Zelda (SSBU)/Forward tilt

Zelda forward tilt hitbox visualizations.
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Overview

Zelda slashes horizontally with a magically produced blade from her hand. It is her only move that can also be angled up or down. It has one of the slowest start-ups of her moves at frame 12, with moderate ending lag. Forward tilt is moderately disjointed, with three sourspots on her arm and two sweetspots past her hand.

When the sweetspot lands, it has excellent reward. It is the highest damage forward tilt in the game, and is one of her safest moves on shield at -10 with good pushback. It's the second strongest behind Incineroar's sweetspotted forward tilt, and has very high base knockback, which can steal stocks near the ledge.

However, the sweetspot range is one of the strictest in the entire game. They require a very specific spacing that is arguably stricter than her Lightning Kicks due to their lowest priority. Zelda lacks practical setups into forward tilt's sweetspot, making it poor as a combo finisher. The sourspots have the highest priority, are unsafe on shield and are much weaker than the sweetspots, though still stronger than the average forward tilt.

All the hitboxes are exceptionally small (each one is smaller than Luigi's Super Jump Punch aerial sweetspot), resulting in a very narrow range, which is especially noticeable on short and/or aerial opponents. Combined with its slow startup, minimal active frames and strict priority, forward tilt is still relatively situational, though it fills a niche in her kit of being a strong and long-ranged poke on the ground.

Update History

7.0.0

• Forward tilt deals more damage (10%/12% → 11.5%/15%), with knockback scaling not fully compensated (70/70 → 68/69). This drastically improves its KO potential to the point where it is even stronger than in Smash 4, with the sweetspot KOing at around 120% from the center of Final Destination.

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	11.5%	0		Forward	72	68	0		2.1	arml	-2.0	0.2	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	11.5%	0		Forward	72	68	0		2.2	arml	0.7	0.3	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	11.5%	0		Forward	72	68	0		2.3	arml	3.2	0.4	-0.1	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
3	0	0	15.0%	0		Forward	72	69	0		2.4	handl	3.5	0.0	0.7	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
4	0	0	15.0%	0		Forward	72	69	0		2.5	handl	6.2	0.0	1.4	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All

Timing

Hitboxes	12-13
Interruptible	37
Animation length	54

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Interruptible

Trivia

• The inner sweetspot uses the weaker slash sound effect of the sourspots, despite being identical in strength to the other sweetspot. This is a reversal from Smash 4, where the outer sourspot used the same sound effect as the sweetspot, despite being identical in strength to the other sourspots.

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