Ryuk is a Shinigami (Also known as a Death God) from the Death Note series (This moveset is based off his anime incarnation.). All Shinigami live in the Shinigami realm, and they all posses items known as Death Notes. If you write someone’s name in a death note, they’ll die, and if a shinigami uses the death note then the remainder of that person’s life span is added to the Shinigami’s. For example, if a Shinigami kills a man who would normally die at 60 when he was only 40, the Shinigami would gain 20 years to his life span.
Shinigami rarely leave their realm to venture into the human world, if ever. Instead, they lead rather pointless existences in which they do nothing but kill for the sake of expanding their life spans and gambling the only thing they posses: Years of their lives. Ryuk grew quite bored of this and gave his spare Death Note to a human named Light for entertainment. This causes the events of the Death Note series to start taking place.
Ryuk stayed with Light to watch the chaos unfold as he started using it to ultimately achieve world domination. Ryuk isn’t on Light’s side, but Shinigami are required to stay by humans who they give their Death Note to, and what would be the point of coming to earth in the first place if not to watch the fun? Ryuk tells Light information about the Death Note at very inconvenient times, and only helps him when it makes the picture more interesting to watch.
LIFE FROM A DEATH GOD’S EYES
Shinigami have nearly limitless power, but they have many strict rules they must follow or else be severely punished. This helps keep them in check and ensures the human world stays in proper order. While they have all the power in the world, they are not allowed to kill a human with anything but their Death Note. If Ryuk dares to defy the rules and KOs by means other then his Death Note, then a black light will beam down from the top of the stage down onto him, undodgable, then cause him to dissolve into a pile of sand and losing a stock. This causes Ryuk’s high KO potential to be more of a bane then a strength, as when you’re damaging your foe you might accidentally KO them instead. The only situation where you can take complete advantage of Ryuk’s KO power is when your enemy only has one stock left, as you’ll KO them before you’re judged by the higher up Shinigami.
Of course, being a Shinigami also has it’s perks. Shinigami cannot be seen or heard by humans unless they touch the Shinigami’s notebook. This means that at the start of the fight, Ryuk is completely invisible until a foe touches him, and he also has no entrance animation. Ryuk’s notebook can be seen in his hand, though, giving away his position. However; Ryuk can drop the notebook with his down special to take more adavantage of this invisibility. You probably won’t be able to take advantage of it for long before a foe touches the death note and it’s quite hard due to you also being unable to see yourself, but it fits into Ryuk’s playstyle quite nicely.
Shinigami can get a bit careless with their notebooks of death at times, and Ryuk is no exception. If Ryuk is damaged for 30% without damaging the enemy, it will cause him to drop his notebook. Also, if Ryuk is killed by the higher up Death Gods for killing someone by means other then his Death Note, it will stay where he was when he died, it not respawning with him. Foes can pick up Ryuk’s dropped Death Note and simply throw it off stage, or pocket it by pressing down B (They regain their Down Special after pocketing it.). Once the foe has pocketed the Death Note, they’ll have to be KOd or take 30% damage without them damaging you to drop it themselves.
Size: 9/10
Ryuk towers over all humans, being a head taller then even Ganondorf. He thankfully isn’t particularly wide, having short skinny limbs, preventing him from being absurdly huge. Still, Ryuk has an awkward time defending himself from aerial assaults and hitting foes down low due to his massive height.
Weight: 7/10
Ryuk is decently heavy, but he’s not among the heaviest. Unlike most heavyweights, he’s not particularly fat or muscly, keeping him from being at the top of the list.
Walking Speed: 2/10
Standard slow badass walk.
Running Speed: 4/10
Ryuk’s running speed by default is far from a sight to see, but if you take out his wings with his up special he gains a gliding run like Meta Knight and Charizard that boosts this stat to a more respectable 6/10.
Traction: 6/10
Ryuk doesn’t trip –too- much due to the badass factor, but he still is slightly clumsy.
Power: 7/10
Ryuk has plenty of KO options, and his Death Note is among the most powerful moves in the game. Plenty of his moves do average/above average knockback as well. Ryuk isn’t quite on the level of the most powerful characters, though, as he has a good deal more weak attacks then the other heavy hitters.
Attack Speed: 6/10
Power and speed? A deadly combination that few have the luxury to have, but Ryuk is quite limited in how much he gets to use his otherwise good stats due to having to kill with his Death Note. Ryuk is far from the fastest of fighters, but he does have some actual combos, a rarity in Smash. If you want more fast moves, you can send Ryuk into Withdrawal (Details later), but this severely limits Ryuk’s arsenal. In any case, Ryuk can actually damage rack decently and isn’t nearly as easy to approach as most characters his size.
Range: 6.5/10
Most of Ryuk’s attacks have average range, and this range dips below average and above average considerably. Still, Ryuk has a move that can potentially cover the entire stage in his dsmash if used correctly, and if he charges his bair it can have massive range as well. These two moves help to ensure Ryuk is among the better ranged fighters, even if he does lack a simple spammable projectile.
Priority: 6/10
This is a similar case to Ryuk’s range. Most of Ryuk’s moves have average priority, but several dip below or above average, it balancing out a good bit. However, Ryuk does have a good few disjointed moves, his dsmash and bair once again sticking out among them. Some of these disjointed moves have bad priority, though, so Ryuk’s priority isn’t anything too exceptional.
First Jump: 9/10
Ryuk has among the best first jumps in the game, using his long legs to get up into the air.
Extra Jumps: 4/10
Ryuk has four extra jumps, but only when he has his wings out from his up special. If he has his wings out, these jumps are great, on the level of Meta Knight’s, but otherwise Ryuk has no extra jumps at all, making him extremely gimpable.
Glide: 5/10
A similar case to above. Ryuk can only glide when he his wings out from his up special, meaning there are times when Ryuk is unable to glide. When he can glide, though, Ryuk’s glide is absolutely amazing, beating out Meta Knight’s. Very easy to control and lasts even longer.
Fall Speed: 6/10
Ryuk falls slower then most heavyweights due to not being as heavy, but still leans towards the fast faller side.
Recovery: 7/10
Ryuk’s recovery is an extremely mixed bag. Ryuk can have his wings out for as long as he wants, but if he does so his size is increased even further, making him bait for combo food. Without his wings, Ryuk gimps himself, what with not having so much as a second jump. However; smart Ryuk players will get their wings out once they’re at a percentage where they can’t be easily comboed and are in danger of being knocked off, so it’s not a huge issue. Ryuk’s recovery otherwise is among the best in the game, but due to Ryuk having to be careful to not let his wings get in his way while on the stage things become more complicated.
Crouch: 3/10
Ryuk simply gets on one knee like Ganondorf, this doesn’t allow him to actually dodge much of anything.
Crawl: 5/10
Ryuk can only crawl while in his withdrawal state. Read Ryuk’s Juicy Apple special and his dtilt for details.
Hover:No.
Wall jump:No.
Wall cling:No.
BASIC ACTIONS/ANIMATIONS
Standard Pose:
Ryuk stands tall and holds his long arms up at his sides.
Idle Pose:
Ryuk hunches over slightly and lets his arms falls to the ground, looking somewhat like a zombie.
Walking:
Ryuk is in his idle pose as he slowly comes forward in a zombie like manner.
Running:
Ryuk walks more like a normal humanoid with his arms up off the ground and standing up straight.
Dashing:
Ryuk pumps his arms as he runs forward with his long legs. He’s struggling slightly to do this, but not nearly as much as Ganondorf.
Crouching:
Ryuk gets down on one knee in a crouch nearly identical to Ganondorf’s.
First Jump:
Ryuk crouches down in a pose like a frog, then springs up a massive distance. A bit more starting lag then usual for a jump.
Extra Jumps:
Assuming Ryuk has wings from his up special out, he does a simple flap of them to gain some air. Otherwise, Ryuk has no extra jumps.
Shield:
Ryuk blocks himself with his arms as the standard bubble shield forms. If Ryuk has wings from his up special out, he furls them up around himself to help defend himself.
Spot Dodge:
Ryuk stands on one leg as he leans into the background quickly, then quickly regains his footing.
Roll:
Ryuk hunches over as leaps forward/backwards and rolls along the ground in a fashion like Snake’s dashing attack. Great distance comparable to Mewtwo’s roll, but rather laggy.
Air Dodge:
Ryuk snaps his fingers, causing some shadows to conceal him briefly.
Asleep:
Ryuk stands in his idle pose, but hunched over even more so as he sleeps standing in place.
Dizzy:
Ryuk holds his head as his Shinigami Eyes glow and swirl about.
***
Neutral Special – Death Note
Assuming he has it on him, Ryuk takes out his Death Note and opens it up, then summons a pen in his other hand, then starts writing down the victim’s name into the notebook. If there are multiple players, he writes down the name of the nearest player. He can have multiple names written down at once and won’t try to write somebody’s name down twice. You can’t cancel this or slowly write it bit by bit, it has to be all at once and it takes a good 1.5 seconds, so you have to search a bit for a good time to use it.
After writing the victim’s name down, absolutely nothing happens. . .Until 30 seconds pass. Heartbeat sounds can be heard from the victim and they’ll start flashing red at this time. The heartbeats get faster and faster and the victim starts flashing more rapidly/a deeper shade of red for the next 10 seconds, warning them of what’s to come. At 40 seconds after writing the victim’s name down, the victim will suddenly stop in place as they have a heart attack, holding their heart, then they sky rocket upwards with ridiculously high upward knockback and 28% damage. However, there’s a big catch. Despite the huge 40 second build up, the foe can “spot dodge” the actual heart attack like any other attack. With the massive amount of warning signs, competent foes will nearly never actually be hit by the heart attack. Ryuk will want to either have the foe grabbed/performing a throw on them or stun them when the 40 seconds finally all pass to make dodging the heart attack impossible. Keeping the foe from escaping death is a large part of Ryuk’s playstyle.
If Ryuk is interrupted when trying to write down someone’s name, it counts as a “misspelling”. If a Shinigami ever misspells a victim’s name four times, they become immune to the effects of the Death Note. This is unlikely to occur, but if you’re careless with the Death Note then you might screw yourself over.
Neutral Special (Without Death Note) – Juicy Apple
Ryuk takes out his favorite food, a big juicy apple, briefly licking his lips as he does so, then chomps the whole thing down eagerly. It takes him a full second to chew down the whole apple, but he’ll heal 4% over the course of the second.
This is obviously hard to abuse, but the thing is if you use this move at all, you have to abuse it. Apples are essentially like drugs for Ryuk, and if he goes 20 seconds without having one he’ll go into a withdrawal. This causes his body to twist up in weird ways and for him to act unpredictablly. Ryuk will now walks on his hands, reducing his movement speed a good bit, and also has a much higher tripping rate. More importantly, Ryuk has a new minature moveset while in this state that only consists of standards and tilts, and of course the neutral special to eat an apple to get him out of the withdrawal. You may want to occasionally use this move intentionally, as the new moves Ryuk gets are fast and good damage rackers, but you have to ensure you know what you’re doing, as all the rest of your moves get lost.
Side Special – Deal with the Devil
Ryuk slashes in front of himself quickly. This has lag and range comparable to Koopa Klaw, Bowser’s side special. If you grab a foe with this, , Ryuk simply holds them in his normal grab animation and says “How about a deal? Half your life span for the Shinigami eyes.”. Foes can break out of this like a normal grab while Ryuk talks, meaning this won’t work until your foe already has 50% or so to keep them from button mashing out. After this, Ryuk places his hand over the victim’s eyes and his hand and the victim’s face pulse red briefly before the grab is complete. The foe’s damage percentage doubles, and their eyes are now blood red Shinigami eyes.
So just what do the Shinigami eyes do? They allow the user to know the name of anyone by merely looking at them. This is how Death Gods so easily kill anyone they please with the Death Note. The Shinigami Eyes don’t do anything useful on their own, but if someone with Shinigami Eyes obtains the Death Note one of their specials is replaced with Ryuk’s neutral special. They now can use Ryuk’s Death Note against him if they manage to take it from him. The special that’s replaced varies from character to character, but is always the least essential one to the character. For example, Kawasaki needs his neutral and down specials for his mechanic and his up special for recovery, so the Death Note would replace his side special.
The Shinigami Eyes cannot be removed, and will stay with a player even if they lose their current stock. Ryuk cannot double anyone’s damage percentage with the side special a second time. Should Ryuk grab somebody who already has Shinigami Eyes, it will act simply as if he grabbed them normally. If Ryuk grabs the foe in the air, Ryuk will automatically perform his uthrow on the foe to prevent easy suicide KOs/spikes with a dthrow. Ryuk will treat other Ryuks as players who already have Shinigami Eyes when using his side special. How can you give the eyes of a Death God to a Death God?
Up Special – Wings of the Death God
Ryuk sprouts out a massive pair of deadly wings. This takes a full second, and they will stay out forever until you use this up special again, which causes him to withdraw his wings back into his body. This move doesn’t directly help Ryuk recover, but when he has his wings out, he can use all four of his extra jumps and can also glide. In addition Ryuk also gets a new dashing animation where he glides along the ground like Meta Knight and Charizard, increasing his running speed slightly. As if all this wasn’t enough, Ryuk’s fair is also sped up to the point of being able to wall of pain quite nicely (More details located under the fair).
Why would you ever NOT want to have your wings out? Because they increase Ryuk’s already huge size. The gigantic wings are hurtboxes for Ryuk, and they make his width match his insane height, giving him, say, a 12/10 size ranking. This makes Ryuk ABSURDLY easy to combo. Still, you can’t sprout out your wings on a whim due to the lag. They have to already be out once you get knocked off stage, or your recovery will be hurt significantly as Ryuk takes the time to get out his wings. The best idea is to only sprout out your wings when you’re at high percentages and would be unable to make it back. Ryuk doesn’t have the luxury of waiting until typical kill percents to do this, though, as without his wings he doesn’t have so much as even a second jump. It’s best to get your wings out once you’re at around 50%. At that point foes can’t combo you –too- horribly due to your size anyway.
Down Special – Counterfeit Notebook
Firstly, a tidbit of information not directly related to this move. When somebody picks up a Death Note from Ryuk/them having dropped it, they’ll carry it and be able to throw it like a throwing item, but this limits their moveset due to the mechanics of throwing items and they won’t be able to use the actual power of the Death Note. Their down special of the note holder during this time is replaced with pocketing the notebook so it doesn’t get in the way, although non-Ryuk players will only have this ability if they have the Shinigami eyes.
Anyway, for the actual move Ryuk forms a counterfeit notebook in his hand, carrying it in his hand as if he just picked up the real Death Note, using it as a throwing item. This looks completely identical to the real Death Note. Ryuk can switch which Death Note he has pocketed and which one he’s holding as a throwing item with his down special. Ryuk can only have one counterfeit notebook out at a time. This allows large potential for mindgames, particularly if you’ve given your foes Shinigami eyes and they’re trying to hunt down your real notebook to use for themselves. This can also be used early on in the fight while Ryuk is still invisible from the foe not having touched the real Death Note. This also provides you with a simple projectile.
Just make sure you don’t mix up yourself which Death Note is real in the process. If you lose track of which Death Note is real, you can use your Neutral/Down special to see which version of the move is performed (Ryuk requires the real Death Note to perform the regular versions of the move), although this will also be a dead give away to your enemy, so it’s best to try to remember yourself. If you can remember, it’s very much in your interest to not use the neutral/down special when two notes are out, as your enemy will still treat fake Death Notes as real, writing down in them like real ones if they have the Shinigami eyes. They won’t realize it’s a fake until 30 seconds pass and nothing happens. This move also makes mirror matches quite interesting, as there can be up to four Death Notes floating about. An all Ryuk free for all/team battle only gets all the more crazy.
If a foe with Shinigami Eyes pockets a Death Note, real or fake, they can’t hold onto a Notebook in both their pocket and hands like Ryuk can. If they try to pick up a Death Note when they already have one, they’ll drop the current one they have. No mere mortal can use the Death Note as well as a Death God, whether or not they have the Shinigami eyes.
Down Special (Without Death Note) – Flight of the Notebook
Unlike Juicy Apple, Ryuk will only use this move if he’s not holding a Death Note, real or fake, in his hands or in his pocket. If he does so, he’ll simply switch the positions of any notebooks he currently has, assuming he already has a fake notebook in play.
Ryuk snaps his fingers for his notebook to start flying towards him, using it’s two halves of itself as wings. It comes towards Ryuk at a slow speed, that of Ganondorf’s walk, but it won’t stop until something gets in the way/it returns to its master. The main purpose of this is to keep Ryuk from being screwed over if a foe throws his notebook off the stage, as he can have it simply fly back up to him. Still, if you’re careless and just let the notbook slowly come back to you, your enemy can grab it as it flies and throw it away once more. The notebook does nothing to hurt enemies as it does this.
Fake notebooks will not react to this move, allowing you to easily detect which ones are real, as if you performing this down special wasn’t enough. If there are multiple real notebooks from multiple Ryuks, then only the nearest notebook will fly to Ryuk.
Standard Attack – Fountain Pen
Upon the first press of A, Ryuk will take out his Death Note and pen and start writing in it in a completely identical fashion to the neutral A, but in reality he’s not actually writing anything. He’s just going through the motions of doing so. Ryuk will stay in this position until you either do the next part of the combo or try to do another move/walk to cancel it. This has minimal starting lag and nearly no ending lag to come out of.
For the next part of the combo, Ryuk suddenly shoots ink out of his pen out at the foe, it going half a Battlefield platform forward and Ryuk keep spraying ink as you hold A. The ink does mass hits of 1%, being as powerful as Bowser’s fire breath but with only half as much range, and it still weakening in time like Bowser’s fire breath to have almost no range at all. This has no start up lag but slight ending lag. If you attempt to perform this button input without any form of Death Note, Ryuk will skip the first part of the attack and go straight to shooting ink out of his pen.
At first, this move doesn’t seem particularly useful at all, but it has massive potential for mindgames due to the first part of the move having the exact same animation as Ryuk’s neutral B. You can use this to trick foes into thinking that you have the real Death Note when in reality you’re using a fake, and when you have the actual Death Note you can trick foes into thinking that you’re vulnerable and busy writing their name down into the note, then when they carelessly come to punish you can spray the ink at them or instantly come out of the animation and attack them with another attack.
Standard Attack (Withdrawal) – Feral Chomp
Ryuk bites forward with average starting lag but no ending lag. Small range. The hitbox is actually at the bottom of Ryuk due to Ryuk walking on his hands while in a withdrawal, him biting down at the ground. The bite has average priority and deals 10% with average knockback. This can devour items like the neutral Bs of Wario, King Dedede, and Kirby, as well as Waddle Dees/Doos and other similar projectiles that the earlier mentioned specials can. Ryuk will take 5% and a slight stun if he eats an explosive item just like the other characters as well. This is the closest thing Ryuk has to a KO move while in his withdrawal state.
Dashing Attack – Sprouting Wings on the Fly
Ryuk continues running forward as his wings start to sprout out of his sides like in his up special. However; due to Ryuk already running and taking some energy, it’s twice as laggy as his up special to get them out. After getting out his wings, Ryuk will switch to his gliding dash with his wings. This does nothing to hurt foes.
If you need to get your wings out ASAP and you have some room to run, you can sprout your wings on the fly to keep from being vulnerable, it being far harder to punish you while you’re running then while you’re standing in place. However; if Ryuk runs off an edge while performing this attack (He is capable of doing so unlike most dashes), the move will be interrupted, so you need around two thirds the length of Battlefield to run. If you perform this move when you already have your wings out when performing this attack, Ryuk will take them in instead with the same properties, although this is worse as Ryuk travels forwards faster during the attack, meaning he needs more of a “runway” to pull in his wings.
Dashing Attack (Withdrawal) - Sprint
Ryuk runs on his hands a good bit faster at 3X his normal speed, but then quickly get tired after dashing the half a Battlefield platform and walks half his withdrawal speed for another half of a Battlefield platform. This has no starting lag or ending lag besides it’s duration. Ryuk’s body is an average priority hitbox as he’s running quickly that does 9% and below average knockback. If this move is spammed, the speed boost slightly beets out the speed decrease, Ryuk moving slightly faster then if he was simply running normally.
Forward Tilt – Slap on the Back
Ryuk swings his arms forward with average range and priority, below average starting lag and average ending lag. If Ryuk hits anyone with this, he’ll deal 8% and cause the foe to spin around rapidly in place for a second. During this time, the foe can be hit with other attacks, but they have super armor as they spin about. After the attack is finished, the foe will be facing the opposite direction they were initially. You have very little time to follow this up due to the ending lag of the move, so it’s best to do something simple. However; this can potentially lead into a large chain. To prevent infinities, the ftilt won’t cause the spinning effect for a half a second after the foe comes out of the spinning animation.
Forward Tilt (Withdrawal) - Frontflip
Due to already walking on his hands in his withdrawal state, Ryuk frontflips rather then backflipping, essentially cartwheeling forward. Ryuk’s body is an above average priority hitbox that does 8% and weak knockback forwards. Ryuk frontflips the distance of a quarter of a Battlefield platform, and this move has very little lag on either end. If you activate this move right after ending it, you’ll perform it again, but faster. This can be used to combo foes at low percentages, potentially getting heavy foes from 0 to 32% if used correctly. However; if you do this more than four times in succession, Ryuk will collapse onto the floor, dizzy and begging to be badly punished.
Up Tilt – Calling to another Dimension
Ryuk reaches up for the sky as far as he can with his long arms and looks straight up to the sky, letting out a loud cry. This has very little starting lag, but below average ending lag. This has good range above Ryuk, but the priority is bad due to this not being meant to be an attack, and this also translates into low power, only 6% and below average (Bordering on weak) knockback. On it’s own, the only practical use of this move is it’s range and low starting lag to stop aerial approaches.
However; Ryuk isn’t trying to attack players with this move. He’s calling out to the Shinigami Realm. If your opponent is somehow stupid enough to let you do this move 10 times in succession with no pause in between, the higher up Death Gods of the Shinigami Realm will send down a new REAL Death Note down to your current position. There cannot be more then 2 real Death Notes per Ryuk. You wouldn’t particularly want to have to worry about keeping a second Death Note out of your foe’s hands, so this is mainly to replace your Death Note if you lost it.
This is completely impossible to pull off in standard competitive play, so don’t get any bright ideas about replacing your Death Notes there. In FFAs on big stages it’s much easier to actually manage to do, and more in the interest of competitive play, this can be used to great effect in team matches. Assuming team attack is on, you can give your ally Shinigami eyes right at the start so they won’t gain any damage, then have your ally cover you while you summon a Death Note for them by spamming utilt. Nice!
Up Tilt (Withdrawal) – Leg Clap
Ryuk is essentially performing a handstand in his withdrawal state, so he claps his legs together up above him. This can be spammed massively, having nearly no lag whatsoever. Ryuk’s legs have above average priority. Being hit by Ryuk’s legs clapping together does weak set knockback upwards and 5%, but the set knockback will push foes into position to be hit by the sweetspot of the attack if you quickly utilt again. If foes get hit by Ryuk’s feet clapping together, they take 13% and above average vertical knockback. It’s hard to hit with Ryuk’s feet without hitting with his legs first, but why would you want to when you can easily tack on 5% extra damage?
Down Tilt – Circle of Death
Ryuk snaps his fingers, which causes a fireball to appear on either side of him right next to him. This has below average starting lag. The fireballs have bad priority comparable to Mario’s fireballs, but it’s disjointed so it’s not an issue. Contact with the fireballs does 7% and below average knockback, and if you don’t hold A they vanish right after being summoned with Ryuk having average ending lag. Horrible attack.
If you do hold down A, though, the fireballs will rotate around Ryuk along the floor in a circle formation. The fireballs actually move in their Z plane as they do this, coming closer to the camera/going into the background as they form a circle around Ryuk. This gives the move the ability to hit people spot dodging or air dodging into the background, although it still can’t hit people who use rolls. Ryuk can release A at any time to cause the flames to vanish and have average ending lag. At low percents, you might be able to hit with this multiple times for a quick 21% damage or so, particularly against heavy foes. This is particularly useful when your foe is constantly spot dodging to try to dodge the heart attack from the Death Note if you can’t disable them or grab them to keep them from resisting it.
On stages where the Pokemon Trainer isn’t too far into the background, you can also use the dtilt to attack him personally. This prevents the trainer from switching for 10 seconds as he frantically tries to put out the fire, and if the current Pokemon is KOd they also won't auto switch when they respawn. Ryuk can use this in the Pokemon Trainer match up to force the trainer to fight with the Pokemon he is most comfortable against, as well as to prevent him from renewing his current Pokemon’s stamina by letting it rest.
Down Tilt (Withdrawal) – Boot to the Head
Ryuk’s crouching animation when in a withdrawal is quite awkward. He sits down on the ground fairly normally. . .But then quickly puts his legs behind his head, getting into a pretzel formation. Ryuk can surprisingly crawl like this as well despite being unable to crawl normally, moving along the ground with his hands, though it’s rather slow.
From his pretzel position, Ryuk extends one of his legs even further, kicking forward with one of them behind him. This has very poor range behind Ryuk and very poor priority, but has no lag whatsoever, being extremely spammable. If you do spam the move, Ryuk will alternate which leg he kicks backwards. Each kick deals 5% and horrendously weak knockback, but this can potentially be used to combo foes, even if their percentages aren’t that low, although this is most ideal to use on foes with 0%.
Ryuk can crawl backwards to travel the short distance he hit foes to hit them again. Only at 60% or so are foes particularly safe from this move. This can kill off of walk offs in a chain grab like fashion, but if you do it up against a wall foes will easily be able to escape it as the knockback will shoot them upwards a little, and if they DI upwards it’s easy to get out of.
Forward Smash – Shinigami Eyes
Ryuk bends over, extending his head out to be a good distance in front of him, a good half a Battlefield platform away or so. Ryuk’s eyes then briefly glow, which is when the hitbox comes into effect, being located in front of Ryuk’s eyes and stretching out another half a Battlefield platform forwards. Foes must be facing Ryuk for this to work. Due to Ryuk’s height, even though he bends over short character can still duck under this quite easily, and it’s even easier to just jump over his head and punish him. However, Ryuk can angle his head up or down at any time during the attack, making the attack much harder to dodge.
The actual effect of the attack is stunning foes and some slight damage. The attack does 10% and a stun of 1 second uncharged, or 16% and 2 second stun time fully charged. There is average starting lag for this attack, but nearly no ending lag, allowing you to combo with this move easily. The main way to hit with the attack despite the lag is with it’s range. This stunner can be used to either start a combo for damage racking, or better yet to keep the foe in place when they’re about to have their heart attack from the Death Note. Follow this up by grabbing them then performing a dthrow for the best results for keeping the foe from escaping death.
If your foe isn’t facing you, use an ftilt rather then this move, and start up the fsmash as soon as Ryuk’s ending lag from the ftilt is over. You’ll just barely manage to set off the fsmash as the foe comes out from spinning in the ftilt, and they’ll now be facing you, and with an additional 8% to boot. You can then follow that up to the grab and dthrow. Ryuk has a surprising amount of combos for such a large character.
Up Smash – Shinigami Apple
Ryuk summons a disgusting Shinigami apple from the Shinigami world, holding it like he does in the picture. As you charge the smash attack, Ryuk winds up like a baseball pitcher, then upon releasing the smash attack he throws it upwards. This has below average starting lag. How far up the Shinigami Apple goes depends on the charge, but it gets to its destination quite quickly no matter what the charge over the course of a quarter of a second. The apple can go from just barely above Ryuk to 1.5X Ganondorf’s height above him. It has fairly bad priority (Though it’s disjointed so it doesn’t matter really), but it packs a punch, doing 15-20% with above average knockback to knockback that borders on high based on the charge.
If Ryuk hits anyone with the apple, it shatters apart into sandy particles, and the attack ends. However; otherwise, there is ending lag as the apple comes back down to Ryuk. It varies based on how high Ryuk threw the apple. If the charge was maxed, it will take a lengthy second for the apple to come down to Ryuk, but if it wasn’t charged at all, it will come down nearly instantly.
Anyway, Ryuk is laughing maniacally, looking upwards as he performs the attack. If he misses with the apple, though, it will fall back down into his mouth, causing him to choke on it. Shinigami apples taste absolutely horrible and are made of sand, which causes Ryuk to cough up sand above himself in a mushroom cloud shape roughly Bowser’s size with disjointed priority. This does 22 hits of 1% and flinching over a mere half a second, the last hit doing average knockback, making this an excellent damage racker. There is some slight ending lag to end the already lengthy attack though as Ryuk coughs a bit more, recovering from the Shinigami apple.
Overall, the second version of the usmash takes a second, assuming it’s uncharged. . .Exactly how long it takes Ryuk to chow down on a human apple. Despite the apple tasting horrible, it is still technically an apple and can stave off Ryuk’s cravings, keeping him from going into withdrawal. This is easier to pull off in a fight then eating a juicy apple, as you’re not totally defenseless. Eating a Shinigami apple will thankfully not cause Ryuk to crave for more due to it’s horrible taste, only the Juicy Apple causing withdrawals.
If you intend to use the regular usmash, you’ll want to charge the attack, as the move has absolutely no range otherwise. If you want to eat the Shinigami apple, though, you’ll want to throw the move out immediately. You have to think about which part of the move you want to hit with before you use this. Use the apple on your enemies for KOing (Assuming you don’t mind getting killed by the higher up Death Gods), or use the apple on yourself for damage racking/staving off your apple cravings.
Down Smash – Undead Retriever
Ryuk opens up a portal to the Shinigami realm and it simply swirls around ominously for the charging animation. The move has above average starting lag, but no ending lag whatsoever. Once the starting lag is up, Sidoh (Who is roughly the size of Dedede), the Shinigami pictured here, will fly out of the portal, Ryuk now free to move about as he pleases. “Where’s my notebook?” Sidoh whines. After this, Sidoh flies towards the nearest Death Note (He will ignore any notebooks being held by Ryuk) at an average speed, around Wario’s run or so. Contact with Sidoh (Who is obviously disjointed from Ryuk, and has infinite priority) at any time does 20% with above average knockback, or up to 28% and high knockback fully charged. Once Sidoh obtains a notebook, he lets out a laugh, then goes to fly off the top of the screen, his movement speed increasing to Meta Knight’s run and his knockback changing to a vertical trajectory. Sidoh destroys the notebook he takes with him.
Sidoh isn’t the brightest of fellows, as he will stupidly take any fake notebooks and treat them just like real notebooks. It works quite well to place a fake notebook at one end of the stage, then summon Sidoh for him to travel across the entire stage, being a hitbox the whole time.
If a player is holding the nearest notebook when Sidoh is summoned/a player grabs it before Sidoh gets to it, he’ll chase after the player. If Sidoh gets to them, he’ll bite at the foe to stun them, having small range but doing 10% in addition to the stun. After the bite, Sidoh will quickly swipe away the foe’s notebook and proceed to fly up off the top of the screen. If the foe has the real notebook and is using it against you with Shinigami eyes and you’re having a lot of trouble getting it back, your best course of option might be to simply send in Sidoh to destroy it.
If there is no notebook besides the one Ryuk is holding when Sidoh is summoned, he’ll simply instantly fly straight up off the top of the screen. Ryuk cannot use his dsmash again until Sidoh leaves the screen. If there are multiple Ryuks, there can still only be one Sidoh at a time, so you’ll want to ensure you’re the first one to use the dsmash so the birdlike Shinigami goes for your enemy rather than you.
Neutral Aerial – Shadow Barrier
Ryuk claps his hands together, it being merely for effect and not being a hitbox. This has below average lag on both ends, but the move does absolutely nothing at first. Instead, the move activates the next time Ryuk jumps up from the ground. When he does so, a shady wall will come up out of the ground where Ryuk jumped, and it will keep following Ryuk until he lands on the ground again. The wall cannot go a Battlefield platform away from it’s initial position, preventing you from having too much fun with this. If you attempt to do so, the wall will dematerialize instantly. The barrier is completely solid and you can’t go through it while it’s present. It lasts 30 seconds.
If you use your nair when you already have a shadow barrier up, it will explode, creating a hitbox along the wall and very slightly out to the sides of it that does 14% and average knockback. You’ll have to use your nair again after that if you want to form another shadow wall.
This is useful for a variety of things. You can form a wall to defend against projectiles or create a wall for your good buddy Dedede to infinite the foe against in a team match. The most notable use of this move though is at the start of the match before your foe has touched your Death Note. You can drop your Death Note so your foe can’t see you (As the Death Note isn’t invisible), knock the foe away before they can get to it, then use your nair to form a barrier around the Death Note to prevent them from obtaining it! You’re now free to use your invisibility as you please. Go crazy.
Forward Aerial – Death Wing
Ryuk extends out his wings, then flaps them forwards in an animation just like Charizard’s fair to hit foes. After this, Ryuk retracts his wings back into his body. This has average range and priority and does 13% with average knockback. However; the move is quite laggy on both ends due to Ryuk having to form and deform his wings before performing the actual attack. If Ryuk’s wings are already out from his up special, the lag is vastly reduced down to the level of Bowser’s fair, making it a viable wall of pain option and overall much better.
Back Aerial – Playing with Fire
Ryuk turns his head around to look behind him as he brings out a hand, summoning a flame the size of Kirby in it. This has below average starting lag. Touching the disjointed flame does 5% with weak knockback, but this phase of the attack only stays until you release A. Until you release A, Ryuk rears his head back further and further, breathing in deeply.
Upon releasing A, Ryuk jerks his head forwards and blows, causing the flame to fly forwards. Contact with the flame at this point does 16% with above average knockback, but this part of the move has average starting lag. The range of the move is increased based on how long Ryuk charged the move. The fire can go just barely in front of Ryuk before dying off or up to slightly over a Battlefield Platform away with a 2.5 second charge. Unlike most aerials, this move won’t be interrupted if you land on the ground before it finishes. The move thankfully has no ending lag whatsoever, as the start up lag for the entire move is at least above average, even without charging it.
Up Aerial – Spine Breaker
Ryuk takes his Death Note and hurls it upwards. It has a very large amount of pages – notice how it never runs out? It’s quite heavy. The notebook travels up twice Ganondorf’s height over half a second. This move has low starting lag, and Ryuk is free to move about as he pleases after throwing the Death Note. The notebook is a disjointed yet low priority hitbox, but deals a rather impressive 18% and above average knockback, bordering on high. After the notebook is done going upwards, it slowly falls to the ground, players (Including Ryuk) unable to pick it up again until it hits the ground. That means you –really- don’t want to use this over a pit.
This move is quite powerful with good range and little lag, so there’s a big catch to it. If you hit anybody with the Death Note or anybody attacks it before it hits the ground, the book’s spine will be broken, and all the pages will fall out of it. Most of them will be carried in the wind off into the background/foreground and vanish, only two pages staying in the playing field as they slowly fall down. These two pages will function like normal Death Notes, but you can only write down a single name on these pages, a single page not having much room to write on. In addition, if you try to throw a page like a Death Note with your uair or use the page as a throwing item, it will only deal 1% and flinching. The best use of the uair by far is with a fake Death Note, as it’s still just as poweful as the real one. However, if there are any pages of the fake Death Note still present, you can’t create a new one to use, so this move is still far from spammable. And no, despite this move technically “killing with the Death Note”, Ryuk will still die if he KOs with his uair. The only allowed method for Shinigami to kill humans is to write the human’s name down into the book, not to beat them to death with it.
