs at 175% and 8% damage. The throw ends there if you have no minions, but if you do the nearest minion will go to where you’re throwing the foe before going to impale them on their teeth, dealing 3% per second before moving about through the ground on their normal routine. The worm travels unnaturally fast to reach the foe normally, but if you throw the foe off the stage, the minion will not bother attempting to pursue them. This can be a potential kill throw as the worm brings the foe under the stage if they’re at high percentages, and if they can recover from such a position you can still pop your head out from the bottom to further antagonize the foe.

Back Throw – Imprison

Queen Worm makes a tunnel behind her, on the ground below her if she’s on the surface. The tunnel is just barely larger than the foe’s size. She then bites into the foe for 5% and throws the foe into the tunnel for 4%, before piling up some dirt against the side of the tunnel/above the tunnel if she’s on the surface to trap them. Foes can get out by attacking the portion of dirt trapping them inside, which has a meager 12 stamina. If Queen Worm has a minion, they will not only do the dirty work for her, enabling Queen Worm to act early, they will specifically go inside of this tunnel with the foe they’ve trapped inside.

Up Throw – Ram

Queen Worm bites the foe for 5%, then starts moving all of her length skywards before flinging them upwards for 7% and knockback that KOs at 120% simply due to how high the worm gets before performing the throw. If the move is used inside the stage, the worm will ram the foe into the ceiling, causing them to get pitfalled at the surface of the stage as they take their 7% rather than knockback. An excellent throw to use while you’re still terraforming the insides of the stage for set-up early on.

Down Throw – Feeding Frenzy

The worm bites into the foe, dealing 10 hits of 1% per second until the foe escapes. The rest of the worm’s minions come to chow down simultaneously, moving at the accelerated pace of Mario’s dashing speed straight to the foe, tunneling as necessary. Once they reach you, they will begin to add 5 hits of 1% and flinching per second. This damage can rack up fast, and the foe is left in prone at the end of the move no matter what. Due to the queen's minimal control over her minions, she has to come to them if she wants to get the full mileage out of this throw. This isn’t hard, though, if she’s tunneled inside the stage, as the worms tunnel around the entirety of it like a hothead, meaning they’ll never be far away in said case.


Neutral Shield - Drill

The top of Queen Worm becomes a drilling hitbox, dealing constant hits of 5% damage and flinching - depending on percentage, a foe hit by this move is stuck in place for 2-3 hits before being knocked away, KOing horizontally at 160%. She can't keep drilling consistently, having a long end lag after three seconds if the player keeps jabbing shield input. Underground this does let you create smaller holes in the stage, good for popping an exit for the opponent at the bottom of a platform or using to rouse an opponent standing over the top of you. Drilling is obviously much faster than simply burrowing, letting you cut into the dirt of a stage incredibly quickly, and up to two platforms in lengths over the three seconds. Queen Worm's entire body deals 4% damage and flinching knockback during this but no super armour, leaving her vulnerable to attack. This is a great way to move between different platforms if the foe it out-of-range to counter, or simply move from the side of the stage, to the bottom of the stage, as you move quickly enough to avoid falling to your death. Using the move to penetrate the dirt to the top of the stage causes debris to fly out of the top of the stage, dealing rapid damage of 3% and repeated hitstun. This is by far your best way to camp the inside of the stage.

Side Shield - Acid

Queen Worm spits up some weaker acid forth directly forwards with no option to alter the trajectory. It goes forth about half a platform if Queen Worm’s head is against the ground, but obviously travels farther due to having farther to fall if Queen Worm uses this with her head in the air, making the lack of ability to aim less of an issue. This acid deals a meager 6% and flinching to start, but does 8 hits of 3% poison damage over 8 seconds, making this a very scary damager racker at 21% total. The move is a bit laggy, but the acid is as long as a crouching Snake as it goes through the air, making it a rather large hitbox. The acid even lingers for a bit on the ground before melting away after 2 seconds, still a hitbox just as strong there. Hitting foes with this move multiple times will renew the poison damage to the 8 second duration, rather than stacking.

If the acid lands on sloped terrain, then it will travel down the slope at varying speeds based off how steep said slope is, remaining a hitbox the whole time and not melting away until it comes to a complete stop. While the initial hit of the acid in this form is just 1% and no flinching, it has a dragging push effect that will drag foes with it if they just stand on top of it, great for dragging foes underground or off-stage.

Up Shield - Bite

Widening her teeth and rearing back, Queen Worm delivers a savage bite overhead, dealing 12% damage and grabbing a foe who can't air dodge this telegraph. She then proceeds to slam them into the ground on the surface, ricocheting them up to KO them at 155%. Underground, she slams them onto the tunnel and forces them along the floor, potentially hitting them through a hole in the stage. This is sped up significantly by acid making the ground slippery inside the tunnels; if you hit a foe against a slippery inclining surface, they will shoot up it at first before gravity takes hold and before they regain control, potentially letting you create a nightmare scenario where you're chasing them uphill.

You can bite your worm minions and this causes Queen Worm to eat up whatever end of their body was closer to the hitbox. On the head, this kills the worm and depending on its size returns 10-20HP to Queen Worm. If it's the bottom, Queen Worm gains slight control in a faux grab, able to use the directional input to 'aim.' After she's done, the squirming minion tunnels tunnels in that direction desperately: if it hits the surface, it will turn back around and start tunnelling in the opposite direction until its back end regrows, ten seconds later. Especially on the bigger minions, this gives you a fast track way to create smaller links to the surface that a foe can't follow, great conditions for covertly leaking through acid.

Down Shield - Slam

Queen Worm pounds the ground with the front of her body. Being hit by her as she pounds does 14% and knockback that KOs at 150%. This also causes 1.5 Bowsers worth of terrain in front of her to briefly become an earthshaking hitbox, dealing 10% and vertical knockback that KOs at 135%. This earthshaking will knock any form of liquid goop into the air and splatter it about to the sides, and can also knock canisters into the air, not canceling their horizontal momentum if they have any.

This earthshaking has no range limit as far as vertical range goes. It can hit the insides of tunnels below you. If a canister is inside a tunnel affected by this, it will be bounce against the ceiling and floor repeatedly inside the cavern until it loses all vertical momentum.


Jab - Tail Whip

Up on the ground, Queen Worm uses her tail to whip in front of her in a large hitbox, but as a result leaving herself wide open in bad end lag. Each whip deals 8% damage and medium knockback, hard to combo into itself but a good move to put out there to catch foes. This is a great way to simply right the Queen Worm into a standing position, setting her to a default upright for the duration of the move. This move is also tall enough above the ground, that it's great in covering the burrowing minions who may be tracking up below you toward the foe.

Underground this move has Queen Worm change direction while throwing her tail behind her for the same 8% damage and medium knockback. If you're in a mound, this unearths it in the same hitbox as when you resurface, sending flying ground chunks in the opponent's wake. If you're tunneling, this turns your body around entirely, your whole body becoming a hitbox that deals 9% damage and low knockback, but having bad end lag. Certainly a great move to use before you have to resurface, or to hit the foe as you collapse your tunnel, making sure they can't escape.

Up Tilt - Thrust

Queen Worm causes her mid section to hoist up into the air a long ways, forming a large “hump” in her back. This deals 9% and vertical knockback that KOs at 120%. This can function as a pseudo dodge, and the worm’s body will remain in this humped position until you start moving again to make the rest of her body follow after her head. Repeat pressing of the up tilt input lets you rear up Queen Worm and allows for you to easily slink on up to higher platforms or out-of-reach paths inside your tunnels. The way this works is if you use this move below a ceiling, Queen Worm will flat her head up against it while balancing using her lower half, allowing you to gracefully slither forward for a short until gravity takes hold. If a foe gets caught on your up as you push up against a ceiling, they are hitstunned for one second and take 15% damage, before entering a five second long free fall.

Down Tilt - Collapse

Queen Worm lifts up her tail end, then continues hoisting most of her body into the air until her entire back half is somewhat into the air. She then proceeds to slam it down to the ground, dealing 15% and a spike on par with Ganon’s dair, dealing vertical knockback to grounded foes like any other spike.

You might question the uses of a spike on a character who dislikes the air, but you can use it to great effect to knock characters into tunnels or to spike foes trying to get to the ledge from the comfort of the stage. The worm won’t just slam downwards if you use it off the stage while standing on stage, the slam will continue as she goes to slam the side of the stage and potentially even the underside, spiking foes against it. This will not “edgehog” due to the worm not actually grabbing the ledge traditionally, but it’s the next best thing.

The range on this move increases and the lag decreases proportionately if you’ve positioned the back/middle of her body to already be a bit in the air. The move obvious way to do this is the utilt. While the combo might seem obvious, if you just use the utilt as a dodge and largely remain stationary, the dtilt can become a massive threat looming over the foe’s head.

Forward Tilt - Impale


Queen Worm lunges forward, her teeth exposed and sharpened to the foe's fleshy body; if she makes contact they are freeze-framed like Wolf's forward tilt, dealing the foe 10% damage. Depending on what part of the foe's body she hit, they are dealt high upward or downward knockback, if they were hit respectively on the bottom or top of their body. You push the foe slightly forward a character width, meaning you can potentially hit the foe down into your terraformed tunnels, or inside the tunnels, you can hit them up and out of them to your defensive advantage. If you're hitting a foe from below or above in your tunnels, the move simply deals opposite knockback.

Using this move inside your tunnels on the rocky interior of the stage, Queen Worm gains a chunk of ground on the end of her teeth, leaving a missing piece of the inside of the stage. She will carry this around until she's hit or uses a teeth-based move, causing the chunk to explode much like when you resurface in the up special, dealing 10% damage and medium knockback. This works as a good shield to attacks from the front by foes or can simply be a good way to hit the foe from a distance if they're trying to ambush you as you're coming out of your tunnels. If you burrow out of the stage, or are forced to resurface, the attached rocks simply double the size of the hitbox that is created and buff the damage to 15%.


Final Smash – Hellfire


Letting out a horrifying scream, Queen Worm shows off just how she spits out all those smaller worms... she's infested. She explodes open after mild start lag, dealing 25% damage and KOing at 100%, in a hitbox about twice the size of her body. From her carcass, come forth ten max-sized worms that chase after the nearest foe. If they reach a foe, they start to bury underground with them and unless the foe mashes out of a grab hitbox, they will drag them below to the bottom blastzone through the stage itself. Each worm has 10HP and resistances to knockback of all kinds except stunning and flinching, but they group together so well that you can't possibly take them all on at once.

After all the worms have suicided or been killed, the camera pans up to above the screen where the scene between Rachel and her father David Rodriguez plays out. They talk about returning to Hell, and they do... but the stage has now become Hell. It is covered in fire hitboxes and random trails of it, resembling Bowser's flame breath if a static hitbox, dealing similar damage and stun. Queen Worm is increased to a more canonical five times her normal size and gains immunity to fire entirely, plus general increases in power to her moveset. Helping her out is her father using Beezwax's moveset during his grab game and throwing explosives onto the stage, which ignite from the fire. He will also throw your gas canisters close to any foes and is immortal for the duration of his stay. After thirty straight seconds of this, the stage reforms to what it was before the final smash was used and Queen Worm loses a single stock, but still wins the match if she whittled down all of the foe's first or had a stock advantage.


Queen Worm largely likes to play against foes inside of the stage. It’s less about making the stage into some sort of defensive fortress as it is just fighting the enemy there. Queen Worm likes a lot of twists and turns in her tunnels so the enemy has to go through long winding paths, with nothing but a sliver of ground stopping foes from getting to you if you terraform to maximum efficiency. During this phase, your Side Special, uthrow, and bthrow can prove invaluable for getting foes who do manage to get to you before you make much space away. If you’re struggling, you can have some minions go do the terraforming for you while you deal with the annoyingly persistent foe in your face.

Once you’ve got things terraformed inside the stage, you can force approaches in one of two ways without true stalling. The first is by spamming minions, setting up gas canisters just for the sake of it or for buffing your minions. The second is more direct, and has you simply camp at the foe from below with moves like usmash and up shield. Once they start coming to you, you can slide down side shield acid at them if you make long winding tunnels, again hit them with usmash/up shield if they’re above you, or “poke” them with fsmash. Fsmash is especially useful for hit and run purposes, as it gives you a method of escape when the foe reaches you, forcing them to have to come back to the other side of a tunnel. If the foe you’re fighting is especially easy to set up against, fleeing from the foe with fsmash can lead in you racing out the top of the tunnel before the foe, then collapsing the tunnel in on them with dsmash.

One of the most useful things about baiting a foe to you inside of a tunnel is your ability to lure them off through the bottom of the stage. They think they’re safe on solid ground as they reach you, until all of a sudden you open up the threat of a hole through the bottom! These are not nearly as threatening to Queen Worm, as her massive width and unique shape makes it nearly impossible to knock her through holes while still being able to fit your enemies through them to almost no limit. This enables Queen Worm to flow into her gimping game much better, as if the foe has to climb around the stage to get back she can poke them all along the way, as can her trusty minions. Foes –can- go back through the hole that queen worm made to knock them out of, but this is so pathetically predictable that a simple dtilt is just about all you need to counter it. Placing some Side Special vomit on the edge of the stage is also quite good here as it gives you that extra time to make the attack, and overwrites the otherwise magical properties of the ledge.

Whether you knock the foe through the stage to force them to recover or simply use your uthrow on them to force them back to the surface while you continue to terraform in piece, an important element of this as the foe is forced to re-approach you is that they will be taking more poison damage. Buying time not only buys you set-up, but damage. Aside from being a simple useful source of damage, the poison damage is mandatory just to discourage foes from sitting and waiting for you to be forced to resurface after 12 seconds underground. If possible, it’s advised to try to hit the foe with some poison before you start burrowing – you can still get some progress done with a minion while you’re trying to do it.

If the foe is waiting for you to resurface, don’t bother trying to attack them and just set up instead, as they’ll just be dodging around you. The other technique aside from this and poison damage to deal with these foes, is to save a portion of the stage at one of the two far sides of the stage, not terraforming it at all. When you’re about to resurface, move to the very bottom of this stage side to create a straight vertical column as you ascend. Not only does this enable you to immediately go back down to where you once were and doesn’t interfere with your existing tunnels, but once you’re back down in your hidey hole you can poke a hole in the bottom of the shaft you’ve created. When a foe comes down the newly made shortcut to chase after you, they’ll be insanely telegraphed and easily spiked to their death.
 

Big Mac

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
38
TRENT



Trent was a random evil tree in the middle of the woods that was “huge, gnarly, and tough as tails”, able to grow and retract his face at will. He eventually devoured a sawmill operator called George Maclachlan who intended to saw him down to test the merits of his new saw. It’s clear Trent didn’t just go devouring random people, though, as apparently upon devouring Maclachlan he fused with him. Maclachlan actually seems to be the dominant personality over Trent, as Trent was just a random evil tree in the woods, whereas once Maclachlan was devoured Trent went to continue running his saw mill.

Trent had his lumberjacks, the woodcutters, go and abduct random people in the woods before encasing them in wood and removing their brains. Trent then had his men mail out these “woodpuppets” in boxes back to their families, whereupon being released they would attempt to murder said families. Trent and the woodcutters also kill the woodpuppets for sport in healthy competition. While Trent is an evil boss who refers to his men as his “woodcutting slaves”, they seem to be just as evil as him, given how much they seem to enjoy all of this.

Trent refers to himself as George Maclachlan after eating the man, but the game refers to him as Trent despite this name never being directly stated. If nothing else, Trent has some form of influence over Maclachlan, as before he fused with Trent he wasn’t some sort of evil psychopath.

In Smash Bros, Trent functions as a 3v1 boss – he eats the likes of Whispy Woods for breakfast, literally.

STATS


Size: 30+
Weight: 30
Falling Speed: 20
Traction: 7
Jumps: 7
Aerial Control: 6
Aerial Speed: 3
Ground Movement: 1

Trent’s size is variable because of his roots, of which Trent has a massive eight. His main body is is 1.5x as wide as Bowser, but he’s very tall at double Ganondorf height. Regardless,Trent can be even larger by extending out his roots during his attacks, which are constantly part of his hurtbox. More details on this will be explained soon.

Trent takes stun normally. His ways to deal with this will also be detailed very shortly. He is also completely solid.

Trent wouldn’t be that horrible of an aerial character, having actually decent jumps as he pushes himself skywards with his roots, but his ridiculous fall speed is what prohibits him from going to the air in most cases.

SPECIALS


NEUTRAL SPECIAL – ROOTATION


Pressing this causes the next of Trent’s roots in sequence to flash briefly, signifying that’s the root you’ll be using in your attacks that involve a singular root. Each of Trent’s 8 roots can be doing something at the same time, and this “move” is lagless to use and can be used during lag and stun. If a move involves multiple roots, then of course the currently selected one will be one of the roots involved, with the other roots being the next ones in line for rotation that aren’t currently occupied.

Stunning Trent only prohibits him from shielding, dodging, and using attacks outside of this one that don’t involve roots. Roots cannot be stunned, and each one has 200 HP that must be depleted. Once a root’s gone, it doesn’t come back. Roots are not hurtboxes when Trent is not using them for anything and they’re up against him, retracted, and regenerate 5 HP per second while like this. Attacking a root deals a third of that damage to Trent’s actual damage counter. Roots are the width of Wario.

UP SPECIAL – ROOT


This is one of many moves that has you move your root about into position before you strike with it – you can extend the root up to Final Destination’s width away from Trent at Ganon’s dashing speed. When you’re ready to attack, press A/B/Z to attack, or shield to retract the root at double speed as Trent is free to use other moves, though unable to use that particular root until it retracts. This will henceforth be referred to as “root control”.

Once the root is in position, the tip will just stab downwards quickly, dealing 10% and a spike on par with Rob’s dair. If it comes into contact with the ground, the move actually serves its purpose, as the root embeds itself into the ground. This means Trent cannot be knocked further away from the root than the amount he extended it. If Trent walks against the root’s maximum pull, he won’t pull away from it, but if he dashes against it for .3 seconds, he’ll automatically uproot from it. You can also input a special usmash to instantly uproot all roots. Pressing any root attack when your currently selected root is rooted will also uproot and retract it first. Foes can uproot individual roots by dealing 50% to them.

If this is used in the air and you already have something rooted, Trent will automatically reel himself in to his root. With only one rooted, Trent will reel himself in very, very slowly when he’s pulling himself up against gravity, at Ganondorf’s walking speed. Each additional root rooted will cause the speed is Trent’s lifted out to double, with no cap on how fast he can be pulled up, potentially almost instantly like a tether recovery. . .Without having to actually land the tether recovery! Trent can DI slightly left and right as he’s being pulled up, and can attack.

If multiple roots are pulling Trent up, he will be specifically pulling himself to the nearest one. If there are somehow multiple roots on either side of him, roots that are not on the same side of him as the nearest root will not help.

If you don’t have anything rooted, this functions as a generic tether recovery in the air. The lashing root deals 15% and knockback that KOs at 130% as it lashes out, and travels upwards 1.75x as far as Ivysaur’s recovery. If you actually “land” the tether, the root will root onto the side of the stage (Not the ledge, but right next to it) as Trent gets pulled up normally.

Once you start getting pulled up, no matter how you go about it, you can press Up Special again to fire another root at the far side of the stage and root it to start pulling yourself up faster, should you be getting impatient.

Nothing prohibits you from shorthopping and using this move on the stage as a means of transportation. In fact, it’s encouraged, as it lets you attack while moving. Just moving your position for the sake of it isn’t especially important when your roots are what matter, but this can potentially let you drag foes with your solid main body, blocking them off from escaping root/minion attacks. You can even launch yourself if you have enough roots, go to pull yourself towards them, then uproot them all, but this is very impractical, and is more useful for going through the terrible stages Junahu would like you to play through.

SIDE SPECIAL – WOODCUTTER




Trent bellows “Come, my woodcutting slaves!” to summon a woodcutter. This is a fairly laggy process as Trent says it dramatically, but Trent can use most of his moveset during it, so there’s little reason to worry. In general, there’s minimal reason to not be constantly using this move, but the amount of woodcutters that can be out at once, should you somehow reach it, caps at 10. Because of how much you will spam this move, there are a lot of actual varying phrases he will say as he uses this move.

Woodcutters are burly men with comparable size and movement to Ganondorf. They have three attacks. A horizontal axe swing is their quickest attack, that deals 10% and knockback that KOs at 150%. Their second attack is a vertical axe swing where they bring the axe to the ground before swinging it up in a half circle in front of themselves, dealing 14% and knockback that KOs at 120%. Their strongest attack is one where they lift their axes over their heads before swinging it down with Dedede fsmash lag, dealing 20% and knockback that KOs at 85%. Woodcutters will only use their strongest attack if the foe is in prone, pitfalled, or stunned in some way.

Woodcutters have a fantastic 60 HP, have their own invisible damage percentages, and weigh as much as Ganondorf. This is pretty severe stuff, but they will mindlessly pursue the nearest foe and are easily baited off-stage, regardless of the fact that they have two jumps. You will want to block off the stupid woodcutters with your solid body – moving around by pulling yourself with roots doesn’t sound so stupid now, does it?

Woodcutters can damage Trent, what with him being a tree and them being lumberjacks, and Trent can damage the woodcutters back. Aside from their prohibition from using their third attack, Woodcutters have one particular thing in their AI, though – they are horribly, horribly afraid of Trent, and will go out of their way to avoid attacking Trent at all, even his roots. This means if you have a root along the ground next to an attacking woodcutter, they will only use their horizontal slash attack to avoid hitting your root, and if a foe is up against your main body the woodcutter will back up before attacking you. This sadly means that if your root is in the way and a foe is stunned, woodcutters will stupidly use the horizontal slash over their big overhead swing – you can’t even hold the foe grabbed for them, as that would involve them hitting your root.

If the foe is entirely surrounded by your hurtbox, woodcutters have one final attack they can use that you are immune to, just for the sole purpose of not harming your precious tree bark. In such a situation, woodcutters will simply spam melee Ganondorf’s jab on the foe, a very fast attack with pathetic power. As some compensation, this will not release foes who are grabbed, enabling them to pummel on foes.

All attacks woodcutters land, outside of their situational jab, will cause foes hit to generate blood in a cartoony fashion without any actual gore, much like when you’re damaged in Illbleed. The horizontal swing generates a Kirby width of blood, the vertical swing a Wario width, and the overhead swing a Bowser width.

As if foes could not have enough fun luring woodcutters off-stage, woodcutters are vulnerable to each other’s axe attacks (Not the blood generated from them). This isn’t as terrible as it sounds, considering how durable they are, and it actually is a good thing as they too will generate blood when they stupidly hit each other. Woodcutters have an AI cue to avoid fellow woodcutters preparing an overhead swing, in the least, and will patiently wait to the side of that foe to chase them after they’re hit.

As for what blood does, it doesn’t seem to do much of anything immediately. Foes/woodcutters who turn around while dashing will trip. While dashing doesn’t directly trip foes, if they stop dashing on blood they will slide forwards a bit based off their speed – Ganon a Kirby width and Sonic a good platform. They can attack during this sliding, but if they come into contact with a solid object (Trent) during this, then they will trip.

The primary function of the blood is if a root is rooted within 2 platforms of blood on the ground, in which case Trent will absorb all blood on the ground as nutrients into his body. Rooted roots automatically suck up a Kirby width of blood per second, and every Kirby width heals Trent’s damage percentage of 10% and that particular root of 25%. This healed damage also goes towards the stamina that must be depleted to uproot the root, though it cannot go over 50. Roots start visibly withering as they get more damaged, so if one’s close to dying you can specifically choose to have that root go absorb some blood.

DOWN SPECIAL – WOODPUPPET




Trent takes out a Ganon tall Bowser sized coffin with his current root. You gain root control as you hold the coffin in your root, it wide open. You can place it by pressing B, or press A to slam the coffin shut. If you switch to another root without letting go of the coffin, Trent will automatically close the coffin if a foe comes in range. Pressing Down Special with no woodcutters out with a wooden coffin already out will cause Trent’s current root to go grab the coffin, wherever it is. Slamming the coffin shut on a foe causes electricity from the sky to randomly hit the coffin, dealing 25% to them as a scream is heard. This turns them into a woodpuppet as they walk out of the coffin as it automatically opens – due to the varying sizes and shapes of the many chars in Brawl, let alone MYM Brawl, this is simply a wooden texture over their body. If you grab a woodcutter for whatever reason, they will just die horribly and fail to become woodpuppets, generating a Bowser’s worth of blood on the ground around the coffin as they die before their dead body drops out.

Being turned into a woodpuppet gives the foe a unique walking animation with their arms outstretched, moving as fast as a 2/10 dash. The character cannot dash, losing access to their dashing attack, though that doesn’t terribly matter unless you’re playing Koala Kong or something. The movement nerf is rather annoying when trying to get away from 8 roots and 10 woodcutters. . .Foes also gain an additional 5/10 tacked onto their falling speed.

The main purpose of turning a foe into a woodpuppet is that once a woodpuppet is on the field, woodcutters will ignore all non woodpuppet foes. They will ruthlessly pursue the poor woodpuppets, and woodcutters deal double damage to woodpuppets. Woodcutters won’t care about damaging Trent if it means they get a chance to take a swing at a woodpuppet, meaning you can hold down woodpuppets with your grab for the woodcutters. Running away from so many minions is difficult when you’re so slow as a woodpuppet, and just luring woodcutters off-stage is more difficult than usual due to your increased falling speed. After taking 50% or more from woodcutters, woodpuppets will be freed from their status effect. Woodpuppets take triple damage from fire, but any fire attack will instantly burn off their woodpuppet coating. If the woodpuppet uses a fire attack, they will take triple the damage of their own attack as it burns it off. The foe’s allies can use fire/axe swinging attacks if they have them to free their ally, but this will obviously still damage them.

Inputting Down Special with a wood coffin already placed and woodcutters already out will cause the woodcutter nearest to the coffin to shut/open the coffin. If a foe a woodcutter is pursuing is in front of the coffin ready to be turned into a woodpuppet, that woodcutter will go to close the coffin automatically. This is very exploitable by the foe, and can lead to an easy way to kill other woodcutters, though you at least get some blood out of it.

Yes, you can hold the coffin off-stage, and it serves as a great counter-measure to foes constantly luring woodcutters off-stage. After they’re in the coffin, you can of course drop it down and watch them fall to their doom as they get transformed and then have increased falling speed. Unfortunately, Trent closes the coffin slower than his minions, so it’s very predictable if you’re attempting it.

GRAB-GAME


GRAB – ENTANGLING ROOTS


You gain root control for this move for as long as you hold Z, then the end of the root will attempt to wrap around where it is, grabbing whatever is there. If you fail, the root retracts as in other moves of this type. In any case, this is Trent’s “disabler” attack, but you can also grab items, woodcutters, and wood coffins. To make Trent release something he has grabbed, the portion of the root that has the object grabbed must be dealt 20%. Foes can escape Trent’s grab on their own at 2.35x escape difficulty.

Trent can still freely move around his root with “root control” when he has something grabbed. Not only can he use his pummel and throw by inputting Z and the appropriate direction, he can use his entire moveset! None of his non pummel/throw attacks damage grabbed foes unless stated otherwise. Going to root via Up Special while you have something grabbed will pitfall the object and deal 12% to it, and not cause the root to root. If you bury a wood coffin, Trent will bury it so that the entrance to the coffin is facing upwards, making the hitbox on the move when it closes wider but bound to the ground.

Grabbing a wood coffin functions like when you initially take it out with down special, and items work completely normally, but are activated by pressing pummel instead of jab. As for grabbing woodcutters, being grabbed by Trent doesn’t put them in a grabbed state, but prohibits them from moving. This lets you keep woodcutters stationary, or better yet control their movement with your own superior intelligence. Woodcutters move ever so slightly slower than Ganon’s dash, meaning it’s also possible to save them from a stupid death from being baited off-stage.

PUMMEL – ABSORPTION


Trent’s root pulsates as he absorbs blood from the foe. This deals 5% to them, heals Trent’s damage percentage of 5%, and heals the root that has the foe grabbed by 10%. This pummel takes a second to complete. If you swap to another root while you have a foe grabbed, Trent will automatically pummel the victim until they escape the grab.

FORWARD THROW – SLIDE


Trent throws the foe diagonally downwards against the ground, dealing 14% before they slide along the ground on their stomachs in prone for knockback that KOs at 150%. As foes slide, they are hitboxes to outside foes that deal 10% and knockback that KOs at 165%. Yes, they can damage woodcutters, but if any woodcutter is about to be hit by this attack and is facing the foe coming at them, an AI cue will trigger to make them use their vertical swing attack. The vertical swing starts from the ground, so the hitbox is right where the prone foe is and will hit them immediately.

Used on a woodcutter, Trent will not knock them into prone, just sliding them along the ground with weaker knockback that KOs at 200% and dealing no damage to them. Woodcutters will prepare their overhead swing attack as they slide along.

Used on a wood coffin, Trent will open the coffin if it isn’t already. It travels just as far as a foe, dealing 16% and knockback that KOs at 120% on contact. Halfway through the coffin’s slide, it will fall forwards as the lid slams shut, trapping anybody who might be inside. As an added bonus to turning any foe you hit with this into a woodpuppet, they will have to crawl out from under the coffin and will be in prone afterwards. You can even potentially position this so you slide the coffin off the stage, the foe falling a ways before they ever get out of the coffin and having additional falling speed as a wood puppet once they get out for what’s probably an assured kill. It’s not as good as it sounds due to the precise spacing required, but you can grab and hold a foe in position for when the coffin collapses over.

BACK THROW – HANG




Trent curls his root around the foe’s neck and thrusts his root backwards, but doesn’t actually let go of the foe. This does a minimal 4% to foes and knockback that KOs at 170%. . .Due to Trent not actually letting go of the foe before they take their knockback, though, the move has a max knockback cap of Final Destination’s width. Foes will automatically escape the root if they’re thrown against the ground, though they will at least exit from this in prone.

If the knockback/root “leash” on the foe manages to knock them off-stage, then the root will follow physics as the foe dangles downwards. When they reach the maximum distance the root can hold them, a more brutal version of the sound effect from Snake’s pummel plays as the foe takes a massive 20%. From there, the foe will hang, having to escape at triple grab difficulty and taking 3% per half second. Another foe can show up to free them at this point just like from the normal grab by attacking the portion of the root they’re hung by, serving as a potential way to bait foes off-stage. Foes can in-fact save their allies at any point during this move, increasing incentive if you’re in a position to outright –kill- with this or something.

Needless to say, if Trent’s actual body is up against an edge and you use this throw, you can get even more appealing results, dipping foes off the bottom blast zones as you hang them. Trent normally likes to stay in the middle of the stage, though, mainly for the simple reason that if he’s not in the middle he can’t abuse his solid nature to separate foes.

Using this on a coffin will have the coffin close either on contact with the ground if the coffin simply hits the ground, but if thrown off-stage the coffin door will constantly be open, automatically closing shut on contact with a foe. Once the coffin is actually at the max length and literally hanging in place, then it won’t be a constant hitbox and will have to be closed manually by Trent, dangling in place forever until Trent does something with that root.

UP THROW – DEVOUR




If you haven’t brought the foe within a Bowser of Trent’s mouth, this throw is a generic quick toss upwards that deals 10% and vertical knockback that KOs at 155%. If you have, though, Trent chomps down on the foe and chews them for a while, dealing 18% to the foe. After a bit of chewing, Trent decides the foe is not worthy of fusing with him and spits them upwards, puking up a good chunk of blood and acid as he spits up these bodily fluids 2.15 Ganondorfs. The foe takes knockback a minimum of 2.5 Ganondorfs into the air, and the knockback KOs at 175%. The blood is roughly a Wario’s worth and falls back down harmlessly, but should the foe decide to DI back down to try to attack Trent from above, they’ll have to deal with the acid he vomited up at them. The acid deals 16% and stun on par with Zamus’ dsmash, so foes are left with little choice but to DI to the left or right rather than landing on top of Trent.

If the acid hits a woodpuppet, it will set them on fire. This will deal 10 hits of 1% per second to the foe until 50% is dealt to them, at which point the woodpuppet armor finally burns off. Yes, “burning” status effects aside from Trent’s will not instantly cure foes from woodpuppet status, but will instead deal triple damage and cure them once the effect expires. What’s more, the increased falling speed of woodpuppets means that unless the foe is at exceedingly high percents and/or has a very low base falling speed, the acid vomited up will combo into the throw.

DOWN THROW – SMASH


Trent lifts up the foe higher and higher before smashing them downwards. Used off-stage, this is a spike on par with Ganon’s dair and deals 16%. If the foe hits the stage, they are spiked through and take 27%, getting spiked slightly weaker than Rob’s dair once they spawn below the stage. As you’d expect, this throw is incredibly laggy, giving outside foes plenty of chance to free their ally before you send them down there.

Using this on a coffin will cause it to slam shut on contact with the ground, and just drag foes downwards with it if you dthrow it in the air. It’s rather impractical given how laggy it is, but can be something you can casually throw down from high up to inhibit somebody recovering.

STANDARDS


NEUTRAL ATTACK – JUMPROOT


Trent gains root control, then at the selected position extends his root into the background before turning and heading straight for the foreground. No, this is not a Z plane hitting attack, but it instead creates what is essentially a root trip wire. If a character attacks this from the side (Meaning this sadly cannot gimp any non-horizontal recoveries) with a jointed attack, Trent will take the damage, but the foe will take the knockback of their own attack. Attempting to dash past this will cause foes to trip. Woodcutters are intelligent enough to slowly step over these.

Yes, you can just place this right in front of Trent, but Trent’s so large foes can find other portions of his hurtbox to hit without hitting the root. Sure, you could place more to essentially cover one whole side, but that’s a significant root investment and foes can just jump over you anyway. You can cover both sides. . .And be left with next to no roots at all for actually attacking anything, and still be vulnerable to grabs.

If a character is launched with knockback into one of these roots, they will be catapulted in the opposite direction with 1.5x the knockback. If it’s a character, they can slightly choose their trajectory, so it’s nearly impossible to set up infinites with this without significant root investment, and that only occupies one of three foes. This property is arguably more useful on your woodcutters and coffins. Used on a coffin thrown from fthrow, you can make it significantly less predictable where it’s going to fall down and make things more frantic. On a woodcutter, you can save them as they get knocked off the edge of the stage. If the foe is just baiting them off, then you can use the second part of the jab to help them out.

Hitting jab with a trip root already out will cause Trent to flail around the “trip wire” portion in a manner like a jump rope a single time, dealing a simple 5% and weak knockback in the direction you did it. This may not seem useful, but if you hold the jab, Trent will continue to perform the jab automatically even if you swap to another root. One of these off-stage is probably your best counter-measure to woodcutter suicide baiting, though it won’t save them from being knocked off like the trip wire version.

DASHING ATTACK – ROOT WALK


Trent brings a whopping six of his roots underneath his body and uses them as supports to hoist up his gigantic body. Trent then proceeds to use these roots to dash forwards, going significantly faster than his pitiful dashing speed. Trent actually reaches the respectable speed of Mario’s dash during this attack. Trent will keep walking forwards until the move is canceled by crouching or reaching the end of a platform/in front of a walk off, though you can cancel this by crouching. While walking, Trent can use his remaining two roots normally as well as any attacks involving his body. He can even jump, and the attack won’t be interrupted.

As long as this attack is going, the roots underneath Trent are a hitbox that deal 13 hits of 1% and very light set knockback in the opposite direction Trent is traveling. If you walk through an average size character, they should take 8% or so. The ability to walk “through” people is the main notable thing about this attack other than the movement speed, as the roots below Trent are not solid unlike his main body. Anybody shorter than Ganon can fit under Trent, meaning you can swap the side of you a foe is on without having to worry about woodcutter micromanagement, since they can’t pass under you when you use this move.

When Trent “cancels” out of this attack by crouching, there’s a delay before Trent crashes down, becoming a hitbox that deals 15% and knockback that KOs at 115%. The threat of this in tandem with the main move lets you abuse Trent’s solid status on demand, turning it on and off as you like to separate/group up enemies as you see fit.

FORWARD TILT – ACID




Trent vomits forth some acid, previously seen in the uthrow. It’s a simple projectile that travels 1.25 platforms before hitting the ground and vanishing, dealing 16% and stun on par with Zamus’ dsmash to those who it hits. This is a way to stun foes without getting personally involved and endangering yourself, so woodcutters can use the overhead swing on them. While that’s theoretically nice, there are probably just as many if not more woodcutters than foes, so they’ll get in the way of this. You really have to take advantage of your height to snipe the acid over the woodcutters’ heads, hitting foes with it at the end of the trajectory. While it’s predictable, they’ll also be dealing with a minion simultaneously, much less your roots.

This does indeed function the same on woodpuppets as in the uthrow, setting them on fire and dealing 10 hits of 1% for 5 seconds until burning off their woodpuppet status.

If a burning woodpuppet comes into contact with another woodpuppet, that woodpuppet will also catch on fire. Obviously this also works in the uthrow. This is great if you have multiple woodpuppets not just for spreading more damage around, but for giving foes reason to split up from each other so you can pick them off more easily.

UP TILT – BUCK


Trent bends his upper section down in front of him slightly before bucking it upwards. This is somewhat laggy and does diagonally upwards knockback behind Trent for 11% and knockback that KOs at 135%. Obviously, it has the very functional purpose of knocking off people who think camping/damage racking on top of you is a good idea, kind of a necessary feature. Aside from that, this is needed to help woodcutters get over you to pursue foes who have fled from them to your other side, as otherwise you’re left with painstakingly moving them with your grab, whereas this can move a bulk of woodcutters all at once.

DOWN TILT – BURROW


Trent gains root control as usual before slapping his root forwards in a very weak but very spammable move. This deals 6% and knockback that KOs at 175%. If the foe was on the ground, this will cause them to trip.

Trent has an easier time destroying shields than the likes of Gooper Blooper. Not just because of his 8 roots with which to grab people, but because he can shield poke foes from 8 directions, and has minions to help him to boot. This attack is good for being a clean horizontal swipe that can easily go along the ground and hit the underside of a foe’s shield, and trips them to boot. With how many hitboxes Trent is sending flailing out all over the place, this is relevant because a shield is a lot more helpful to the foe than a dodge when they can very easily be hit as they come out of said dodge.

If you tell a root that is rooted via Up Special to dtilt, it won’t uproot and do the slap, but will instead poke out through the bottom of the stage, giving you root control before it casually stabs downwards for a hilariously quick but weak “spike” half as strong as Rob’s dair, dealing 5%. The root stays where it is after this, enabling you to easily hit enemies under the stage from dthrow. The downside is due to the tip of the root not being inside the stage, this root no longer counts as a rooted one.

I don’t think I need to tell you that any poor sap you find under the stage is prime fodder to get grabbed and hanged via bthrow.

SMASHES


FORWARD SMASH – FORTY LASHES


Charging determines how many roots Trent will use for this attack, anywhere from 1 to all 8, though Trent will ignore roots that are occupied. Once the charging is done, you gain root control of all roots you’ve gained with the charging before slamming them all down once you’re ready. Trent slams them down one after the other rather than all at once, potentially giving you a hitbox as long as Final Destination and 8x as tall as Wario is wide. The roots deal 35% and knockback that KOs at 65% for some hilariously strong power as they laggily slam down, though if foes can’t outrun it and you have enough roots, the lag isn’t exactly a huge issue.

The advantages to this attack are obvious and can’t be overstated, so I’ll be talking about the disadvantages. . .If foes do dodge the attack, even just one, your roots will all be grouped together as they slowly reel back. Not only does this mean you won’t be able to use a lot of roots as they come back, potentially none, but foes will be able to attack all of them at once, dealing good damage to you but more importantly massively taking down the stamina of the roots which you can’t get back. It’s not as much of an issue if you slam all the roots just a short distance in front of yourself so they’re not reeling back for long, but then you don’t have the glorious infinite range hitbox. Needless to say, such a long range powerful attack will also severely shorten the lifespan of your woodcutters.

If you slam down a root with a foe grabbed in it, this will deal 12% to them. If you spam the fsmash on this specific root, this will deal damage to them faster than your pummel, but will not give you the healing. If the foe has a low percentage, it’s also unlikely you’ll get the fsmash off twice before they escape the grab. Used on a root with a coffin in it, Trent will open the coffin up as he slams down the tentacle before closing it as he retracts it.

DOWN SMASH – BUZZSAWS




Trent takes out a Wario sized buzzsaw with his currently selected root as you gain root control, spinning it around with the tip of his root as you charge the smash. Trent is intelligent enough to have the very tip of his tentacle be what holds the buzzsaw, the tip of it inside the middle of the buzzsaw to avoid harming it rather than him holding the rough edges. Upon release, Trent throws the buzzsaw at whatever direction you want, traveling at Mario’s dashing speed in whatever direction you sent it, though with a heavy falling speed of 7/10. On contact, the buzzsaw deals 26-42% and knockback that KOs at 100-70%, the knockback being dealt directly away from the portion of the buzzsaw you hit. As if the buzzsaw wasn’t ridiculously powerful enough, it has doubled power against woodpuppets – to emphasize, that’s 52-84% and knockback that KOs at 50-35%. Obviously, any hit from this will “cure” a woodpuppet, but it will OHKO all but the heaviest of characters. Because this attack needs more bonuses, hitting with it generates a Bowser worth of blood.

The buzzsaw will keep going on contact with the ground, the lower half of it inside the stage as it goes along. The buzzsaw will loop around stages like a hothead, though can do so on any stage flawlessly outside of stuff like Yoshi’s Island/walk-offs. The buzzsaw will expire after traveling 1.5x Final Destination’s width. This proves a very effective tool for murdering foes under the stage from dthrow.

Needless to say, such a fantastic tool has severe downsides. That is, Trent is completely vulnerable to the buzzsaw, nevermind his woodcutters. No, “vulnerable” to the buzzsaw is an understatement – you see, if the buzzsaw comes into contact with one of Trent’s roots, it will cut it clean off, disconnecting it from Trent! Sure, you can just move back all your roots before using root control on this move to fire the dsmash out far enough you won’t get hit, but it’s very possible that the buzzsaw could loop back around the stage and kill you that way.

As far as how to deal with this crippling disadvantage, if the buzzsaw specifically comes into contact with the –tip- of a root, then Trent will automatically regrab it, holding it on the tip of his root like an item. Grabbing the buzzsaw also works. If you really want, you can throw it at one of your roots tips to immediately use it as an item. The buzzsaw is considered an item, and using the pummel will cause it to rev in place, dealing 25 hits of 1% and flinching per second (Just be careful none of your roots are nearby), generating a Kirby width of blood every 10 hits. If you use a throw to re-throw the buzzsaw rather than dsmash, the buzzsaw will be as powerful as an uncharged dsmash throughout the course of the throw.

To this point, I’ve made cutting off your roots seem like the worst thing imaginable, but in actuality, the roots do not die once they are separated from Trent. Throughout his level in Illbleed, Trent attacks you regardless of you being miles away from his location with his roots. As such, dismembered roots still act completely normally, shockingly, with you able to select them in the rootation as usual. The main limitations are that their length is set at where they were cut off from Trent with the buzzsaw, unable to extend. By the same token, moves that utilize root control will be unable to move the tip of the root more than this distance.

If an unattached root attempts to root itself into the ground, it will just burrow underground with only the tip sticking out, extending out as necessary with root control. This is important as unattached roots can take knockback, having their own percentages with weight comparable to Game & Watch. They have to be uprooted if they burrow underground. These roots make excellent fodder as under the stage gimpers via dtilt since they can’t actually help your stability via traditional rooting/blood absorption, sending out buzzsaws along the bottom with dsmash to foes spiked under the stage.

UP SMASH – SANDSTORM




While you position your root via root control, the root spins around several times into the air to form a spiral shape pointing straight upwards. The root spiral is roughly Ganondorf’s width and twice his height. Once it starts spinning, it spins around for an exceedingly long time, 3 seconds, dealing 10-20 hits of 1% and flinching per second, with the final hit dealing vertical knockback that KOs at 170-140%. It’s perfectly possible to DI out from this, but you have more than enough ways to knock them back in. Besides, if foes DI out from the side they take knockback that KOs at 200% anyway in the direction they DI’d out, potentially enabling you to rebound them back in with a trip root from the jab.

That’s all the move does if you use root control to activate the move in the air, but if you use it on the ground it will form a tornado 2.5x Ganon’s height and Bowser’s width, kicking up a lot of sand inside of it. Being inside the tornado deals 20 hits of 1% and flinching unavoidly before you’re launched up with insanely high base knockback, a minimum of 5 Ganondorfs, but low knockback growth that KOs at 200%. The tornado lasts 6.5-13 seconds.

Trent has a tendency in this moveset to be vulnerable to anything that is not immediately generated by him, and this tornado is no exception. The minimum knockback is set, pushing Trent those 5 Ganondorfs into the air regardless of his weight – this is your only way to really get into the air. His roots aren’t affected by it, meaning he can treat this as a sort of wall and snipe at foes who attempt to approach over it, so no worries there.

Seeing this tornado can lift up Trent himself, it’s only natural it can lift up anything else. Buzzsaws, coffins, woodcutters, acid from ftilt, blood (Though that’s just aesthetic) it’s all fair game. It takes a second for anything inside the tornado to be shot up out of it, and if you’re spinning inside at the same time as a buzzsaw or acid, you’ll get hit, and a coffin will close in on you. Buzzsaws/coffins will get shot straight upwards out of a tornado before landing back in them again, turning them into even bigger deathtraps. A tornado with a buzzsaw/coffin in it is probably the thing you can most reliably treat as a “wall” in Trent’s moveset, enabling you to corner foes against it with an army of woodcutters, or use it to separate foes on either side of it. In the case of ftilt acid/blood, half of the acid will go to the left and half to the right as it gets splattered out of the tornado, going at Mario-Meta Knight’s dashing speed with a 5-8/10 falling speed, being just as powerful as ever.

Yes, this means you can essentially treat a construct 2.5X Ganon’s height and Bowser’s width as hitting a foe with a buzzsaw or a coffin. As usual, though, when something is insanely overpowered in Trent’s moveset, it has a big catch. Especially in the case of the coffin, foes can just knock the woodcutters into the tornado to take the punishment instead of them. This serves as an effective blood generator, though, due to the varied angles all of the blood the woodcutters will be making will be shot out at, enabling your various rooted roots across the stage to all get a slice of the pie.

If you’re using a root under the stage via Up Special and dtilt with the root against the bottom of the stage, it will create an upside down tornado. Needless to say, the knockback is far more useful here, and this particular root can launch buzzsaws into this tornado as even further overkill to finish those immortal Dragonball characters.

AERIALS


DOWN AERIAL – TIMBER!


Trent falls over forwards and falls at twice his already ridiculously high falling speed – essentially, you can consider it an instant teleport to the ground, with anything in-between getting hit. Even if they have invulnerability frames for the whole hitbox’s duration, they’ll be dragged with Trent due to his solid status – due to how insanely fast Trent falls, it’s actually quite possible, surprisingly. Contact with Trent’s underside at any point during this move does 50% and a spike 4x as strong as Ganon’s dair. If a foe dodged the main attack but was under Trent at the end of the move, they will still take 16% and become pitfalled. Hitting a foe on the stage with the meat of this move still does 50%, but pitfalls them – pitfalls them upside down under the stage, where a under the stage root will probably be waiting to murder them horribly if they can survive that. This also creates an earthshaking hitbox on the entire stage for a full second, including under it, that deals 20% and knockback that KOs at 140%.

No, you cannot activate this move whenever you are casually poked into the air or using your natural jumps, as it has plenty of starting lag and 2 seconds worth of landing lag. Being boosted by the sandstorm is essentially mandatory to use this move, outside of a suicide KO off-stage. As such, foes will see this coming a mile away when you boost yourself up via sandstorm.

Of course, this move has abominable ending lag, worse than you’ve ever seen or will ever see again. Trent takes 5 seconds to get up from this move, and considering he’s horizontal on the ground as he gets up is incredibly easy to beat upon. Attacking him during this ending lag will not interrupt it, though hitstun will obviously not stack with this ending lag. Needless to say, Trent can still use root attacks during this lag.

The meat of the move comes into play if you’re rooted via Up Special and using this move off-stage – you will only go down 4 Ganondorfs with this move before being snapped back up to where you were previously, and you’ll still get a hitbox just as powerful as ever. Yes, this can technically work whenever you’re rooted to something above you, but on most stages this almost always translates to off-stage. God help the poor soul who fights you on New Pork City or Temple. This is already incredible, but in such a situation this move shockingly becomes spammable as Trent goes up and down, his underside constantly a hitbox as he goes down.

If you have all the remaining foes off-stage, feel free to jump off-stage and just spam this move away. If you do this, any off-stage woodcutters will realize to come stand on your back as you do this, and will exclusively use the horizontal swing to avoid damaging you. While you can’t use your standards or smashes from this position, the grab-game is up for grabs, which is really all you need from here, enabling you to throw foes under yourself to get spiked as you hump the ledge in the most literal fashion imaginable. If the foes get knocked under the stage, your root there positioned from Up Special/dtilt combo should prove plenty helpful.

Obviously, if so much as one foe is left on the stage in this scenario, they can just uproot the single connected root and send you falling to your death in an embarrassing fashion, along with your entire clan of woodcutters. You won’t just be using this move in this situation only, though – foes love to take advantage of your solid status while you’re pulling yourself up to sit on top of you and damage you as you make your way back up. While you might think that’s stupid of them, if you have enough roots/blood to supply them on the stage, this can be a more feasible method of killing you than uprooting you. If a foe decides to do this, you can just start spamming dair and try to grab them to throw them under you, in whichever order.

NEUTRAL AERIAL – WHIRLING WOOD


Trent starts wrapping two roots around himself. He continues wrapping them around and around until his roots cannot reach any farther and they are desperately trying to unwind, then lets go. The roots extend further and further out from Trent as they spin out and unravel around his body, eventually reaching their maximum distance with one consistently on either side of him. The roots are not hitboxes at all as they wrap around him, but become hitboxes that deal 10% and knockback that KOs at 165% in a general direction away from Trent as they unravel. This is Trent’s single laggiest attack, taking 4 seconds to start up with another 6 seconds worth of duration, though the range trade-off can be seen as worth it. Needless to say, this aerial continues if Trent lands on the ground during it.

If you are up against Trent’s body when the roots are wrapping around him, you will get grabbed by the root as you get stuck against Trent’s body as the root continues wrapping around. People cannot escape the grab at all and cannot even be saved from this grab by their teammates, but considering how incredibly close you have to be Trent to get grabbed by this you have to be fairly incompetent to get grabbed. You will be released from the grab only when the portion of the root that grabbed you unravels, at which point you will automatically get hit by the root. Of course, other people can just outright destroy the root to cancel out one half of this move.

The root wrapping around you is actually the more useful portion of this move, as it’s very good at encouraging foes to leave your direct body alone. After the wrapping part of the move is over, though, foes will tend to flock to your main body to avoid the long range hitbox and hit you from below. Hopefully, you can predict this and zone them with some properly placed trip wire roots.

If you’re hanging horizontally from a vine off-stage via dair, you can grab foes attempting to stand on your back to kill you with this, though you may also accidentally grab woodcutters.

FORWARD AERIAL – SUCTION


Trent opens his mouth wide and inhales, causing the entirety of the screen he’s facing to have a pushing effect towards his body as strong as Whispy Woods’ push effect on Green Greens. Trent will automatically keep doing this until he takes stun or another attack is issued to his main body with no limitations whatsoever. The game does not care if you land, the move will keep going. . .And going. . .And going. . .

This is more useful on woodcutters than foes, making it more difficult for them to get off-stage and even helping you save them in some cases. This move can also pull tornados towards you, at the exceedingly slow pace of a fourth of Kirby’s width per second. While very slow, bringing it closer can serve as a nice way to close in a foe between your solid body and the tornado. Pushing a foe into it manually is generally less preferable, as your solid status should be more of a psychological factor of blocking the foe off than a literal one in such a scenario so you don’t have to tank so much.

BACK AERIAL – TREE SAP


Trent oozes tree sap out of his back in another aerial that doesn’t cancel on ground contact. This sap slowly goes down Trent’s back as he regains the ability to use other attacks over 2.5 seconds, with Trent not fully recovering the ability to send out a full amount of ooze until 7 seconds have passed. This ooze causes anybody who attacks Trent’s body to get stuck to it with regular grab escape difficulty. If they’re stuck longer than it takes for the ooze to wear off of Trent, the ooze will move down onto the ground, sticking the foe to that instead. If Trent moves while he uses this attack, he will create a trail of ooze as he moves. The ooze doesn’t last long, just 2.5 more seconds after it goes off Trent’s body, but if you move yourself quickly by pulling yourself about with roots you can cover a good portion of stage in ooze. While regular grab escape difficulty is pretty terrible against so many foes, it more often than not can lead to a real grab.

If you leak this off-stage, this won’t put foes into a grab state if they get hit by it in the air. Instead, it will just double their fall speed for 2.5 seconds or stick them to any ground they come in contact with, at which point they will enter grab escape. If they come into contact with the ledge first, they will become stuck to it, preventing other allies from using the ledge, while Trent can still use it normally due to his unconventional tether. This falling speed increase stacks with the one from turning foes into woodpuppets.

If Trent uses this while suspended from an Up Special Root off-stage while facing downwards due to dair, then the sap will obviously never run off of Trent unless you go back to being vertical all of a sudden, taking 5 seconds for the sap to go away, providing you with a fantastic defense to foes who think they can just ride on your back.

UP AERIAL – BRANCH SNARE


Trent snares the foe in the branches above his face at the top of his body. The branches “home” on any foe standing on top of or very slightly above Trent, and deal 8% and diagonally vertical knockback that KOs at 170%. It’s quite a fast GTFO/anti-air move, and makes approaching over top of Trent a royal pain. The move will not “home” on woodcutters, making this a good way to gang up on them with them. While you might question how often this’d happen, when you’re just recovering from off-stage in a more normal manner and foes come onto your head to attack, woodcutters will often follow and can help defend you from being gimped. If the foe for just baits the woodcutters off, then they’ll be letting you recover and you’ll be blocking their way back with your solid body.

RELEVANT FINAL SMASH


Note: If items are off, Trent’s Final Smash will automatically activate if he can survive for 2 minutes on each stock. It will not activate more than once per stock.



This Final Smash causes two crash test dummy surgeons to rush in with a woodpuppet on a stretcher. They’ll hammer away at the woodpuppet on the stretcher for 3 seconds before removing the woodpuppet’s brain, at which point the woodpuppet will get up and attack. The crash test dummy surgeons will then take out another woodpuppet and put him on the table, repeating the process again over 3 seconds, potentially infinitely. The crash test dummy surgeons area is a little over a platform wide, and if you deplete the 75 stamina it has the final smash will “end”, but any woodpuppets already out will keep attacking.

The true woodpuppets are marth sized, and walk around with a 2/10 dashing speed, 8/10 falling speed, two jumps and have two attacks. One is a fast weak kick, dealing 7% and knockback that KOs at 150%, and the other is an arm spinning move that deals 23 hits of 1% and flinching with a duration comparable to Wario’s dsmash. Woodpuppets have 40 HP, and have their own invisible damage percents as they take knockback, weighing on par with Marth. Woodpuppets cannot harm Trent and Trent can’t harm them outside of his acid (Ftilt/uthrow) and buzzsaws. Woodpuppets will not actively attack woodcutters, but woodcutters will happily go after them.

If an actual player turned into a woodpuppet from Trent’s coffin comes in front of the crash test dummy surgeons, the surgeons will attempt to grab that player before executing a pummel KO on them over 3 seconds as they hammer away at them and attempt to remove their brain. The grab escape difficulty is only 1.5x, but if you input grab in front of the surgeons when a foe is being operated on, it will stack on an extra .75x grab difficulty, stacking infinitely, potentially. That said, if any foes hit the surgeons even once, the process will be interrupted and the foe freed.

If the foe’s brain is removed successfully, they’ll become an ally of you, controlled by a level 9 AI. When they die, they will respawn normally without being a woodpuppet. Allied player character woodpuppets cannot harm you or other woodpuppets, and will not attempt to harm woodcutters. You cannot harm them outside ftilt/uthrow/dsmash, but your woodcutters can and will treat them as just as big a threat as any other woodpuppet foe – at this point you may want to let the woodcutters die off, unless you still have another woodpuppet foe with their brain still in-tact, as woodcutters will prioritize those over brainless woodpuppets. In any case, the set gives you more than enough opportunities to kill woodcutters in a beneficial way, and if you don’t feel like going for blood you can just let them get killed off. And yes, if a brainless woodpuppet is “cured” of woodpuppet status, they instantly die.

Yes, any and all woodpuppets, whether or not a player is inside, brainless or not, can be set on fire from ftilt/uthrow acid, and on contact with another woodpuppet the burning will spread. With enough of these woodpuppets, it can be nigh impossible to avoid catching ablaze for any foe who’s stuck as one.

PLAYSTYLE SUMMARY


Trent is undoubtedly one of the very hardest bosses to kill, even with him having no real means of flight and being so bound to the stage. Trent accomplishes this through rooting himself into the ground and by absorbing blood, which conveniently he can do simultaneously. Blood isn’t generated by itself entirely, but if you keep on summoning woodcutters it can certainly feel like it. So long as you have a coffin out, the woodcutters will die in a very natural life cycle that generates more and more blood for you to heal yourself with. The only part where you have to intervene in this life cycle is to prevent the woodcutters from suiciding in a blind rush off the stage and dying like flies, producing no blood. Jab trip roots and fair are the most passive preemptive methods you can take without heavy micromanagement of woodcutters. If you want to get more involved with preventing their suicide, don’t go after individual woodcutters with the grab, as it’s not worth the effort. Just abuse your solid nature to block off the woodcutters in large groups.

While a nice bonus, your actual damage percentage isn’t the primary concern. You mainly just need to make an effort to keep your roots healthy, as they can’t be replaced. While it can be hard to find uses for all 8 roots, you just need to make use of set and forget moves such as jab and having them hold an aerial coffin, and grabbing foes. Those options are nice, but the thing you’re going to want to do most is to root your roots in from the Up Special. This is the most useful, and is generally the easiest thing for somebody with a human, non supercomputer brain to accomplish with 8 roots, is to just send them into the stage in a uniform fashion. It’s not like no versatility exists from this position anyway, with dtilt enabling you to use these roots for a potential alternative offensive purpose. Even if no foes ever go under the stage, these roots make good candidates to launch dsmash buzzsaws simply so you can see them coming and not get your roots chopped off by them.

If you can survive until the Final Smash, the life cycle comes around full circle. You don’t have to so heavily rely on clumsy minions to hit human enemies, and can instead just have your woodcutters hit your AI woodpuppets to make boatloads of blood. As far as the role of minions to harass enemies to keep foes occupied, the AI woodpuppets take the previous job of the woodcutters, and are generally better at it with their high damage long lingering hitboxes. All –you- have to do is to block off the crash test dummy surgeons (You sadly can’t sit on top of them). This is probably the main time you actually want all of your foes on one side of you, as you want as many woodpuppets as possible to be generated. Foes can potentially knock you back past the surgeons instead of approaching over you, but with all your constant healing during this phase they’ll struggle to make you budge at all. It’s very easy to block off foes attempting to approach over you by just simply jumping and abusing your solid body, throwing in a uair if necessary. You just have to be cautious to avoid foes going under you during this time, but so long as you land before they get more than halfway past your mass, they’ll be “pushed” back in front of you as you crash back down.

When enemies –do- get over you to get to the surgeons, you can typically see it coming from a mile away with a giant recovery move like Dedede’s or something. In said scenarios, you can just try to grab and place the foe in a coffin, or if they’re already a woodpuppet, onto the operating table. The advantages of woodpuppet foes are never more apparent than in this phase, but their increased falling speed also makes it much easier to use your body as a wall as they struggle even more to approach over you, enabling you to push woodpuppet foes into the table with surprisingly heated pressure. If you get multiple woodpuppet foes and have plenty of healing, don’t hesitate to burn them all alive with ftilt/uthrow. You only really need to set one on fire for it to spread to everyone in a matter of time. If you still have the surgeons, eventually all the woodpuppets on fire will burn to nothing and you can start over without them catching fire to each other.

The under the stage gimping game with dtilt roots is a nice bit of insurance for foes sent under with dthrow, but it really comes most into play when Trent is defending himself. Yes, even if Trent is knocked a ways off-stage, it’s not over if he has plenty of roots ingrained in the stage. If you have a clever combination of foes who are attacking you as you pull yourself up and your roots at the same time, though, it is possible for you to finally fall. While you don’t have as much direct resistance against the foes attacking your roots, so long as you get the foe attempting to gimp your body off your back you should survive if you have ample roots invested in Up Special. This is where the dair comes into play, as you constantly try to knock foes under you or under the stage where a dtilt root should be waiting for them. Ironically, in this scenario where foes are working their very hardest to kill you and have an actual chance, this is also your best chance to actively work towards killing them with your own gimping, because killing you wasn’t difficult enough already.
 

Junahu

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
899
Location
Shropshire Slasher



CUTY
MARY


Illbleed
is a video game. That's about as sane as it gets, since everything else, from its concept to its gameplay is completely insane.
The title of the game refers to the "Virtual Horror Theme Park, Illbleed" a theme park where the visitor's lives are supposedly at stake. Completing an "attraction" without dieing, nets the visitor
a cash prize. If the visitor "dies", a hefty sum of money is required as ransom to resurrect them. If the park is not reimbursed this money, the corpse is processed, turning their physical matter into any one of the many killer monsters roaming Illbleed.
Each of Illbleed's attractions are
hoax recreations of various horror cliches, from revenge monster movies, to mutated creature features, to possessed doll horror. While the threat of death exists, it is there to enhance the feeling of horror of the attractions... or so says the founder of the park, Michael Reynolds.

Cuty Mary
is an in-universe television franchise for children, similar to and likely in competition with another in-universe series, "Fall-down Bear". The franchise has expanded into a toyline of Cuty Mary dolls (or perhaps vice versa, the game is kind of fuzzy about a lot of things)
The Cuty Mary this moveset is based off of, is one of these dolls, a possessed abhorration that projects both childlike sweetness, and murderous rage all at once. She loves nothing more than to play with her victims, forcing them through her little games, and lashing out at them should they win.

This character is not to be mistaken for Bloody Mary, the proprietor of Illbleed's Item Shop. Though, since the teller is basically a gigantic reskinned model of Cuty Mary, they may as well be the same entity.




Stats
Cuty Mary is a small children's toy, about equal in size to Sackboy. Garbed in a flowery pink dress, she is the epitomy of light-weight, being flung unceremoniously across the screen from even bland GTFO attacks. Needless to say, her presence in and of itself is not going to strike fear into anyone.
When crossing the stage on foot, her painfully small strides give her an incredibly slow movement speed, useful only for spacing purposes. To make proper advances on Mary's victims, you'll have to take her into the air. Her aerial movement is much much faster, fast enough to chase down even foes with relatively quick running speeds. She also has a relatively low fall speed, and a low short-hop, letting her approach from the air, without leaving the ground too far behind.
Like the rest of the Battle Royale cast, you've only the one mid-air jump to work with, and it's merely an "ok" one at that. Mary does, however, have a special "hover" to bolster her already useful fall speed. Essentially activated in the same way Cole hovers, Mary lowers her fall speed to almost zero (so she still descends, but much slower) for up to 5 seconds.

The range of her direct attacks is obviously extremely small, but they do pack a surprising punch for such a tiny thing. Letting Mary get into your face is a fast way to get into trouble.


Taunts
Taunt 1:
Mary turns to the audience, and holds her open palm aloft whilst a blue orb crystalises within it. She then throws her hand towards the ground and cheerfully exclaims "Look at me everyone!". This Taunt has no effect, and does nothing
Taunt 2:
Mary twirls in place, before vanishing into a puff of purple mist. After a delay of 0.8 seconds, she reappears in exactly the same place and goads the opponent with "Not todaaaay". This Taunt has no effect, and does nothing
Taunt 3:
Summoning a may pole to her hand (a striped rod about 1.4x as tall as herself), Mary attempts to clonk anyone in front of her over the head. This actually has a hitbox and it comes out at a decent range/speed, but not only does it barely enough hitstun to cover for the end lag of the taunt, but it doesn't even have any AP gain to speak of. All you're doing is making the foe flinch a bit. An infuriating taunt.


CircleInputs
Down Circle "Trap"
Illbleed is infamous for its gameplay involving invisible "scares", randomly placed jump scare cutscenes that each bring the player closer to death. Figuring out where one was is pivotal to avoiding it entirely.

Mary turns to the audience, and holds her open palm aloft whilst a blue orb crystalises within it. She then throws her hand towards the ground and cheerfully exclaims "Look at me everyone!". After that, everything resumes as normal, with nothing appearing to have changed. Of course, if nothing DID happen, then you probably used a Taunt by mistake. Bad player!
If an unsuspecting foe happens to step within 2 training room cubes distance of where Mary used her Down Special, they are suddenly visited by an illusion so horrifying that they are scared stiff. Since everyone is like, a unique butterfly, every character has a different thing that scares them when they trip Mary's trap. Sackboy might be scared by scissors, or Nathan might be scared by cold potato salad. Guys like Big Daddy who are fearless and angry, get scared by really cute stuff like a Chibi Splicer blowing kisses.
But that's not important, since the end result is always that the foe is scared motionless for 0.5 seconds, and that's it. Nothing else happens afterwards. It's a basic trap. If you're looking for some paranoia based secondary health mechanic where the foe dies of a heart attack if they trigger too many traps, then you're in the wrong moveset. Sorry bucko.

An important limitation Mary players absolutely must consider, is that only three of her invisible traps may exist at any given time. And no, making a new one after three are already on the scene does not replace the oldest trap. The move simply fails, and for your hubris, the oldest trap out dissapears anyway.
So now that we've established that there is a harsh limit on the traps, hopefully you can appreciate your first optional Taunt a little more, as an option to "fake" a new trap. Cautious players will avoid anywhere you place a trap, even if it's obvious that some of them don't actually exist.

Oh, and yes you can place these in midair, but since you can't taunt in midair, the foe will know these traps are the real deal.
Up Circle "Warp"
When she isn't hovering around like a creepy puppet, Mary likes to get around with the simple art of teleporting. After all, a murderous doll who can be anywhere at anytime is terrifying.

Mary twirls in place, before vanishing into a puff of purple mist. When the player next presses any button, or even just tilts the analogue stick, she'll reappear, directly over the Down Circle trap she was currently closest to. If you tilt the stick towards a different trap specifically, she'll reappear there instead. If you hold block down, she will warp to her new location, but delay her reappearance for up to 3 seconds. But when delaying your reappearance you're still vulnerable to enemy attack, merely invisible/immobile.

Do not make the mistake of trying to reappear where you pretended to place a trap, because that would fail for obvious reasons. Also be wary that when you reappear, the trap you appear at is destroyed. If you have no traps out, Mary can use this input to warp up to 5 training room cubes in any direction.

There is no end lag to using a warp, so it's quite fair to use these traps as anchor points for general mobility and escape. And it's equally fair for a foe to deliberately throw themselves into these traps in order to dispel them.

All things considered, there is merit to using your second Optional Taunt (which is essentially a fake version of this input) once in a while, particularly when the foe draws near to a place where you pretended to lay a trap
Side Circle "Love"
Supposedly a large part of the televised show Mary supposedly belongs to, Mary's staff is something of an enigma. In-game it's a key item that unlocks a vault, and thats it. We'll never know for sure what Mary's relationship is with her staff, nor what she actually does with it.

So let's make something up.

Summoning the pole to her hand (it's about 1.4x as tall as herself), Mary attempts to clonk anyone in front of her over the head. This actually has a hitbox (and gains 8 AP) and a decent range/speed. It's also a guaranteed knockdown, spiking airborne foes if need be.

During the swing itself, a glowing orb of sparkling dreams is emitted from the staff, and flies forward a distance of 4 Big Daddys. It's impossible to hit one foe with both the staff AND the projectile. And that's fine, because the projectile doesn't really have any AP gain, and it merely flinches the foe on contact. It doesn't dissapear when it hits something, and can indeed keep going and hit other players too, though the range is so short that you'll need everyone in one big group first.
Instead of hurting foes, the Staff grants the opponent's "wish". By that I mean it lightly buffs the opposing character's movement and AP gain for the next 10 seconds. It's roughly a 30% increase, but that's all the boost many characters need in order to go ballistic with combos that link into level 1s.

Okay, but how does this help Mary? the use in 2v2 is obvious, but in a FFA, giving everyone else the advantage sounds like suicide. Well, in return for having their wish granted, the foe has unwillingly agreed to give Mary 50% of any AP they gain. That doesn't mean they gain less AP, they still get all 130% of the AP they're working so hard to get, but Mary is simply granted 50% of that as a little bonus.
Now, clearly you can see how this might work in dear Mary's favour in a FFA, especially if you can consistantly keep all three foes' wishes fulfilled. Or if you sense a clear cut winner, you can buff the other two fighters and farm their hard work for your own opportunistic designs. In a straight 1v1, this move will make opponents afraid to combo you, and inadvertantly grant you precious free AP.
Neutral Circle "Trial"
Ever the opportunist, Cuty Mary surprises persistant challengers with the Jump Rope Trial; a simple task, with a deadly penalty. Jump the rope 10 times to win, miss once to die. That's what she says anyway, the reality is that there is no threat of death, merely boundless frustration.

Pressing Neutral circle summons a dummy cutout of the eponymous Mary. You can summon it in midair if you please, but it'll just fall to the ground right away. The paper decoy has no effect on any fighting, and can be dispelled by four hits (8 hits if from multi-hit attacks). Mary is invulnerable for the brief moment it takes to create the cutout. You may only have two of these out at a time, but that's exactly all the cutouts you need.

Once you have two of these lovely looking placards onstage, a thin thorny wire shoots out of one, attaching to the other. Congratulations! You now have a makeshift Jump-rope of your very own! The Mary cutouts, somehow, automatically make the jump-rope skip up and down, like any real jump rope. If the two are positioned one above the other, the jump-rope will rotate left-right instead of up-down.
If any foe touches the rope when it passes the up or down positions of a swing (i.e. if they fail to skip the rope) they will flinch, and Mary gains 10 AP. While not a lot of AP, it can truly add up over time, especially with 3 opponents in the rope. Mary herself is immune to flinching from her own rope, but if she does accidentally touch it, she'll be unable to attack for 0.15 seconds, so you can't just camp inside and launch your Super the moment they miss a skip.

Incidentally, each skip takes about 1.6 seconds to perform. The skips get progressively faster, the closer the cutouts are to being destroyed. If one is only 1 hit from decimation, the skips will be twice as fast, so you shouldn't always try to defend these cutouts of yours

Note:// Jump rope cannot "no-clip" through solid ground at the top or bottom of its swing, so solid obstructions at either end will interfere with how the jump rope swings. As a rule of thumb, don't set up a jump rope with solid ground in the way, otherwise you'll end up with a wobbly, inconsistant, weak, or even motionless jump rope.



TriangleInputs
Down Triangle "Jacks"
A handful of those "painful to step on" jacks is enough to ruin anyone's day. And if there's anything Mary likes, it's ruining people's day.

With a gleeful laugh, Mary throws a fistful of jacks to her left, and another to her right, hurling the little metal doodads into foes either side of her. They cover a decent spread, about 3 training room cubes in total volume. Being struck by this initial spread of joy, gives Mary 20 AP, and knocks the foe away slightly (causing heavy flinch instead if the foe is on the ground).
The jacks, being jacks, swiftly plumment straight down to the floor. If they somehow rain down onto a foe, they individually give Mary 1 AP, but do not cause the foe to flinch.

Once on the ground, the two piles of jacks will not dissapear, unless any more jacks are later created. Jacks can be blown around by wind, but do not trigger or detonate any of the foe's mines or traps that they touch. Pretty pathetic really, and even if an unlucky foe stands on the painful little metal pieces, they do not flinch. Instead, the jacks cause the foe to drop 10 AP onto the floor behind them every half second. Since the AP is pretty much right there, most foes will simply walk over to the loose AP as soon as they can. So jacks must absolutely be played when you have some other means of dissuading the opponent, otherwise you'll never get the chance to snag that dropped AP.
Up Triangle "Inflatable Pool"
A childsize pool for a childsize doll. Mary herself hates water, but she's grown fond of the inflatable pool nontheless

Clapping her hands above her head, a yellow inflatable pool spawns. The preinflated pool, which already has water inside, and is twice the width of Big Daddy, appears above Mary and then falls down onto the ground. Foes who touch the inflatable as it first appears are bounced very far away, and due to Mary's short height, this can hit anyone taller than herself. However, Mary gains no AP from hitting anything with the pool

Once resting on the floor, the inflatable pool stays until either a new one is summoned, or someone performs a powerful attack on the pool. Despite its air filled sides, the pool does not act as a low wall, anyone running towards it, automatically steps up over the inflatable sides and into the murky waters of the pool. It's not a very deep pool after all, it's more like a wading pool for babies.
However, the water in the pool is not nearly so friendly. It has a mind of its own, and immediately grabs ahold of anyone who sets foot in it. This drastically slows the foe down and reduces their jump height, until they manage to get out of the pool. In particular, this will stop almost any character's charging tackle attack in its tracks, whilst also making your jump rope that much harder to jump.

While it's easy enough to destroy, the inflatable pool is quick and safe to create, to the extent that you can intercept a foe's aerial approach by placing one in their landing zone.
Side Triangle "Drinking Bird"
Do you remember drinking birds? Those were desk toys that would bob up and down into a glass of water. Homer Simpson used one in the classic obesity episode to continually press the Y key on his computer.

Mary thrusts her palms out in front of her, causing a giant drinking bird to materialise before your very eyes. The long (6 training room cubes long) glass body is created first, shooting out at a 45 degree angle from Mary's palms. If this hits anyone (most likely foes in midair), they are knocked up and away from her. Mary also gains 30 AP from the hit. After the body is formed, with its head held high and its weighted bottom next to Mary, two plastic legs sprout from the middle of the drinking bird and stretch down to the ground, supporting the bird. The legs can stretch as far as need be, allowing Mary to set up her Drinking Bird in the air if she pleases.

As a long, solid thing that Mary can spawn, you would be correct in assuming that the drinking bird can be stood on (assuming it's not in a vertical position), or can act as a wall (if it IS in a vertical position). Since we have no water for the bird to drink, it will not rock back and forth as Drinking birds are known to do. Instead, the birdy platform tilts and rocks back on things that hit it, things that stand on it etc. So if it's lieing horizontal, and someone steps onto one end, it'll slowly tilt into a more vertical inclination, becoming more wall-like in the process.
A drinking bird can really cause a lot of hassle for players who rely on being able to get around quickly. A vertical wall is useful for obvious reasons, and a free horizontal platform that can tilt up to block other players or projectiles is always handy. Of particular note is if the foe is underneath a horizontally inclined drinking bird, its solid body will prevent them from successfully jumping over your jump-rope.
If you don't want people on your drinking bird, feel free to stick jacks onto it, or some other trap. Note that if you try to summon an inflatable pool onto it, the pool will ignore the drinking bird, and fall to the ground below it instead. Like almost everything else Mary can create, you may only have one Drinking Bird at a time.
Neutral Triangle "Queasy bake oven"
The cutest of all deadly kitchen appliances, the Easy Bake Oven is a miniature toy Oven for children. Most noteworthy for "cooking" things via the heat from a light bulb, the Easy Bake is the one stop shop for ghoulish cake treats.
Mary, with a delightfully innocent chortle, summons an easy bake to her waiting hands. The oven, already opened at the front, is roughly half the size of Mary herself. But don't let the size fool you, it has the power to suck in almost anything and anyone, cook it, and then spit it back out. Anyone within a 2 training room cubes' radius ahead of Mary during the 1.5 seconds she holds the oven, is dragged inside. If a foe is caught, the oven slams shut, jostles a bit, then explodes, sending the foe flying up and away from Mary. Don't worry, not only is Mary unharmed by the faulty appliance, but she even gains 25AP for her trouble. In between the oven closing, and it going "kaboom", Mary has a couple of second to move around, repositioning herself and her facing so that the foe is sent flying in the direction she wants.

But it's not just opponents that Mary can slurp up with her oven, it can also eat up almost any trap or projectile, even those that don't belong to her. If Mary snaps up some of these goodies, but no foe, she stashes the oven away, and resumes fighting as normal. The next time you use this input however, the Oven will forcibly spit out its contents, smashing foes within a Big Daddy's width of Mary and dealing every bit of AP damage, stun and knockback those traps/projectiles would have normally done. Yes, even if it was the foe's trap to begin with, the Oven will let you turn the tables on them.
If, instead of using the input a second time, you simply wait, the oven will slowly cook its contents. After 10 seconds, a "ding" will sound to indicate that the oven has done its work. Using the Neutral Triangle now will cause the oven to spit out a perfectly delicious cake, which lands immediately in front of Mary. This cake, when struck by any attack, will burst into a multitude of AP orbs, totalling double the AP that the cake's trap/projectile ingredients would have otherwise dealt. Feel free to scoop all this AP up right away, before some greedy opponent comes after it.

If you should happen to snag both a foe and another object, not only is that trap's AP damage dealt to the foe whilst they tussle about inside the oven, but there's another unpleasant surprise in store for them when they escape. The Oven will bake them into a cake!
While not inconvenienced by their new cakey costume, the next attack that strikes them will cause the cake encasing their body to crumble, spewing out 15AP towards the attacker. A wonderful incentive for other players to hunt down your unfortunate "friend".

And finally, no, you cannot use the Oven to slurp up water, that would be stupid. Do you WANT your new toy to short circuit!?

//note: Toy Jacks are worth 10 AP when stashed in the oven.



SquareInputs
Down Square "Slasher Flick"
Mary's most funnest toy, is her knife. Roughly 3/5 as long as she is tall, Mary just cannot get enough of the screams of delight children make when she shares this toy with them.
Cuty Mary tosses this knife of hers 3 training room cubes forwards, before invoking a power that makes the knife boomerang back to her current position. This attack has two hits, one as the knife flies out, and a second when the knife comes back. Each hit rewards her with 6AP, but only the second possesses any knockback (lightly knocking opponents towards Mary). Relatively speaking, it's a slow attack to start, making it impractical to attempt to combo with. But if you connect with it, the foe is not left with enough time to dodge Mary's next attack. They can however, still block it, or attack her right back.
You can, if you need to, angle this attack downwards, which can be handy for triggering ground traps from a safer distance.

When this input is performed in mid-air, Mary keeps a tight grip on her knife, and performs a broad swipe underneath her. This blasé slash deals little downward knockback, and gives Mary herself a mere 8 AP for her trouble. For the most part, this attack is geared towards keeping foes on the ground, where they will be susceptible to her jump rope.
Up Square "Headless Mary"
With a pleasingly plastic "pop", Mary's head detaches from the rest of her body, flings itself 4 training room cubes into the air, then falls back into place. If the head touches an opposing player, it chomps on them and drags em down to the ground where the headless body is waiting to knock them away with a thrust of her knife. All together, Mary gains 18 AP from this attack, which isn't much considering how thin the hitbox is. It's nice for stopping foes from jumping over Mary in order to get at players on the other side, but there are also a couple more uses to this heady move.

For one, without a head, Mary's body is actually invulnerable to being hit. Her head, if struck, falls down and reattaches to the body before taking the associated knockback. This is effectively akin to Brawl's "Spotdodges" which is not an option in Playstation All Stars. Avoiding certain level 1 supers with this attack can feel pretty awesome.
The other useful property of this attack; her head can pass through platforms, even solid ones. Pop your head up through a platform, bite onto the foe on top, then drag them down through the platform to Mary.

When airborne, this attack takes on a different form. Her body, with her arms stretched wide, spins around and around like a spinning top whilst she ascends 3 training room cubes. Her head creepily does not spin, and fixes its gaze on the audience... brrr.
This deals 3 hits for 20 AP, and slight knockback up and away from Mary.
Side Square "Bouncy Ball"
Mary, our precious stalwart of fun, magicks into existance one bouncy ball, 3/4 her size. A simple striped beach ball of the red/yellow/blue/white variety, the ball falls to the ground, bounces up to a height just taller than Mary herself, then vanishes once it lands a second time. If used in midair, the ball has a little forward momentum as it falls to the ground, and bounces up to 1/2 the height it fell from (dissappearing once it lands a second time). On contact with the foe, this ball deals knockback relative to how fast it was going and in which direction (3/4 of its velocity is transferred to the foe, and the remaining 1/4 stays with the ball as it rebounds away). The AP reward for bopping an opponent with a ball also varies with its speed, being between 8-40AP. As with her other toys, you may only have one ball at a time, making a second just causes the first to vanish.

The vital thing about balls (apart from the fact that they are fun and they bounce) is that they can be knocked around by attacks, and they can follow the laws of physics when it comes to bouncing and rolling on things. Drop a ball onto a slope for example, and you can bet your bottom cashman dollar that it'll bounce quickly in the direction the slope faces. Or hit the ball with something that deals a lot of knockback (such as Mary's Upward Triangle, or Forward Triangle) in order to launch that plaything with gusto. You can even combine those ideas, launching the ball into a slope, to come up with all kinds of crazy projectile paths for your opponents to tussle with.

Balls, like many things in life, float in water, being stationary until knocked out of the water. No, this property doesn't really have a use, but... come on.. it's a beach ball, it HAS to float.

Note:// While the bouncy ball usually bounces once before vanishing on the second bounce, if the player spawns one extremely close to the ground, the ball will fail to bounce and will simple stand on the ground (or begin rolling if the ground is slanted). Striking the ball will cause it to roll across the ground or be launched away. The ball then vanishes once it collides with something.
Neutral Square "Murder Spree"
Ooh, now you've made me mad! Cuty Mary, no stranger to knife play, drops all pretense of innocence and begins stabbing at the foe repeatedly whilst the player mashes Square. It's an extremely short reaching barrage, and has very little knockback/push at all, but each stab exacts a nasty 8AP toll on the foe. If an opponent ends up standing right in Mary's face as she starts wailing on them, you'll rack up at least 48AP before they're knocked out of range. Getting caught out with their backs to a wall can lead to a full 136AP combo before the infinite prevention system bails the opponent out. Of course, even if you corner one foe like that, simply sitting there spamming stabs is basically asking for other players to come hit you.

When used in midair, this input takes on a slightly different hue; Mary plunges the knife into the foe in front of her, acting as an aerial grab. She then forcefully retracts the knife, flinging the foe behind her at a 20 degree downward angle. Over both hits, Mary gains 18AP. The range of the stab is marginally better than her grounded version, and if you fail to connect, she ends the attack without performing its second part, making it relatively quick and safe.
One of this attack's more fun uses, beyond flinging foes into your toys, is to hurl other opponents towards someone in the middle of a Level 3 super while you're running from them, either to distract them, or just because you hate that particular person.



GrabInputs
Down Grab "Skipping Bodybag"
Mary skips with the grabbed foe.

No, she skips WITH the foe, as in, she employs malevolent magic to use the opponent's body as a jump rope. She skips 3 times with the opponent, before tossing them out behind her unceremoniously. This throw's main attraction is that, depending on the size of the foe you throw, you'll be surrounded by a pretty meaty hitbox for the duration of the throw, protecting you by knocking aside nearby ne'er-do-wells. If Mary finds herself in a scrum, this throw will help clear things up.
Up Throw "Baby 'uh-oh'"
Baby uh oh! Mary lays the foe down, gives them a fresh diaper, then sends them on their way with a firm slap to the behind. The foe must then suffer the indignity of wearing a diaper until they are KO'd. The size of the diaper obviously depends on the size of the victim, so Big Daddy is gonna get a big diaper, and Sackboy gets a much smaller crapsack

In all measurable ways, an awful throw. It's long, and the foe is left uncomfortably close afterwards. But all Mary players love to use this throw anyway, tagging all the scrubby players with diapers to show how much of a baby they really are.
Side Throw "Hop Scotch"
Kicking the foe down into their prone position, Mary plays a little hopscotch on their corpse. Basically she tramples on them. She finishes her little game by jumping up, away from the foe in the direction the player tilts the analogue stick.
The foe is not knocked away by this throw, which for Playstation All Stars is actually pretty unique. The throw also steals less AP (8%) than other throws do, but Mary absorbs it automatically during the throw (instead of the AP flying out of the foe and lieing on the floor).
This throw can provide a useful diversion for other nearby foes, by leaving her victim behind in a vulnerable state while she makes her escape.



Supers
Level 1 Super "Deathly Flailing" (Cost: 120 AP)
Mary flies 2.5 training room cubes in the direction you tilt the analogue stick (forward by default) whilst flailing her arms all around. If she touches any foe, they are KO'd.

Very simple, and very VERY limited. The range is its biggest failing, competing with the likes of Sir Dan, who at least has the common sense to not throw his body around as a super. You do have your invisible jump-scares to set up your Level 1, though standing around in one place waiting for the foe to approach and get stunned is basically saying "hey, there's a trap here".

Uniquely, this super may be used whilst airborne, giving her a much better utility than the super would initially appear to have. Most notably, you can jump away from other players' Level 1s, and then dive bomb them with yours while they recover. The airborne super also allows her to apply pressure in midair, usually considered a no kill zone for level 1s.
Level 2 Super "Blood Wave" (Cost: 350 AP)
With a maniacal peel of laughter, Cuty Mary summons a tidal wave of blood from the background, which sweeps the entire surface of the stage, KOing any foe not at least 4 training room cubes above the stage. Every solid platform in the level is given a wash of blood, though any fallthrough platforms are exempt. All traps in the wave's splash zone are washed away, sadly including those of Mary herself.

The wave, which has only a brief delay before it hits, lasts too long to be realistically dodged, and must be jumped over instead. If you've got your jump rope out, and time the Super well, then the foes will be unable to jump up without flinching on the rope and getting KO'd by the wave anyway. Played well, this can be a secure 3KO. Since this super plays out the exact same way every time you use it, Mary only need worry about the timing of her attack.
Level 3 Super "Play with Mary" (Cost: 700 AP)
From the familiar flash of white that signifies any Level 3 super, everyone is treated to a shot of Mary's face morphing into a hellishly angry scowl. She extracts her knife, and now begins hunting down her opponents. Similar to Jak's Level 3 in that she can fly around freely, all Mary need do to KO a foe is touch them with her knife. It's pretty small, but remember you don't have to attack with it, merely tag them with it. If you read an opponent wrong though, they can slip through your fingers and waste your Level 3 killing time.

Unfortunately for the foe, Mary's level 3 also summons a mess of solid candy platforms and walls, suspended in midair and arranged like a maze. Mary can simply fly through the walls with ease, while foes are limited to the paths the maze gives them. Each stage has its own arrangement of walls, typically balanced to keep foes on linear routes, and away from pits and water.

3-5 KOs from this super can be expected, provided that Mary is next to all three when she activates it.




Playstyle
Play-time with Mary is all about trying to be low key, or at least too much of a hassle to beat up reliably. She can become quite a threat simply by how she can almost passively build AP via her wishes and Jump Rope. Her Drinking bird and Inflatable pool can keep foes at a comfortable arm's length, or seperate one teammate from his buddy.

Her projectile game is nominally limited to her bouncy ball, which requires a little brain power to get it to work. And her melee game has very few tools that allow for combo'ing. Instead, much of her moveset repels nearby foes, great when the big kids are breathing down your neck. Bad when you actually need to start building AP.
This is critically her fatal flaw; Mary is bad at getting AP, particularly when ganged up upon, or in a 1v1 situation.

As previously noted, her wishes allow Mary to play her foes against one another. She's also capable of leaving little AP "prizes" around to direct players about. Because she has actual tools for dealing with the FFA enviroment, baits and lures to get foes to do what she wants, Mary is best played as a 1st place killer. Set up while observing which player is the most likely to win, and then go out of your way to sabotage their efforts. Your reward is usually a lower KO threshold needed to win; since the skilled player is getting less kills, Mary herself needs less kills.

Alternatively, pick up everyone's discarded traps and carelessly thrown projectiles, bake a cake, and then snag the AP for yourself. If there are no foes giving you the fodder, you can set up a stack of jacks, then bounce a ball off a drinking bird towards the jacks so that you can get both the jacks and a moving ball into the oven.

As for using the supers, level 1 is ostensibly a punish, as her only combo opportunity is to have the foe stunned by one of her invisible jump-scares. Level 2 works best with a jump rope, drinking bird or inflatable pool to limit the foe's jumps, and has the useful benefit of not being affected by Mary's spacing at all. For level 3, like most level 3s, you want everyone together in a scrum so that Mary can KO them collectively when the super begins.

Defensively, Mary has a terrifying array of tools at her disposal, from traps to stun aggressive foes, to "anywhere you want" warps, and even a half-functional spot-dodge equivilent.

Down Circle "Trap"
A placed trap is an area of the stage that your foes will try to avoid. Likewise foes will give a wide berth to even a fake trap 'placed' via a taunt. Cuty Mary can use any existing trap as a warp point to teleport herself to, giving her a huge boost to mobility (provided your opponents let you slink around placing traps unchallenged).
Realistically though, opponents will be purposely triggering any traps you leave as soon as they get a safe opportunity. The key then, is obviously to keep the foe as pressured and 'unsafe' as possible.

Up Circle "Warp"
Since teleporting and stunning the foe work off of the same 'ammo', so to speak, it's important to prioritise the two tools based on the type of opponent you'll be pursuing. Some matchups simply won't make much use of teleportation.
One trap, up in the air, usually works for providing a quick-escape. You could also leave one behind one of your cardboard dummies, so you have a means of getting there quickly when its under attack. It is possible to perform highly circumstantial combos as Cuty Mary, usually via external factors like her jump rope, bouncy ball, traps, or warping around to keep up with the foe being knocked about.

Side Circle "Wish"
AP gain is a highly political process in FFA and 2v2 modes. You can feed AP to an opponent by being a punching bag, or deny an opponent AP by being a distraction. And with "Wish", such spitefully bizarre tactics can directly benefit Mary. Remember, Mary gains nothing unless your target gains AP. So unless you like trolling matches by feeding Kratos Lv3 sandwiches, stay clear of opponents that already have a bunch of AP.

Neutral Circle "Trial"
This may stink a little of 'hyperbole', but EVERYTHING hinges on how well you set up the jump rope. Some stages are just a flat platform, making it obvious where the dummies are meant to go. But many stages morph and mutate as the match progresses. Make sure you practice every stage to see how all the various chunks of land shift about. Ideally you want the entire surface of the stage covered by a single stretch of rope, though there is some benefit to working a little smaller in scale and placing the dummies one above the other (to create a jump rope that swings horizontally, like a happy pair of parentheses).
No matter what though, you need to physically summon the dummies in the two locations you need them, so be prepared for a metagame of spiteful opponents camping in your preferred set up locations. You can always summon a third later, which will automatically replace the first dummy. That way you can adapt the jump rope to better fit the mutating stages.

Down Triangle "Jacks"
All of her Triangle attacks give relatively reliable ways of repelling foes, whilst also leaving nasty little tricks in their wake. The jacks are essentially a stage-hazard-lite, a small stretch of floor that drains the opponent's AP if they stand around on it. The AP simply droops out behind them, but if you've got a jump rope going, then it may be a hassle for them to go retrieve it, especially with other opponents bearing down on the free AP. Mary herself can use the loose AP, along with the jacks themselves, in her queasy bake oven, baking it into a high-in-saturated-AP snack that she can snarf down in an isolated corner somewhere. So even if dropping a couple of AP orbs doesn't feel that big of a deal, it really really is. Usually Mary will want to leave jacks next to another trap, as a 'lesser-of-two-evils' kind of situation ("well I DON'T want to get stuck in the pool, so I'll have to land on the jacks instead")

Up Triangle "Inflatable Pool"
With no AP gain to be found anywhere in this move, the inflatable pool is very much a tool to keep the cuty machine chugging along. Its immediate use is simply in bouncing foes away when you summon it, a purely defensive move.. unless the pool is used to launch a bouncy ball into the foe, though they'd have to be pretty distracted to not dodge something that telegraphed.
As a sticky pool that mires opponents in a pit of reduced mobility... the inflatable pool is unfortunately a bit too flimsy. Rather than tussle with it, many foes trapped in the pool will simply use their strongest attack to destroy it. Thankfully they're cheap, quick and safe to summon, so opponents will never truly be free of its malevolent presence.

Side Triangle "Drinking Bird"
Its properties as a solid yet precarious platform/wall are obviously of much use to a girl who has things to keep safe, and opponents she wants to direct around.
However, that isn't to say you cannot use the Drinking Bird as a direct attack. It's angled trajectory as it first juts out from Mary works as an excellent anti-air. And Mary's short stature means the attack also hits a fair few foes on the ground too.
A cool secret you may have not realised yet, is that you can place one of Mary's jump rope dummies on top of a drinking bird, and then you can pivot the bird to and fro to adjust the jump rope. Another secret you'll be delighted to hear about (not really); if you dip the bird's beak into water, such as an inflatable pool for instance, then the drinking bird will tip back and forth automatically, just like the toy was always meant to!

Neutral Triangle "Queasy Bake Oven"
While possessing of a myriad different applications, all geared towards manipulating AP in some way, the major use of this attack is that it is a pseudo-grab you can use in midair, and a fairly universal reply to any projectile that may come your way.
Since you can turn opponents into tempting targets, turn traps into projectiles, and turn projectiles (among other things) into AP, the queasy bake oven will likely see a lot of use, especially if the opponents aren't paying Mary any special attention.

Down Square "Slasher Flick"
This move can be quite useful in quickly poking down at foes from the air, knocking them back down into the jump rope you have set up.
The grounded equivilent sets up for some ground pressure, and can be quite lucrative if you use its boomeranging properties to drag the foe onto a bed of jacks. They'll have no choice but to block or respond to your next attack, which prolongs the time spent bleeding AP on the jacks. If your spacing is excellent, you can use the move like a crook, hooking one player right out of a scrum for you to beat up personally.

Up Square "Headless Mary"
Quite useful as a pseudo spot-dodge, which will put a bit of a spanner in the works of ill-planned approaches. For the most part however, the move is best paired with a fall through platform or drinking bird, attacking up from below the platform whilst also dragging the foe down to your level. It's definitely a neccessary tool if you want to stop opponents from using your own drinking bird as a little perch for themselves.

Side Square "Bouncy Ball"
The bouncing ball is a bit of an expert's toy. Sure, there are some simple set ups that will let you fling 30-40 AP balls with ease, but like any long range camper in All Stars, you'll make a lot of enemies very quickly this way. It's usually better to concentrate on horizontal trajectories, since your jump rope will be limiting their vertical freedom, but there's something to be said for lobbing arcs that target one person specifically, giving the other players a chance to pounce on him.
If manipulating the admittedly tricky bouncing ball proves too much, or if it's simply getting in the way, remember you can stash it in Mary's queasy bake oven, to later launch in the foe's face

Neutral Square "Murder Spree"
A fairly ordinary attack, truth be told. It does hide the potential to be a massive AP gainer, if you've got a wall and the time to make it happen.
In mid-air, the attack becomes a nice way to toss about things that you need in different places, like a ball you want to hurl behind you, or a foe you want to toss off the stage.
What? This is the 'jab' input for pity's sake, cut me some slack.

Lv1 Super "Deathly Flailing"
As the only super useable in midair, Mary already has a sizeable edge over the rest of the cast. No longer is "jumping" the safe way out of every single super. Of course, its miniscule range prevents it from being used as anything other than a punish when unassisted.
Of course though, you'll likely have a jump rope, or some invisible jump scare traps to give you the split second opening you need. You will likely never get a double or triple KO with this super, so in spite of its utility and ability to be set up, it's usually best to save for the next level of super, whilst sticking to springing level 1s as a punish.

Lv2 Super "Bloody Wave"
Pretty much a guaranteed triple KO, with the correct jump rope set-up to block foes from jumping. This super is also brilliant for having absolutely no need to space the player properly, simply watch the foes from a safe place and activate the tidal wave at the opportune moment. Landing one lv2 is usually sufficient to win a match, so long as you spend the rest of it hassling whoever might threaten your victory.

Lv3 Super "Play with Mary"
Sadly there's not too much strategy behind this super beyond the usual "use it when next to everyone" followed by "chase down everyone as they respawn". It's an effective super, but for the AP it costs, you could toss out two lv2s and get roughly the same amount of KOs. There are some stages, vertically inclined ones mostly, that are hostile towards Mary's level 2 super. For these stages you'll need to resort to a level 3 (or a whole mess of level 1s)




Arcade Mode
[Arcade Mode is a series of unrelated FFA matches against CPU opponents, followed by a 1v1 match versus the character's "Rival", followed by the "Final Boss" (a three wave match of 1, 2 and then 3 opponents, with random stage hazards thrown in), bookended by narrated introduction/outro cutscenes]
Introduction: Mary's intro and outro are presented as typed text being puncuated over various newspaper clippings of toy adverts, with [this] music playing. The actual narration, by Mary, is played over this

Text: The happy little world of the Cashman Department store is having a bleed-out sale! Come one come all! All your favourite appliances and toys are available at slashed prices. You'd be mad to miss out on these cut-throat deals!
Narration: Hello, I am Mary. I may be just a doll, but I love to have fun and games... *sigh* Lately no one has come to play with me, and I'm so very bored. It's all because I'm couped up in this stupid store. I bet if I left, I'd be able to find all sorts of new playfriends to play with. *giggle*

Outro: Same deal as the intro, but the clippings are now covered in splotches of blood, and the clippings are all of a new toy "Murder me Mary"

Text: Murder and tragedy at the Cashman Department Store. Owner, Cashman, gunned down by police after butchering rich patrons. Investigations have not yet found any of the money or valuables that the customers carried into the store. Against all efforts by the police, Department Store has begun attracting looters and paranormalists, none of whom have left the store alive...
Narration: Hello, I am Mary. I may be just a doll, but after my adventure, I think that's just fine. All sorts of fun new playthings come to the store now. And no matter how many I break, there's always more.*giggle*

Rival: Mr Banballow
The grotesquely burnt Banballow is another fictionalised creature within the Illbleed park. Constantly searching for revenge over his dead son, Banballow imolates anyone who crosses his path.

Rival Cutscene;
Mary floats into frame whilst absent-mindedly flensing the air with her knife.
"This place sure is fun. Even the department store doesn't have this many fun things to play with"
Suddenly a bloody, heavily welted arm snatches her out of the air, bringing her face to face with the warped face of Mr Banballow. He looks away, as if speaking to someone else.
"Jimmy? You know it's not right to play with dolls Jimmy, you've got to practice your batting! I go burn doll, and then we practice ok Jimmy?"
He turns back to look at the doll, which is no longer in his hand, but rather floating behind him.
"haha, that was a fun game. But now it's my turn. In this game, the first one to die... loses"
"I have no time for game! I've got to help Jimmy practice baseball!"

(incidentally, yes, Playstation All Stars' arcade mode cutscenes are this bad)



Entrances
Entrance 1:
Mary, constantly facing the audience, floats in from the top of the screen, with an audible 'schuushuuushushu'.
Entrance 2:
The pretty doll is laying motionless on the ground, with her visage facing away from us. Through a creepy magic power, the doll ragdolls into the air, and her head twists around 180 degrees, revealing a scowling horrible face. Her body quickly rotates 180 degrees as well, in order to catch up to her head
Entrance 3:
After some difficulty, Mary bursts out from a "Cuty Mary Doll" box, sending bits of packaging flying all about.
Entrance 4:
Mary menacingly brandishes a soft-play plastic knife at the screen. Noticing the lack of lethality in her weapon of choice, she quickly substitutes the knife for a real one, stashed inside her stuffing.
 

Smady

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
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Location
K Rool Avenue
CA$HMAN


what seemed like a sale was actually a deadly disguise for a mass murder

in his warped m... in his warped mind he figured they owed it to him since he couldn't make enough money in sales

when the police arrived and figured things out they shot Cashman on sight

that should have ended the terror but it didn't

the sheer power of Cashman's hatred and his ruthless obsession with money brought him back to life as a horrible monster

he's still making products, but this time he breathes evil into them, turning the products into monsters themselves, who suck up a customer's money and soul

Cashman's out there somewhere, waiting for the next customer, as he secretly sits in a safe counting his money...

RICHEST IN NEBRA$KA



Size: Giant
Weight: Ludicrous
Ground Speed: Slow
Air Speed: N/A
Traction: Terrible
Fall Speed: Harsh


Cashman is of course unique from the Brawl cast, being a little smaller than Emperor Porky from Subspace Emissary. From his feelers groping the air in front all the way to the back of his hind legs, he's over a platform long. The comparison there is mostly in how the spider legs look animation-wise and the speed, as the default for Cashman is a creep across the floor, his side facing the camera. He will at times turn to face you for certain moves; mostly you'll be seeing his legs. Befitting a giant spider, Cashman's traction is atrocious, taking about half a second to turn around, as rickety as he is in his boss fight. Cashman's weight is greater than any character in Brawl – he's twice as heavy as Bowser. At the same time, his huge size makes him vulnerable to projectile spam and you can easily land moves on him during his long-winded turning around. Cashman can jump, but not in the same sense as other characters. He has one very large jump that resembles Porky's from his Brawl fight – causing a spike and 20% damage as he falls, though this is extremely telegraphed. Similarly to King Dedede's up special, however, Cashman gains a reprieve on his recovery by use of a milder second jump that voids the knockback and damage, but lets him cushion his landing. No aerials for Cashman – but he does have inputs not used on the ground.

$PECIALS



DOWN SPECIAL: THE WEB
Quite terrifyingly, the top of Cashman's 'face' - or 'back,' depending on how you look at it - 'opens up,' creating an orb of purple at that spot the same colour purple as the web pictured. Until the input is pressed again, a web of sorts is woven wherever Cashman goes, sticking to the ground and stitching itself into the air above Cashman's body. Basically, imagine a spider's web attached to the ground of a stage, then protruding up to be fully-formed above the back of Cashman. Naturally, this creates a web when you walk on the ground, but can be taken to the air as well by jumping, wherein the same applies only in the air. This has no discernible effect on the match just yet, the rest of Cashman's moveset is also unaffected. The web merely hangs in the background. In fact, the move creates an obvious weak point, as any foe who attacks the glowing orb on Cashman's body deals double damage and knockback. This is especially dangerous with Cashman's horrible traction. However, walking into that part of Cashman also deals 15% and medium knockback, meaning foes can't casually walk into their attacks. The Web does not dissipate after a certain amount of time has passed, though it is stock-exclusive, meaning Cashman has to rebuild it each new stock.



SIDE SPECIAL: EMPLOYEES
The face of Cashman 'standing up' to make him as tall as Emperor Porky, though still facing forward and not at the screen, his mouth seems to be filling up as the move charges for as long as a smash. Once charged, 1-5 miniature spiders as pictured above crawl out of Cashman's mouth, in a putrid animation. These little things scurry along at a moderate speed, comparable to Pikachu's dash and a comparable size to him too, and have 10% HP each before they are destroyed. Seemingly at random, they will jump as high as Ganondorf. They normally don't have much of an intelligence, chasing foes in their way and having three attacks. First, a jump bash that deals 5% and flinching, only really useful when they're all bunched up. Second, a generic bite that deals 4% that they perform at close-medium range on foes, that causes low vertical knockback, not enough to do more than juggle at high percentages. Lastly, they have a grab and weak pummel where they bite into the foe and poison them using their fangs - they only perform this in touching distance of the foe, though they will prioritise use of this move over all others. This deals 2% each successive pummel and it's a fast one. At no point does the foe enter into a grabbed state - you don't get that coveted generic stun, but this does allow multiple spiders to gang up on the foe at one time. The spiders simply having to be attacked off using a hitbox that covers the part of the body they're sucking from, or the foe can dodge - on the ground or in the air - as an all-encompassing way to shove away all the little buggers at once.

This is however, only one half of what the spiders can do, and don't you know, the other half is far more interesting... though at this point doesn't affect anything. By double-tapping the side special input, Cashman goes into the same stance as before, face upward and facing forward, this time the player being able to angle it to stare in any forward-facing direction. Once the direction is chosen - defaulting to diagonal - Cashman spits out a thick ball of acid, dealing 5% and poison damage on a foe for negligible damage for ten seconds after, the ball lasting for the distance of Mario's fireball. Any spider minions currently out will then turn their backs to the camera and 'climb up' any web that is on the floor. If they are not next to web, they will go to the nearest place where it is. They then weave the web they have in the direction of the acid spit - not towards it - extending the size of the web exponentially, as for as long as they're pulling the web along, it increases behind them at their size. Spiders on the web no longer take knockback, but have so little health it's easy to just squish them one-by-one. They attack and behave as they normally do if a foe comes within a platform, not being complete lemmings and capable of self-defence. It's possible to send a large group of spiders to attack a foe all together by sending them in the foe's direction. If the foe was hit by the fireball, spiders will build the web in their direction, wherever they may go. Cashman can keep on 'firing' the acid spit to extend its lifespan beyond Mario's fireball, though this only is effective if you want to, say, hit a highly predictable foe who is beyond the maximum lifespan of the ball, as spider minions continue working on the web regardless of the original ball's existence.

The only way to call them off is to either create another acid ball, or go to use the move, then cancel out of it by dodging, causing Cashman to vomit up a bit of acid, apparently a sign to his spiders that they should stop. Spider minions will release grip on the web and fall to the ground, having slight DI to try and land near an opponent. Note that new spider minions do not follow the old orders, scurrying across the stage as normal unless they are given a new command by using your acid spit again. This allows you to have multiple groups working on expanding your web in opposing directions, and eventually under the stage or onto future parts of a transitioning stage. If you have no web whatsoever out, the spiders frantically chase the actual fireball or, if the foe is hit by it, gain a double movement speed buff plus higher knockback on their attacks.



UP SPECIAL: CLIMB
Lets start with what happens if you hold the input. Cashman folds his legs and prepares to spring up into the air. On its own, this simply initiates a move even more closely parodying King Dedede's up special than your initial jump, the exception here being that you're also a hitbox that deals 10% and medium knockback as you go up and can go up for far higher, up to the ceiling of most stages, before coming back down. At any point, you can initiate a stall-then-fall 'down aerial' by pressing down in mid-air, causing between 12-20% damage to foes and medium-high knockback. The downside of this move is, depending on the height you fell and this is multiplied by several degrees if you did stall-then-fall, Cashman suffers anything from punishing to abhorrent end lag when he reaches the ground again. If not 'on its own,' as vague a suggestion as a moveset can get, the move is quite different. What's the distinction? If there is any platform or ceiling - as in solid ground above Cashman's head, he will instead stick himself to it if he reaches it with his up special. You can crawl around the edges of a platform, but cannot attack while passing from one side to another - on thin platforms, this means a small amount of lag as you pass over the left or right side to become right side up or upside down. Once stuck to a ceiling or side of a platform, Cashman has a limited time to stay up there before he is forced to release grip and fall from it as if he had just entered the latter, falling phase of his up special normally. While up there, Cashman can attack as normal with his standards. What is especially useful is the ability to create spiders, who fall to the ground. If commanded on the way down by use of your side special, they will attempt to stick to any web in the background beforehand, giving you a more versatile tool for creating your elaborate sticky construct.

So what happens if you just click the darn special input? Cashman turns to face away from the camera and starts to climb 'upward,' creating web the same way as his minions. This may seem more natural of a stance for Cashman to take - when he's on his web, his 'face' is facing the camera, after all. Controls whilst on the web completely change - move in any direction and Cashman will change his current facing to creep across the web, or create new web as he goes. Traction problems are no more - you turn on a dime. Unlike his minions, Cashman can be hit off of the web if hit by a move that deals high knockback - enough to hit him two platforms in distance. Whilst on the web, Cashman moves around at half his normal speed if creating web, to up to twice as fast if on pre-existing web - there is much in-between when Cashman is, for example, creeping along two strands of web on either side and connecting them together to make one huge path for himself. Cashman has a whole new section of inputs on his web that replace his standards when on the web, described under the heading of 'WEB ATTACKS.' These are influenced by Cashman's angling on the web but otherwise are accessed just as simply as standards inputs. You have access to the rest of your set, bar smashes, though they perform quite differently, of course, when from this perspective. Anything attached to the web is in the battle plane, because it's in front of the web sitting in the background,. Minions summoned fall with gravity - if they hit solid ground like a platform on the way down, they will stick to the platform and refuse to jump down unless commanded. Cashman cannot last forever, stalling on his web. After twenty seconds on the web, he is forced off and can't climb back on for a further twenty seconds after, demanding from players a sense of timing to make proper use of the web as more than a camping device.



NEUTRAL SPECIAL: STANDS
Turning his back to the screen and elongating his body to cover up whatever he's making, Cashman then stands back to reveal a horrifying new stand right in front of him. This has fairly little end lag and is easily spammable. What is created varies tremendously - you access the different stands by pressing, or not pressing a direction, all taking the same time to create. Some stands can even be clung to with your up special, extending his cling time by a further twenty seconds, but are too small for Cashman to stand on and he simply pushes off them as he would other generic obstacles in the air. Considering this isn't an attack, of course you're open to a counter attack by the opponent. They can also be created on the ground, or be used when you're attached to the web - the stand sticking in place on the part of the web it was stuck to. Dealing medium knockback to a webbed stand causes it to fall, this being a weak spike and causing damage as it falls, the bigger the more damaging. The damage is typically around 15%. On the web, Cashman is able to 'climb over' stands and spread a sheet of web on top, increasing the HP of the stand by 1.5x and holding it more steady in place, a foe unable to displace a stand like this, only destroy it. Effects of the stands can vary widely, and are as follows:

NO DIRECTION: SWEET STAND



Arguably the most generic stand, as it's simply a Marth-tall, Mario-wide stand of sweets, randomly coloured, albeit washed out, grungy and disgusting, and in which the opponent can stand in front of and spam the standard input to pick up sweeties, each mouthful healing 5% to their percentage bar. If a foe lingers for longer than five seconds within a platform of the stand - which is obviously far beyond the normal distance they'd need to get the heal off anyway - a tongue erodes from amongst the sweets and swipes at the foe, dealing medium knockback, 10% damage and swiping a tongue-full of dollars from the foe. Every time it does this, the sweet stand grows slightly in size, maxing out at Ganondorf's height and Wario's width. Now that I've mentioned that small detail, the stand does have normal HP too - 10-20% depending on its size. At its core, this promotion in true demand-and-supply fashion gives you a simple upgradeable wall to play with, blocking off the foe from whatever you're hiding behind it. When used on your web, you can angle it to be horizontal to upside down depending on your positioning and this goes for all stands of this type, where there is a physical display stand. Horizontally, it works as a great make-shift ceiling for Cashman to latch onto using his up special. Upside down, the sweets inside the stand fall to the ground as infinite little items that heal 2% each. On the negative side for your opponent, your spider minions can also eat sweets this way and buff their HP beyond its normal 10%. Opponents who dash over these marble-sized items have a doubled chance to trip.

DOWN DIRECTION: JELLY



This is unlike the previous input in that it can be charged like a smash, changing the size of the eponymous jelly. The jelly can be any colour like your sweet stand, being an awkward bottom-heavy trapezium shape and as big as a Pikmin-Kirby. The jelly can be eaten by the foe in chunks if they stand right next to it and hold the stand input, healing 5% each time as the size of the jelly decreases by this amount too. However, similarly to your sweet stand, an opponent within a platform of the jelly for five seconds or longer is victim to a levitating jelly tentacle that pulsates grossly, stabbing at the opponent unless they dodge or get out-of-range. An opponent who is hit has their percentage bar pummelled for 3% a second. Moving around, but staying within range of the jelly doesn't do anything either, unlike the sweet stand, as the jelly tentacle sticks to you. Like the sweet stand, the jelly's size increases as the tentacle suckers in more money from the opponents. The HP for the jelly is 5-20%, as it maxes out at Bowser's size. If you spit acid onto the jelly through your side special, your spider minions that are currently out flock to the jelly, wherever it is - on the web or ground - and consume it like an opponent does, until given a new order or the jelly is gone, likewise restoring their health past its maximum. Jelly is thus a very important spacing tool for your spiders as well as a great way to passively damage a 'stuck' opponent.

DOUBLE-TAP: SWEET TOOTH



Unlike the other stands, achieved by double-tapping the special input. This stand resembles your sweet stand almost remarkably, having the same initial size and 10% HP. That's where the similarities end, however - instead of harbouring sweet, this stand has two distinctive lollies, too gross to even consider eating. However, their size makes them into a great battering weapon. A foe who grabs one is given an item that has similar attacks and damage as the Star Rod in Brawl, minus the star projectile. Cashman can himself pick up the item - when he does pick up items, by the way, he carries them in one of his feelers and can carry up to two. Being that there are two lollies, that's one obvious option - you can just throw them both at once by using the normal grab input, and that's quite powerful if they hit at the same time. Like the other solid platform stand, placing this one upside down releases the two lollies prematurely, creating a powerful and large hitbox as they fall to the floor. Items can be stuck on the web as well and retrieved later by Cashman with his great movement options on his web. Unlike the last two stands, this one is not triggered by standing in front of it. After the two lollies are gone - or ten seconds pass - the clown on the front of the stand releases a puff of gas from its mouth, surrounding two Battlefield platforms of space in front of the clown. The gas deals constant 2% damage and sends any spider minions into a frenzy, working twice as fast, being a good way to motivate them if they're building an important bit of web or chasing the foe. After shooting its puff of gas, though, this stand dissipates and you can only have one out at a time, the old one dissipating immediately if you try to create a new one.

UP DIRECTION: MR. MEAT'S STEAKHOUSE



Cashman creates a stand full of randomised 'chicken,' 'beef' or 'pork' that looks as it does pictured above. These fall out into a messy heap, or into an organised clump on your web depending on where you create them. They're about the size of Mr. Saturn and can be picked up and thrown like them too. Ten seconds after having been summoned, the meat takes on a life of its own, quite literally - stomping around with a small jump and going in a random direction at Ganondorf's walking speed, dealing 2% damage and as much knockback as a Waddle Dee's jump. If they're on the web, they struggle but are unable to move. Each meaty minion has a paltry 5HP, Cashman can create 1-15 pieces of meat and only can summon one amount of meat, no matter how many, at once. Creating the maximum amount of meat is, however, extremely long-winded, worse than a Warlock punch. The arbitrary limit is because, if this input is used when meat is already out, Cashman hisses toward the top of the screen, summoning a cockroach that is as big as Wario and has 30% HP.



The roach will hang by a string from the top blast zone which itself has 10% HP, but it will attack any opponent who comes anywhere near it. Its main attacks are a low-range bite that deals 10% and medium vertical knockback and a grab that it frequently uses when pursuing foes, its primary function. It travels down from the top blast zone at Falcon's dash speed toward the nearest opponent and though it can be attacked, it is likely to get a grab off on the foe if they are simultaneously being harassed at all by Cashman at the same time. When having grabbed the foe, the Cockroach ascends, reversing direction, and if the foe is carried above the blast zone, it's a KO. The cockroach cannot grab the foe while they are stuck on the web or grabbed already by Cashman, though this gives ample opportunity for them to get into position. The only other way than damage to defer the cockroach is for the foe to throw a piece of meat at it, any type, or destroy all meat currently out. If the cockroach is hit by the meat and eats it or all meat is destroyed, Cashman cannot summon it again for a full two minutes. With one meat, being fed will immediately stop the cockroach, though the chance decreases the more meat there is starting from two. While the cockroach can't be abused by being stuck to the web, the meat can be, forcing the opponent to go on a wild goose chase if they don't want to have to deal with directly attacking the cockroach.

LEFT DIRECTION: MAGIC HAT



Straight from Mr. Miracle's magic warehouse, it's the magic hat, as big as Luigi. These hats levitate in place and if a foe gets close enough, can be grabbed and worn as an item like Bunny Ears. The result is a change much like the Screw Attack, whereby jumps of the opponent are replaced by the foe teleporting in a puff of smoke, the distance depending on who the foe is - longer recovery, longer teleport. Short hops are buffed to be near lagless, though are otherwise unaffected. If not worn by a foe, however, the hat will turn on its side after five seconds - or in a chosen direction if angled on your web - and start to turn rapidly. It becomes a hitbox, the top a weak hitbox that deals 5% and the rim 7% plus very low vertical knockback for a spot of light juggling. A platform in length and the hat's height in front of the hat's open side becomes a wind tunnel, sucking in any loose projectiles. If a foe is close enough, they take light flinching damage and 1% a second as dollar bills float toward the hat, healing Cashman for the same amount if he picks them up, in the same manner as you would a sticker. Magic hats have 15% HP but once hit, teleport a short distance away from the attack to avoid being combo'd.

If another magic hat is present on the field, any items that go into the magic hat appear out of the other one and are drifted a platform away from it before being returned to the normal laws of physics, probably falling. The hats teleport in pairs - the first teleports to the second then back to the first, the third to the fourth and etcetera. The hat can stretch itself open a little more to allow through items larger than itself, though nothing Bowser-sized or above. This can be abused by your minions, who are smart enough to use these hats as teleportation devices to get where they need to go. While Cashman is obviously too big to fully fit in the hat, his individual attacks are not. Having a few of these hanging around can be quite handy. Any foe who wears the magic hat while another is in play will immediately feel the damage of any attacks that go through the first magic hat. If a magic hat is destroyed while two or more are already created, the order is moved so that, for example if hat one is destroyed, hats two and three are now connected and teleport to each other.

RIGHT DIRECTION: ROCKET



Cashman creates a missile the same shape as Samus' but about twice as big, letting it levitate in place like the magic hat for five seconds. If attacked by an opponent or Cashman, the missile explodes for 20% and knockback only marginally worse than an exploding Bob-Omb. For its first five seconds, the rocket levitates in place like the magic hat and can be grabbed like an item and thrown by an opponent, acting as a potential KO move against Cashman. The player who picks up the item . If not interacted with in this time, however, it fires off at Sonic's dash speed, either straight forward or in a direction chosen by you during the start-up lag. It will continue on this straight path until it hits something solid and explodes or dissipates at the blast zone. Given the time to build up speed, its velocity boosts it up by double. While this doesn't actually affect its damage or knockback, this makes it cover far more ground in a shorter space of time. Of course, this works well into your magic hat in this way, though you will want to make room for it in terms of your web so that you don't accidentally destroy a bunch of minions or another stand by accident. A rocket caught in your web will disconnect itself when it comes time for it to fire, but will be stuck in place like anything else if layered over by your down special, becoming a time bomb for whoever has the misfortune of attacking it in future.

GRAB$

GRAB: WEB STRING
Cashman's head opens up as it did in his down special, revealing a purple weak point. This time, however, Cashman doesn't simply turn on his web-creating powers. After hunching up to a 'standing' position, Cashman shoots a string of purple web forward the same distance as Samus' grab, though this can be angled during the start-up of the attack and charged like a smash to reach up to twice as far. On an opponent, this sticks them in place and Cashman the reels them in before sticking them to a piece of web he creates in the background, on the same plane as any other web. The grab prioritises grabbing an opponent over the web. Pressing the special input on a grabbed foe, Cashman lets out another string of web that he uses to move the foe around on any connecting, pre-existing web at Ganondorf's dashing speed, though this does not refresh the grab timer. If a foe is not in the way, but part of your web or a stand is, Cashman has three choices. He can release the grab to simply let go if you were trying to grab a foe and grabbed a piece of web by accident. He can press toward the web or stand to pull himself there, acting as a quasi-tether recovery. Cashman can press the grab input a second time to use his grab on the web or stand, essentially treating it as if an opponent was there in its place.

If the web is grabbed, pressing the down input when on the ground will have Cashman pull the entire web inward using his strand, the area pulled forward being centred around where the strand meets the greater web. This pulls a section of the web into the main plane - where the fight is happening. This can be continuously 'channelled' to pull a larger area forward, varying from the size of Bowser to a several times that size. Any foe that catches this web is caught on the web and has to button mash to escape, perfect timing for an assault by your spider minions or traps. If Cashman is allowed to go through with the end lag, he attaches the string of web he shot out initially to the ground, locking in place the newly-moved web. This area slowly recedes back into the background as time passes and can be attacked - this directly destroys part of the web in a way similar to the tendrils on Brinstar Depths, leaving rips that if not repaired, create gaps in the web. As the web detracts back into the background, they are released, though you can catch items this way in the web and pull them back permanently into the web. By grabbing multiple times on the same area, Cashman can strengthen it so that it reduces slower. Attacking these strands, themselves acting like stronger versions of the tendrils from Brinstar Depths, will entirely detach the web. As the web slowly deteriorates back in on itself, foes aren't necessarily released as it does so if they're on top of the web, having to still button mash out as they fall down onto still pulled web. This makes this function of the grab useful for catching aerial opponents.

PUMMEL: WRAP
Cashman wraps layers of webbing around the foe, almost mummifying them. As he turns them, he deals a steady 2% damage and gradually increases the length of the grab state. However, once grab released or a maximum amount of layering is put on the foe, they cannot be grabbed until they become unstuck. Aside from giving you a key advantage in time and allowing your spider minions to creep up on the foe, you may not be able to re-grab them, but you can grab your web that is connected to them to further interact. If you are using your pummel on just webbing, this creates an unused coil of wrapping that acts as a weak grabbing hitbox, more useful for foes falling into it as a trap or for catching a falling stand that the foe has dislodged. This is one of the easier ways of turning your web into an actual attack. On a stand, this preserves it in place for 5-15 seconds as the webbing slowly falls off, basically stalling whatever effect it has. Either way, one attack from the foe on these wraps destroys them, making them at worst a simplistic decoy amongst more complex machinations. On a pulled outward web, this stops the grabbed foe in place, stopping them from potentially altogether slipping away.

UP THROW: SLAM
Using the strand to balance out, Cashman leaps towards what he has grabbed, landing on top of it for 10% damage and low knockback. On an opponent, this pushes them out and away from Cashman, leaving a big hole his size where they used to be, quite handy for particular moves. On a stand or the web, this simply is a way to jump onto the object fast, covering Cashman's hurtbox over it as protection. This is handy if you need to defend meat or the like, or a trap that's vulnerable and about go trigger on an opponent. Using this move over the top of a spider minion or meat will crush it to death, falling to the ground as a very weak hitbox that deals 3% damage and small knockback to foes, before dissipating if it hits the floor or a blast zone. This can be useful to stop an expansion you don't want or stop a foe from going for meat you don't want them to, though is also just as useful as an attack if a gathering of minions is clustered over the top of a foe. At the end of the move, Cashman is left hanging on his web as if he got there using his up special, letting you immediately use web attacks. Use this move if you have somewhere you want to get on the web fast. Likewise, a speedy deterrent to foes as well as good defence.

BACK THROW: RIP
The strand connecting the grabbed to Cashman is pulled harshly, ripping whatever was being grabbed from its place, causing 5% damage and leaving a foe in temporary free fall depending on the mashing they had left to do to escape. This is a great way to start a tech chase at medium-close range. On web that has been pulled forward by your charged grab, this creates a rip like the one in the up throw of varying size, depending on size of said web. Also similarly to your up throw, this yanks minions from their place as they fall to the ground, acting as a way to send your spiders back to their default AI patterns. This is good if they're over the top of a platform, such as a stand, that you want them to patrol. You'll pull out objects that are stuck - stands still become hitboxes that deal 15% damage or so and a spike depending on their size, though no object that is covered over by a layer of web from your down special will fall away doing this. If you've simply created a bunch of off-stage stands and an opponent is trying to recover, or if you want to put a stand on top of a stand, or other crazy nonsense. For the record, a falling stand will also kill your minions on the way down, just as you do in your up throw. Symmetrical with the above throw, this move is a very useful way to influence stuff caught on your web, not leaving you on the web itself or necessarily killing a bunch of unfortunately placed minions.

FORWARD THROW: VIBRATIONS
Cashman hits the web with his feelers, causing the entire web to which it is connected to vibrate slightly. On a foe, Cashman simply bites them, dealing 12% damage and high horizontal knockback, being your best KO throw. Having an item in-tow in the second slot position for items, causing Cashman to either bash the item onto the web if in close-range, or shoot the item via a further strand up to the selection of web he has grabbed. If no foe is in sight and you have no second item, though, Cashman's vibrations come into play, sending all spider minions on the web - as long as the part they're on is connected - to the part you've grabbed. With a pulled out bit of web from your initial grab, spider minions will form a circular outline around its current area. On an object, the spiders form an outline as best they can, too many spiders staying on the outside of what is essentially 'armour' for the item or stand. On an opponent who has been moved out of the way, though they no longer take the damage from your bite, all spider minions are now headed in their direction on the web and if positioned close-by, will start to pummel them all at once for massive damage, as the foe is left having to escape the grab. Even when not directly grabbing the foe as well, it's possible by creating a junction with rips to send spiders right next to them, where they will then attack the foe.

DOWN THROW: TEAR
Similar to other throws, Cashman attacks his own web by tearing it in two, ripping it so that a triangular hope is created where the point at the top is whatever was grabbed. When the tear meets whatever was grabbed, if it was an object or foe, they fall down right into Cashman, who can grab release at any time to start an attack. A foe met with the actual tear takes 4% when violently torn off or 5-10% if they were pummelled first, as the blanket of web is likewise destroyed at behest of Cashman. This is not instantaneous and a foe can escape the grab before this happens. Used on an item you want - say a grabbed weapon or an opposing foe's mechanic-centric item - this is the best way to get it to you, especially if you're sitting right below it, though the tear is your best way of simply breaking up your web you so diligently created. Of important not there - the area that you can bring forward with grab can be far larger in actual functionality if it's, say, a central island of web that is tangentially connected to other larger pieces of web, any gaps in-between not counted as 'space' in the move. While a foe may fall through the gaps, with how they're probably falling through the air, it's far more likely they'll get snagged by a single dangling bit of web than one huge lump. So there is an immediate use in 'destroying' your web. More so than other throws, this works well in conjunction with a magic hat and rockets, creating a nice straight line for the rocket to build up speed where spider minions won't get in the way.

SMA$HES

FORWARD SMASH: VENOMOUS BITE
Cashman lunges forward, fangs exposed from behind his feeders and digging into whatever happened to be in his path with a gnarled bite. A large hitbox means you can hit multiple of your own spider minions in one attack. An opponent hit by this move glows a strangely bright green. On foes, the bite deals 18-28% damage and pushes the foe back in hitstun one-two battlefield platforms for knockback, letting you parade them into your set-up. It has an unusual side effect for a spider bite. That is, for the next ten seconds, the foe produces about fifty dollar notes, randomly coming out of either side of their hurtbox. The same goes for any minions you create, from spider minions to meat to the cockroach - if they die prematurely, the money that hadn't come out yet causes their body to explode, leaving a pile of money that falls twice as fast and straight as stickers do. As stated previously, Cashman is healed a single percent for every dollar note he picks up. What I didn't say was that these dollar notes are manipulated by wind hitboxes, and the ability to mass so many stickers at once becomes a negative when the foe can just as easily do it to dash you healing plans, though they do not get healed by the dollars like Cashman. In the least, this is your best way to keep the foe at a safe distance. Your down throw is especially useful here given the way dollars are produced on either side of the opponent, letting you stick them to your web then release the opponent so that they can't possibly retrieve them before you. You do have multiple ways of influencing the floating money, however, like your clown's gas, magic hat and web. If your minions are the ticket, simply commanding them all into one place then crushing them is a legitimate and easy solution to getting money.

Biting into a stand causes them to spurt money like water out of a fountain, the exact repercussion depending on the stand. Jelly that is bitten by Cashman causes anyone who eats it to excrete the same trail of dollars as if they were themselves victim to a bite, for a reduced five seconds, going for both spider minions and foes. The tongue and clown stands work in the same way - about five dollars a second launch out of the tops of the stands where sweets or lollipops usually are, flying past the items themselves or toppling them over if the stands are angled over to the side. The tongue and jelly can collect this money to speed up their promotion. On the meat, this is a reverse of the jelly, where if fed to the cockroach, the meat causes it to have the same dollar trail as opponent do when bitten. This to Cashman's great benefit if the cockroach has pursued foes further down nearer to the stage, as he is given more time to ascend back up. The magic hat will cause about ten-twenty dollars to fly out in a way similar to how it looks in the picture, perfect for catching all at once with one big charged grab. An exploding rocket now produces about twenty-thirty dollars worth of notes too. These situational ways to create money factor greatly into your need to split up the web so that the opponent doesn't, by your own doing, end up collecting dollar notes that rightfully belong to Cashman. Splitting up your cash may be the best option, then slowly recollecting it as the match progresses. Cashman's fangs can penetrate a wrap or layer of web over an object or foe, but they only gain the cash flow effect once freed from the web.



DOWN SMASH: SAFE
Cashman uses his two front legs to scrape underneath the closed lid of a safe resembling the one pictured, appearing on the floor in front, about half a platform in width and its lid as wide as a Delfino Plaza platform. Once finished charging, Cashman is able to open the safe forcefully, the lid flipping over and revealing a hole into the stage or platform underneath. As the lid swings, it deals 15-20% damage and medium-high horizontal knockback. By using the same move on the opposite side where now lies the lid, Cashman will flip it back over and close the safe if within close range instead of creating a new safe. An opened safe cannot be entered by Cashman and if a foe tries to enter it, the safe closes shut. Any items that land past the opening of the safe are for now considered 'destroyed.' By creating a new safe - Cashman can only have up to two at once - the items 'stored' in the old safe are shot out of the new one once its lid is opened, having reversed knockback and momentum, if applicable, compared to when they entered. They will be shot out in reverse order too, moments separating the firing of each object out of the safe. This as well happens by simply re-opening the first safe, though is obviously far more telegraphed. An obvious example of this is the rockets being good shot down into the safe, now being shot up out of it. While a foe can't force you to create a new safe, your first one remains on-stage and can be opened by the foe interacting with it using the standard input, though this involves heavy start lag.

If standing over the top of the safe as the lid is opened, the foe enters a forced animation where they trip comically into the safe after slipping on the opening lid, taking 5% as they do so. After a second, the foe is then shot out of the safe being dealt 15% damage and high vertical knockback, hard to DI. This likewise goes for if you successfully lure them into the safe in any other way. This is easier on just one safe, though, as soon after a second safe is created and all items are shot out that were stored in the first, both dissipate soon after - if fallen into in this short window, the second safe will shoot the opponent out of the first, however. They will be accompanied either way by the normal items and usually having to avoid them as the foe is always the last to enter the safe, thus being the first out in reverse order. Though this move is really most useful against mechanic items - not least your own, as you can feign the death of your meat, for example, before bringing it back at a safer location later in the match, to the foe's horror. The foe can forcefully shut or close safe lids to prevent you from hoarding too much in there and get their mechanic or generally useful items back. You can just as well store minions in the safe, though it isn't a time capsule or anything, so they will deteriorate if they have a timer. An exception to this logic is tour magic hat - items send to a stored magic hat through its partner hat will be saved for the moment when it is shot out of a safe. A magic hat will then resume its normal actions from before it was put away, again letting you set-up an impressive trap.

On the issue of time, you can hoard to an even more realistic sense, in that any stands or other objects that are locked inside the safe 'shed' money that they would have produced normally outside of the safe. The magic hat is the one exception. All of this money adds up and accumulates over time. When these items would next be released from the safe, they are replaced by an oil spurt of cash, equivalent to the amount the object would have created, dealing 1% per dollar bill that is shot up. Foes take hitstun progressively as the dollar bills hit and pass through them, the last dollar bill that does so dealing the accumulative knockback of all the dollar bills in one. If you can hit the foe with thirty or more dollar bills, this is enough to turn the move into a KO move. Depending on the positioning of the safe, it can be very easy to go and collect the dollar bills, as they fall down as stickers a two platforms into the air. Prematurely pull out a bit of web to keep the cash away from the opponent - your back throw comes good use here, as a spurt of cash is likely to be densely collected in one big packet, that you can easily pull down all at once using this specific throw. Of course you don't have to collect those dollar bills when you do pluck the web later, but it does create a battlefield where the foe is forced to play defence or see you take a massive heal.



UP SMASH: CONSUME
Mouth open and eyes gazing crazily in all directions, a distinct gnawing can be heard as Cashman loosens his monster-sized, decrepit gums. He then starts to chomp away at anything that comes into contact with the mouth on his face, positioned on his back. Any foe caught, is treated to essentially what is Wario's neutral special, Chomp, being pummelled for a timid 2% in a slow animation and a horrendous chewing sound can be heard. In a basic sense, this is a good way to guard from the foe hitting you in the back whilst laying out web. The upside is that while chomping, using the same mechanics as Wario's neutral special for the foe to get away, Cashman can position himself anywhere, carrying the for along with him - the only thing he can't do is summon more spider minions. This move does serve a purpose, however, as it causes Cashman to 'sit up' as his head stands up vertically, snagging any foes who were trying to dash past your usually horizontal hurtbox. This is a great way to feed the cockroach and lure him further down the stage, or use the foe themselves as a shield against a falling rocket or dive into a den of spider minions - the choice is the player's to make.

During the start-up, Cashman is able to move back and forth to catch opponents that way and the chomping goes on for seven-fifteen seconds after, where he can use any other move or position himself in every way he knows, catching opponents who would jump unknowingly into those waiting jaws. Any healing items that are chewed up by Cashman, heal double the usual amount, so setting yourself up to catch falling money or some meat falling down from a thoughtless foe picking them off your web is a great idea. Like Wario too, Cashman can consume explosive items, his rocket a perfect example, exploding inside him and a few seconds later surrounding Cashman's hurtbox in an explosive hitbox that deals slightly lower knockback and damage than the potentially tiny explosive he ate. All this consumption can backfire, however, if you eat your spider minions - to not benefit, actually giving Cashman more end lag and eating non-consumables causes Cashman to hack them out, throwing them in a random direction. This unpredictability rarely plays into your highly-organised web-based playstyle.

WEB ATTACK$

NEUTRAL WEB: ACID SPIT
Performed by pressing the standard input while on the web. Without 'standing up' his head, Cashman builds up a mouthful, before spitting acid 'downwards' or in a direction chosen by the player during start lag. This means potentially spitting it up into the air, where it is affected by gravity. If the acid hits a foe, it deals 5% damage and flinching knockback. If spat into the air, the spit ball will travel one platform before coming back down... this is all assuming you have no web getting in the way. The acid will travel across the web leaving a bright green trail wherever it goes. The original ball of acid only travels a platform of web compared to two platforms of open air before dissipating, but any web that it goes over, the trail, will also leak more acid that trickles down the web. These leaks are rapidly moving and have infinite range until they hit the ground, being as big as a Pikmin in size. Once a part of the trail 'leaks,' it dissipates, though any foes on an acid-affected part of the web take poison damage of 2% a second. The speed of this trickling depends - it's slow on web, but fast on open air. This means rips in your web allow you a versatile trickling of acid down the web, leaving the foe unknowing where is safe. Once the acid hits the ground, it creates a temporary puddle that deals 5% and low vertical knockback.

FORWARD WEB: BASH
Performed by pressing the standard input and the direction Cashman's front is facing. Cashman uses the entire front side of his huge spider body to ram whatever is in the way, his forward-facing body becoming a hitbox that deals 9% damage and high knockback, the move being easily spammed as Cashman quickly falls back into place and gives him a great way to pester foes from relative safety. Considering how you can angle yourself, this is a great way to hit a foe into a platform or stand, whereby they may then be victim to a rebound off of the surface into a trap or in the path of a Cashman projectile. On a foe who has been wrapped up by your pummel, this move sends the wrap unfurling across the web until the foe is left exposed and stuck to the web at a later portion, grab not reset, at a max of two platforms away depending on the amount they were pummelled. If the foe hits a gap or rip in the web while being unfurled, they dangle down and hang from the web until they can escape, connected to the web by a strand. Attacking this string will leave the foe in a free fall until they escape the grab game. Until released by attack or escaping the grab, the foe hangs in place and acts as a pendulum when hit, dealing 5-10% damage and low-medium knockback depending on their size. A foe who is released while swinging harshly one way or another is dealt high knockback when they escape the grab, forcing opponents in this situation to be conscientious their button presses. Cashman can potentially knock into a stuck rocket or group of spider minions. Those spider minions can latch onto and grab pummel the foe - if they are then detached by attacking the string, they will fall at a greater speed, each the equivalent of adding a Pikmin worth of fall speed weight.

BACK WEB: BUMP
Performed by pressing the standard input and the direction of Cashman's back is facing. In an animation resembling his down smash, Cashman squats his front down closer to the web and plants his front two legs underneath the web. He finished by pulling up his two front legs, causing a bump in the web to move across it, dealing 4% every time it hits the foe. The bump is a Mario wide and a platform long, travelling away from Cashman for a full platform before the web evens out. The foe is carried along with the bump unless they're close to the edge of the hitbox and can DI out before its end, usually taking two-three hits if they're relatively close to Cashman. If the bump reaches a rip in the web, the edge of the web lashes out into the foreground and creates a powerful hitbox that deals 13% damage and deals high knockback. The direction of the knockback will be the opposite direction of Cashman's facing at the start of the move. Anything stuck to your web, not layered over by your down special, will get moved along the web but not thrown off, unless they reach a rip in the web. Stands fall, but anything smaller is thrown off the web. This allows you some basic re-positioning of what you've been able to stick to your web and anything flung off becomes its own attack if it hits foes, a well fed minion being a bigger attack.

TURN WEB: BUMP
Performed by rotating the analogue stick and pressing the standard button. Based on player input, Cashman turns quickly by the same increment clockwise or counter-clockwise with pointed feelers. Foes or objects caught by this close-range hitbox are separated from the web or dealt medium knockback in the end facing direction of Cashman, dealt 8% damage. This move mostly helps in not being completely outpaced by opponents who can teleport behind Cashman on the web and has super low lag to compensate for the demanding method of player input. Any objects throw at or that land on Cashman during the move can be hit by this move and redirected as well, though this won't work on your rockets. While the immediate use may seem to be countering falling objects from your web or a foe throwing non-explosive projectiles at your back, this makes your options for playing keep away even better. Cause an object stuck on your web to fall, your back web useful for that, but instead of having to jump down and defend the fallen item, rebound it further away and force the foe to chase it while you remain steady and stationary. At its simplest, the move's also a good way to cut loose a plethora or useless items taking up space right in front of Cashman on his web and can cut away foes dangling from the front web attack.

UP-DOWN WEB: AMBUSH
Performed by pressing up then down quickly afterward followed by the standard input. Cashman uses his sharp fangs to bite his way through the web and goes underneath it, travelling 'backward' while invulnerable in an attempted ambush. He travels at his normal speed and can go infinitely long, if there is supportive web and the player holds the directional input. If the player does not or presses the standard button, or if they reach a gap in the web, Cashman creates a new rip in the web and crawls back into the foreground while performing a bite, a small hitbox, but dealing 15% damage and high knockback in the opposite direction. This has very bad end lag, however, and is easily air dodged. If Cashman is able to crawl to the stage, he will latch onto it and momentarily disappear from the match altogether, re-appearing to climb onto the stage from in front of the screen, vulnerable to damage in further bad end lag. On the web, this is a great way to take advantage of foes trying to follow you when using your down special and also a great way to flee the web. The pain in using it to its fullest is that you need a fully-functioning web, it's highly-telegraphed and quite situational as an attack. Though up-down is listed, any two opposing directions can be used, the latter direction taken by Cashman.

$TANDARDS

STANDARD ATTACK: PIERCE
Inspired by a similar Porky move, Cashman turns so that he partly faces toward or away from the screen and uses one of his front legs to strike repeatedly forward, creating a piercing hitbox. This deals 4% a hit and can be spammed in a similar way to Captain Falcon's jab. This move cuts through strands from your grab game and dangling foes from your forward web in one hit, as well as doing massive shield damage because of its piercing property. The shield damage aspect comes into play especially well if you're able to angle yourself on an uneven platform using your up special, attacking from above or below, as the foe will not be pushed back fast enough to avoid further strikes. The move's long-range melee can get a huge amount of hits all in one go at the opponent and can combo multiple opponents. The comparatively 'high' hitbox means Cashman can strike at opponents while spider minions crawl underneath, giving good basic protection to the minions and being a great defensive option, though the poor end lag leaves means a foe can easily counter attack.

DASH ATTACK: LEAP
Dashing as a giant spider is itself an attack - all of his eight legs constitute small ground shaking hitboxes as he 'rushes' across the stage. These all deal 4% knockback and very low vertical knockback, mostly useful for dealing with a pack of enemy minions all standing together on the stage, trying to block your way. Pressing the standard input, Cashman leaps forward two platforms and a Ganondorf high into the air. His whole body is a hitbox that deals 10% and medium knockback, if he hits a solid surface, he creates a ground shaking hitbox the same as his dash creates on top of the platform or stand but at the expense of bad end lag. This is a good way to deal with foes who camp by standing on your platforms and lets you travel from platform-to-platform without using your obvious up special, later in the match when you have islands to use on the web. If you can see a foe approaching you and predict they'll use a grounded stand to do so, or another platform, you can use this move to deter them into the air or get them on the defensive.

FORWARD TILT: STAMP
Cashman uses his front two legs to harshly stamp the ground in front, comparatively long-range for this type of move, enough that it's viable to use on the edge of the stage. Any foe caught by the attack is dealt 8% and spiked if hit by the very tip of the leg, otherwise dealt medium downward knockback. Gimping becomes more likely in an environment of suspended aerial stands or when the opponent has to navigate above pulled out sections of web. The shape of the hitbox makes this a prime move to use in conjunction with your magic hat as it easily extends into the small hat - this is made plausible in anything but extreme situational scenarios by your ability to cling to the undersides of platforms to poke at a magic hat no matter what is its positioning. On the stage, an opponent is instead knocked forward as they're squeezed against the stage by the legs, an enemy shield damaged but not pushed back, a strong transition into your jab attack. A spider minions dies in one hit to a stamp, being the obvious route to quickly get your money back.

UP TILT: ACID SPEW
Head standing as in other moves, Cashman spews a cone-shaped hitbox of acid into the air, the animation almost a cough or choke. The acid stagnates in the air for a few seconds before dissipating. Cashman cannot use other moves that require the head during this move - this includes the side special and up smash. The initial spewing, over the space of a platform, deals 7% damage and medium vertical knockback, or high horizontal knockback close to Cashman's face where the 'mist' of resonating acid is densest. The acid, as you would presume, deals damage passively as it remains in those next few seconds, 3% a second and a single flinch for the first instance of damage. This is a quick way to create a zone where the opponent doesn't want to be, giving a small incentive to the opponent not to be there and interrupt your minions or other set-up without requiring huge set-up or giving away to the foe how much you want the stage control. This is also a way to spread acid onto parts of the web that are stuck out by your grab game, retaining their passive damage status for many times longer when it falls back into the background, perhaps capitulating the foe, before that happens, to attack that segment of the web.

DOWN TILT: PINCER
Cashman can crouch and when he does, it stops foes from rolling behind, preceding an attack on his weak point, though it's tricky to do this in close range and not be countered during the lag. For the down tilt, Cashman uses his two front legs in a pincer movement that has medium start and end lag. Anything caught right next to Cashman and not in range for the quasi-grab, is dealt low vertical knockback and 7% damage. Foes caught in the pincer itself as squeezed for the same amount of damage before being rebounded diagonally forward with high knockback - this is practically a sweetspot in its hitbox size and thus not so powerful as it sounds. A stand suspended in the air just in front of Cashman acts as a great low ceiling to bounce the foe off of using this move down toward the bottom blastzone that exists in most Brawl stages. Cashman can use this move to grab onto a minion or other object temporarily - the object or Cashman himself being attacked forces him out of the grab, or it can be cancelled. Until that happens, Cashman can move at slightly below his walking speed in an awkward crouch. This mostly lets you delay attacks by the cockroach or position a magic hat into a perfect spot.

FINAL SMA$H

Cashman got the Smash Ball! He creates as a special stand, a zombie head? This can be attached to your web or thrown around like a Saturn item, but you should keep it safe. A few seconds later, the Hell Cake appears in the middle of the stage. He's as tall as Ganondorf and as wide as Wario. Cashman can chow down on the Hell Cake and recover 20% damage every second that he does so for a maximum of ten seconds, the Hell Cake sticking around permanently. If you do consume all of its 200HP, it will appear exhausted and collapse on the stage in death. Foes can attempt to attack the Hell Cake too, but this causes it to run from them at a fast dash speed or attack them if they're at a high percentage with a vicious bite that deals 20% damage and has a high amount of stun. The only way to make the Hell Cake go away is to take the zombie head and give it to the Hell Cake by throwing it at him or simply walking up to him with it in hand. If Cashman attempts to throw it off-stage, it will re-appear at the centre of the stage where the Hell Cake is, so there is that, but using any kind of strategy here gives Cashman a huge recovery boon in the form of a gigantic recovery item, who also can be an excellent attacker if the foe is on their last legs.
 
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ForwardArrow

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
502
Who is Killerman?​













































KILLERMAN IS KILLERMAN​

Killerman is a boss from Illbleed, appearing in a murder mystery level in which many people are suspected of being Killerman, such as the various workers in the level or even the player. In a stunning twist, the murderer behind the Killerman murders is none other than Killerman himself. You then fight him in a boss battle in which he basically just fires stars at the player. As he dies, it is revealed that he's a collection of ghosts in a costume.

Stats​

Fall Speed
11​
Size
9​
Weight
9​
Traction
7​
Jumps
7​
Dash Speed
6​
Aerial Speed
4​

Killerman is quite powerfully built, as is shown in his stats. He jumps high and can certainly take a hit, and his dash speed is actually pretty good for a humanoid heavyweight male antagonist. Aside from that, he has the fastest fall speed in the entire game, meaning regardless of his solid recovery he's not really going to be staying in the air long.

As an aside, 3 small stars will fly out of Killerman when he is hit by an attack, one above him and one to either side. None of them do any damage or knockback or really anything of note... course, this is going to change over the course of the set.


Specials​

Neutral Special


This particular move can be charged over time, taking 2 seconds to charge fully. The charge can be stored, but not charging the move fully does nothing to the attack. The uncharged variant has him fire a star forwards at Killerman's own dash speed. This deals 3% and flinching knockback... if it hits the foe's back. If it hits them in the face, it creates Killerman's signature star mark on their face as they go flying, taking 13% and knockback that KOs at 115%. The star mark lingers for 4 seconds afterwards, though it's mostly aesthetic... for now. This is a fair bit slower than Falco's lasers for justifiable reasons, but can be angled up and down slightly.

Charged, this move instead shoots a laser beam the height of Kirby from the center star of Killerman's chest, flying forwards at ridiculous speeds and dealing 15% and knockback that KOs at 110%. Firing this off is actually fairly fast, but foe's will still be able to dodge or jump over it in time most likely. If you'd prefer a regular star to this move, you can actually double tap B to launch one of those instead. Why is that relevant? Well you see, this projectile is fast enough that it'll catch up to the stars almost immediately, and it bounces off them. By default it bounces up, but if it hits an up angled star it'll bounce up and slightly backwards, while down angled it'll instead aim up and slightly forwards. If it hits the bottom of a star it'll be sent backwards. Killerman has more than his share of tricks in terms of how he fires this particular beam.


Down Special


Killerman releases a group of the ghosts that comprise him, which descend into the ground for a solid 3 seconds. During this time, nothing happens, though Killerman can fight as normal. After the 3 seconds are up, the ghosts fly out of the ground with a Killerman costume and fly into it, possessing it. This Killerman will now function as a duplicate of you, being able to use all of your attacks. While Killerman himself is in the middle of using an attack, using another attack will cause the fake Killerman to use it's own. Do note that this doesn't include Killerman's grab, allowing him to use throws regardless of where or not a fake is out.

So yes, this will function as a nice little duplicate for Killerman, it being able to input it's own attack after Killerman uses one of his... unfortunately this version's attacks do no damage or knockback. Not even a flinch, really, what a pity. They still have 40 stamina, and unlike the real Killerman don't spill stars when attacked. They do however, take knockback like the real Killerman, which increases likewise as they take more damage. That said, allow me to specify the use of this for when we get into inevitable mindgames. Your stars that are more dangerous to a foe who is facing you, right? Well that's going to be more of a dilemma if the foe doesn't know where you really are, having to choose which of you they are going to take projectiles head on from... if they make the wrong choice, it will be a bloody end for them.

As a side note, you can have up to 3 Killerman clones out at once. More clones for more confusion is nice... although this particular benefit will become more noteworthy later on in the set. You can attempt to try and make multiple duplicates at once with this as well, Killerman's got plenty of ghosts to spare.

Moreover, to make the fake Killermen a little more usable, double tapping this input will cause the order in which they attack to change the order in which you and your copies attack, the first variation being your first created clone attacks first followed by you, second created clone and third. Then move yourself one down the line each time for each tap of this input. This is a lagless, animation-less maneuver.

The last part of this is that the laser version of Killerman's Neutral Special has a unique effect on the clones. For the next 7 seconds, the Killerman clone's attacks become real, dealing damage and knockback, having it's own limits on the number of traps out so they don't count towards yours(and they'll stick around once it loses it's ability to fight too, giving them at least some benefit to leave behind). A lot of your mindgames become a whole lot more interesting in this respect, as you create tricky laser angles to reflect with... and you can also confuse foes as to when the laser will actually reflect off stars or not, making them potentially dodge or roll when they don't need too... better still if it's in the empowered fake itself!


Up Special


Killerman points upwards, causing, like in his boss fight, maggots to fall from the top blast zone. They fall in a rather erratic pattern, and each deals 2% and flinching on contact with a foe. Generally, about 20 maggots will fall over the course of 5 seconds, and this has a fair bit of lag on each end. Obviously, landing 40% with this is ludicrous, but it can potentially allow Killerman to combo the foe or attack them more aggressively while confusing them while they are in the rain. Abusing this well does admittedly require a fair bit of skill due to the seemingly random way the maggots fall. That said, this is a very useful tool for bolstering your melee game if you can capitalize on it right.

Aside from that, Fake Killerman can make these too, and while the maggots are entirely fake and as such won't hurt opponents, it can still be useful as a method of scaring foes off from a particular portion of the stage. You can also overlap fake falling maggots with real ones to confuse the foe as to which maggots will hurt them and which ones won't, creating a denser rain that foes will have more difficulty staying undamaged in.


Side Special


Tilting Side Special will have Killerman simply switch which fake Killerman he controls with this move, starting with the first created Killerman and moving to the next most recently created. Smashing Side Special will have the fake Killerman dash in the chosen direction until you have it perform a dash attack or press Smash Side Special again. You can angle this up and down. Angling up will have the fake Killerman jump, angling it down will have him crouch. These commands can help Killerman conceal himself amongst copies as they perform every action he himself is able too, preserving the mystery of who the real Killerman is.

Aside from just commanding the fakes, you can double tap this input to instead have Killerman teleport, along with all his clones. They'll be gone for a full second before reappearing, during which time you can determine where and how they will teleport. Pressing a direction will cause Killerman to teleport 1.5 battlefield platforms in the chosen direction, a decent if unremarkable recovery. You can then do the same for each duplicate to scramble their positions anew. Pressing A and a direction during the teleport period has a more interesting effect, it swaps your position with that of the nearest Killerman clone in the chosen direction, provided it is in fact within the 1.5 battlefield platform limit. The end lag on this is pretty noteworthy, and the start lag is moderate, so you can't spam this whenever the foe finds out your identity... though sometimes it will be just fine for that job.


Standards​


Jab


Killerman tosses forwards a single star, looking rather similar to the ones from the Neutral Special... only with a brighter glow, and while dealing the same percent and knockback on hitting the foe in the back, it doesn't get any benefit from hitting the foe from the front. Pretty terrible move right? Well, actually the star gets stronger and larger as it travels through the air. It deal 9% and knockback that KOs at 220% after travelling the distance of Final Destination, really still pretty unimpressive... but Killerman, through his duplicates, can start reflecting this star to have it grow further and further. How? We'll get to that move, but for now I'll just go ahead and state that the star maxes out at the size of Bowser and dealing 30% and knockback that KOs at 65%.



Dash Attack


Killerman slows to a halt as he drags his foot along the ground, dealing rapid flinching hits that add up to 9% and a final hit of 3% that knocks the opponent weakly away. This also kicks up a cloud of dirt behind him, more than large enough to cover up a duplicate's actions... or your own, a duplicate will kick up dust too, regardless of the actual attack doing nothing. While this sounds like it'd make Killerman's mindgames much easier to pull, this "smokescreen" lasts literally half a second, so it's uses for scrambling the foe are limited. That said, it'll occasionally allow you to confuse the foe as to which Killerman is which, resetting the whole scenario and forcing them to figure it out again or dodge far more attacks than necessary.


Forward Tilt


Killerman's facial star glints as he winds up a performs a fairly standard punch, dealing 9% and knockback that KOs at 220%. This is your fairly standard bread and butter Forward Tilt with a couple twists. For one, the end lag is more than you'd expect, leaving this move incredibly punishable if you whiff. On the other hand, if a foe hits you during this attack, Killerman will retaliate with what is essentially Captain Falcon's Forward Smash, minus the fire effect. It's just as powerful and unfortunately for the foe they have no way to avoid it now, making this a great deterrant to enemy attacks on yourself... or your duplicates for that matter. And you need it, considering your rolls/dodges are not only very bad, but rolling/dodging/shielding will give away your identity as the real Killerman, given your fake Killermen won't do that.


Up Tilt


Killerman slashes his arms in an X-shape above him, dealing 11% and upwards knockback that KOs at 150%. This attack is actually pretty darn fast, making for a fantastic juggler, but at the same time Killerman can't really follow foes into the air, making the prospects of that a lot less noteworthy that they'd be otherwise.

You can hold the input to delay the slash by .2 seconds, a small amount all things considered, but still enough to catch an air dodging foe, making this attack even more frustrating as a juggler... or, maybe you can pretend to have your timing be off and whiff a foe with this. Why'd you want to do that? Well, a solid hit will confirm if you're real or fake, and either way it may well convince the foe to try and dodge it, putting them in line of fire of a real Killerman's attack.



Down Tilt


The stars on Killerman's body glow as a stars similar to the ones in his Neutral Special fly up from the stage in front of him, one initially flying up and dealing 3% and a flinch, then another further away .2 seconds later, and a third another .2 seconds after that nearly a full stage builder block away. This has a reasonable bit of start up lag, but you can move and act during the later 2 stars, in making this a rather nice defense for your fake Killermen while they are being brought to life. If foes don't figure out that these stars are yours when you have a good few clones out, the stun from these can help you land a Neutral Special star on them as well. Avoiding all these stars is going to be a lot harder for the foe when there are 4 Killermen running about making them, so they may stumble through them and end up hitting the real ones if you put up a proper disguise...

As a side note, these are full blown Neutral Special stars, and opponents in prone face downwards... so they'll take massively boosted damage and knockback from this that can even function as a KO move. Killerman doesn't extensively prone abuse, but he has a few ways to utilize this if he so desires.


Smashes​

Forward Smash


Killerman slashes forwards with one of his large clawed hands, moving slightly forwards as he does so. This deals 16%-22% and knockback that KOs at 130%-80%. The end lag on this move isn't especially bad either, but it overall is a little weak for a Smash attack.

If you hit an opponent who has a killer mark on their face, it will tear large scars open on their face for the remainder of the duration of the killer mark, and cause almost cartoonish amounts of blood to come out. The blood is largely aesthetic, no blood slip n' slide for you, but it does cause them to take 3% bleed damage per second. It's a small damage boost to this attack most likely... but if a maggot from the Up Tilt comes into contact with the bleeding foe or you hit them with another star from the front, it refreshes the duration of the bleed damage to 4 seconds again. The maggots are probably the most practical way to pull this off, all things considered, and it makes them legitimately dangerous to foes now. Especially if you hit them again with this while they're still bleeding, as that just adds another 3% per second to the bleed damage. As a final note, the blood is left behind on the ground and while it's not by any means a guaruntee, there's a much higher trip rate while moving or attacking on blood.

Fake Killermen actually do something when they hit the foe with this move, though it's pretty weak. Their attack will turn the foe around, potentially spinning them into a Neutral Special star to the face.


Down Smash



Killerman points to the ground as one of the heads shown in the picture rises out of the floor. If there is a foe where it rises up, it will bite their feet for 15%-21% and upwards knockback that KOs at 130%-100%. This has a bunch of lag, but the head will stick around as a trap after being summoned. By which I mean if the foe walks onto it, it will perform the initial attack again. You can have only 2 out at a time, and they only have 30 stamina.

Now, fake Killermen will produce a fake head that deals no damage or knockback when it hits and dissipates in a single blow, though obviously if a foe doesn't know which Killerman is which this you can cover the stage in a bunch of these and leave the foe incredibly cramped for space. Better still if they make a mistake and charge into one they thought was fake.

While that's all fine and dandy, the real use of this move comes from how it interacts with your Neutral Special stars and beams. If a star flies into the mouth, it will absorb it. This makes it so that when the mouth is destroyed, all the stars within it will fly out in a wave, and given the foe's position, will smack them in the front in large quantities. This is a very powerful KO move, and Killerman can destroy it himself too, potentially to ricochet a beam off the inside of the expanding wave of stars, very difficult for the enemy to dodge even if the avoid the initial blast. Which they most definitely can, actually, as the wave of stars is delayed by about half a second. So as long as the foe doesn't hit it with something too laggy, they should be good, but usually laggier attacks are ultimately a faster way to destroy these things... so if they miscalculate when the final hit is from fake maggots, they could be in for a nasty shock.

Firing a beam into it's mouth doesn't cause the beam to fly out after the head is destroyed. Rather this causes the mouth to fire out an energy beam, which lasts for .8 seconds plus an additional .4 for each star placed in the head. Opponents take 1% for every .1 second while hit by the beam, and are gradually pushed upwards by it. This is... not -IMPOSSIBLE- to DI out, but so difficult that on stages without extremely high top blast zones you're not going to see it happen. Still, this isn't going to KO on Final Destination until the beam deals around 68%. When they do get out of the beam though, they're left in a very predictable spot, high up in the air while you've had time to scramble your positions and prepare an assault on them as they descend from above.

If a star hits the laser beam as it's being fired, the energy from the laser beam will freeze it in place for 1 second for each second it was stuck in the beam. Hitting an already existing frozen star in a beam will push the star further into the beam and freeze the other star, allowing you to create strings of frozen stars. While a delayed projectile is okay, stars frozen with this can be stood on as platform if 3 or more in a row are frozen, though it takes like a good 8 to make a full Bowser length platform. Killerman actually has a pretty fantastic juggling game when you give him a method to actually follow the foe into the air. A big jab star can also be frozen with this, and due to the points becoming actually large and noteworthy, they are damaging spikes on those stars. How much so depends, but at max size the spikes deal 17% and knockback in the direction they face that KOs at 80%. This can serve as a huge deterrent to opponents given how easy it is to knock them into this thing, potentially giving you space to reorganize your duplicates as they more methodically try to approach you.

Maggots actually will agitate the heads when they land on them. If a maggot fell on the head in the last 8 seconds, it bites 3 times instead of one, each bite dealing 7%-10% and chaining into the next one until the final one deals upwards knockback that KOs at 110%-80%. When a mouth in this state fires a beam, it will fire the beam in arc, moving it back and forth at a fairly rapid pace that will hold the opponent in the beam if they are caught in it. This can serve as an absolutely terrifying attack as it will cover a gigantic portion of the stage while still dealing the huge potential damage. This is some fantastic cover for you and your copies, so take advantage of it well.


Up Smash


Killerman teleports in a similar manner to his Up Special, though this time he appears a little under half a second, releasing an aura that deals 15%-20% and upwards knockback that KOs at 175%-130%. You can press any direction to determine where he will appear when he releases the pulse, which is basically overlapping the foe's position in the direction you press as long as the foe is within half a Battlefield platform of Killerman. If they aren't within half a battlefield platform, he'll just appear as far as he could teleport with this and no further. If you press no direction Killerman will just reappear in place. This move reflects projectiles, even if used by a fake, allowing you to juggle stars back and forth, particularly notable with the jab stars as they can now build to their maximum power. You can also reflect around projectiles en mass with this using fake Killermen to give them something to do... or join in with them and make them think you're a fake yourself until you smack them in the face with a star.

Aside from that, when Fake Killerman use this move in addition to the real Killerman, they will all appear at the same time, directly overtop of each other, making it impossible to tell which Killerman until they've already split up again. Again, this is a potential way to reset the status quo of the opponent not knowing which Killerman is which.


Aerials​

Neutral Aerial


Killerman slams his hands together, creating a shockwave that covers an area about a Wario width around his gigantic hands. Killerman crushing the foe between his hands deals 12% and upwards knockback that KOs at 145%. The shockwave just deals 5% and flinches. This attack isn't particularly fast on either end really, making it a decent but unexciting melee move.

The shockwave from this won't outright reflect projectiles, but it does influence them. It pushes them forwards if they're flying in the same direction the wave goes, increasing the projectiles speed to allow for some bullet hell. If the projectile is coming towards you, it slows it down, allowing you to control it more easily. If you somehow manage to hit the same projectile multiple times with this you can stack slowing it up to 3 times before it outright turns it around. Either way, this can make your projectiles more uncontrollable or harder to dodge, whichever your preference.


Forward Aerial


Killerman performs what is essentially Ganondorf's Fair, dealing 16% and a fairly strong spike if you connect with it, but the move has even more lag than said already slow move. It has some additional super armor though, a trait that carries over to duplicates when they use this move. If someone hits Killerman while he has Super Armor, he doesn't release stars, allowing you to disguise as a duplicate with this rather nicely. Aside from that, if the foe has to dodge attacks from people they don't know are you, namely stars aimed at their face, this move becomes a much easier one to land than Ganondorf's Fair.


Back Aerial


Killerman elbows behind him, the two stars on his elbows glowing slightly when he does so. This only really deals 5% and flinching, except on a sweetspot at the VERY tip of the stars, which deals a whopping 22% and knockback that KOs at 75%. This sweetspot is extremely small, don't get me wrong, actually smaller than the sweetspot on the Knee of Justice, but it is pretty powerful if you land it. It provides some good fear factor to this move too, foes will be much more inclined to dodge what is potentially a very powerful kill move, therefore not allowing them to confirm the identity of the attacking Killerman.

A side note, the stars on his soldiers are actually treated slightly like solid walls in that attacks that hit them are just entirely nullified, basically giving them infinite priority. This is true on the duplicates too, so this can serve as a defensive measure to protect them from having their identity as fakes revealed, or just to keep Killerman alive in general.



Up Aerial


Killerman raises one hand into the air, causing the star on that hand to glow and create an aura that expands to the size of Kirby, dealing a much smaller 8% and weak horizontal knockback. This is much faster than the initial attack and gives some compensation if you missed with it and hit the foe who dodged it... and aside from that, it leaves behind the star as a lingering hitbox for 4 seconds. If you have a bunch of duplicates use this, you can limit the opponent's air space when the ground is flooded with fake and real traps, possibly forcing the foe to stumble through and hope and pray to god they don't run into a real one.

If the Down Smash laser beam hits this energy star, it will cause it to glow much brighter as it absorbs the beam, dealing double damage and knockback all the while. Once it is done absorbing the beam, it will fire it out from each of it's 5 points for a third as long as the beam it absorbs. This, obviously, covers an absolutely massive portion of the stage, allowing you to freeze several platforms out of stars at once, make platforms off stage to make gimping via Nair actually a feasible task, start a chain reaction with more Uair stars, and generally creating mass chaos and distraction for Killerman that he can abuse to confuse the foe, leading to their potential demise.


Down Aerial


Killerman crosses his arm and slows his descent for about a third of a second, before releasing a glowing aura from the lower half of his body. This aura deals 8% and a fairly weak horizontal knockback, and this also can allow Killerman a bit of mercy in regards to his humongous fall speed. The aura will draw in flying or stationary stars within an area of triple it's radius(which is actually pretty large already, being a bit bit bigger than Wario over Killerman's legs), which increase the damage of the attack by 2% for each drawn in, as well as boosting the power of the knockback a bit. The aura will last for a very brief period, but it's enough to suck in near

That's all none-too-relevant given the power boost is rather small, there's a second part to this attack. Killerman will kick downwards afterwards, sending every star drawn into the aura down too. This can obviously throw them down into your mouths, and the kick itself deals 17% and a strong spike. It creates an earthquaking hitbox if it hits the ground that deals 11% and upwards knockback that KOs at 200%. The hitbox is about half a platform on each side, giving it rather huge range and making it a nice defense for your fake Killermen.

If you stomp on one of your Down Smash heads, it will cause it to explode in a cloud of blood, covering a battlefield platform width in the same blood produced by the FSmash, though that's a minor effect. The real benefit to this is that it will cause the Killerman head to vomit out everything that fell into it, whether it be the constant stream of maggots or stars. They all fly upwards which means the stars aren't going to be doing that much damage and knockback to foes directly above, but if they get launched in from the side this will launch them back away. This allows you to absorb in stars and then potentially juggle them up and down while the Fake Killerman bounce them around, effectively allowing a ton of defense for both Killerman and his copies.


Grab Game​

Grab


Killerman performs your fairly standard Brawl grab, snatching forwards and when he has then putting the foe in a similar holding pose to Snake's grab. Fake Killermen can perform this move too, and foes will have to escape with normal grab difficulty... except that button mashing has a much greater effect. It will get them out in a fraction of a second, making this all rather ineffectual, and the amount required to escape this way doesn't change with percent.

Pummel


Killerman clenches the opponent's head, dealing them no damage, before leaving his hand there... this leaves him incapable of throwing the foe. However, if the foe button mashes out as opposed to escaping the grab in the more slow fashion of just waiting, Killerman will crush the foe's head, them taking 16% and knockback that KOs at 100%. Obviously, if this is a duplicate, if you've convinced a foe it's you you can use this for set-up time or prepare to reposition everyone via teleport. If the foe thinks it's you and it is you, this won't do much of anything, but if you've put up a good image of being a duplicate... well, they pay rather dearly for mistaking you for one. Still, if you don't have the opponent fooled and then bust this out, you've made a terrible mistake.

Forward Throw


Killerman simply... let's the foe go? Yes, he releases the foe from the grab, and then a split second later slashes at them with his claw, dealing 13% and horizontal knockback that KOs at 155%. This is fairly powerful, though the opponent can easily react to this if they know the real you used it... but for all they know, they may just have broken out of a fake Killerman's grab, and dodging/shielding will then just end up making them look pretty stupid. That said, you have to know exactly when to use this to make it look convincing, if the foe's not trying to break out of a Fake Killerman's grab then this move will indicate exactly what you're doing, and they won't really fall for it. So be careful.


Back Throw


Killerman suplexes the foe in a similar manner to how Kirby and Meta Knight handle their suplexes, dealing the foe 10% and upwards knockback that KOs at 180%. It won't have Killerman fly all the way up off the top of the screen though. If a foe is hit by an attack that deals upwards knockback on their way down though, or a trap, like say your Uair stars or more threateningly a stalled jab star, they'll take double damage and knockback from it, flying out of Killerman's grasp. Aside from obviously serving as a pretty nifty KO move in conjunction with your traps, this sets up for a juggle very well.

Up Throw


Killerman teleports, keeping the foe in tow, before reappearing a Bowser length away. Normally he'll appear up in the air with them, but you can tap any direction during the teleport to appear in that direction. Killerman than tosses them forwards a brief distance for 5% and weak knockback. You can feasibly follow up on this, particularly at lower percents. Fake Killermen don't bother to throw the foe, just teleport in the chosen direction, revealing what they are but getting them out of the foe's face. The real Killerman can do this too, by very weakly tilting up. While the lack of damage is pretty lame, it can at least keep the foe in confusion as to exactly who you are.

Down Throw


Killerman slams his opponent into the ground for 10% and leaving them in prone. Obviously, Killerman has some mild prone abuse he can take advantage of with this, though using the Down Tilt as a follow up won't work as well as you hope given the foe has enough time to avoid it... but hell, you might have some sort of set up that allows you to land it anyway, or another animated Killerman to do the job for you.
 

Big Mac

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
38
ZODICK THE HELLHOG



Zodick is the antagonist of the Toyhunter section of Illbleed. He has no real elaboration other than kidnapping Cork’s SEXAH DAHLL and taking her to toy hell (Not plain old hell, mind you) before fighting Cork in a not-so climatic confrontation.

The other thing you might have noticed about him, per chance, is that he’s a blatant mocking parody of Sonic the Hedgehog. While you might just dismiss it to a similar design at first, in his boss battle he not only has Sonic’s spindash, but rings are knocked out of him when he’s hit which must be destroyed in order to defeat him.

STATS


Weight: 15-5
Size: 13
Jumps: 9
Ground Movement: 8
Aerial Speed: 6
Falling Speed: 5
Aerial Control: 4
Traction: 1

Zodick is a very lanky character. He’s not as wide as DK, much less Bowser, but he stands at a towering height, 1.5X as tall as Ganon. Zodick’s traction is on par with the regular sized hedgehog’s, but unlike said hedgehog Zodick can attack when the traction from turning around during a dash is triggered, so it’s a positive rather than a negative.

Zodick has 8 rings, like in his boss battle, displayed in a small counter next to his HUD. Whenever Zodick takes 6% or more in a single hit, a ring will get knocked out of him. Rings have the weight of Jigglypuff at 50% and will take the knockback of the attack that forced the ring to get knocked out of Zodick immediately. If it gets knocked off the stage, it’s gone forever, but Zodick will automatically pick up the ring on contact with a slight “ching”.

For every ring Zodick loses, he loses a bit of weight as well as hitstun resistance. The chart below showcases how much stun Zodick takes and how heavy he is at all times in detail. “Flinch” resistance refers to attacks that do nothing but flinch, whereas “stun” resistance refers to attacks that either have more than a simple flinch, like Zamus’ dsmash, or attacks that do both hitstun and knockback.

Rings|Weight|Flinch Resistance|Stun Resistance|Throw/Grab Escape Resistance|Grab Escape Difficulty
8|15|100%|50%|90%|0.5X
7|13.75|90%|45%|80%|0.6X
6|12.5|80%|40%|70%|0.7X
5|11.25|70%|35%|60%|0.8X
4|10|60%|30%|50%|0.9X
3|8.75|50%|25%|40%|1X
2|7.5|40%|20%|30%|1X
1|6.25|20%|10%|15%|1X
0|5|0%|0%|0%|1X

SPECIALS


SIDE SPECIAL – SLAUGHTERDASH


Zodick curls up into a fat blue ball and starts revving up much like Sonic. You reach full charge after a single second, after which point Zodick will rampage forward at a 15/10 dashing speed before coming to a stop 3 platforms away from his current point, slowing down as he goes. Zodick can rev up for a shorter time period to not go as far if he so desires.

On contact with a foe, Zodick won’t simply knock them away, oh no. He will impale them on his spines brutally. This does an immediate 10%, and each time Zodick rolls over them during the spinning he deals an extra 2%. If you ran over somebody right in front of a fully charged spindash, you’re looking at a free 30%. In addition, foes will bleed while impaled, coating all of the ground you spindash over in blood. For the most part, blood behaves as Brawl ice, massively decreasing traction. Zodick is able to attack while sliding about from bad traction, though, so this is more of a way for him to get free momentum. When you’re constantly having to move around to pick up rings, sliding in short boosts is a godsend.

If you use this move when you already have momentum, such as from sliding about on blood or far more likely having been attacked by a foe, it functions differently if used on the ground. Zodick will simply be spinning about in ball form rather than revving up, simply a GTFO hitbox that does 5% and knockback that KOs at 185%. If Zodick is in contact with the ground, he will embed his spines into the ground, causing his momentum to decrease very quickly. If he slides for 1.5 full platforms with his spines embedded, he will lose all momentum. This is a massive boon for Zodick’s survivability, and makes him essentially invulnerable to horizontal KO moves at the center of the stage.

UP SPECIAL – DARK SPEED DASH


Upon activating this move, you gain control of a trail of rings. The rings are the same size as always, Kirby’s size, and you can move this trail about at Captain Falcon’s dashing speed. The ring trail you create will have the rings touching each other, so your ring trail will be 0 to 8 Kirbies. Once you finish making the trail, Zodick will gain a dark aura and go past all the rings at Sonic’s dash speed, reabsorbing them into his body and being a hitbox that does 13% and knockback that KOs at 125% in the direction Zodick is currently going. Zodick does not enter helpless but can only use this move once per air trip.

If Zodick ends the move on the ground, he will enter his dash, but at Sonic’s dash speed. He will slow down to his regular dashing speed over 2 platforms worth of ground. You can just turn around to cancel the extra speed boost, though then you’ll trigger Zodick’s bad traction, and if you trigger the traction on blood you won’t lose any speed at all. Of course, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing and can even be intentional on your part.

While the rings levitate in place and defy gravity during this move, they can be knocked away during the starting lag by foes. If one ring is knocked away, Zodick will end the dark speed dash at the ring before it in line, and all the rings left uncollected will then be subject to the laws of gravity as the move ends. So long story short, the recovery is great but gimpable, meaning Zodick will probably want to just use this move to gain vertical distance, potentially even moving away from foes, before using Side Special to reach the stage.

With no rings, Zodick does a little flop upwards that does 3% and set GTFO knockback, moving him up a single Kirby height and putting him into helpless.

NEUTRAL SPECIAL – GOAL POST




A compartment in the stage opens up in front of Zodick, causing a goal post to come up out of the ground. Zodick is free to move as soon as it starts coming up, and the compartment in the stage does a token 3% and weak set knockback as it closes to foes. The goal post shows the face of Zodick in place of Sonic (Who is giving the finger to the screen rather than a peace sign), and that of his creator Michael Reynolds in place of Robotnik.

When anybody runs past the goalpost, it will start spinning, becoming a hitbox. Zodick is immune to this, but he can’t just sit on top of the post to “hide” due to being so tall and the goalpost only being a bit bigger than Kirby. The faster somebody goes past the post, the longer and faster the goal post will spin. The faster it spins, the more hits of 1% and flinching it will do per second. If Sonic dashes past it, for example, it will deal 35 hits of 1% and flinching for the first second it spins, and spin for 10 seconds total.

Zodick can have up to two goal posts on the field, and they can be destroyed by enemies with a fairly standard 30 HP. Foes can’t attack these with jointed attacks while they’re spinning without getting hit with a token flinch, though, making it much more complex for foes if you’re nearby as you punish them for it. If you input the move away from a goal post with two up, the oldest goal post will retract into the ground with the weak hitbox while a new one will come up in front of you.

If Zodick inputs this move in front of an existing goal post, he will rip it up out of the ground and use it as a battering weapon – one of those items that replaces your jab, dash attack, ftilt, and fsmash such as the beam sword or fan. Pressing Neutral B with the weapon out will have Zodick slam the post back into the ground, dealing 10% and knockback that KOs at 150%.

The fsmash is an overhead swing of the sign, hitting foes with the actual sign portion as the sign sticks out from Zodick as far as Dedede’s ftilt due to the post the sign is on. Contact with the sign deals 20-35% and knockback that KOs at 130-90%, the post 6-12% and knockback that KOs at 200-165%.

The dashing attack has Zodick charge forward with the sign portion of the post extends out a Wario width in front of him, the sign facing away from the camera. This is a keep dashing dash attack, and the sign deals 10 hits of 1% and weak hits that deal set knockback to push foes along with Zodick. To ensure that nobody gets left behind, the sign is solid for this move, also making this a great approaching method.

The jab has Zodick hold the sign portion of the post in front of him. If it wasn’t spinning when Zodick picked it up, he will slowly spin it around for a “grinding” hitbox that deals 5 hits of 1% and flinching per second. If it was spinning when Zodick picked it up though, it will continue spinning in Zodick’s grasp at the same rate, enabling Zodick to bring the spinning hitbox to the foe.

The ftilt is largely the same as the jab, but has Zodick extend out the post to hit people with rather than the sign. This hitbox has a much longer range, as long as Dedede’s ftilt, but the hitbox is only half as powerful as the regular spinning hitbox found in the jab. Aside from superior range to the jab, the ftilt has the bonus of piercing the foe enough to make them generate a small Pokeball’s worth of blood every other time they’re hit.

DOWN SPECIAL – TELEVISION POWER UP




This is a storable charge move like the Neutral Bs of Samus and DK. Upon release, a television power up comes out of a secret compartment in the stage. Like the Neutral Special, Zodick is free to move as soon as it starts coming up and the compartment does 3% and weak set knockback as it closes.

The type of power up that comes up from the ground depends on the length the move was charged. No charge gets you a shield television, one second a speedy shoes television, and two seconds a ring television. To get the effect of a television, you must land on it from above. Attacking it from the sides will diminish the TV’s 20 HP. Zodick can have up to one television of each type out on the field at all times.

The shield power up causes the wearer to gain a blue shield the size of their regular shield. If Zodick gets it, it will take up to 10% for him. While projectiles will still damage the shield, they will be reflected after damaging the shield, even if said projectile destroys the shield. If a foe gets the shield power up, it will not actually block any attacks, and will instead block their own attacks until the 10 HP of the shield has been depleted. If the foe attempts to fire a projectile inside, it will rebound off the shield back at them, even if said projectile destroys the shield. Either way, the shield lends itself well to offensive pressure.

The speedy shoes power up will prevent foes from being able to stand in place or walk. If they’re in the air, they will be forced to constantly DI in one direction, and cannot change the direction they’re DIing in until they move in said direction at least a platform. If they continue to dash in the same direction, their speed will increase by 1.25X for every platform they travel in said direction. If a foe (Not Zodick) with speedy shoes attempts to turn around while dashing on blood, they will trip and continue sliding forward with the same momentum, unable to change it until they get up.

The ring power up will cause Zodick to regain a single ring he has lost, though Zodick will never be able to go over 8 rings through this. Needless to say, slipping and sliding both yourself and the foe about with blood and super speed shoes, can buy plenty of short bursts to charge up Down Special to regain rings while still keeping an offensive tone to the match. If an enemy obtains the power-up in some attempt to stop you from getting your ring, the ring will go around and constrict the foe, forcing them to sit in place until they escape the ring’s confines at grab difficulty. Foes constricted by a ring can still take damage and knockback as normal without being knocked out of the “grab”.

STANDARDS


NEUTRAL ATTACK – TOO FAST


Zodick runs his legs in place in a manner identical to Sonic’s Side Taunt for as long as you hold down the A button, making guttural sounds similar to the Tasmanian Devil at the screen as he does so that sounds vaguely like “You’re too slow” in gibberish. This does 11 hits of 1% and flinching per second, and the hitbox is 1.25X as wide as Bowser as Zodick’s blurring legs flail about. This move is good defensively against grounded enemies for blocking off Zodick’s upper hurtbox with such a massive one below him. While the jab with the goalpost may be a bit harder to hit with, it’s vastly more powerful, and if you want something easy you still have the ftilt which will still probably be more powerful than this jab if you get it spinning quick enough.

This move is very useful in context with momentum, as if you’re constantly sliding towards the foe they can’t simply DI out of it. If you’re sliding fast, foes will be better off DIing out backwards as you continue to whizz past. If you predict this, you can cancel the jab into something that hits behind you or alters your momentum in some way.

DASHING ATTACK – PSYCHE


Zodick, with nearly no telegraph at all, suddenly jumps backwards a good platform out of his dash. Zodick deals 6% and knockback that KOs at 175% as he jumps back before regaining his footing with impressive agility. Strangely, the knockback of this move knocks enemies in the direction Zodick was dashing rather than backwards.

If you’re dashing when you’re sliding, then this is largely an anti-dodge move. If the foe spot dodges or rolls away from you, then this will delay your momentum long enough that you will ideally be in their face as they come out of their dodge. If the foe rolls towards you, then the move is far simpler as you not only go back after them, but knock them in front of you to reset the situation, with an extra 6% tacked onto the foe.

FORWARD TILT – STOMP


Zodick stomps slightly in front of himself, dealing 13% and horizontal knockback that KOs at 140%. The foot isn’t the only hitbox on the move, though, as there is a DK width earthshaking hitbox in front of Zodick’s foot. This hitbox is brief and deals 7% and a token Ganon’s worth of set vertical knockback. The earthshaking hitbox is your main interest with this move, as it enables you to get shorter characters up into your face. It also works nicely if you’re sliding away from a foe chasing after you, as you can leave the earthshaking hitbox behind for them while you continue to slide along.

This can also hit television power ups (As well as any other earthshaking hitboxes), knocking them into the air. This can potentially cause somebody who was jumping over a television to approach you to “land” on the TV and get the power-up.

UP TILT – SWAT


Zodick swats his hand over his head in a rainbow arc in an animation not unlike DK’s utilt. Zodick’s hand is a hitbox for the entirety of the swat, meaning this actually can hit foes on either side of Zodick and not just ones up in the air, though it’s obviously easiest to hit aerial enemies. Zodick’s hand does 10% and knockback that KOs at 140% on contact, knocking foes directly away from the hand.

If sliding at a foe, this is another strong anti-dodge move. If the foe dodges the initial hitbox at the start of the move in front of Zodick, they can ideally be hit by the hit as it sweeps down to Zodick’s other side as he slides past. While this may seem similar to the dashing attack, this move has two key unique uses in context of said move’s existence. The first is that the hitbox at the start can actually hit enemies who do –not- try to avoid your attack. The second is that this move is more likely to hit foes who roll behind Zodick if you’re sliding very quickly due to the long range behind Zodick – casually jumping backwards with the dashing attack won’t do much to stall you if you’re flying forwards at the speed of sound. The dashing attack’s advantages include the ability to reposition/delay Zodick, and is better at punishing dodges if you’re sure the foe is going to dodge, at least if you’re not moving super fast.

DOWN TILT – TOOTH AND CLAW


Zodick’s crouch is actually very good for such a large character, bringing him down to twice the height of Sonic’s crouch while just barely increasing his width (Though enough to not hide behind a goalpost). For his dtilt, Zodick extends his arms out half a platform’s width in front of him, then digs them into the ground and pulls himself to his hands. His hands are actually not a hitbox, but they’re not a hurtbox either during this move. The hitbox is Zodick’s body as it is pulled forwards, dealing 8% and knockback that KOs at 155%.

If Zodick uses this on top of blood, he will start sliding across it at Luigi’s dashing speed, increasing in speed by 1.2X for every platform he goes until he’s not on blood anymore. Once he’s off of blood, he will slow by 0.5X every platform he goes.

If Zodick uses this when he has momentum, this can further boost it, but he will slowly lose speed even if spamming this move if he does not use it on blood, as a general rule. If he uses it in the opposite direction of where his momentum is taking him, it will slow him down by 0.2X. If he has a small enough amount of momentum, such as Mario’s dash speed or less, it will cause his momentum to change in direction rather than slowing him down.

SMASHES


FORWARD SMASH – GNASHING OF TEETH


Zodick does a mighty chomp forwards. It’s rather disturbingly fast for such a powerful KO move, dealing 20-35% and knockback that KOs at 100-75%. As an added bonus, a Bowser’s worth of blood will even be splattered where you used the move. The problem with hitting with this move is Zodick doesn’t bend down all that much to chomp people even with the move’s good horizontal range, meaning unless you’re fighting somebody a hair taller than Ganon you won’t be able to hit a grounded foe with this. You’ll have to get foes to approach in the air over a television or a goalpost, or simply knock them to the air yourself with something like ftilt.

This move is still not an instant win button in ground vs air combat, as this move has horrible end lag if it misses as Zodick bites down on his tongue like the stupid overgrown furry he is. To deal with the risk of said end lag, sliding about can be very helpful to cover it up.

DOWN SMASH – CRUSH


Zodick goes to do an absolutely –massive- stomp. By massive, I mean he bends his entire body back as he lifts up his foot to prepare for this titanic stomp, only one foot connected to the ground where he originally was. He bends back so far that his previous hurtbox is massively removed from where he once was, in a manner not unlike Bowser’s fsmash. The move has lag on par with said fsmash, but using this move like a “counter” in most cases will allow you to hit with it, especially against aerial enemies who do not even have the option of attacking your foot on the ground. This move can still be interrupted before Zodick stomps down without going after his retreating main body by attacking his sole foot, though people who do not predict this can only “auto-predict” it either by being a short character and attacking regularly or doing a low hitting attack.

The stomp deals 26-42% and knockback that KOs at 90-70%. The evasive properties of this move cannot be understated with this move, being a huge boon as it so drastically moves about Zodick’s huge hurtbox. Rather than a hit and run move, this is more of a “run and hit” move, as too much hit and run in that order gets predictable from time to time.

UP SMASH – BIYCLE KICK


Zodick does a full bicycle kick, kicking his leg above his head before moving the kick in a full 360 spin around his body. Zodick is unfortunately a bit clumsy, as if this move is whiffed Zodick will fail to complete the bicycle kick and will enter his tripped state from this move, landing on his ass like an idiot. This deals 23-32%, but the knockback varies. When the hitbox is above you, this is yet more anti-air as the foe takes knockback that KOs at 140-100%. If you hit a foe in front of you with this move, then two thirds of Zodick’s momentum will transfer to the foe as they’re given upwards momentum specifically. Zodick takes the remaining third of his momentum, but immediately starts sliding backwards if he wasn’t already. If you somehow hit a foe with this while sliding backwards, you will boost your momentum by 1.4-1.8X. This all assumes Zodick has momentum in the first place – if he is sliding at 3/10 dashing speed or slower, this will deal a straight knockback that KOs at 165-130%.

Aside from being the main purpose of the move, having momentum for this move is beneficial to cover the ending lag. Yes, sliding away from an enemy while tripped is nice, but if you slide off the stage while using the move you don’t even have to trip at all. The fact that this move’s input is usmash gives you massive mobility options in tandem with the highly versatile dashing attack if you use this as a DACUS (Dash attack canceled Up Smash). Using the move as a DACUS makes it actually possible, for one, to hit a foe while sliding BACKWARDS with the move, turning this into a much more real of a potential momentum building than it would otherwise.

AERIALS


NEUTRAL AERIAL – THE SPLITS


Zodick does a split kick in mid-air, lifting up his legs which make him the vast majority of his height all the way up to his sides with impressive flexibility. This is a sex kick, initially turning his legs into hitboxes that do 12% and knockback that KOs at 140% on the side of Zodick you’re on, progressively getting weaker as the kick is held out. This move has massive range, and covers Zodick almost entirely from below, unless he is hit in his. . .Pleasure area. And who would go and do THAT? David, mayhaps. While the lingering hitbox is not as powerful, this is largely an evasive move, as you’re removing your massive lower hurtbox and defending your upper hurtbox with a very long hitbox. To further emphasize this, this move can boost Zodick a Mario height into the air once per air trip.

This move has a very awkward form of landing lag, in that Zodick will be in a long laggy state as he gets up from it, but the first part of the landing lag animation keeps out the hitbox for a bit longer before Zodick gets up, Zodick keeping his legs extended briefly before he gets up. Given Zodick’s size and falling speed, it’s kind of a necessary feature to use it on-stage properly.

FORWARD AERIAL – KNEE OF INJUSTICE


Stealing a move from the second fastest character on the ground, Zodick juts out his knee. This is very similar to the Brawl version of the move, meaning the sourspot is far larger than the sweetspot. The sweetspot deals 20% and a spike diagonally downwards 1.5X as strong as Ganon’s dair, generating a Wario’s worth of blood to boot. The sourspot deals 5% and weak set knockback of a platform. The sweetspot on this move is specifically the spike on Zodick’s knee. While the sourspot/sweetspot ratio is proportionately the same size as Falcon’s, the fact Zodick is so much larger means the hitboxes are much larger and it’s actually feasible to hit with the sweetspot.

This is a better air to ground move than you might think, just because Zodick points his knee diagonally downwards with this move. This makes the spike protrude the furthest downwards of any part of his body, making the move a good deal more practical. If they approach over it, you still have the large hitbox of the sourspot as some means of defense. Of course spiking foes on the ground isn’t all that useful, but the move serves as a very potent launcher if foes are directly on the ground already and don’t try to jump to avoid the attack.

If Zodick has momentum when he uses this attack that would make him move at least as quickly as Captain Falcon’s dashing speed, then this move turns into a grab hitbox as Zodick impales the foe on his knee spike. This also works if the foe has the same momentum, or if both Zodick and the foe have enough momentum to combine up to the amount needed. Once Zodick impales a foe, they must escape it like a regular grab while Zodick is free to move, still taking the 20% and generating a Wario’s worth of blood. So long as foes remain impaled on his knee spike, they take 1% per quarter second and bleed a Kirby’s worth of blood per second.

None of Zodick’s attacks can hit the impaled foe outside of a handful. Using fair again pummels the foe for 5% and a Kirby’s worth of blood. Using Side Special Slaughterdash causes the foe to get impaled on that instead automatically, and is your best option to gimp the foe if you accidentally “grabbed” them instead of spiking them off-stage, where you can Up Special directly back to the stage in peace afterwards. Inputting grab will cause Zodick to rip the foe off of his knee spike and grab them in his standard grab, refreshing the grab timer, dealing 5% to them, and making a Kirby’s worth of blood.

BACK AERIAL – ELBOW JAB


Zodick leans his upper half back a significant distance in midair, aided largely by his lanky build and towering height. He then proceeds to smack people behind him with his elbow, dealing 8% and knockback that KOs at 140%, before quickly snapping his body back into an upright position. The leaning is what makes this move good, as it enables you to do some elementary hit and run aerial “poking” without any momentum whatsoever as you lean back to hit the foe from a distance, then snap back into place. Since this is an aerial, this can only be aided further by DIing as you see fit.

The move still has some use with momentum, as if you predict you’re going to whizz past somebody as they dodge whatever you’re going to do, you can wait until you’re already past them before attacking with this move for a hit and run that’s nearly impossible to chase.

UP AERIAL – GORE


Zodick does a headbutt, thrusting his head upwards. Due to the fact that he’s so large, the size of his head doesn’t exaggerate like in a stupid Eagle King’s utilt, but the size of his horns do. This is a very fast uair and fairly powerful, dealing 11% and vertical knockback that KOs at 120%, even slightly goring into foes for a Kirby width of blood that drops straight down. Essentially, the quality of the move is on par with most wall of pain bairs, but the “wall” is vertical rather than horizontal. The range of the move is quite good also. . .But again, the range is all vertical.

Are you seeing the problem with this move? Zodick the giant has to hit people with the top portion of his towering body, and he’s not allowed to be standing on the ground. The move has minimal landing lag, but will still be interrupted if you land on the ground. When you –do- get a poor sap high into the air, probably with usmash or something, they will probably have the sense to avoid being juggled, if they’re not some casual, since you have no other chance to really use this move’s great qualities. In said scenarios where foes are avoiding you like the plague, they will be moving to get onto one side of you, and you can quite easily use this move as “leverage” to bait them over to where you’d like them to land. Preferably onto a television or goal post, though the move is fast enough you can potentially lead into something like bair or fsmash with this as you position the foe, predicting their dodge and having no intention of actually hitting with the uair.

DOWN AERIAL – DROP KICK


Zodick largely imitates Sonic’s dair. He goes at a more directly diagonal angle than Sonic rather than just a slight one, and he extends out both of his feet for the kick rather than just one. The move is a basic stall then fall, Zodick going down much faster than Sonic, dealing 15% and Rob dair level spiking knockback on the way down.

When the landing lag of this move is triggered, Zodick will slide forwards a distance based off how far he fell – half a platform per Ganon. As he slides forwards, his feet are a hitbox that deals 8% and horizontal knockback that KOs at 200%. More importantly, he will generate constant Bowser sized dust cloud hitboxes in front of himself as he goes. The dust clouds last for 5 seconds, and deal a hit of 1% and no flinching every quarter second to anyone inside of them. If foes shield while inside a dust cloud, they won’t take any shield stun, but their shield will completely deteriorate into nothing within .65 seconds.

If you don’t want to get high in the air to create dust clouds across the whole stage, you just need some blood on the field, as Zodick will slide infinitely across blood and his “sliding timer” will only resume once he gets off of it. Zodick can jump out of this sliding at any time.

The purpose of the dust clouds in your playstyle is to simply punish foes for staying on the ground, and to get them into the air where your more powerful ground attacks like fsmash can hit.

GRAB-GAME


GRAB – BLOODY GLOVES


Zodick extends out his arms in front of him in a grab nearly identical to Sonic’s in animation. Because Zodick is so much larger, though, it will miss all characters Ganondorf’s height or shorter, making it more of an anti-air grab. Zodick does have a grab to hit grounded foes, though, in the form of his dashing grab, which has Zodick puts his hand down on the ground level and cup them together to try to scoop people up as he skids to a stop. The dashing grab’s hitbox lingers for a bit, which normally isn’t all that helpful, but can function as a great range upgrade if you have momentum.

Zodick holds the foe by a single leg, dangling them upside down in front of his face as he drools.

PUMMEL - SALIVA


From his grab-stance, Zodick simply licks the foe, not like a dog happy to see his owner, but like a deranged furry from a fan fiction (Typing “bad” in front of fan fiction would be redundant). This is a quick and fast pummel, Zodick shaking his head back and forth as he repeatedly licks the foe if the move is spammed. Each pummel only does 1%, but a fast pummel is preferred for a character with a form of chain-grab, such as Zodick.

DOWN THROW – FURIOUS STAMP


Zodick throws the foe to his feet and jumps up as he does so, then times stomping down so that he stomps the foe the moment they hit the ground. This deals 13% and vertical knockback that KOs at 180%.

If you slide off-stage by making a grab with momentum, then you’ll discover this throw is actually a spike. This is actually one of Zodick’s most surprisingly potent KO methods. The only reason the throw normally does vertical knockback is the same reason why any spike does vertical knockback to grounded foes.

FORWARD THROW – PUNT


Zodick punts the foe forwards with a simple kick. This does 6% and weak forwards knockback that won’t KO until 200%. This throw is able to become a chain-grab if Zodick is sliding forwards as he does the throw, enabling him to immediately regrab the foe given how little knockback they take and how they’re being kicked in the direction Zodick is sliding.

How long you can chain-grab varies on the foe’s percentage and how fast you’re going. If they have a very low percentage, going too fast can actually be a problem, as you slide past them before you can grab them due to how little knockback they can take. The chaingrab can work with the foe at somewhat high percentages, unlike other situational chaingrabs, but the momentum must be precise, giving a lot of skill to what is normally a very cheap mechanic. Given how difficult matching the two factors can be, though, there’s a bigger reward than just damage for this throw. If you can keep up the chain-grab until you can slide off-stage, you’ve got a free dthrow. Sure, you can just slide off without this, but this prevents foes from potentially escaping your perfectly ordinary grab too early.

BACK THROW – BLAST OFF


Zodick throws his foe to the ground under him, dealing 3%, and starts moving his legs around super fast in a blur, like in his jab and Sonic’s Side Taunt. This does 8 hits of 1% and flinching to the foe and any outside foes. Zodick then blasts forwards with momentum on par with Sonic’s dashing speed, while the foe takes backwards knockback that kills at 160% and an extra 4% for a total of 15%. This is the single safest way Zodick has to build momentum, given the foe has no way of interrupting him once he lands the grab.

UP THROW – SNACK


Zodick lightly throws the foe above his head before chomping at them for 14% and knockback that KOs at 135%. This produces a Kirby width of blood, but the main point of the move is simply being a vertical launcher to hit better with your anti air moves. True, the dthrow is a vertical launcher also, but the difference is where the foe is launched at in these moves. In the dthrow, the foe is launched from the ground, while the uthrow has the foe be launched from above Zodick’s towering frame before they ever start to take their knockback. As such, the dthrow doesn’t really work as a launcher until higher percentages and can end up getting you punished, while the minimum knockback of this move is quite beneficial.

FINAL SMASH – ALL HAIL ZODICK


Zodick gets on a giant motorcycle and automatically zooms back and forth on the platform he’s on at 1.5X the speed of Sonic’s dash. Contact with the motorcycle does 28% and knockback that KOs at 65% in the direction the motorcycle is going. On walk-off stages, the motorcycle will stop and turn around before it would go into the “magnifying glass” at the edge of the stage.

Zodick also takes out a pair of sub-machine guns while he is riding on the bike and will gain control of a crosshair for the duration of the final smash, since the motorcycle movement is automatic. The submachine gun bullets will move past the crosshair and go until they reach something solid/a blast zone, moving as fast as Shiek’s needles. The bullets deal 1% and flinching and 11 are fired per second.

Pressing B will cause Zodick to take out a rocket launcher and fire it, exploding on contact with something solid/a foe and dealing 30% and knockback that KOs at 50%. Rockets move as fast as Mario’s dashing speed. Zodick can fire one rocket per 2 seconds, though only has a half second of true “ending lag”, enabling him to shoot submachine gun fire for the other 1.5 seconds.

The Final Smash lasts for the popular duration of 12 seconds. Zodick is invulnerable most of the time, but if you attack him as he’s turning around at an edge, he will get knocked off the bike and the Final Smash will end. Zodick can still use his guns while turning around to defend himself, of course.

PLAYSTYLE SUMMARY


Zodick wants to be constantly moving. While there are countless benefits to doing so, the main reason to never come to a complete stop is for evasion. You don’t really need to have a momentum mechanic at all times, you can make use of evasive move animations in stuff like the dashing attack, dsmash, nair, and bair. You’ve got some leeway with the stun resistances you get from the rings, but in order to keep the rings you pretty much have to be sliding in order to collect them as they get knocked out of you. The most mandatory thing you really have to get out for “set-up” is just the blood. Landing the Side Special a single time with your back to the edge fairly close to the edge is pretty much all you have to do, as the other methods of creating blood are largely just for aesthetic effect, given anything and everything in Illbleed generates blood. If you are having trouble landing Side B, this can be one of the main uses of getting the weakest television out for the shield. Once they have it, the foe is forced into some limited predictability. If you ever need space during this time just to get televisions and goal posts, your number one move is bthrow.

With the blood out, Zodick is pretty free to slide back and forth as much as he wants at all times, stopping himself if he gets out of control with dtilt or dair if absolutely necessary, but preferably making direct use of it as he comes to a complete stop with the grab-game and dthrow or usmash if he feels he’s going too fast. Dtilt is particularly notable for turning Zodick around outright at low speeds. With constant sliding, Zodick can much more try to play hit and run rather than simply run. Sliding fast is less the point so long as you don’t come to a halt with the enemy in close combat. If he’s constantly sliding, a large part of the run part of hit and run is automatic, making his other evasive methods stacked on top of that more than anything else making him outright invincible if all he’s trying to do is evade. More than that, said evasive options become methods for maneuvering around the foe’s dodges to get past their own evasive tactics. From a gameplay standpoint, you’re essentially a fat-ass ninja.

When you are too far away from the foe to really do anything, it’s free time to charge goal posts and televisions. Charging a television in particular can help you regain one of the rings you’ve inevitably lost, which is a pretty big threat on top of your evasive nature. This is necessary as it means foes won’t waste time trying to destroy them so long as you can so casually continue to make them. While you might wonder the purpose of “traps” when Zodick is getting more offensive, if foes are having to constantly make their way to an ever-changling location, it means they’re not just crossing the gauntlet once, but doing several painful laps around it. Using ftilt on the televisions can add to your enemy’s pain, as well as just using the ftilt on its own to create yet another lingering disjointed hitbox for foes to progress over. If your enemy is somehow as adept as moving about as you are, you still want at the least a goalpost anyway as you slide past it again and again, as you can just bring it directly to the foe by uprooting it.

Zodick does not like characters who make heavy use of traps, particularly in high quantities. Sliding back and forth will make him constantly vulnerable to them. Zodick is generally offensive enough to just pressure them to prevent heavy set-up, though if the foe is allowed to get out the traps through one means or another Zodick will have to be making heavy use of ftilt to test the waters to set-off and destroy traps while replacing them with his own temporary disjointed hitboxes. More importantly, Zodick will want to make more heavy use of his launchers and juggling game, as even if these trap characters are adept in the air (Quite rare) he specifically doesn’t want their traps on the ground. This is quite possibly the biggest legitimate use of the dust from dair, as it will rack damage quite quickly on these characters in their natural environment. He can play against these characters fine with his main playstyle, just having to address a few things, so don’t confuse this as a match-up where your playstyle is invalidated. These match-ups are probably where you’ll most commonly be bringing the goalposts to the foe by uprooting them, and the goalpost dashing attack proves to be quite a necessary approaching feature at times when Zodick doesn’t want to do something fancy every single time he makes his way to the foe.
 

Smady

Smash Master
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Michael Reynolds: Ah yes... Excellent movement!

Fantastic!

I haven't had this much excitement in a long time...

...

V-very well then.

I shall present you with one-hundred million dollars.

And here for the fanfare,

is the Michael Reynolds orchestra!



MICHAEL REYNOLDS ORCHESTRA - FINAL SMASH

The background of the stage alters, a mysterious section that was not previously existent pops out. Moments later, it flips around to reveal a hidden orchestra, the Michael Reynolds Orchestra! They play a regal tune for the next twenty seconds, the duration of this final smash.



Immediately after the orchestra makes its appearance, a shower of dollars bills fall from the top blast zone over the top of where the player activated his final smash. This "shower" is a platform wide and goes all the way up to the top platform. There's one-hundred-million dollars worth, but Reynolds must have created a new higher-value bill, as only one-hundred drop! These dollars picked up by an opponent heal a percent a piece. Only foes can pick up the dollars. The dollar bills are affected by wind hitboxes and so on, as I'm sure you already reasoned. No, this really is more of a way to gloat at opponents, the sole purpose to win a match being that it creates a field where the opponent can no longer use their jab or neutral aerial, commonly used as close-ranged attacks. Piles of cash and the rain of money create quasi-clashing hitboxes as they fall that prevent an opponent's attack through the obstruction. Be careful what you wish for, challenger.



Michael Reynolds: Wait, you want me to join?

I dislike standing from my chair.

Though it does make a sublime entrance.

Statistically average in most respects, I'm afraid.

I am just a man in a suit. What do you expect?

Don't worry, I have a few surprises up my sleeve.

I am never caught unprepared.

SPECIALS


TRAP - NEUTRAL SPECIAL

Michael Reynolds scratches his chin in deep thought, a silhouette appearing above his head. The player can scroll through different silhouettes by using the shield input, there being nine in total from which to choose. At the same time, the directional input lets you move around the silhouette. The trap "sticks" to the stage; it can be placed on top of platforms, but if you bring it over to the side of the stage it will lock on there when it is created and can, in the same manner, be stuck to the bottom of a platform. Press the standard input to "set" the trap and the special input again to choose your trap.

You'll have to get quite used to the traps, they're fundamental, but incredibly crucial to Reynolds' game plan. These creations don't pop into existence, Reynolds' servants appear at his side, in the background, before dashing off to where, for now, exists only a silhouette. These are, of course, the dummy men. Scroll down if you want to see what they look like, for now what's important is the are limited by an above-average running speed and three average jumps.

They will do all they can to reach the as-of-yet uncreated trap, killing themselves in the process if they must, dissipating that ambition then and there. This puts a tangible limit on where you can place your traps, at the start of a match. However, these devoted minions will attach themselves to their "work" if they do succeed in getting to their destination, so you needn't worry about them falling off the ledge or anything else dumb - basically, they have an all-purpose wall cling. This allows you to place traps at a variety of angles. Any trap takes only a second to build. The dummy men are invulnerable for the duration of movement, opting to stay in the background, but do become vulnerable when building the traps. Dummy man exhausted in its capability, it collapses and dies, its corpse soon disappearing... but what you have left is a trap! These universally have a set 30HP before the opponent obliterates the trap. They are physical obstructions but the paltry health of these traps stops them from interrupting the natural flow of the stage too easily. What trap that is, depends on what you selected in the beginning:


Trap: Elephant
Size: A Wario high, the trunk extends out longer, about as long as Ike's sword
Trigger: Come within a SBU of the trap. The elephant shoots its peanuts! They're only the size of a deku nut but have infinite range and travel at blaster speed.
Damage: Each peanut explodes in a brown splat on contact, dealing 5% damage and flinching knockback.
This trap only works when you're within the one SBU range. It triggers over-and-over as long as you are within that range.


Trap: Butt
Size: Like Two Mr. Saturns side-by-side
Trigger: Come into touching distance of this trap and it will excrete a pooey projectile in your direction! As you'd expect, this projectile doesn't have very good trajectory.
Damage: The pooey projectile deals a lousy 4% and slows movement slightly, but this only hits when the opponent is touching the trap.
This trap triggers far more quickly than the elephant at the cost of having to be physically touching it.


Trap: Garbage
Size: Jigglypuff-sized, if slightly smaller
Trigger: Attack the bags! From the bags, the reaction matches the force - more powerful attacks push out more gas
Damage: The gas deals passive damage of 2-5% damage a second and no knockback. The thickness / strength of the gas depends on the forced that was the original trigger.
Enemy or Reynolds' attack force determines the strength of this trap.


Trap: Orchestra Ticket
Size: Surprisingly large - two crates side-by-side, paper thin, placed flat on the surface to which it is attached
Trigger: Directly around the ticket is a slight wind hitbox, walking into the wind hitbox causes the ticket to attack. In the air, this requires you to DI toward the ticket.
Damage: The ticket hovers up to flutter in mid-air and sends out aesthetic bolts of lightning, as well as a weak pulse of wind that deals 5% and weak knockback.
Walking into the weak set wind hitbox acts as the trigger.


Trap: Painting
Size: Slightly thinner than a Pikmin, a crate high, as wide as a crate if somehow facing toward the screen
Trigger: Child Eriko in the painting is gone, a player staring at the painting or above it in the air causes them to appear in the clutches of the hands.
Damage: A second or so staring at the painting paints the foe into it fully, the foe takes constant damage of 1%. Looking away stops the trap but this is slightly delayed.
Staring at this trap on the same vertical level is the trigger, and the trap itself suffers slight delay.


Trap: Cigar
Size: Smallest trap; rectangular box as big as a Pikmin
Trigger: Stand in place within one SBU. The cigar will pump out smoke continuously for as long as anyone, including Reynolds, stands in that place.
Damage: This horrible obscuring cigarette smokes deals rapid hits of 1% and can cover over large parts of the stage if allowed.
A standing foe constantly sets off the trigger of this trap.


Trap: Shadow
Size: No space taken up; has to be constructed on a flat surface where players can stand, one SBU long, has to be attacked with down tilts and the like
Trigger: Using an attack while standing on the shadow causes a freakish green replica of the foe to rise up facing them and use the same attack.
Damage: Attributes for the attack are taken from the attack used to trigger the trap.
An attack atop the false shadow is the trigger; the foe's copied attack acts as a trigger in of itself.


Trap: Dream Eye
Size: Rectangular box, same dimensions as a purple Pikmin on its side, if placed facing the screen as wide as a crate
Trigger: Unlike all other traps when placed, holding the standard input programs the trap; hold longer to delay the otherwise immediate zap.
Damage: The same as ROB's full-power laser, defaults to slightly forward down but can be angled during start-up / reflects. This is the trap that can KO, albeit at a very high percentage.
After the initial programmable delay, the trap goes off once every ten seconds.


Trap: Eye Chart
Size: Same as the Dream Eye, only a yellow Pikmin instead of a purple Pikmin for dimensions
Trigger: Staring at the eye chart causes constant, weakly homing letters to fly at the foe, bigger if the foe is closer, smaller if they are far away
Damage: The letters range Deku Nut - Pokeball in sizeand deal 1-5%, in a trail of projectiles tightly packed
The strength of the trap depends on the foe's proximity and after three platforms of distance the trap does not trigger.
NARROW ESCAPE - UP SPECIAL


A ladder as pictured drops from the top of the screen down toward Michael Reynolds, hurriedly doing gestures toward the unseen helicopter pilot. The ladder can be lowered a few SBUs down or all the way to the ground and ignores drop through platforms - it only takes a second for it to reach Reynolds, ladder being lowered at a brisk pace - only one ladder can be on-stage at a time. Attempting to create a new one will destroy the old ladder. What the ladder actually does is act as Reynolds' recovery - press up to climb it or jump off it like any other in the Subspace Emissary. You can command the pilot to ascend and take the ladder too, by pressing the up special while climbing the ladder; this helps if you consider that this new addition to the stage can be used just as well by an opponent plus allows you to quickly rid yourself of a useless apparatus. The move's function beyond a flashy recovery adapted from the game, is allowing your traps to be set on a far greater amount of ground. On the ladder, or even when it is out, the places you can put traps is now extended to wherever the recovery can take your minions. You can summon them while climbing or on the stage where the dummy men can get to it, either way, they happily use it to extend their grasp and like any other character, also refresh their jumps.

The capacity of the ladder is the height of the part of the stage it takes up, minus the height of the characters who are in the climb. Ascending the ladder may allow you to KO players foolish enough not to exit via a jump. Differing from the single-player mode ladders, characters have access to a portion of their moveset. Every player has access to their ground moveset on the ladder, that is their specials, standards, but not their grab. Reynolds has a specific variant on this: his standards involve summoning dummy men to do his bidding, on the ladder he summons his dummy men minions to stand on the ladder. They are summoned, relative to Reynolds' position, above [up tilt] or below [down tilt], or in Reynolds' current place, while he goes up [dash attack] or below [forward tilt] his current position to make room for them. The minions will stay in their place until a foe comes into range for them to use their attack and die immediately after. There are limits to the amount of minions you can summon to perform these standards, however, that will be highlighted in the inputs later in the set; suffice to say it is a risky venture to place more than a single set of dummy men on your ladder. The ladder can be swung left or right by any player by holding the directional input in either direction. As the ladder reaches high speeds, it gains a hitbox for each character on the climb as it moves, dealing 10-25% and KOing at 200-125%. The momentum of the swinging ladder is greatly accelerated by multiple characters; for their part, Reynolds' own minions will actively swing alongside him to speed up this dangerous hitbox plus adding many man-sized hitboxes to the ladder. Jumping off at the height of the momentum grants a huge boon in speed and height as you'd expect too, so keeping it in precocious reserve isn't the absolute worst idea.

MONOLITH - SIDE SPECIAL



A chuckle and snap of his fingers, Reynolds summons forth a towering monolith to be built, directly in front of his current position, or below him on the nearest part of stage if he has taken to the air. These blue structures are a little wider than Bowser and almost twice as tall as Ganondorf, but after your self-destructing dummy man has finished building it, just hangs out in the background without doing anything notable on its own. Your dummy men only take around a second to finish construction and summoning them has minimal lag, making it easy to throw out unabated. Trying to build a monolith on top of a previous one will cause it to appear on whatever side is closest to Reynolds. The monolith has 40HP.

What the structure does off the bat once finished, is give a perch to place traps from your neutral special - the monolith has four 'directions' where traps can be placed. These are the two sides, where the traps face right or left,the front, where it faces toward the screen as is pictured above, or on top where the trap is upward facing. While monoliths exist in the background, traps on monoliths poke into the foreground where the match is had. They work like castle siege statues - they can be walked past, but attacks that are used up on contact like Falco's laser are blocked, while ones that don't aren't, like ROB's laser. This sometimes may mean you have to get in front of the monolith itself unless you're attacking while facing the trap. The obvious up side is that the opponent trying to get into a position to destroy a monolith trap, can easily lead to them unintentionally activating a trap's trigger. Note that monoliths can be used by your dummy men alone while they are in the background, to further reach greater heights such as the very top itself of a monolith. The trap will add its HP to the monolith, meaning its best to focus the trap.

ADVANCED TRAP - DOWN SPECIAL



The two coloured orbs pictured represent the two variants of this move: the simple trigger and the change trigger. Closing his eyes to focus, a small orb rushes out of the gash in Reynolds' forehead, granting the player free control of it as it flies around at the pace of Pit's up special. To cancel the attack, press the shield input. The kind of orb is either the blue 'simple,' or the orange 'change' - you may switch between the two merely by pressing the input a second time, the decided type locked onto for the next time you use the move. Reynolds can be hit out of the move by anything that deals knockback or sponged off of with non-knockback dealing moves, like the blaster or a multitude of MYM Brawl gas. When Reynolds brings either of the orb to a trap of any kind, is when the move actually does anything, though simply dragging it into the opponent at first does deal a handy 10% damage and small knockback.

A simple, blue orb when brought to hover idly over a trap, will highlight it in blue for the duration of the rest of the move, as Reynolds gains control over a new blue orb in its stead. From here, you have the same free flight. For now, Reynolds just floats around the orb wherever he wants, uninhibited by physical obstructions. When the player presses the input one last time or is attacked, the orb disappears from view, taking an odd shape beforehand. While it may now be invisible and still indestructible, it has actually functionally replaced the trigger of the trap it touched. The odd shape it takes before it disappears represents a simplified version of the trap's original trigger, seeping into the ground and becoming a wide hitbox for your standing-triggered traps, or becoming a lengthy vertical platform for a stare-based trigger. This means staring at the now invisible orb or standing on it becomes a real fear for the opponent, only given a vague idea of the trap's position before it outright disappears. If you did touch a minion, or even Reynolds' himself, they become the new trigger. This differs slightly from just creating a replica of the original trigger - for example, the area just below the character is now where the 'standing hitbox' for a trigger usually would exist. This changes the nature of three traps very specially - your garbage bag, orchestra and shadow trap. For the orchestra ticket, a foe is given a weak wind hitbox around their hurtbox, being the best way to force a foe to focus on the original trap. Now, attacking that character will act as the trigger for the move, meaning that landing a powerful smash can lead to a deadly natural gas explosion and any move you use on them will be translated into a copycat's version somewhere else on the stage. You can always destroy the trigger by destroying its connected trap, that is obvious, but destroying a newly-made, physical trigger, like KOing Reynolds or simply killing one of his minions, will result in it returning to its default trigger state.

However, that isn't too interesting, is it? All that basically does is make a powerful puff of gas or make an obvious counter trap trigger, usually from anywhere but where you moved the trigger. This is where your orange change trigger come in. By hovering over a trap as before, you are also given a new orange orb to move around. Unlike the blue orb, this cannot be left out in the open but must make contact with a different trap. Once you've done so, the two traps will switch triggers instantaneously. While this may appear abstract at first, there are only a few changes that have to be made to each trap when its trigger is altered. The shadow trap is the one where most change is had - now simply performing a move triggering the switched trap is necessary, and the strength of the copied move is buffed if triggering the trap especially well [standing close to an eye chart, attacking harshly for a garbage bag]. If a trap varies in power because of the trigger it will instead apply its scaling nature to the new trigger, if it has an applicable scale, otherwise defaulting to its average power. Using the two advanced trap orbs, you can create a maze on the stage of confusing alternating triggers and traps that leave the foe unknowing what will happen with every new step.

STANDARDS

FOOLISH ESCAPE - DASH ATTACK

Reynolds hapazardly throws out his arms in front of him and temporarily boosts his dashing speed by double for a platform distance. If he comes into contact with a foe, he is shot back a character width while the foe takes 7% and low knockback, usually just enough to keep them from performing a counter-attack. Aside from generically running away or making a chase, Reynolds can also do that age-old technique of running into the background by pressing the directional input up - though he cannot go into the foreground. This is only momentary and basically works as a moving dodge, though you have your roll for that. If you're dashing in the background and hit a monolith, Reynolds will rebound off of it like he does when hitting an opponent. He causes the monolith to shudder and drop any trap that was on the side facing Reynolds, falling to the floor. This is basically just a nice way to re-arrange your monolith space, though when the trap falls, depending on its size, it does deal a solid 5-20% damage and a variation of knockbacks too, the largest traps like your Dream Eye can KO at an okay 150%.

