Meta Knight (SSBB)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Meta Knight's down aerial.

Overview

Meta Knight does a quick horizontal slash below him, doing 7%-9% damage and hits on frame 4. Like his up aerial, the move has transcendent priority, extremely little start-up lag but has a bit more ending lag but has very little regardless, making this move hard to punish. With its semi-spike trajectory and decent knockback, it is one of the best edgeguarding and gimping moves in the game. It does great against opponents with poor horizontal recovery like Ike and Link. It can also be used to perform a variation of the wall of pain on many opponents. In addition, Meta Knight can "vertical space" with this move using a footstool jump→down aerial combo. This is rather situational, but can gimp easily, and if the opponent is hit into the stage, it can stage spike, with a Shuttle Loop being usable as a possible followup if the opponent techs.

This move is very effective when used for air camping, being difficult for opponents to break through, and useful for spacing in conjunction with his forward aerial. There are ways to combat this though, such as Pikachu's up aerial.

Overall, an excellent move that is reliable and not difficult to use in Meta Knight's metagame.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	Angle	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			SDIx	H×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Type	Effect	G	A	Sound	Direct
0	0	7%	0		30	105	0	5.4	Root	0.0	-6.4	-4.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Slash
1	0	7%	0		30	105	0	5.2	Root	0.0	-6.4	4.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Slash
2	0	9%	0		15	105	0	5.4	Root	0.0	-3.4	-10.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Slash
3	0	9%	0		15	105	0	5.4	Root	0.0	-3.4	10.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Slash

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-3
Hitboxes	4-5
Ending autocancel	24-
Animation length	25

Landing lag

Animation length	15

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Autocancel

Meta Knight's moveset

Neutral attack · Forward tilt (1 · 2 · 3) · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial · Glide attack
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 (fast) · Edge getups (fast) · Edge attack (slow) · Edge getups (slow)
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash