Ice Climbers (SSBU)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Popo's down aerial.

Hitbox visualization showing Nana's down aerial.

Overview

Each of the duo turns their mallet upside down, frantically clinging to it as they forcibly descend. Like other stall-then-fall down airs, it places a sizeable, highly active hitbox directly below them with a sharp downward trajectory and high landing lag. But unlike most of its kind, the Ice Climbers' down aerial doesn't spike no matter when or where it lands, and doesn't plummet very quickly. The partner's version has a noticably smaller hitbox and a horizontal launch angle rather than a vertical one. While it's fairly unsafe on shield, (the only punishable aerial in their kit, in fact.) down aerial's landing animation has the climbers bounce off the ground, which can cause some out of shield options to miss them. If both hits connect, they deal a lot of damage and KO at about 112%.

A short hop down air clips the ledge for two of its three active frames, and it can even take stocks this way. But it's usually relegated to occasional use as a ledge regrab punish, as it's relatively slow and demands more precise positioning compared to forward or down tilt.

The below-average falling speed combined with the duo's excellent recovery allow it to be used for edgeguarding, and its high knockback and low launch angle make it very dangerous to opponents who are hit offstage. This is of course, a high-risk-high reward maneuver, as it can put the climbers in a much worse position if they miss, and it may even help foes recover if only the leader's attack connects.

While landing with down aerial normally lacks combo potential, it grants a much bigger frame advantage than it normally would when autocanceled. An autocanceled down aerial can lead to a dash attack at low percents, dealing half a stock's worth of damage with the attacks that follow. But the combo routes involving down air wear off quickly due to the move's high horizontal knockback. It can start tech-chases at later percentages, though. With a desynced duo, down air has very little use in combos, save for a niche role in very situational zero to death combos.

The fairly disjointed and long-lasting hitbox can ward off overzealous opponents in juggle scenarios, and even kill off the side at high percentages, but it can be easily punished if the enemy sees it coming. After being launched upward, it's possible to make only one climber use their down air due to the partner's slightly wider buffer window, this desynced disadvantage state allows the duo to sort of have its cake and eat it too, as the leader can choose an evasive option like a jump or airdodge while their partner fights back. This tech can make 50/50s even more unreliable, and makes the duo difficult to juggle in spite of their low falling speed.

While the Ice Climbers' down aerial is decent as a pair, it's much worse with only one of the two, and considered to be one of the worst down aerials in the game. Becoming weak and quite unsafe, but that's not to say a lonesome down air doesn't bring anything to the table, it still has its niche for deterring jugglers, and losing the partner actually improves its combo starting capabilities. Without the 2nd dair, the move's harsh sideways knockback is replaced with the leader's low vertical launch trajectory, allowing many more possible followups when autocanceled, including a kill confirm into their forward or up aerial.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Leader
0	0	0	8.0%	0		Standard	40	90	0		6.0	havel	0.0	6.5	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Punch		All	All
Partner
0	0	0	6.0%	0		Standard	40	130	0		4.5	havel	0.0	6.5	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Punch		All	All

Timing

Attack

The move first sets the Ice Climbers' vertical momentum to 1 on frames 1-12, then sets their horizontal momentum to 0.3 and their vertical momentum to -2.6 from frame 12 onward. Manual horizontal movement is also disabled during frames 1-35.

Hitboxes	12-51
Ending autocancel	54-
Interruptible	64
Animation length	68

Landing lag

Interruptible	21
Animation length	31

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Autocancel

Interruptible

Trivia

• After being launched upward, fighters who used a stall-then-fall down aerial would float down slowly instead of descending quickly. This was fixed in version 4.0.0 for every stall-then-fall down aerial except for that of the Ice Climbers.

Ice Climbers's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash