Roy (SSBM)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Roy's down aerial.

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Overview[edit]

Roy swings his sword in a downward slash. The move has the ability to send at a wide variety of angles, all having niche application.

The hitboxes located on Roy's body, which have lower priority than his sword hitboxes, will meteor smash the opponent. The meteor is most consistent when hit from below, akin to Young Link's down air. On the flipside, the commonly hit sourspot is located near the tip of Roy's sword and pops the opponent straight upwards. Lastly, the hilt of Roy's sword, which has more priority than the meteor but less priority than the tipper, knocks the opponent at the Sakurai angle. It is often regarded as the least desirable of the three angles to hit, although it can potentially kill at a somewhat reasonable percent under the right circumstances, due to the inherent "DI mixup" nature of the move.

Despite having relatively high landing lag, Roy's down air is an indispensable piece of his combo game, whether using the meteor to pillar opponents in tandem with down tilt or using the tipper for juggling intermittently with up airs; The overall modest knockback can work to its benefit in these situations.

However, one would be harshly mistaken in attempting to use this move's meteor as a serious means of offstage edgeguarding as its meteor hitboxes aren't really powerful to begin with, coupled with meteor cancel, 53 frames of endlag, and Roy's high gravity.