Ice Climbers (SSBU)/Up special

Hitbox visualization showing the Ice Climbers' up special, Belay.

Overview

The leader of the duo picks up their partner and tosses him or her into the air. The duo is linked together with a long cable, which the partner yanks to hoist their leader even higher. If close enough, the lead climber will throw their roped partner to the nearest ledge and pull themselves up to it shortly after. If only one climber is available, they simply wave their hand with enough force to propel themselves slightly upward. The move sends them very high, but since the 2nd Climber gains significantly less distance than their leader, it might not be enough height for both climbers to recover. Luckily, the lead climber can jump back off the stage and use Belay again to save them. The player must be careful, however, as trying to reuse Belay before the partner enters their freefall animation won't work, and regrabbing the edge is unsafe as usual. If the 2nd Climber is hit during the move, the 1st Climber will become helpless. Although it looks fairly easy to intercept with how long it takes, the partner climber becomes invincible and carries a powerful hitbox while being tossed. They can't be two-framed in this state, either, so edgeguarding the duo is much more difficult and risky than it looks. Depending on when or where it connects, hitting an offstage enemy with up special may reduce the lead climber's vertical gain to be about as much as their partner. So if the duo is deep enough, opponents can tactfully take a hit from the 2nd Climber for a shot at gimping them. Due to its underwhelming startup time, freefall after use, and the relatively high positioning of its hitbox, Belay has virtually no use as an out of shield option.

Early on, Belay had a reputation for being a painfully unreliable recovery, and a big part of why the Ice Climbers were once considered a bottom tier fighter. But thanks to several patches improving partner AI and making usage of the move less strict, this is far less of an issue, and even when it did or does happen, it's almost always preventable with better spacial awareness on the player's part.

Of all the possible conversions from up tilt, up special is the easiest finisher to perform, but small or medium-sized opponents can escape with DI and it leaves the Ice Climbers helpless for several seconds afterward, making it fairly situational and very risky. With good timing, the Ice Climbers can be desynced while grabbing the edge. This allows them to pick two different getup options at once, making them difficult to ledgetrap. What's more, if only one of the climbers is trapped successfully, the other can punish the opponent, turning an unfavorable situation into an advantageous one. This technique is often used to make the 2nd Climber use a getup attack while the 1st Climber safely gets up or jumps up to hit the opponent with a Blizzard. If the leader is quick about it, they can even get a combo or kill confirm out of their partner's attack. For some reason, the partner climber will automatically perform a neutral getup or jump from ledge if they grab the edge at the peak of their ascent.

Similarly to their side special, using Belay teleports the partner climber to the leader's position in order to use its dual variant (provided the partner is not using a different special move, in hitstun, grabbing the edge, or outside of its search radius) This also doubles as an unconventional combo breaker or get-out-of-jail-free card that can even punish opponents right above them who were attempting a combo or juggle on the partner. Although most Ice Climbers players would prefer to intercept the enemy with a simple up aerial, instead.

While Belay is an excellent recovery move, losing a partner can turn it into a strong contender for the worst recovery in the game, offering even less height than their airdodge and requiring a buildup of momentum beforehand in order to travel horizontally. On top of that, the extra security provided by the partner's intangibility and strong hitbox goes completely missing. The single variant of Belay does at least have some use for movement tech. Using it right after running off the edge of a platform will give the user a surprisingly large boost in horizontal momentum. Although even this is incredibly situational due to the high landing lag that comes from using one's up special. Overall a special of pristine highs and abysmal lows.

Update History

9.0.0

• Belay has increased tether recovery distance.
• The player is no longer prevented from using the move if it is automatically used by the partner climber.

 13.0.1

• Belay has less startup (frame 16 → 13).

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
0	0	0	16.0%	5		Standard	60	60	0		6.0	head	0.0	0.0	-0.3	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Punch		All	All

Timing

Success (both climbers)

On frame 13, the partner starts their jump and checks for nearby ledges (similarly to a tether recovery), automatically jumping towards the nearest one and then pulling the leader up after grabbing it. Otherwise, the partner can grab ledges from both sides starting on frame 29, while the leader can do so starting on frame 37.

To B-reverse the move, the control stick has to be held backward on frame 12.

Partner intangibility	1-12
Optional reverse	12
Partner invincibility	13-30
Partner hitbox	13-30
Leader jump start	29
Animation length (partner)	72
Animation length (leader)	88

Leader
Partner

Partner ledge pull

When the partner detects and jumps towards a ledge before pulling up the partner, they are granted intangibility even during the ledge snap animation before grabbing it, preventing a 2 frame punish. If the partner has not grabbed the ledge beforehand, their intangibility lasts until the leader grabs the ledge, and is then synced with the leader's resulting ledge intangibility; otherwise, the partner's intangibility lasts a specific amount of time, which is shown in the frame strip below.

Intangibility	1-9
Leader pull start	17

Failure (one climber)

In the air, the move enables ledge grabs from both sides starting on frame 19.

Interruptible (grounded)	56
Animation length	58

Grounded
Aerial

Landing

Interruptible	31
Animation length	39

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Vulnerable

Invincible

State change

Intangible

Interruptible

Parameters

Maximum distance between climbers for successful move	60 (9.0.0 onward) 50 (before 9.0.0)
Horizontal speed divisor on startup	2
Vertical speed divisor on startup	2.5
Stick sensitivity to reverse	0.3
Initial gravity	0.045
Initial falling speed	0.4
Period between both climbers' jumps	16 frames
Partner's jump offset from leader	[-3, 5]
Initial jump speed	3.6 (partner) 7 (leader) 2 (solo climber)
Gravity during jump	0.31 (partner) 0.32 (leader) 0.095 (solo climber)
Falling speed after jump	1.3 (partner or solo climber) 1 (leader)
Air acceleration multiplier after jump	1.6 (partner) 1 (leader or solo climber)
Air speed multiplier after jump	1.6 (partner) 1 (leader) 0.5 (solo climber)
Partner's horizontal speed multiplier when hitting opponent	0.8
Leader's maximum jump angle at the peak	60°
Ledge detection X/Y offsets	[-1, -10] (2.0.0 onward) [0, -10] (before 2.0.0)
Ledge pull speed	6
Leader's distance multiplier when pulled towards ledge	0.75

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