If you try to use the uair without any form of Death Note (Or pages created from breaking a Death Note’s spine), Ryuk will simply do the hurling motion as if he had one. This makes his arm an average priority hitbox hitbox that reaches up an average distance with the same low lag as the normal move. Ryuk’s arm does a weak 8% and below average knockback. Decent for juggling at low percentages if nothing else.
Down Aerial – Blackness from the Abyss
Ryuk tears open a portal to the Shinigami realm, slashing downwards. The actual slash does nothing and is just for effect. However, as stated before, this will create a portal roughly the size of Wario to the Shinigami Realm that swirls about. This has below average starting lag and Ryuk is free to move as soon as the portal is created. Immediately after being created, a black liquid will start pouring out of the portal straight downwards. As the liquid falls downwards, it pushes foes slightly, being around half as powerful as Mario’s FLUDD. This can be used to gimp recoveries, but it’s very weak, and will only gimp foes who were just barely were going to make the platform. The portal lasts 30 seconds, but can be destroyed early, having only 25 stamina.
If the black liquid from the portal lands on the ground rather then in a pit, it will create an area which foes can be tripped over a third the size of a Battlefield platform. The amount of time this spot will last is the amount of time the oil was poured out from the portal. Foes who trip over the black liquid will also slip from the spot slightly.
A good use of this is at the start of the match when you’re invisible. Drop your Death Note so your foe can’t see you, then quickly pour the black liquid over it. Foes will be unable to pick it up due to tripping and slipping every time they pass by (If it’s on the ground, they have to pick the notebook up for the game to register that they “touched it”).
However; you have to be careful when using the above application of the move, as there’s another part of the move. If you hit the black liquid with any form of fire attack (Ryuk’s options to do this himself are his dtilt and bair), it will burst into a large flame the size of Ganondorf. Contact with the flame does 16% with above average knockback, and if any notebook was in the liquid from the above strategy, it will be incinerated. The flame lasts for the remainder of time the black liquid would’ve lasted. A key factor of this move is that the fire will not hurt the person who created it by setting fire to the black liquid, which means foes can use this against Ryuk. You’d best be off only using the properties of the pool of liquid against foes without any fire attacks. Against foes who do have them, ideal use of this move is setting off the fire immediately so the foe doesn’t have the chance to do the same.
If you use the dair again when you already have a portal, pool of black liquid liquid, or a large flame up, they’ll vanish as you start the entire process over. However; if the foe burns the black liquid into a large flame, Ryuk will be unable to use his dair until the flame expires. Be sure to not give your foe that chance.
Grab – Soul Grasp
Ryuk reaches out with a single hand. Above average starting lag for a grab, but little ending lag. Above average range, but nothing spectacular. Ryuk holds the foe delicately in one claw, just barely holding a piece of their skin/clothing. When doing a dash grab, Ryuk trades a bit of range for some speed to make the move less laggy, but it’s for the most part the same.
Pummel - Scarface
Ryuk slashes the victim across the face with his free hand dramatically. Above average lag for a pummel, 4%.
Forward Throw – Force Feed
Ryuk takes out a Shinigami apple just like the one in his usmash, then shoves it down the victim’s throat, dealing an impressive 13% to the foe. Afterwards, Ryuk takes his hand out of the victim’s mouth and shakes off all the drool in disgust while the victim constantly pukes up sand from the Shinigami apple. The pile of drool and sand created from this becomes an area where all players (Including Ryuk) can trip and slip over that lasts 20 seconds. If you use this throw again, the previous mass of drool and sand will vanish early. This can be used to defend your notebook in a similar manner to the dair, but isn’t as effective due to Ryuk also tripping over the spot, meaning he can’t pick up his notebook until the mess is gone. This throw is laggy and awkward to use in FFAs.
Back Throw – Wind-Up Throw
Ryuk turns around and picks the foe up off the ground, getting a more firm grip on them, then rapidly starts spinning them around as he leans back, standing on one leg, looking like a baseball pitcher. Ryuk can hold A as long as he wants to spin the throw around faster and faster, and the longer he winds up the more powerful the throw is. Upon releasing A, Ryuk throws the foe, dealing the damage and knockback.
During the wind up period the foe can escape with the difficulty of a normal grab, so you can’t be too greedy with how long you charge. With no charge at all, this does below average knockback and only 5%, but at a maximum charge of 3 seconds this does 20% and huge knockback. While Ryuk is winding up, you can tilt the control stick to change where Ryuk is aiming the poor victim. You change the trajectory of the throw to be straight up, but you can’t turn Ryuk around entirely. You can only pull off the higher charges when the foe is at very high percentages, and it’s rare you’ll be able to charge long at all in a FFA. Your general aim for KOing should be 2 seconds at the most for 15% and above average knockback.
Up Throw – Staring Death in the Face
Ryuk uses his hand not holding the foe to grab their head and forces them to look at him as he activates his Shinigamim eyes. This stuns the foe like in Ryuk’s fsmash and deals 5%. Ryuk then tosses the foe upwards with both hands quickly, dealing below average knockback and 6% for a total of 11%. The foe thrown has considerable hitstun as they go up into the air due to the stun from looking into Ryuk’s Shinigami eyes. You can quickly jump up into the air to perform either a uair (Assuming you have a notebook to use it with) or an fair if you have your wings out. This throw is very quick due to this being performed on foes grabbed in the air with Ryuk’s side special (When the victim already has Shinigami eyes).
Down Throw – Meat Shield
Ryuk holds the foe by the neck with both hands and pulls them up against himself, then steps into the background. However, Ryuk doesn’t pull the victim into the background with him, them still perfectly vulnerable to attack while Ryuk is safe from all harm. Ryuk will keep holding the foe in this position until you hit any button, at which point he’ll casually knock them away for weak knockback and 4%. The point of this throw is to be used in a FFA or team battles to allow another character to hit the foe you’re using as a meat shield. You should only knock the foe away if nobody’s coming.
When Ryuk is holding the foe like this, they can escape through button mashing, but it’s twice as hard to escape as a normal grab. This keeps them very vulnerable for a sizable period of time. This is far from useless in competitive play, as you can hold the foe as you wait for the Death Note to kill them to prevent them from escaping death.
Final Smash – Breaking the Rules
A booming ominous voice is heard from the skies as they darken (Assuming the stage is outside) and any water on the stage turns blood red. “Well done, Ryuk. You have been promoted! Feel free to do with these fools as you see fit.”. Ryuk look up to hear the voice, being invulnerable, then laughs maniacally, becoming controllable and vulnerable again. For the next 30 seconds, Ryuk can KO people as he pleases without fear of the higher up Death Gods killing him, and to boot he can also create new Death Notes with a single use of his utilt due to the other Death Gods now favoring him. Finally, you’re free to use Ryuk’s KO power to your advantage and have as many Death Notes as you could ever want. All of Ryuk’s flaws are eliminated. Slaughter your foe so badly you won’t be able to recognize them.
OVERALL PLAYSTYLE – HARBRINGER OF DEATH
Ryuk takes a considerable amount of getting used to. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll be punished for successfully landing a KO move on your enemy. This is sure to frustrate casuals and those who don’t have the patience to learn Ryuk. Ryuk without a doubt has among the highest learning curves of all the characters in Brawl, if not the very highest.
At the start of a match, you’ll want to take advantage of your invisibility. Mess with your down special to drop your notes (The real one as well as the fake one you just created) as quickly as possible. Your foe will probably be up against you by now. Quickly use a fast move on the foe to knock them away, or better yet use an ftilt followed by an fsmash on them to stun them. Once you've bought some time, use your nair or your dair (Assuming your foe has no fire moves) to block off access to your notebook so your invisibility is safe, then proceed to rack up the foe’s damage with Ryuk’s surprisingly large amount of fast moves for his size.
Once you’ve gotten your foe’s damage up to a sizable amount, it’s time end the little charade. When your foe is busy from being knocked off the platform or stunned, go pick up your notebook and quickly write down the foe’s name. If you’re lucky enough for the foe to still of not managed to touch your notebook, you can drop it again and cover it up, and your foe will be hard pressed to do much of anything while you stall the clock as the 40 seconds on their life tick down. When they’ve only got 10 seconds left, go stun them and use lengthy throws on them like crazy to prevent them from cheating death, or use your dtilt if the foe simply abuses sidesteps.
Of course, keeping your invisibility is only the most ideal situation, as it is extremely hard to pull off, much less keep track of your position the entire time. Only the most advanced of Ryuk players will do this flawlessly. Assuming you don’t have your invisibility or aren’t comfortable using it, you have another option of getting far into the lead in damage racking on the first stock – the Shinigami eyes. You only have to get 40-50% through normal means before using the eyes, at which point you can get your foe up to an easily KOable damage percentage through giving them the Shinigami eyes. If you’re confident enough in your skills to damage rack quickly with either invisibility or your Shinigami eyes, you can use the Death Note very early on so you won’t have to stall. However; if you actually manage to keep your invisibility, stalling is very easy.
Ryuk is highly skilled at getting ahead early on in the first stock, and he d*mn well needs to be, as if Ryuk ever falls behind in stock, things become extremely hard for him, as he HAS to get a KO with his Death Note to catch up. Ryuk players inexperienced with the Death Note will find it more difficult to KO foes with it, but experienced Ryuk players will find it among his easiest KO options, as they’ll find it easy to subdue foes to fall victim to the heart attack with Ryuk’s many stunners and such.
Once the foe only has one stock left, Ryuk can go crazy. Things become much simpler then. A particularly good method of KOing outside the Death Note is Ryuk’s dsmash. Set up a fake notebook on one end of the stage, then use the dsmash at the opposite end of the stage. You’ll have a giant disjointed KO move go across the entire stage, then shoot straight up to boot! A simple strategy is to simply not rely on the Death Note and to freely use other KO moves as you please, but if Ryuk ever falls behind in stock count this strategy will become your undoing.
Ryuk’s recovery is also quite awkward. You won’t want your wings out early on, as then the foe might instead get ahead early on due to being able to easily combo Ryuk – not good. However; Ryuk can’t afford to keep his wings tucked away until absurdly high percentages, as he doesn’t have so much as a second jump without his wings. You’ll want to be getting your wings out once you’re at 50%, at most. Still, much caution is required in when you do so. If you do so too early, you’ll get the crap comboed out of you, and if you do it too late you’ll practically gimp yourself when you get knocked off stage.
Ryuk is very hard to play as, but also very hard to play against if the Ryuk player is competent and knows what they’re doing. Nearly as much skill is required in bringing down the Death God reliably as there is in learning how to play him, which is another of Ryuk’s advantages. Many foes will be clueless as to what to do in this match up.
PLAYING AGAINST RYUK – CHEATING DEATH
Playing against Ryuk effectively isn’t as simple as some other characters. You’ll have to do some more actual studying in this match up to find Ryuk’s weaknesses and to keep him from getting set up too well. Many players will simply do a simple dashing attack forward as they go for Ryuk’s notebook, but Ryuk will easily punish this and set himself up so you can’t get rid of his invisibility. Your best bet is to roll towards the notebook so Ryuk can’t hit you away and make the Death Note unreachable. Forget about hurting Ryuk for now, making him visible is your top priority.
Now that you have Ryuk’s notebook, toss it off the stage ASAP. Ryuk will be forced to use his down special to make it come back to the stage which you can punish him for. Eventually Ryuk will inevitably get his notebook back, at which point he’ll try to write down a name in his notebook. Good Ryuk players won’t do it at a time that’ll make them open, but you need to give Ryuk as little time to himself as possible. Keep up the pressure. Ryuk will be wanting to get out his wings and write down your name in the notebook soon, and if you keep pressuring him well it’s unlikely he’ll be able to get everything set up. If he only gets out his wings, combo him, assuming your character is a faster one. If he only writes down your name, get him off stage with a simple average knockback move and gimp him for an easy KO.
However; this is only the most ideal situation against Ryuk. It’s highly unlikely everything will go so very smoothly. Ryuk isn’t that easy to pressure, he’s far faster then most characters with his size and power. If not for being restricted to his Death Note, he’d destroy you quite easily. Anyway, assuming you’re at least able to prevent Ryuk from becoming invisible, Ryuk will try to give you Shinigami eyes as an alternative to getting ahead early. If your percentage is lower then 45ish%, by all means, let him give you the eyes. He WILL give them to you eventually, so it’s best to minimize the damage you have for him to double.
Now that you have Shinigami Eyes, you’ll desperately want to get Ryuk’s notebook off him. To do this, you’ll have to damage him for 30% without him damaging you back. The best time to do this is when Ryuk gets out his wings at a lower percentage. Combo Ryuk up to make him drop his notebook, then enjoy your excellent new KO method. Fast weak characters will especially enjoy the newly found KO method they’ve gained, and they’ll also be better at preventing Ryuk from escaping a heart attack from his own notebook. Be cautious, though, as Ryuk can combo his ftilt to his fsmash to a throw to potentially deal 30% back to you and get you to drop it just as quickly as you gained it. Better yet, if you’re abusing your notebook too much, Ryuk can sic Sidoh on you with his dsmash to destroy the notebook entirely, although if Ryuk is that desperate, you’ve probably got the match in the bag.
Just make that if you do try to use Ryuk’s notebook that you don’t fall victim to his godly mindgames. Ryuk is likely to try to trick you into thinking that you stole a fake by posing with a fake himself and pretending to write into it with his neutral A. Don’t be fooled. Make sure you pay attention to the Death Notes as they go all about which ones to keep track of which is which. If you somehow have managed to lose track of this, wait 30 seconds before doing any hasty actions. See which Death Note causes signs of a heart attack.
Ledge Attack – Spilt Liquid
Ryuk climbs up onto the ledge in a standard fashion and does a simple slash forward with average range and priority that does 9% and below average knockback. Very little lag on either end. However; if Ryuk doesn’t hit anybody with this, he’ll accidentally tear open a portal to the Shinigami Realm, causing a little bit of black liquid from his dair to drip onto the edge. Ryuk will proceed to close the portal with another slash, the liquid vanishing. If anybody comes to Ryuk during this time, both the foe and Ryuk will trip. This is very quick and isn’t horribly weak, but the ending lag can be above average if you miss as Ryuk takes the time to close the portal. The liquid vanishes after anyone trips over it/Ryuk closes the portal.
Ledge Attack (Wings) – Flying to the Moon
Ryuk performs the same ledge attacks no matter what his percentage, but still has two ledge attacks, varying on whether his wings are out or not. Ryuk kicks off the platform half a Battlefield platform away from the ledge, then quickly flies up to be triple Ganondorf’s height over the ledge. Ryuk’s body is an average priority hitbox as he kicks away that does 10% with average knockback until Ryuk starts flying up. This rises Ryuk up higher then his ledge jump, but takes a slight bit longer, still, this is much harder to punish then a simple ledge jump due to Ryuk being away from the edge as well as high above it.
Ledge Attack (Withdrawal) – Lemur Swing
When in withdrawal, Ryuk holds onto the ledge with his feet rather then his hands, hanging up-side down like a mad man. Upon being told to do a ledge attack, Ryuk swings back and forth for below average starting lag to gain some momentum, then in one mighty swing swings up onto the platform. This causes Ryuk to splat onto the ledge, his body being a high priority hitbox during the move that does 14% and above average knockback during the attack. Unfortunately, Ryuk has above average ending lag from the pain of smacking into the platform so hard. This is Ryuk’s strongest attack in withdrawal, though it’s generally beat out in practical situations for KOing by Ryuk’s withdrawal standard attack due to it having far less lag and not being a situational.
Rising Attack (On Stomach) – Rise of the Undead
Ryuk gets up on his feet quickly and hastily does a slash backwards without turning around, but does this so quickly that he nearly falls over on his back. Foes hit by this get knocked back with Ryuk with set tiny knockback and 5%. Ryuk then frantically flails upwards to keep from falling over, doing 5 hits of 1% and flinching (The last one doing weak knockback), coming back to his standard position. This all happens very quickly with little lag anywhere in the move. The priority of all the hits is horrible. The range of the first attack is average, but the other hits have bad range, though you’ll hit with them if you lured foes in with the first hit.
Rising Attack (On Back) – Skull Bash
This move has above average starting lag (Which is massive for a rising attack) as Ryuk rears back his head, it glowing slightly, as he slowly gets up, then he rams it upwards with great priority and average range for 16% and above average knockback. Ryuk has super armor during the start up of the attack while his head glows, but there’s also slight ending lag where Ryuk is vulnerable at the end, and it’s hard to perform this properly due to how situational of a button input it is.
Tripped Attack – Low Kick
Ryuk does a sweeping low kick as he gets up with minimal starting lag and below average ending lag with average range and bad priority that does 7% and trips the foe. For some strange reason, this move does 14% and average knockback on Jigglypuff. . .
Rising/Tripped Attack (Withdrawal) – Boot to the Head
Upon being told to do a rising/tripped attack while in his withdrawal state, Ryuk simply gets into his painful withdrawal crouching position and performs his dtilt. Nothing note worthy.
***
Up Taunt – Metal Gear Solid 3: Worm Eater
Ryuk takes out an apple and goes to eat it like in his Juicy Apple special, but a worm comes out of the apple. Ryuk grabs the Ryuk inbetween two of his claw-like fingers and pulls it out of the apple, pocketing the apple away with his other hand. Ryuk lifts the worm over his head and opens his mouth up wide, tilting his head upwards, then drops it in. Disgusting.
Side Taunt – Badass Laughter
Name of the taunt says it all really. Ryuk lets out his signature badass chuckle, straight from the sub of Death Note. This is absolutely mandatory. This is also Ryuk’s Wiimote Noise.
Down Taunt – Eternal Boredom
Ryuk puts his hands on his hips and taps his foot, saying “I’m waiting.”.
Entrance - None
Due to Ryuk being invisible when the match first starts, you can’t see his theoretical entrance animation, thus he doesn’t have one.
Win Pose 1 – Killing the Light of the World
Ryuk chuckles as he writes in his Death Note and says “We eased each other’s boredom for a while. Well everybody, it’s been interesting.” as he does so. Ryuk then sprouts wings and flies off the top of the screen. If you leave the results screen on for 40 seconds, all the losers will die of heart attacks.
Win Pose 2 – Shinigami Restraint
Ryuk folds his arms and turns to the losers and says “Just be glad they force me to hold back for you pathetic humans.”.
Win Pose 3 – Lunch Break
Sidoh (The Shinigami from Ryuk’s dsmash) is present alongside Ryuk for this victor y pose. Ryuk is eating an apple while the bird-like Shinigami is eating a chocolate bar. Strange how gods of death find such fascination out of the most basic of foods, no?
Loss Pose - Withdrawal
Ryuk is in the crouching pose from his withdrawal, having his legs up and over his head. From this awkward position, Ryuk claps his feet together for the winner.
Icon – Shinigami Skull
Kirby gains Ryuk’s hair, and far more importantly, the Shinigami eyes. Kirby gains the ability to use Ryuk’s Death Note with his Neutral B, giving him a much needed KO move, and better yet he doesn’t even need Ryuk to give him the ability to use the Death Note, as this gives him the Shinigami Eyes to use with the Death Note automatically. As if that wasn’t enough, this takes away one of Ryuk’s main ways of getting ahead in damage count early on through doubling Kirby’s damage percentage, as Ryuk can’t give Kirby Shinigami eyes if he already has them. Kirby will want to swallow Ryuk up ASAP to prevent him from being able to use Side B. Kirby has a good match up against Ryuk, largely due to this Kirby Hat.
BEEP BEEP
PRESS SELECT
Snake:Colonel, who’s this weirdo? He’s some lanky goth with wild hair. . .
Colonel:That’s far from just some goth, Snake. His name is Ryuk, and he’s a Death God from the Shinigami Realm.
Snake:A Death God? Pfft. Like those exist…Wha?!? He. . .He just sprouted out some wings!
Colonel:I told you Snake, he’s real. You’ve already faced the King of Evil, is a Death God really that much of anything new to you?
Snake:I suppose you do have a point. . .But this guy is pretty weird for a Death God. He doesn’t seem to be taking this seriously at all. It’s like he’s just. . .doing it for laughs.
Colonel:Don’t underestimate him, Snake. What’s he doing?
Snake:Right now he’s looking straight at me. . .Eh, now he’s just taking out an apple and writing something down in a notebook. Doesn’t seem he’s hostile. Just on lunch break.
Colonel:Snake! Quickly! Take that notebook away from him now! You don’t have much time!
Snake:What are you talking about? He’s just- *Loud heartbeat noise*…………………………………………………….*Static*
Colonel:Snake? SNAKE! SNAKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
-End Transmission-
Rem emerges from the assist trophy. “Humans are truly…disgusting creatures…”, he/she/it/potato says, looking over the players. Rem will simply oversee the fight awhile, doing absolutely nothing. However; if Rem’s summoner gets hit with a move that does high knockback, Rem will write down the name of her summoner into a Death Note. This will cause the same effect as Ryuk’s Death Note. Rem lasts 30 seconds or until her summoner is hit with a high knockback move. This will make foes scared to try to KO the summoner, or they’ll fall victim to the Death Note. Win-win situation. Upon writing down anybody’s name in the notebook, Rem will evaporate into a pile of sand. This becomes part of the terrain of the stage, creating a lump the size of Wario in the stage. The sand lasts 30 seconds.
Yeah, I've read about his history before. Never got the chance to play God Hand, but heard incredible things about it. If parody be the case, then my interest just leapt forward.
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