TILTS - DUMMY MAN


The aforementioned dummy man gets his own trio of moves and a brief description. Dummy men are above all else expendable and have a paltry 15HP that can exhaust their use before they've even completed their designated action, to Reynolds' dismay. This is made easier to cope with by Reynolds' shield and other defensive manoeuvres at his disposal. Dummy men are about the height of a normal human and have average statistics, if slightly below average. The wrench they carry is huge, almost the size of a human character in Brawl itself, its insane size lessened in impact slightly by how the dummy men carry them from the middle. When summoned for an attack, dummy men rush forward from the foreground where Reynolds stands and will continue rushing at an average dash speed, stopping to attack if an opponent is in range or a monolith, if they're in the background. Attacking a monolith like this is achieved by pressing up during the start-up of your tilts, this makes your dummy men rush into the background instead to directly interact with your monoliths. They are all too happy to fall off the stage and fall to their doom on the battle plane, and will do so eventually if they run into no foes. Rarely, or purposefully, they can be caught in a temporal loop, as they don't actively jump over walls, just turn around and continue running in the opposite direction. No worry, though, as a new dummy men can be easily summoned to replace the old. However, for every dummy man out on the field performing the attack you're trying to use, 0.1 seconds of start lag are added onto the beginning of said move. Those expensive helicopter rides from your up special suddenly don't seem so fun. When they are doing this, Reynolds has to attack them himself with his dash attack to stop them, or he can send more dummy men to their aid.

FORWARD TILT - HORIZONTAL SWING


The dummy man performs a horizontal swing with the huge wrench in hand, dealing 12% damage and KOing at 150%. This is one of, er, Reynolds' fastest attacks available and has a fairly surprising range considering the length and size of the wrench. The general purpose of the move works well when swinging on your ladder too. On your monoliths, this causes the dummy man to swing at it from below, making its top portion to awkwardly bend over further into the foreground, misshapen. The dummy man can be left to his own devices doing this, every time he swings the wrench against the monolith it is further twisted downward and eventually can be turned into a sort of donut shape, though the hole is unseen. Each time the top end of the monolith is twisted down, it compromises a hitbox that deals 8% damage and flinching knockback. You can set multiple dummy man up to this task to quicken the deal. Once a monolith is truly bent, as in touching the stage with its top, the dummy men will all give up and continue on their perhaps aimless pursuit across the stage. The donut you can create with the monolith creates an unseen part of the stage within the monolith, where you can hide your move animations or traps. Of course any trap that was on the front of the monolith, is now also unseen, and can only be attached by a foe passing through and blindly using attacks. The bent monolith cannot have new traps attached to its bent over back side, but does act as a physical construct and basically part of the stage. The downside of this is that the monolith can now be destroyed after depleting its 40HP.


UP TILT - SCREW


The dummy man performs an overhead swing with his wrench, dealing 15% and KOing at 140%. Though this is superior to your forward tilt in numbers, it leaves the dummy man completely open and has less range, though is especially useful high up on your ladder. On your monolith, the dummy man launches his wrench into the bottom of the monolith and starts to procedurally crank it up and down, boosting its height by half a Kirby every second, though this can be sped up by a fraction of a second if you set more dummy men to do so. Every time you boost the monolith, like the forward tilt, it becomes a hitbox that deals 8%, though this does deal weak upward knockback. The monolith can be extended up to two Ganondorfs further in height to put it well up into the stage - this comes at the cost of taking up more room for other monoliths. However, vertical space may be worth more than horizontal, considering you can pile on multiple traps on the same monolith. Before, there were simply four positions to place a trap, you can place between one and three extras traps on the monolith depending on how much you've increased its height. The most obvious benefit of this is simply having a lot of ground-triggered traps all in one space. Using your forward tilt on a heightened monolith of course takes longer to reduce it to a full donut on the ground, but also leaves the hole in the middle as a larger space.


DOWN TILT - SWEEP


The dummy man sweeps across the floor to trip any foes or simply deal medium downward knockback to aerial or otherwise anchored ones, dealing 12% damage. This is good on the ladder if you want to have an anti-air move for a foe trying to avoid the ground, an area excelled in by Reynolds' constructions. On a monolith, the dummy man really puts his back into it as he cups the side of the monolith and turns it in place, doing a full ninety-degree turn on the monolith to make it turn left or right depending on what side he attacked. Same 8% damage and medium knockback for the motion. Turning is as said, an exhausting affair, taking up to two seconds, or lowered to a minimum of one by multiple dummy men. The use of turning your monoliths is two-fold - one, it gains you access to a fourth side of the monolith, its back, and turns any traps on the front or side, respectively onto the side or front and back. The back, you say? No opponent can hit that! True, but the trap also no longer works or interacts with anything, what a pity. This is however not true if you turn the monolith back around. Another reason for doing this is the aforementioned space problem you'll have while trying to expand a whole horror theme park into Smash - turned on its side, the monolith now only constitutes a Kirby of space as opposed to its normal Bowser or so. This, until you turn it again at least, gives you all that much free space to make more background contraptions. Side on to the foreground, like in your forward tilt, your monolith now is a solid wall, its 40HP vulnerable to make it crumble; this makes it a good idea to actually keep a dummy man turning the monolith in place to turn it in and out of vulnerability.


MAINTENANCE - JAB


Shuffling his hand inside his jacket, Reynolds fishes for loose bills, detailed in his own personage. Picking up money from your final smash lets you instantly charge the move. Working like a direction-less smash, the amount of money that is collected depends on if the player charges the attack, otherwise coming out fairly fast as far as jabs. Releasing the input whenever causes Reynolds to throw a sum of cash in a single, blaster-shaped projectile forward. While it it always about half as long as a blaster's projectile, it's anything from twice as thick, to five times as thick depending on charge. This varies the damage and knockback too - the move dealing 5-20% and KOing at 240-200%. That may seem high, but the projectile is mighty fast and lingers on-screen for a second or so before it dissipates, giving a delayed and relatively strong hitbox to mindgame the foe, not a bad tool to have in a pit of traps. While charging the move, all traps within a large circular area glow a captivating, money-flavoured green. The player can now use the directional inputs to choose a trap, a line appearing between Reynolds and the trap to clearly tell the player their selection. Releasing the input, money that was in hand now seems to disappear. Reactively, Reynolds' forehead gash sends out a green orb, not dissimilar to the ones in the down special, which directs itself toward the trap at a quick speed, getting there pretty much instantaneously when it is so close. This causes an upgrade of sorts, as well as repairing any damage to the trap. What constitutes the upgrade, depends on the trap.

First of all, a very general upgrade is given to the trap's HP, ranging from 15-45HP depending on the charge time. A trap therefore hits its maximum HP at 75HP. This is on top of instantly repairing any damage the trap has taken since construction. The relative damage and speed of every trap, both to trigger and attack, is amplified too, by a measure of 1.1-1.5x again depending on charge time. If you don't particularly care to upgrade, it's still worth your time to simply buff any trap. It should also be noted that visually, the traps seem to 'come to life' far more after being tampered with by Reynolds, having unique idle animations even when they aren't being triggered. Now, onto the more specific upgrades. These are achieved by upgrading the trap to a certain HP, a visual cue for this is the increasingly aggressive behaviour of the trap in idle. Depleting the HP of a trap to below its upgrade mark for an attack, will not stop it using the attack or reduce its aggressiveness, forcing the opponent to go and completely destroy the trap. In terms of your down special, switch orb, upgrades that affect the original attack that is stated to trigger, are the only ones that are relevant to a switch, not new attacks that involve the trap itself.

Trap: Elephant
General Upgrades: The elephant will shoot in bursts of 2-4 peanuts, though with a significant end lag after the burst to prevent stun lock.
HP-Specific Upgrades
50HP: The trunk gains a passive ability to grab the opponent if they stand idly right next to it for too long, immediately throwing them against the ground for 10% damage and low vertical knockback.
70HP: Elephant now fully erratic when idle, it lashes out at opponent not quite close enough to grab, with a strong swing that deals 12% and medium knockback. This makes it far harder to approach the elephant trap from a purely horizontal standpoint.


Trap: Butt
General Upgrades: The poo now creates a puddle trap on the floor that deals the same damage and slows movement, lasting for 3-6 seconds before being dissipated.
HP-Specific Upgrades
40HP: The agitated butt will let out puffs of gas intermittently that linger for a couple of seconds, covering a small circular area, dealing 2% a second and flinching knockback.
75HP: If the butt senses an incoming smash - one fully-charged - it, for lack of a better word, puckers up and braces itself. Now if the attack lands on the butt, the opponent will react as if they hit a bumper, which can be a real annoyance if you happen to be in its way.


Trap: Garbage
General Upgrades: The gas bag can now be influenced by wind hitboxes, such as from your very own minions or Reynolds if they are the trigger for an orchestra trap. How long this pushed around gas lingers depends on how strong the gas bag has been made by Reynolds.
HP-Specific Upgrades
35HP: A swarm of flies surround the gas bag and leech off of nearby opponents, taking 1% each before returning to the gas bag to buff its HP, potentially taking it over the usual limit. There can only be a maximum of ten flies at a time, however, and while they are very fast, they are killed in one hit and all can be killed at once.
60HP: Every five seconds, the gas bag jiggles about, causing an excess of trash to fall down below it. This slows movement to a crawl for a second for foes, before they instantly break through it, dealing 3% as they do so. This causes a dashing foe to walk for a short spell, being useful in a chase scenario.


Trap: Orchestra Ticket
General Upgrades: The orchestra ticket is now always fluttering as it does when it is being triggered, though only a weak-moderate wind hitbox exists.
HP-Specific Upgrades
50HP: The previously aesthetic lightning effects now are a hitbox that deal 5% each and the knockback of Pikachu's neutral special.
75HP: If a foe comes within a platform of the ticket, it will come off of its anchored spot and chase them until destroyed or the foe moves out-of-range. This allows it, if the foe does nothing in response, to simply push them around a bit with the weak wind hitbox, an easy way to do basic things like force the foe onto a ledge.


Trap: Painting
General Upgrades: Unlike other traps, the painting grows in size: to be specific, length, so that it covers a wider range. Its top length is the height of Luigi.
HP-Specific Upgrades
70HP: Hands will grab using an extremely limited range, if successfully pulling the opponent 'into' the painting before dealing multiple hits for 10% in all and spitting them out with purely horizontal knockback. This is great for throwing a foe off-stage, where the painting will aim toward if aimed at the screen.
75HP: Left to idle by itself with no foe staring at it, the painting takes two seconds to form a picture of Reynolds striking a regal pose. Now if Reynolds highlights over the trap in his neutral special, he can elect to hold the special input, whereby the silhouette will glow red and Reynolds will teleport to the painting, walking out of it and brushing off the shoulder of his suit. Only one painting at a time can ready this move, defaulting to the one furthest away from the Reynolds player.


Trap: Cigar
General Upgrades: Smoke is directed in the general direction of foes, being funnelled more narrowly by the trap when it is upgraded using a greater amount of money.
HP-Specific Upgrades
50HP: The cigar will now shoot out a very weak form of its smoke to cover a large area, basically covering it in a hitbox that deals passive 1% damage, giving the advantage to Reynolds.
60HP: A foe standing directly underneath the cigar triggers a specific new attack, where it leaks an overly big, food item-sized drop of tar onto them, causing them to take the 1% passive damage for the next ten seconds. This will create a generic puddle on the floor too, simply causing foes to trip or attack it once before it dissipates.


Trap: Shadow
General Upgrades: Like the painting, the shadow uniquely grows in size, this time in width, growing up to 1.5x its normal width dependant on its upgrade strength.
HP-Specific Upgrades
70HP: When a foe walks over the shadow, an unnatural, green shadow will follow them if they walk on ground immediately after, lingering for five seconds, or until the foe jumps. If the foe uses a move with this green shadow, it triggers the trap right next to and facing them.
75HP: If Reynolds performs a move while himself standing on the shadow trap, when he walks off of it and uses it elsewhere, the shadow will form the attack itself and attack from the position where Reynolds originally stood, having the same attributes as said attack. This only applies to actual hitboxes, i.e. the attack portion of a move and doesn't create anything withstanding on the stage. Duplicated dummy men attack once, when in range of a foe or after a monolith it is working on is fully completed, then dissipate, instead of running around the stage and do not add onto the start lag as do normal dummy men.


Trap: Dream Eye
General Upgrades: Cooldown is reduced to at a minimum, 3.5 seconds. The laser now gains slight damage and knockback buffs the more it reflects.
HP-Specific Upgrades
50HP: When a laser reflects off of a surface, it now splits in two, one taking the opposite direction of the natural reflection, angling back the opposite of its original direction, though this string of your laser only lasts a further five seconds before dissipating, as will any further reflections it creates.
70HP: Left to idle, a cone-shaped light will extend out in front of the camera, covering a fairly large area about as big as two Bowsers in width and a Ganondorf in height. After a few seconds, the Dream Eye flashes, to temporarily blind any foes looking in its direction who were standing or airborne in the cone's range. This causes a 1.5 second instance of stun on a foe on the ground, or sends them into free fall in the air for the same amount of time. The picture that is taken can be uploaded to your Dreamcast, or whatever inferior system you foolishly chose to buy.


Trap: Eye Chart
General Upgrades: While not increasing in length like the painting, the Eye Chart's strength increases so that further away opponents now trigger the stronger letter projectiles, depending on strength of the upgrade.
HP-Specific Upgrades
65HP: The letters gain a far more potent form of homing; if they miss the foe, they now stop and turn around before going for an single extra run. While there is obviously lag on this to make it avoidable, it's still an incredibly annoyance.
75HP: If Reynolds opts for a check-up on his eyes, looking at the chart, the letters that shoot out form a protective ring around the width of his body, which the foe can destroy, but its rotation means they can seldom destroy all the letters at once.

SMASHES
MEAT MAN - FORWARD SMASH


Appearing in front of Reynolds like the dummy men, a meat man stalls as tall as Ganondorf but nearly as wide as Donkey Kong. They deliver a fatal carving slash using their sharpened arm if the foe comes in close-mid range, dealing 15-25% damage and KOs at 200-160%, one of Reynolds' best KO moves. Reynolds can instead command the meat man to perform a powerful downard stomp by pressing down during the start-up lag. The meat man's stomp deals 12-22% damage and obviously, very high downward knockback, if you managed to hit a foe recovering off-stage, it's a fantastic spike. On the stage, this ricochets them high into the air. Both attacks are very slow and leave Reynolds wide open if he whiffs the attack, as the meat man dissipates leaving him in end lag.

Reynolds can press up during the start-lag to cause the meat man to go into the background and perform a bear hug-like grab, attempting to latch onto a monolith. If it fails, meat man immediately dissipates. Successful, the meat man grabs onto the side of the monolith and starts to push it forward. The effect of this largely depends on if you have interacted with the monolith at all, if you haven't, it's merely positioning, while if you have, this alone can be used as a weapon. Depending on the size of the monolith, a meat man will push it one platform every 1-3 seconds, in a constant, slow movement across the background. If the monolith is a wall from being turned sideways, this will push anything in its way off the stage - keep in mind, this can affect Reynolds too; it's not an allied trap, it's a giant structure. Likewise pushing an at all donut-affected monolith will cause that part of it to push against whatever it is in its path. The meat man will stop at a ledge, short of pushing the monolith off-stage. Combine this with your dummy men potentially tweaking the monolith, running along with the monolith as it's being pushed, the traps still triggering, this lets you create a fully-rotating totem pole of doom.

Holding the grab input lets Reynolds command a monolith-pushing meat man to tip the monolith over slightly, forward or backward, the latter causing them to walk behind the structure first. Simply press a direction while holding the grab and the meat man will push it in that direction, more if you smash the directional input. The meat man will stand in place and tip the monolith in that direction, pushing the monolith back into standing position if he's forced to leave his post. You can even tip the end of the monolith into the foreground to varying degrees, directional sensitivity playing a big part in the workings of this move; whatever part that dips into the foreground also becomes an active platform to climb, but also can be attacked to reduce the monolith's 40HP. This works wonders for your traps, as their natural triggers on the ground, for example, now simply point downward and can be used to directly hover over the foe and then have the meat man drop the monolith lower to trigger the trap right on top. Reynolds is limited to altering this with one monolith at a time, using the latest created meat man. While you do theoretically have no limit on the minion, they are dissipated when their bond with Reynolds is broken - via a KO to Reynolds - meaning you will at least have to refresh the meat men every respawn.

DUMMY MAN PHOTO BOX - UPWARD SMASH



Actually putting to use his latent psychic abilities for a change, the bauble on top of Reynolds' head glows a deep blue for a moment, signifying the charge of the attack. After an average amount of start lag, a structure pops up the width of Donkey Kong and a bit taller than Ganondorf, the above structure, called the Dummy Man Photo Box. This is either fast, or pretty much instantaneous depending on charge. As it appears, the hitbox is very akin to the Dr. Wright assist trophy in Brawl, on a smaller scale. Opponents hit are dealt 20-30% damage if they were in the way of the construction and this KOs at 185-160%. The photo box stays out for ten seconds before disappearing back into the ground from where it came, but acts as a temporary monolith for traps to be placed upon. Like the monoliths, you can move in front of it and it is attacked in the same way as castle siege statues. It does, however, have 50HP and this can be depleted. As a saving grace, you can repair the photo box like normal traps.

Any traps attached to the photo box re-appear when you next use the move and any traps that have switched triggers on the outside, will not trigger until they re-appear, giving you a nice way to store up very powerful traps without having to worry about timing. Depending on the charge time, the photo box will perform another function for a variable amount of time. This is an easily-missed flash coming from behind the curtains of the photo box, obscured and only dimly seen. This happens immediately from when the photo box is summoned either until it runs out or it disappears at the end of its duration. What this camera is capturing, is whatever traps are being set off on the screen. When the move is used again, in that same slot of time, a tape of photographs falls from a slot in the photo box, signifying what is happening. At the very same time they were triggered before, semi-transparent copies of the trap instead play in their place, and this will stack for every time that Reynolds uses the move on a single stock.

Not only traps can be stored with the photo box. If you summon the photo box in front of dummy men running forward, they will instead jump inside behind the curtain until it disappears, protected. This is a very good way to save up dummy men, as once the photo box disappears, it takes the dummy men with them and does not count toward your imposed 0.1 additional start lag on each tilt. That is, until you again use the photo box - now the dummy men run out and are again held accountable. This is useful, though, as they are packed in a tight line formation, making it nearly impossible to avoid all of them if you're on the ground. If any of them were set on construction, it's also a good way to unload a bunch of dummy men on a single project without any chance of being disturbed, as you wait for the right moment. A photo box can be pushed by a meat man but not influenced by your tilts. Simply use forward smash in front of a photo box and the meat man will push it, to the end of pushing it off-stage and using it as a gigantic hitbox. As it falls, it will turn over on itself to create an even more expansive range and deals a humongous 40% damage and spikes, being an instant KO if you hit an opponent lower than it in the air. Not a bad way of saving it from damage either, mind you, as you push it off, and it ostensibly disappears as it does on-stage, because it re-appears when you use the up smash again good as new.

SPECIAL HORROR MONTIOR - DOWNWARD SMASH



Michael Reynolds brings out a special horror monitor in the start lag, which is rather average, before his bauble faintly glows, causing all traps within a semi-fully exploded smart bomb to visually show the blue orbs from back in your down special. The range depends on how much you charge. Once the charge is finished, these orbs all head towards Reynolds, who can cancel out of the move by down to put away the horror monitor, or pressing up to jump and doing the same. The orbs act as they did in your down special, being hitboxes that deal 10% and small knockback, though this can stack to be impressive on its own, it's not the point of the move. Reynolds himself stand still, though he can also gain access to his own green orb that comes out of the gash on his head once more by using the horizontal directional inputs. Once it's out, Reynolds is locked in place for the rest of the move, but you can use this orb, which is given free flight, to bat away any orbs from traps of which you don't want interactions, leaving them alone.

Once the orbs meet Reynolds, they form a bigger orb that ranges in size from that of a Mario fireball to Kirby, and then is pushed lightly by Reynolds in any direction. This causes it to travel forward at default, or in a direction chosen by input, at Ganondorf's dashing speed. The downside is obviously that you're taking the trigger away, rendering the traps useless until the orb is destroyed. The orb has 20-30HP but this obviously will set off any shadow traps or applicable triggers, making it risky. Once destroyed all orbs return to their default positions, the orb imploding but having no hitbox. While the orbs were travelling toward Reynolds, they retained their triggering qualities - the big one is no different. Now instead of moving a lot of triggers into one place, they are all one big orb that spells disaster if the foe even tries to attack it or comes within any close contact. If they are hit by the big blue orb, they are dealt 20-30% damage and stunned in place as it slowly passes over them, changing direction if that is required to fully hover over the foe and trigger all the relevant traps as much as possible. If you do manage this, all your traps but the shadow and eye chart go off in unison at their highest level of power.

If you manage to hit this orb with your down special, you're really playing with fire. If you attempt to switch this orb rather than just pulling it around by manipulating it as a blue orb, then the trap you switch is destroyed and simply replaced by all the triggers within the trap. Now whenever that trap is triggered, it will also set off every single trap that was one of those original smaller blue orbs, being highly abusable. This obviously can be mixed and matched effectively simply by using certain types of traps all together or taking into account tactical placement to take advantage of such a central point in your stage control. It is as said, playing with fire, though, as you swap away the more reliable traps spread out across the stage for a single huge one. Reynolds himself can attack the big orb at any point with his dash attack, jab or aerials to destroy it himself if it is felt it has grown too big a burden.

GRAB GAME
UNCARING HOLD - GRAB

A swipe of the hand in front, for a grab about as fast as Ike's. Reynolds only has a weak hold on the foe, barely paying attention. Fast, close-ranged, though this is one of those grabs that affects minions as well as opponents. You can grab meat men too by pressing up during the start-lag; Reynolds doesn't grab these huge creatures, instead commanding them into the foreground to be modified. This goes for dummy men too, who stand in place for Reynolds rather than forcing him to hold them down. Out of shield, grab activating anywhere within the shield at all as long as Reynolds is on the ground, he points out in front. Engineer throwing the lever back in reverse, your shield dissipates and the engineer dissipates too. Beside that end of the shield where you pointed, though, a small area of ground is sparking with electricity, stunning any foe who stood there in place for the same grab and Reynolds simply walks up to grab the opponent all the same. This electricity also deals 8% damage, but of course no knockback.

FISTICUFFS - PUMMEL


Calmly slapping the foe in the face back-and-forth, dealing 2% every time in an equally slow pummel. Depending on the foe, they may seem more surprised than pained by this attack. On a minion this is simply the command to destroy it; a dummy man collapsing on the floor and dissipating, a meat man exploding in blood, dealing 12% and medium knockback to very close opponents. If you're pummelling a foe in front of any minions in the background - within a SBU radius - they will jump into the foreground and start attacking the foe too, dummy men hitting the foe with their wrench and the meat man performing his stomp, which comes out at its weakest damage and knockback, bringing a forced end to the pummel. The slowness of the smash attack does however leave room for other pummels. For every dummy man, this adds another 5% slow pummel of damage to the move and involves them via interactions in all of the other throws, after of which the dummy men and meat men will return to doing whatever they were before the pummel. The pummel specifically makes your grab game terrifying for opponents when you simply hang around an area comprising multiple dummy men or meat men in the background, forgiving your grab's short range, giving much needed pressure to Reynolds' melee game.

DEEP BREATH - FORWARD THROW



The bauble on Reynolds' head glows blue momentarily and he makes a mocking gesture toward the foe or worker ant he had grabbed. Free of charge, you've administered the Deep Breath™ to your grabbed consumer. They puff up slightly and take a long, deep breath - not to a ridiculous extent, it's gasping not a comical air pump - that extends their hurtbox slightly on all sides. Reynolds delivers a fast kick, heightening his leg as he does so to make it more of a nudge, dealing a foe 6% damage and sliding them back a platform in distance, grabbing the ledge if pushed over one. On a dummy man or meat man, this actually turns them into a hitbox as they slide across the ground, dealing 7% or 10% damage and low or medium kncokback depending on the respective minion. This movement across the stage does mark the end of the throw once the foe reaches the end of their journey and merely exhales away the deep breath, but it does have a nice effect of setting them up for any grounded triggers. If you gathered any dummy or meat men from the pummel, they perform the attack instead of Reynolds, who steps back and does not deliver his effortless kick. If a meat man is present, he performs his attack instead of the dummy man. This is simply a case of a medium or strong attack compared to Reynolds' weak one, as the dummy men hits the foe in the stomach with its wrench for 9% damage and pushes them half further, while the meat man stomps the ground in front of them for 12% and pushes them back twice the distance. This in the least lets you pick and choose where you want the foe to end up and can help in setting them up for a trigger. On the other hand, some forced knockback works directly into triggers, your orchestra ticket's wind-based trigger and the garbage bags; hitting the foe with a more powerful version of the move into one of these triggers will cause a violent reaction from the trap.

On your meat man, this is the only way to free them up and allow them to walk the stage without having to push a monolith or perform an attack then immediately dissipate. What a set loose meat man can do, is first illustrated by his abysmal walk speed - the aforementioned Ganondorf one, as meat men cannot run. They can, however, crawl, and will do so if a foe is over three battlefield platforms away in distance, pictured above. This crawl also occurs if they happen upon a monolith protruding into the foreground in its donut form from Reynolds' forward tilt, meaning they won't get stuck, as they cannot jump over. Speaking of being walled in, meat men operate as make-shift walls for similarly loose dummy men, who without an aim will happily run back and forth between two meat men: not an outright bad arrangement. Unlike the dummy men, the meat men have clout, they are the brawn of Reynolds' minions - not only do they have a fairly bulky 40HP, they have 8% hitstun resistance, making them immune to knockback from weaker moves. Their size is similar to that of Ganondorf, if a bit taller. They can be hit into the air, but fall like a rock and have no aerial control whatsoever. What loose meat men won't do is attack, unless a foe hangs around in front of them for several seconds, then they choose between their forward smash cleave and stomp depending on the range. They serve as moving walls and can thus sometimes be more of a nuisance than they're worth to have out loose, compared to just maintaining a strategically leaning monolith. If you grab a meat man in the foreground, you can command them back to their post by simply immediately pressing up, or 'throw' them as if they were initially grabbed from the background.

ARREST - BACKWARD THROW

A show of American patriotism, Reynolds claps his hand once, or twice if the player holds the directional input for longer. This summons one-two crash test dummies to the stage. These differ from dummy men in that they don't have a wrench and have yellow skin instead of green. These guys are the definition of useless as they perform faux martial arts and are as easily dispatched as goombas. Grabbing a foe, the dummy men grab them from behind their arms or whatever body part they can grab onto and drag them away behind Reynolds, continuing the same mashing counter to escape. The foe's struggling as the dummies crush their arms deals a constant 1-2% damage a second, the larger amount if there are two dummy men. The foe will be dragged along the stage at Fox's dashing speed if both are summoned, making them too fast for Reynolds himself or even his dummy men tilts to catch. They will force the foe across the stage and over the edge to the abyss of the bottom blastzone unless they mash out in time. A single crash test dummy is far less competent, simply pushing the foe along at little over half that speed. This does work well, however, if Reynolds has placed a stare-triggered trap, such as the painting or eye chart, behind himself before performing the grab, as a single crash test dummy takes the foe closer and closer to it without just running past. Once a foe escapes the throw, the crash test dummy is destroyed by whatever feeble mindless animation the foe performed to get out of said throw, showing their weakness. This can be followed up with by a standard though only at high percentages.

Performed on any group of grabbed dummy men or meat men, the crash test dummies push them along too though not forcefully. They will push them until Reynolds either stops holding the directional input or they reach a ledge. They will hold the grabbed minions at this position until either a foe comes in range for an attack, whereby the dummy men will attack and decimate the crash test dummies to get at the foe. The more passive meat man will take some more convincing, forcing the foe to stand in the way for several seconds to force any attack. This makes them essentially into a full wall, no movement involved and against the edge, as comes naturally when using this move on most stages, invalidates that ledge for an off-stage opponent. This effectively forces a recovering foe to destroy the meat man or try and recover over the top. Reynolds can forcefully destroy these crash test dummies by double-tapping the grab input, releasing whomever they are latched onto. This lets you set off multiple dummy men at once or a meat man, though the former is far more interesting as you let a potential wave of dummy men wash over the stage.

INTRAVENOUS INJECTION - DOWNWARD THROW



Ever generous, Reynolds takes out a needle full of intravenous fluid and holds it upright and overhead for a moment, showcasing the weapon. The unseen animation of the injection can be held by holding the directional input and causes the foe 5-10% damage. Once finished, Reynolds buffets away the foe with the back of an unclenched fist, dealing a weak 3% and small knockback that simply leaves him and the foe in a frame-neutral standing, apart a platform. The simple difference on minions is that Reynolds tosses the necessary amount of needles to each individual dummy man or meat man, who then self-injects, Reynolds opting not to get his hands dirty or lengthen his end lag. The effect of the intravenous, which raises adrenaline in-game, is that it doubles the injected victim's speed in all respects on the ground, and their air speed, for the next 5-10 seconds - 7-15 on your manufactured dummy or meat men. This can be catastrophic, but keep in mind that Reynolds may have a whole set-up dedicated to countering the foe's energised approach. If you've managed to switch around triggers and keep back a couple of minions with your up smash, up special or back throw, using them at this time to deal with a charged up foe actually makes this move a sensible way to expend your resources.

Once those 5-10 seconds are up, however, the victim gets off of their high and begins an engineered low for an equivalent amount of time, this being where you take advantage of them. Reynolds has access to his doubly-powerful shield and minions to keep the foe away for a short time, he's fairly good from a neutral position and can smash through a slowed opponent. Trap triggers like your cigar that deals constant damage as long as an opponent stays in one place and ground-based ones in general benefit, as well as stare-based one, considering how the foe won't risk turning around if they had average or poorer traction. Your dummy men simply do whatever they were doing twice as fast for the duration, letting you finish off monolith changes in a dash. Meat man is different, in that he wanders away from Reynolds afterwards and after walking his still terrible twice-Ganondorf walk speed, he explodes from the rush, dealing and medium knockback. You can quickly run up and re-grab the meat man, letting you merely perform a forward or back 'throw' - Reynolds performs his back throw, though obviously as forward throw this now sends them forward. The meat man will still explode after the 7-15 seconds is up, giving you a nice delayed time bomb.

MANUAL LABOUR - UPWARD THROW


In his most pathetic animation, Reynolds does attempt to toss the foe upward without any dummy men or meat men at his aid. This causes the foe to go upward only a Luigi in height and take 10% damage, but gain DI control instantly as soon as thrown. Nonetheless, simply throwing the foe up into the way of your ladder is a good option. The move really comes in handy when you have minions in tow, and changes depending on the type and amount you've gained in your entourage. Just dummy men, and they will collectively grab and throw the opponent upward in a straight line, dealing medium-high knockback, that can KO at 200% if you have three or more dummy men. With meat men, the opponent is cleaved upward by their default forward smash attack, though a distinctly less powerful version of the move that deals 14% damage and diagonal opposing knockback, in what horizontal directional depends on from where you summoned the meat man. Without an opponent, the dummy men simply perform a jump off of each other's shoulders, or just using their first jump, to try and land on top of a foe, homing in on their position. A meat man will allow the dummy men to use him as a trampoline of sorts, as he tosses them a Ganondorf into the air each, giving them far more space in the air to catch up to opponents.

AERIALS
DUMMY RECYCLE - NEUTRAL AERIAL

A crash test dummy - one of the yellow ones - suddenly appears in the foreground in front of Michael Reynolds, rotating around, its limbs stretched out so that the arms and legs are fully equilateral. For the start-up lag, a little more than the standard neutral aerial, Reynolds is seen fiddling with a device of some kind, mostly obscured. Once the input is released or the input is simply pressed, Reynolds abruptly bashes the device, the crash test dummy's abdomen explodes and this propels the head, arms and legs into the battle plane as projectiles. The head deals 5% damage while the limbs all deal 7% and each will travel half a platform in distance before dissipating. Each only deals a few frames of flinching knockback but this does stack if you hit using over one body part. Default position of the crash test dummy is stretched out standing upright, sending his head up, his arms diagonally up and left or right, reversed vertically for the legs. You can extend the start lag to alter the trajectory of all of these body parts, the crash test dummy glumly spinning around in place. If you're hit or you wait too long - a few seconds - the dummy dissipates, left in the otherwise protected, bad end lag. This is your best aerial for coverage and defence. The rotational hitboxes makes it a good move to use against aerial campers. If you hit your own triggers using the wide-ranging hitboxes, not hard, you'll set off any relevant traps and this includes, albeit only a little, standing-based traps. This basically means only a very weak reaction, but the nature of the move means you can hit multiple triggers at once and essentially pepper the foe using weaker trap attacks, from many outlets.

DUMMY JUNK - FORWARD AERIAL


Out of hammerspace Reynolds pulls the arm of a crash test dummy, basically a yellow robotic arm, and stares at it for a moment of start lag before it malfunctions and forces him forward, as it viciously punches. The punches are comparable to an infinite jab in Brawl, dealing 4% damage each but with enough hitstun to guarantee a further hit or two. Unsurprisingly, the arm being held by Reynolds' own arm gives this move surprising length and allows for you to poke at enemies from a fair distance. The wayward fist pulls Reynolds along in the air at the same rate for speed and falling as a floating Jigglypuff. If hit by opponents, the arm is destroyed, making it hard to hang onto the dummy junk. You can only hold onto the arm for so long, however, before Reynolds is forced to let go and the arm goes careening off into the distance. Its still a hitbox in this time but is fairly unreliable at hitting opponents, going at Falcon's dash speed and connecting for 7%, KOing at 200%, with unlimited range. Like your neutral aerial, though, this move is great for interacting with traps, this one specifically being great at triggering your butt, garbage and ticket triggers. Unlike your neutral aerial, this is more to trigger a single trap once, but very powerfully. Reynolds has to touch ground again to refresh his supply of junk dummies.

BARRICADE - DOWNWARD AERIAL


From hammerspace once more Reynolds draws a prop, this time one of those flat-bottomed barricades you see in amusement parks, a iron railing on top and a circlet at the bottom, as wide as Wario. Comically, Reynolds holds it in a similar way to how the Links in Brawl perform their down aerials and a similar attack follows, though Reynolds falls more like the smaller Toon Link. This deals 13% damage and small but notable downward knockback, definitely not packing the punch of a sword, but making up for that shortcoming in range. If you hit a foe, you pogo back up a short distance too, and in an arena where you can bend monoliths into the foreground, it's easy to set up a scenario where you bump them into an obstruction, pogo up and combo using the same move. Lag out of the input is again similar to the two Links, as is the start-up.

If you hit the ground and keep on holding the input, Reynolds will abandon the barricade on the ground and spawn another, carrying it in his arms like an item. This is your basic carrying item, i.e. a crate, and can be thrown upwards for 10% and medium knockback as it comes back down. Wherever you go, a thick red tape connects the taken barricade to the other in the foreground or background, limiting Reynolds to going a maximum of two platforms before he starts pulling the other barricade. You can always also drop the item. This basically acts as a way to cage in your dummy men without the hassle of summoning a meat man and using your forward throw, but also cages in your meat man, creating almost a pen for your idiotic underlings. Foes can attack either end and deplete its 20HP or pick it up and throw one end off-stage, causing the other to follow, though if the other end gets stuck on a solid object, like a meat man, the other end will instead dangle off the side of the stage as a worrisome platform for the vertically-troubled Reynolds, due to his laggy up special.

DUMMY SACRIFICE - UPWARD AERIAL


A reversal on a cliché, as instead of trying to grab an opponent's legs above him, Reynolds' own crash test dummy - or simply its upper torso, head and arms - attempts to bring him down. Slightly caught off-guard, Reynolds plants a precautionary foot on the minion's head, effectively footstooling it and causing him to leap a Kirby height into the air above him. As Reynolds jumps like this, the entire upper half of his body becomes a hitbox that deals 9% damage and KOing at only around 220%. This basic upward knockback is at least good for simple versatility purposes - you even have the ladder and its potential to be stacked with minions who will jump out at any opportunity that the foe is in range and attack. It's also a nice kick after being dragged in a downward float by your forward aerial. What the move's real flow purpose is, is the leftover dummy man. As it falls downward it becomes a hitbox that deals a weak 5% and flinching knockback as it hits foes, but remains on the stage until ten seconds have passed or it's dealt an opposing down tilt or similar low move. As long as it remains, it can activate triggers that require a standing foe and as it's potentially lying down all the time, this can be lead to a devestating reaction. While your elephant simply attacks toward the remains of the crash test dummy, this can be used very well if you've switched around triggers, leading to the elephant shooting its peanuts halfway across the stage or at strange angles to create a death trap for the opponent. On your cigar, it should quickly become the opponent's goal to destroy the dummy as it will cause more and more smoke to be funnelled into the stage, creating a possible advantage for Reynolds as he plays defensively around the defect.

GRAB, DUMMY - BACKWARD AERIAL


For the final time, Reynolds grabs a crash test dummy from thin air - identical is the model to the one in his up aerial, except this time he is grabbing it from below and looking like he's about to use it in that infamous manner. This has average start and end lag for an aerial. Instead, he causes it to swing backwards and hit any foes standing behind him; the dummy doesn't move, only rotates its arms and grabs with its hands. If a foe was in the way from the top of Reynolds to behind, but not on the same horizontal plane, they are dealt 11% damage by the swinging arms and medium knockback away, being good for just getting a close-range attacking foe away, and having exceptional range because you're clinging onto a different body. If an opponent is caught upon the same horizontal plane, they are grabbed and thrown in front of Reynolds for 13% damage, falling diagonally downward, though swiftly regaining DI control. This is good on a basic level simply because Reynolds hates foes being above and behind him in the air, plus he can keep facing forward and combine the current assault into another use of his aerials, or sue them to recover.

On any kind of hard surface that has a top to stand on, the dummy will instead grab it and toss Reynolds, who abandons it to be dissipated, on top, giving you high ground without the hassle of jumping up there yourself. If you latch onto your up special ladder, the dummy's arms swing it forcefully back and forth, just as on the ladder the velocity is increased if you swing it back and forth in rhythm, with the horizontal directional input. As you swing back and forth, you can press up to jump off. By pressing the standard input, Reynolds awkwardly barges forward on the ladder and causes any minions who were above him on the ladder to fall off, Reynolds body for a short time becoming a hitbox that deals 12% and small knockback. Reynolds will then fall back into the ladder and pull it along, getting him out of the way of the falling dummy men or meat men. These themselves act as huge hitboxes dealing 15% and KOing at 170% for dummy men, 23% and KOing at 130% for meat men, the latter falling much quicker. The dummy men will still perform their attacks in mid-air on foes who are in the air or on ground next to them, but more than that this move lets you rain ladder-stocked minions onto the stage.

PLAYSTYLE
Michael Reynolds is a creator, his limit is time. He can only create so much with the time given to him and he has to make the most of any free time he gets unabated by the foe, who will go out of their way to destroy any intricacies built into his traps. How does Reynolds react? He certainly cannot react in kind as his physical strength goes without saying, but he can rely on his minions to do all the hard work. Reynolds' tilts may require the use of his dummy men, and his aerials that of his crash test dummies, but neither denies him the viability of real attacks. Of course, dummy men can also be used to run across the stage for you, but that's second to if a foe is simply up in your face. The different tilts you can use are not immediately obvious to the foe from the look of the dummy men, making them a very versatile tool for mind games and pressure, especially when you group them together, making it impossible to tell what to look for as an opponent. Dummy men are however fallible and can be taken down by a repeated assault, you have to try and place them strategically to get the advantage. Though merely getting a higher platform than the foe to send the dummy men down upon them or using the ladder to a similar end, especially in unison with your back aerial, is just as well.

Now that you know how to basically defend yourself, you can actually set up and this lets the player more-or-less do as they please, especially in terms of trap placement and triggering, something unique to Reynolds. Traps are mostly easy to trigger, to the point that an opponent may do it on accident; you should pressure the foe into setting off traps around them, even if you don't think they'll hit. The traps when they go off can act as a tool in of themselves to promote more triggers and get the flow of the match on your side, covering the stage in your own attacks and making the opponent wary of that last trap's trigger, giving a pressure tool. Then there's direct trap interaction, considering that you can walk right from one triggering point on the ground into another. Simply fighting the foe face-to-face is an issue in of itself when it comes to picking out a location for your trap to trigger at the same time and perhaps tanking some damage or by some other means, like placement of the butt trap or minions, coerce the opponent into thinking they're gaining the upper hand, when they're actually falling right into a series of trap. One such example of this is say, setting an elephant trap but switching the trigger someone else, leaving the opponent to think it's safe to attack on that spot again. If you let a dummy man out and they slip up, though, you can easily switch the triggers back and they start taking hits from all directions.

Trap placement is definitely of huge significance and cannot be stressed enough as an important part of Reynolds' game plan. You have many many ways of placing traps, the most basic on the floor itself. This is where the trap is most unprotected but also requires the most annoying amount of effort to foes simply standing right next to it, forcing them to hit it with a low attack or downward aerials to destroy it. While it's the most blatant form of trap, it's a good one to throw in there as a mix-up and mess up the opponent's flow when they have to tread over an obstruction like that. Next, placing traps on the monoliths or other structures so that they're facing sideways, on the side of the stages also counts here. This is a bit more powerful considering that they are entirely protected by one side, and the foe may have limited projectile usage too due to the nature of monoliths and dummy men photo booths. This is good for defending traps that you want to be safe. Traps on the front of obstructions, the front of your monoliths being the best example, are ones that you want to be safe, but also act as a uniting point of the two traps that may potentially end up on either side of the monolith. Relatively safe, but easily destroyed in a foe gets close. Lastly, placing traps on the inside of donuts or other obscured places, this is for traps where you don't necessarily want them used, but rather just want to use them in a switch or keep a certain area of the stage unsafe for an opponent.

This all comes together later in the match as you intertwine the different triggers and force the opponent into setting off a chain reaction, or simply killing themselves by foolishly triggering a powerful trap, or powerfully triggering an otherwise weak trap. This is hard to describe in terms of playstyle, as it's really not laid down in stone. You do have some ways to make this a bit easier though. Your down smash is the obvious route, you can use that to outright bring all trap orbs together at once or slip up an opponent by bringing it to hover over them in mid-flight. Reynolds has the hardest job in the match by far, though, as he has to take care not to lose track of the machinations of all his different traps. You can always set them off yourself if a foe isn't going to bite using your aerials. It's very easy to just set up a trap like the garbage bag and strike it like a gong with your forward aerial fist, causing the opponent to come and destroy it or bare the brunt of whatever happens next. In general the foe is always going to be deciding whether to fight over your traps or fight over you yourself, as Reynolds isn't that much of a threat until he gets set-up as well. Saying that, he is remarkably strong without the set-up, just limited. It only takes a few uses of a certain tilt for it to be rendered useless due to start-lag and carelessly throwing out a shield some place makes Reynolds vulnerable to serious counter-attack.

Your shield and jab are of course extremely important too and let you denigrate power to lesser traps to make them protected, useful to persuade or dissuade a foe from attacking other parts of the stage, as well as rewarding traps that have worked well in the past. A foe will want to attack a trap to its death considering you can heal them at relative ease with your jab and even push them out of reach with your fsmash. You can also always place traps on your photo booth to disappear them a while and bring them back when it's more opportune. You can use further subterfuge with triggers by switching them around with traps bound for wherever the photo booth goes to, or the minions which can also be stored within. Then putting these minions on the ladder also works well as a way to somewhat backlog certain triggers you want and keep the foe from getting the upper hand in understanding exactly what you're up to. This is the big thing about Reynolds ultimately, he has plenty of tools, but it's all about traps. He is the master of traps. This is mostly in the player's hands to play with and get the reins of an extremely, almost scarily deep playstyle because of his over-abundance of traps in just one special. Some will grow accustomed to a few, or a certain flowchart of attacks leading to victory, but the true elite will be the ones who take the creativity of Reynolds' mastermind to heart, changing up their game plan for every match-up and then having a multitude of branches to take if it takes an unexpected turn. Reynolds is a character who can grow with the player, as it's not likely they will outgrow his huge potential.
 
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FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
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Moldy Bomber

I kept forgetting this guy was a 3v1 boss this entire set.

I do love the Hocrux mechanic. It's obviously fitting with Voldemort as a character and, well, Harry Potter's plot as a whole. It also means I can finally say the Bomber Genre exists, because it is basically Bomber. The Killing Curse is also quite well handled I feel, a terrifying projectile which can truly murder the foe right up. The Inferi seem like they could get waaaaay out of hand, though: Final Destination can't HOLD 24 Captain Falcons! (It can hold around 13 Captain Falcons: See here for an example.) So the Inferi are probably either a bit broken by virtue of taking up a million space (and then setting them on fire) or just not really working.

Also, Apparition doesn't have any checks or balances to make sure you don't just possess the foe and jump off the side after damage racking them to, say, 60%. Also, while this is obvious, the Shield Special doesn't work if Nagini's dead but your other hocruxes around I presume though it is not explicit.

Voldemort's Forward Smash has an insane range, to the point it's really not good: Ho-oh's Sacred Fire? And it expands more and lasts way too absurdly long? This move is so strong it's going to dominate most other tricks of his playstyle, with no mentioned absurd starting lag unless it's without any Hocruxes...which Fiendfyre will almost certainly cover. Foes who DI out will have trouble considering that it, as described, it can cover up to every standable surface on Battlefield and at worst covers over half. Oh, yeah, and Voldemort can still attack. The Great Lake, while quite flashy and cool to invision, doesn't feel like it's an organic growth of the moveset's goal and perhaps is overly flashy, to the point that doing it during the battle seems odd somehow.

The throws are in generally pretty pukeworthy: The F-Throw and B-Throw take a player out of any kind of meaningful interaction for either 30% damage or 7 seconds, which is ultimately annoying, especially since Voldemort can Fiendfyre anyone who tries to actually knock them out early. He also has an annoying bit I don't like in movesets: Specifically, throws which do a bunch of stuff except actually damaging or throwing the foe. That's what Command Grabs are for. The entire grab game is pretty terrible to be honest. The tilts don't really make up for it, though I do like Protego, which is fun.

NAir is probably my second favorite move of this set, after creating the Hocruxes themselves. It's cool and flashy without being overly so, giving Voldemort an appropriate sense of power which works well combined with the image which creates feel, while being one of his most playstyle relevant moves and being strong without being overpowering. It's a great move. The Up Aerial makes it TOO Easy to protect a Hocrux though IMHO, especially combined with Fiendfyre.

Silly Pony, Balance is for Kids!

High priority means nothing for the U-Tilt against aerial assaults due to how priority works.

As a whole though, this moveset is...okaaaaaay, nothing special, the fact that the changelings die in one hit makes it a bit of a bummer against anyone with a projectile but maybe too annoying against others. The Fly does make this more viable and interesting, but even then I don't feel it developes interest in the context of the set that massively changes anything. The moves are a workmanship level of okay, but they feel like moves just there to be moves, nothing to support the changelings, take advantage of the low light level or more advanced usage of Chrysalis mind control/illusion abilities.

So while I don't ultimately like it, I don't dislike it much either.

It's Royalty Week Apparantly

I was going to make a set for this guy! I probably still will next contest...

Seriously, though, first a Lord, then a Queen, and now a King? I'm just going right through all the card suits.

My biggest problem with the set is how many of the things the crystals do just...perpetuates more crystals. The buff from being inside his corrupted zone is certainly good, but a lot of his moves have very little or no real buff to what they do, which is ultimately dissapointing when the introduction of the crystals makes it sound like we're going to get some cool stuff in the corrupted zone. But on the plus side the crystals themselves are actually quite interesting, which makes up for it.

There's some minor balance issues, such as D-Tilt perhaps healing too much, but I feel like it is overall quite minor. But while I like Sombra, he's just not especially good, as I feel there is a lot left on the table to deal with corruption and that his shadow form, something that could be a crown jewel, is ultimately reduced to the worst Special in his arsenal. Still, it's the first set this block I would actually vote.

THE GUN IS GOOD. THE ZODICK IS EVIL.

I'm not going to mess with the name this entire time, so he's Hellhog now.

Hellhog here doesn't have the most immedietely exciting playstyle, as he mostly performs amusing parodies of Sonic and sets up basic momentum. The writing in this moveset is actually pretty clever, though I imagine it must have been a pain to keep tagging that i. The set makes some interesting use of his height as well, turning Hellhog's weakness into an interesting playstyle piece.

A lot of the attacks feel only...okay though, working off the momentum but not to an amazing effect, but at the same time not being bad. The F-Throw chaingrab really helped my opinion of the set at the end, as it introduces a powerful and interesting tool which requires you to really understand your momentum and the situation, creating some real cerebral playing by the player. That ultimately pushed me over the edge from merely thinking it was okay to having a vague sense of like to it. The ring mechanic is slightly underexplained, as I still do not fully understand what kind of non-weight defense Hellhog has. I also do feel the set doesn't really have the best flow, though it's not terrible at that.

Wait, I'm sorry, who is Killerman again?

Killerman is Killerman!

I think this set illustrates nicely the issue of having too many concepts going at once. Between Killerman's clones, the heads/maggots, the stars and laser reflection and so on and so forth, there's just no place for flow to organically develope, and instead you get a smattering of ideas good in a vaccuum that do not blend together into a set. While this means the set isn't bad, even enjoyable at points, it also means it ends up with an eventual sense of...dissapointment and a lack of superior qualities. While I slightly like it, it is quite slight. I've already told you a lot of what I think about this set privately and while it was being made, so let's just end the comment here.

Reynolds Wrap

This set is very high concept. I had to reread decent chunks of it to decide an opinion on it. And even then, I probably deliberated about an hour on where to rank it, going from as low to 3 to as high as just under Soldier, but then I decided on my current place.

This moveset is both great in some areas and terrible in others. On one hand, the traps don't always feel like they work together as a cohesive unit or parts of a singular puzzle...on the other hand, they are competent enough that a player can make it work and fairly unique. The flow is hard to get a hold of, but I felt like something was somehow off kilter the entire set, yet not enough to nosedive it for me...and I still cannot place what it is into words. The Down Special is a cool concept...but it feels like it could devolve the game too far into guessing if unchecked, which is added into issue by the fact the set might not mind that anyway, which brings in the question on if the guessing game is good or not.

I did not like the aerials, that is for sure, as they did not feel like they jived with the rest of the moveset well. Though not necessarily bad, they simply felt awkward, moreso in set context. The shield engineer seems iffy due to how easy it is to kill your engineer by accident: Doesn't that end the shield? I also disliked the Forward Throw: it somehow felt tacky even when this set gets away with a lot of tacky-ish stuff. I did like other stuff, though: most notably the Shadow trap, which seemed cool. And I think I ultimately came up from the set with a positive feeling from it, even if I felt it's execution was shaky enough I would not call it one of the best this contest. And so it goes.

Charles "D Money" Dallace, the Ganstamancer

He's, like, got cash, man.

Isn't it a bit strong that Cashman is so heavy and can heal without too much of an issue?

Turn Web? Up-Down Web? Interesting inputs there...

Cashman is also a bit hard to comment, though easier to understand than Reynolds. Some of the healing stands feel like they take too long to actually affect the foe, as the foe will simply eat a little and flee: 5 seconds is a long time! The webbing on the set is pretty cool and organic, but at times it feels at odds with the cash part of Cashman: Though parts of it like the rocket flow well enough. As mentioned, he has some...interesting inputs. Why not give him Web Smashes since he loses his normal smashes while on the web? The grab game is quite confusingly written to me, though after reading it some it turned out...okay. The set does competently with it's inputs but fails to make a distinct impression on me with either great flow or overwhelming creativity, though I'd say I enjoyed it in the end. It's 3:40 AM, so excuse the small comment. I've made a bunch of other ones with this, after all.

White Dino Ranger

Trent baaaaarely edges out Reynolds as my favorite Illbleed set, I'd say.

He brings interesting things to the 3v1 boss genre, with his treatment of woodcutters, the way his roots work, especially with the boss weaknesses and the advantage of his solid body. It all works really well without being overly complex, as some of the worse micromanagement possibilities are instead simply handled by the woodcutter's AI. This is all quite good, though the moveset does have it's fair set of issues: While I understand the woodpuppets have to be included because character, I do feel that the implementation just doesn't feel good from a movesetting perspective. In addition, some moves are a bit too strong and drown out their drawback: The buzzsaw most notably kills woodpuppeted foes so easily and can be stopped from lopping your roots up easy enough it might be a bit too good. The NAir also feels a bit awkward and I feel the BAir is too much of a solution for some of Trent's more serious problems that actually removes a little depth to him. The Final Smash is...okay. I understand the need to include it in and that it is fairly playstyle relevant, but I didn't feel it was especially good either. Also, roots seem a good deal harder to kill than the moveset makes it sound, with 200 HP + Pummel healing...

So it was ultimately quite enjoyable, it with flaws.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Finally that thing is out :p

Just a reminder: week one submissions for the challenge mini are due by 6pm est tonite!

:phone:
 

Rychu

Thane of Smashville
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
810
3DS FC
1908-0105-4965
Return Damage

Resistance/Absorption

When a character uses this shield, they go into a so-called "counter-stance", to say, they enter an almost meditative (or defending, animations differ from character to character) animation. For as long as this put upon, they can tank any amount of damage given to them from a single blow, before returning to their "fighting stance". They take half the damage dealt from the attack, as well as half the knockback, though take all the knockback horizontally. The character is "storing" the damage and knockback to be used in a different attack, and are able to stack the damage and knockback taken. So, if a character is dealt 10%, they tank 5% and half the knockback, and store the rest. Using it again for an attack dealing 14%, they tank 7 and half the knockback, and now have 12% damage and the combined knockback stored.

The downside is that when the attack is released, it's a one shot deal: whiff it and it's all gone. Plus, the more powerful a move becomes, the slower it is to use and recover for it: The starting lag goes up .005 seconds for every half damage percent that is stored, and the ending lag goes up .01 seconds for every half damage percent. May not seem like much, but for every 5 damage percent stored, that's .05 seconds of starting lag and .1 second of ending lag.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Shield and Armor

Shield and Armor are two abilities given to Brawl characters with, well, shields and armor.

Characters with natural shields on them may now press B while shielding to raise their natural shield. This lowers their movement speed to 3/4th of normal, but provides numerous benefits:

Damage and hitstun from any attack that hits the shield is halved. Knockback is negated.
Projectiles are reflected
The character may still use their attacks, provided it only uses one hand. For example, Link may use his F-Tilt, but not his two-hand using F-Smash.

...And some cons:

This provides no protection from attacks behind you
In addition, you can no longer turn around: Pressing back now has the character move backwards while facing forwards with their shield. Ergo, enemies getting behind you is a big issue.
The shield does not affect grabs.
The shield has lag when being put away (same input as taking out) or being taken out
And of course, the movement debuff.

Many characters with shielding also now come with armor. This provides a constant super armor and damage reduction based on how much armor they have on them, from 1% to 5%. Link, for example, due to his chainmail (TP design) and shield, has an armor rating of about 3%. So he has super armor of 3% and reduces damage done to him by 3%. Simple.

Primary Focus: Resistance (Resists projectiles, reduces damage by a %)
Secondary Focus: Negation
 

Smady

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
3,306
Location
K Rool Avenue


Magic Shield
The magic shield is a part of a character's hurtbox and acts as a natural barrier to attacks that hit the magic shield. This can be on any part of the character's model, as armour, or held as a passive hurtbox as a literal shield. This depends on the character and its placement may determine a branch of strategy in basic movement. A magic shield is a piece of armour that absorbs disjointed hitboxes or otherwise magical attacks, absorbing them and adding to an invisible counter for damage. A magical shield can be damaged from non-disjointed, and physical attacks if attached to the character's hurtbox, but these attacks deal significantly less damage. A held shield more like Link's will negate all damage, and helps greatly at positioning the character to impact enemy projectiles, singling them out for absorption. At first, the shield will not affect strong or physical attacks, but as it absorbs more power from enemy magic, it can transcend this weakness and this allows it to become an all-purpose tool on the par of a normal Smash shield.

Absorption&Resistance
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
[collapse="Killerman"]Just had to comment on this one early because it's so easy to read in comparison to the others. In any case, your approach to this character who does thing in this set that are not immediately obvious in his boss fight just told me a lot about your approach to movesetting: you don't pay a lot of attention to damage and knockback of your attacks, and try to implement a whole bunch of flashy tricks to keep people's attention (your previous sets do this too). Having watched the boss fight, what you do with Killerman...feels odd, to say the least. You could justify the duplicates by the theme of the level, yet at the same time it does not feel all Killerman-ish to overwhelm enemies with clones. Some of the interactions in the set, such as the giant lazer beam bouncing off your stars and said laser beam making your duplicates real, don't come off as interesting but rather forced. I also wonder why the heck the star projectile on Killerman's Neutral Special is so freaking powerful compared to the laser beam (which should maybe be a bit more powerful) - the latter KOs 5% earlier than the star! Some of the aerials are glaringly powerful too, like N-air dealing upwards knockback that KOs at 140% when one has to take into account that it could KO earlier near the top of the blast zone - Wario's U-air is considered a good KO move, and it only KOs around 170%.

Killerman teleports a fair bit during his boss fight and when he's killing people during cutscenes, so even that would have been a good simple idea to go with his projectile spam - have the beam be a projectile charged passively, lure the foe somewhere and then teleport a distance back to pull off said attack, all good and healthy for Killerman. While it might sound like I'm beating on the set for not going about a specific way like I've done with a few others this competition, the way it does go about things in the set...it amounts to making duplicates and mindgaming/surrounding the foe just so you can hit with a projectile, which isn't even his strongest move in the set. Urabrask's Neutral Special puts it to shame. Fake traps being created by duplicates is interesting, and even compliments the series a little, but is very much awkward and I don't really care for any of the established interactions due to they being awkward and somewhat overkill with the mass projectile bouncing, especially when you're using physical attacks to do it. He can also "wall up" a heck of a lot of space, such an over-sized privilege.

I daresay Killerman would have been more suited to a simple set, one that utilizes his teleport spam and physical attacks given his build. It could have good even without the duplicates, face traps and maggots, though sets need all that flashy trappy stuff to be good nowadays, right? Your style seems to be much more suited to characters with a ton of leeway to them and magic potential given how successful Lizard was, as opposed to characters with stricter fighting styles such as fist-fighters or sword-wielders. You told me this would be your last set done for a movement, and I think it's a good way to go: at the very least, the experience of not having had complete control over your character of choice gave you more insight to what kind of characters your style compliments. [/collapse]
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
WEEK 1 RESULTS:

We had a pretty strong turnout for the first Challenge Mini, with a total of 9 entrants and a good variety of content. Even the ones that were similar in concept did their jobs differently!

Now, on to the grading process. I will grade each entry by it's showing in 4 categories:

Creativity: The entry's originality or imaginative qualities. Slightly subjective yes, but clearly the effort put into some of them will show in this category.

Practicality: The entry's ability to actually be implemented and/or balance. A bit trickier than the others, it can be summarized as "can it actually work?".

Execution: The entry's attention to the rules as well as the presentation itself. If an entry is hard to decipher and/or does not follow the guidelines given, they get points off here.

Appeal: The overall "feel" of the entry and how well it meshes with either the whole project, smash, or just within itself. An entry with high appeal will generally be seen as cool by the community (Falcon.....), whereas low appeal can be seen as "cheap" or "awkward" (MK's Brawl Tornado).

Total: Lastly, each category will be scored from 1 to 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being great. The Total is then added up to a score out of 20, which can also be converted to a raw % with 1 point = 5%, if you feel like it.

That out of the way, on to the entries!



Kholdstare's Shield

Creativity: 3/5
A neat twist on an existing mechanic found on Pit and Link, the parry part of the move however gives it some nice flavor.

Practicality: 4/5
Practically speaking, this has already been proven to work in-smash, and the way it literally replaces a shield with the drawback of less coverage but with the ability to parry makes it a solid alternative. My only gripe is with the double-tap of the parry, is it not possible to hold the shield out and parry an attack when you want?

Execution: 5/5
Not much to add here, good job.

Appeal: 4/5
The concept of having an actual shield that can parry attacks in exchange for a standard shield is a good one, but at the same time it really shoe-horns the concept to only be a shield input, hurting some of it's conceptual appeal.

Total: 16/20


Junahu's Barbariccia Hair

Creativity: 5/5
The "hair" acting as a sort of dummy hurtbox is very clever, as is the way you have it absorb KB instead of damage up to a point.

Practicality: 4/5
While this should work in theory, it really hinges on what the (hair) is. On something like Mawile where the dummy is as big as the main character, sure. Otherwise it could be kinda dumb if it is like 2-3x bigger or smaller.

Execution: 4/5
As I said, there needs to be a bit of detail on how much this thing actually covers space-wise.

Appeal: 4/5
While I do really like the concept, it will need tweaking to make sure it actually works. There seems to be a fine line between interesting and annoying for both the player and opponent with a character that uses this based on well, how they use it.

Total: 17/20


Katapultar's Tiger Blood

Creativity: 4/5
A slightly stronger (for one hit) yet overall weaker shield that wrecks everyone else when it breaks is a neat concept, playing on how absorption effects usually "toggle" effects based on their current HP.

Practicality: 4/5
However, how quickly it drains after taking a hit combined with the smart-bomb radius make it kinda scary when it actually is hit, which takes away from an otherwise ok shield replacement.

Execution: 2/5
Combining how fast your shield drops and how it makes the shield smaller/rolls worse, it almost seems like the move would be more offensive as a whole. Even with the counter-like properties the range gives it leeway if you just want to manually break it even with the lag before it drains, making it's use not as defensive as the mini required :/

Appeal: 3/5
On the whole ok, but needs some tweaks here and there to be great.

Total: 13/20


Big Mac's Rooting

Creativity: 5/5
As a mechanic this is great as it combines nicely with teching, crawling and crouch-canceling in general, and can be applied to many "earth" related characters. For those who don't know, crouch-canceling is a technique in Melee/P:M/Smash4(mebbe) where holding down will actually negate a great deal of KB as you will DI into the floor, and into your crouch instead of being in hit stun. It works better the heavier you are as well!

Practicality: 3/5
The tether part makes it lose a few points as it is a little awkward to picture crouching then standing up, but then losing the tether? If the vine/whatever stayed with you and healed you until it was cut that'd be fine but as-is its a little awkward.

Execution: 3/5
You used "negation" wrong here, the vine would be more absorption based as it can take damage for the character, unless you meant for KB? The wording also makes me confused about having to constantly crouch or not.

Appeal: 4/5
Overall ok, as the core of the idea is great, you just need to explain it a tad more.

Total: 15/20


Hyper Ridley's Nimble Fighter

Creativity: 5/5
A huge boon for momentum-based sets, and can be applied to nearly any move as long as the character well, moves!

Practicality: 5/5
Giving a little armor to the character as they push forward, as well as being able to drop the attack in favor of avoiding incoming fire is already seen in smash in the form of armor and jump cancels, this way is just a tad different.

Execution: 4/5
My only gripe here is that it doesn't say when they can actually cancel the attack, and while you say moves will utilize it on a case-by-case basis, is this true to the negation as well?

Appeal: 5/5
This is a great, simple defensive boon to characters already on the go, allowing them to continue evading and entice them to keep moving.

Total: 19/20


ForwardArrow's Absorbing Guard

Creativity: 4/5
Another "shield augment", this one however is neat in how the character gets a buff based on how battered the shield is, while still having to keep it up due to it being overall smaller and easier to break.

Practicality: 5/5
Not much to add here, and just a note: the max resistance one could get from this is around 90%, but that leaves the shield at just about breaking point. This then takes 35 seconds to go down to 20%, where another 12 is needed before there is zero resistance. So 47 seconds total of "scaling" resists that can be refreshed by shielding more attacks, at the cost of having a smaller shield to actually work with, causing you to actually use said resistance? Sounds great.

Execution: 5/5
Other than a nitpick over showing the actual numbers as I did above, this is solid.

Appeal: 5/5
This makes for a fun core mechanic as you kind of see-saw back and forth between actually shielding or just eating attacks like a man to survive, well done.

Total: 19/20


Getocoolaid's Return Damage

Creativity: 5/5
A neat use of resistance here as it halves both damage and KB, as well as how it absorbs the resisted amount for later use.

Practicality: 4/5
The downside here could have been that one still takes KB and can be chased, instead of the slightly confusing lag alteration. This on top of not knowing how exactly we release the stored damage (the next hit landed?) takes a point off.

Execution: 3/5
Two are shaved here due to the lag thing again, as well as the confusion between how you actually use the damage as you also say "when the attack is released", do you mean when you unleash the counter?

Appeal: 5/5
Overall though the concept is fantastic, you just have me confused on how you're going about it after it's in effect is all.

Total: 17/20


FrozenRoy's Shield and Armor

Creativity: 5/5
A different take on the shield augments and well, shields we've seen before, this puts characters in a sort of "advancing guard" after they shield normally. On top of this, the ability to still use some attacks and also negate resisted damage makes it feel like a truly defensive stance.

Practicality: 4/5
The method used is a little odd considering you can just end it with B as well, why not have it be a special in itself? The attacks you can do from it as well as the variable negation also depend heavily on the character that uses this, which can lead to issues down the line, but overall not too bad.

Execution: 3/5
Reflecting projectiles feels a little odd here, as most normal shields/armor would just negate it no? Anywho, mainly the reflection here took off points as it added a tad too much to an otherwise fine concept IMO, as well as the actual execution of having to use a normal shield first and then have lag to take it out.

Appeal: 4/5
I can see this going over well, but there could easily be gripes depending on the size of the shield and how much armor/how many attacks can be used during it.

Total: 16/20


Smash Daddy's Magic Shield

Creativity: 5/5
Having a sweet-spot to try and get attacks to hit to beef up your non-(energy) defenses is pretty cool indeed.

Practicality: 4/5
This like a few others will hinge on both where the shield is, and how much resistance is gained from attacks absorbed, and/or how long it lasts. You stated that the placement varies based on character anyways to add strategy sure, but a point had to be taken for the resist part.

Execution: 4/5
Great, except for not knowing what the resists effect and how much (just the shield, the whole character?).

Appeal: 5/5
I can see this on a variety of character in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from something like ice-boss in Metroid Prime where energy attacks get stored in it's spines, to somebody with a literal magic shield they can whip out. Nice job.

Total: 18/20


Congrats to Hyper Ridley and ForwardArrow for the best scores on Week 1, now lets see what Week 2 has in store...​




WEEK 2:
CHARACTER CREATION

Using the concept created in Week1, create a character that will use the defensive measure in their gameplay. You must describe the general "archetype" your character will fill (tank/rushdown/whatever) and whether or not the defensive focus from last week plays a central or side-role to their playstyle, as well as the exact input the maneuver will have if it had an input.

You don't have to -create- a character from scratch, a simple description of a character-type you had in mind be it a "knight" or "some type of earth elemental" would do. A bit more fleshed out than that however! Think of it as giving your concept a character to work off of this time around.


EXAMPLE: THE TREASURE HUNTER

The Treasure Hunter is a gruff looking individual from what appears to be a dystopian future, harboring a plethora of gadgets but at the same time seeming dingy and more like something out of a sci-fi Treasure Island. His stats are similar to most basic humans in Smash, with a mediocre recovery supplemented by his Overshield Down Special that heals him as well as gives him room to take a few hits as his other gadgets go to work.

The Treasure Hunter is a bit of an everyman, doing a bit of everything but leaning a bit on being a zoning character with his slight projectile and trap use.

For those who did not participate in Week1:

If you still wish to join in on the fun, you can make a Week2 entry, but you are now must also include a Week1 entry with it. The catch? The Week1 entry must be of a combination NOT USED by any of the 9 that were posted on-time. I may or may not also take points off for being late (DHAT).
 

Rychu

Thane of Smashville
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
810
3DS FC
1908-0105-4965
The Monk


The Monk is a tall, wide character, who would not look out of place in a kung-fu dojo. Easily standing as tall as even the biggest of Smash Bros characters, he's not a very light guy either, weighing in at the low end of the super heavyweights. Luckily for him, he's light on his feet, and can move around the stage at a decent pace. He likes to take on opponents hand-to-hand, but can handle himself in a fight against weapon users: he's been practicing for hundreds of years, after all. While he's not particularly skilled or naturally talented in them, the Monk can fire the odd magical blast, by taking control of the negativity in his body and focusing it into pure energy.

The monk does not possess any weapons: he's a very pacifistic, defensive character who, while being very strong, is better at returning blows than rushing in swinging, with several of his moves being dedicated to avoiding, countering, or absorbing opponent's attacks. In fact, his return damage down special, Meditate, does just that, as he absorbs damage and knockback, over time, only to return it whenever he uses a smash attack! He has a fairly mediocre recovery and aerial game though, so he'll be spending most of his time on the ground!

He CAN be a heavy hitter, and is a beast up close...provided he's not approaching or initiating the fight. He's got a few quick jabs and kicks, though if he doesn't use them at the right time, he's as good as toast. The monk is all about patience: not waiting for the right time to strike, but ready to punish foes who strike at the wrong time!
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Character: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is an imposing beast, standing tall amongst the weaklings of Brawl with his large sword hoisted high with a single arm. He also has a backstory because I'm grabbing him from a story concept, but I won't go too far into that, especially since I never gave him a name. Suffice to say, this Dark Knight may be more virtuous than his appearance...

He is clad in black armor from head to toe, with his entrance actually being putting his helm on! The only thing that can be seen is a few locks of purple hair sticking out of the back. He is, like many Brawl heavyweights, slow and powerful with an aversion to the air. His disjointed attacks carry vicious power and he can even let out a short range projectile with his Dark Sword Beam special or approach with his Armor Breaker special!

Despite this, however, The Dark Knight seemingly suffers a severe weakness to projectiles, as his short range projectile often cannot pierce the lasers of a Falco or a Fox, and his Armor Breaker offers no protection against projectiles. This is where his large shield comes into play, as he can take full advantage of the Shield to fight back against projectile camping foes and to create an advance unmatched in Brawl. This does, however, suffer a serious downside, as The Dark Knight becomes even slower with his shield out and his backside's exposure becomes a constant pain against more mobile enemies. He doesn't have many attacks to make up for this weakness, either. His Armor is strong enough it recieves the maximum rating of 5%, allowing smaller hits to glance off of him and further creating a deadly advance with his shield. These two combined also help make up for his poor recovery. Mastery of how to use these abilities is key to anyone who wishes to truly master The Dark Knight.
 

Kholdstare

Nightmare Weaver
Joined
Oct 10, 2008
Messages
1,439
__________The Paladin__________



"Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all."



The Paladin is a holy knight whose duty is to protect those he serves and those he loves. His cause is righteous, his heart is pure. While on his journey he may be corrupted, he usually overcomes the evil and darkness by the end. A paladin is always Lawful Good, and perhaps is the defining character of this trope. Part warrior and part cleric, the paladin is often the leader of his group, and always the moral compass.






A slight alteration to the parry mechanic I introduced with my last entry: parry is now the default action when tapping this alternate shield. You must hold down the shield input to actually use the shield's damage reduction and blocking properties, although that's not to say a parry can't reduce or block damage. Indeed, hitting a projectile or attack with the parry will knock them back, negating damage/knockback.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Quick edit, I changed the requirements for those joining in now to be a bit less strict.
 
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