Zelda (SSBU)/Forward aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Zelda's forward aerial.

Overview

Zelda throws out a kick with immense magic power packed at the tip of her foot. Lightning Kick is one of the most polarized moves in the game. The sweetspot has incredible launching power that eclipses that of the vast majority of uncharged smash attacks in the game. At frame 6, it is a fast out of shield option (frame 9 with jumpsquat), and due to its respectable horizontal reach and hurtbox shift on startup, it can interrupt strings and cause favorable trades when well-timed. It is also a devastating finisher from many of Zelda's other moves, namely up tilt, down tilt, down aerial and down throw.

However, the sweetspot is very small and lasts for a single frame. As a counterpart to the ridiculous power of the sweetspot, the sourspots, while themselves being large and long-lasting, deal extremely low knockback. Furthermore, the move has relatively high landing lag, high ending lag and cannot auto-cancel in a short hop. As a result, the sourspots can be easily punished on hit by even forward smashes, especially when rising. Until high percents, if Zelda uses the move, she will almost always be punished if she misses the sweetspot in any way. This makes the move poor in neutral, and inherently risky in any of the sweetspot's aforementioned uses. Even the sweetspot is potentially punishable on hit at very low percents, requiring Zelda to drift away after the hit to minimize her vulnerability.

While its landing lag is higher than average, it is decent relative to its massive power and can be -8 on shield, which is safe on a majority of characters if spaced. Zelda also pancakes in her landing animation, which can cause various out of shield punishes that do not hit low to miss.

Lightning Kick is typically a combo finisher, but it also has limited ability to start combos. A low-landed kick can combo into dash attack at very low percents. At high percents, especially with rage, landing sourspots become able to combo most notably into down smash and dash attack. The toe sourspot is slightly stronger than the other sourspots, and because it is at the tip of her foot, it is the least suited hitbox for combos. Since all hitboxes launch in the direction Zelda faces, she can exploit this by hitting opponents behind her with her hip hitbox to minimize the relative launch distance, even allowing a combo into Farore's Wind.

Overall, due to their unique traits, Zelda's Lightning Kicks give her an unconventional and conservative aerial game defined by high risk and precision.

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
Sweetspot
0	0	0	20.0%	0		Forward	24	95	0		2.2	top	-1.0 to 1.0	4.4	11.6	1.5×	0.0×	0%							Magic		All	All
Sourspots
1	0	0	4.0%	0		Forward	5	80	0		4.0	kneel	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Punch		All	All
2	0	0	4.0%	0		Forward	5	80	0		4.5	hip	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Punch		All	All
3	0	0	4.0%	0		Forward	5	96	0		5.0	toel	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Punch		All	All

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-2
Sweetspot	6
Sourspots	6-10
Ending autocancel	43-
Interruptible	50
Animation length	58

Landing lag

Interruptible	16
Animation length	31

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Interruptible

Trivia

• On top of the magic effect, the sweetspot has an additional unique lightning effect on hit. This is purely aesthetic and distinct from the electric attack effect the move formerly had in Melee and Brawl.

Zelda's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · inf) · 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