Zelda (PM)

Zelda in Project M and Project+
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Zelda (SSBM), Zelda (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Ocarina of Time Zelda

Zelda's Ocarina of Time Costume in Project M 3.5

Zelda is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. She was one of the most buffed characters from Melee and Brawl, going from being a low/bottom tier character in both Melee and Brawl to a formidable fighter that can be played without need of Sheik.

Attributes

In both Melee and Brawl, Zelda was plagued for being large, floaty, and slow on the ground and in the air. Additionally, she was hampered by poor approach options. In Project M, these weaknesses are addressed by significantly buffing Zelda overall to the point where her pros generally outweigh her cons.

Zelda excels at defensive gameplay, being able to reflect projectiles with Nayru's Love, her neutral special. This move can also be used for spacing. Zelda's side special, Din's Fire, is a fiery, guided projectile that explodes after a few seconds or on contact. This move can be used to force opponents to move closer to Zelda or as a combo finisher. Other moves that Zelda can use for spacing include her jab, which has disjointed hitboxes, and her neutral aerial, which is good for aerial spacing. Her recovery, Farore's Wind, is versatile in that it sends Zelda a good distance in any direction.

Despite being good for defense, Zelda is also a good offensive character, able to utilize combos and possessing many powerful finishers as well. Zelda's most notable finishers, her Lightning Kicks, cause high damage and knockback when sweetspotted. Although difficult to sweetspot with, Zelda's down aerial is an effective meteor smash. Her up tilt, up aerial, and back throw are also KO moves at high percentages.

Although she is much better character than either her Melee or Brawl iterations, Zelda still has many weaknesses. Her recovery can be easily prevented by proper edgehogging. Zelda's light weight causes her to be very vulnerable to many finishing moves. Lastly, while the return of Melee's physics make Zelda faster, she is still slower than the majority of the roster. In earlier version of Project M, Zelda was considered by many to be a powerhouse due to her capability to use three quickly-moving Din's Fire projectiles at once. In Project M Version 3.5 and onward, Din's Fire was nerfed so that only one projectile can be used at a time. On top of that, the speed of the remaining projectile was drastically lessened.

Changes from Melee and Brawl to PM

Zelda was immensely buffed from Brawl to Project M.

Aesthetics

• Up taunt's magical swirl and side taunt's fireball now both have damaging hitboxes.
• Most magic attacks were given additional sparkles, denoting their increased strength.
• Spot dodge was given magical sparkling graphics.
• Like Transform, down taunt now emits the characteristic "Puzzle Solved" jingle from Zelda games.

Ground Attacks

• Forward and up smashes link much better; while the latter uses its superior Brawl format with reduced hitlag, the former has more favorable angles for the multiple hits, both hitting faster and with fewer freeze frames.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial's multiple hits link into each other much better, and the hitboxes are larger.
• Up aerial has an early hitbox at the base of her fingertips which deals weak electric damage and links into her up air sweetspot. The explosion also deals more damage if it hits at the center.
• Down aerial has also been made to sweetspot on grounded opponents in addition to aerial opponents. While the sourspot deals stronger damage, the sweetspot is significantly stronger than in Brawl, and both are more powerful on aerial foes.
• Both forward and back Lightning Kick sweetspots are slightly weaker than in Melee.

Grabs and Throws

• Back throw is significantly stronger and is one of the strongest throws in the game.
• Up throw has decreased knockback, so it can now be used to chaingrab opponents.
• Down throw deals more damage and is drastically faster.
• Up throw deals less damage.

Special Moves

• Nayru's Love is land cancelable after the attack frames end, and while the ground version has no such cancel, it posseses improved invulnerability.
• Din's Fire functions significantly differently. Upon releasing a fireball, instead of quickly exploding it stops and hangs in the air for several seconds before exploding, and upon making contact with a foe, it inflicts damage and sets the fireball on a trail back to Zelda, hurting opponents that it hits. In addition to these changes, the control of fireballs is massively increased. After a fireball is suspended for too long, it will explode (like the original attack) and begin traveling, possesing wide hitboxes that deal strong knockback. Using Transform will also force it to explode. It also no longer puts Zelda into free fall if used in the air.
• Farore's Wind can air dodge to interrupt teleporting from the ground, giving Zelda the ability to waveland or pseudo-wavedash any time during the duration of the move. The disappearance hitbox also has its Melee power, and its start-up lag has been reverted to its Melee self.
• Can act out of Transform sooner, like Sheik.
• Reappearance hitbox of Farore's Wind deals weaker damage.

Revisions

v2.5b

• Priority on hitboxes for jab altered to work better on heavyweights' hitstun animations.
• Linking jab hits use slightly negative angles, which prevents landing animations from being triggered on very slightly sloped areas which can cause the rest of the move to whiff.
• Some animations and graphics for jab cleaned up.
• Dash attack animation adjusted to be closer to Melee.
• Angle on sweetspotted dash attack adjusted to be like other, similar attacks.
• Tipper hitbox on forward tilt adjusted in knockback and SDIability slightly to be more conducive to combos.
  • Hitboxes adjusted to give proper spacing for tipper hitbox.
  • Hit sound effects adjusted for sweetspots.
• Hit duration for up tilt reduced by 1 frame for visual corrections.
• Graphical effects for up tilt edited to match the new timings.
• Launch for up tilt has less base knockback but more growth, dealing less knockback at lower damages but more at higher damage.
• Launch angle of first half of up tilt raised slightly.
• Linking hits of forward smash use slightly negative angles, which prevents landing animations from being triggered on very slightly sloped areas which can cause the rest of the move to whiff.
• Has a new linking hitbox in forward smash far inside her only intended to prevent whiff issues close-in on heavyweights.
• Innermost hitboxes on linking hits of forward smash have reduced hitlag.
• Launch hit of forward smash has less base knockback but more growth, dealing less knockback at lower damages but more at higher damage, also taking greater effect with smash charge.
• Final hit of up smash has slightly increased base knockback.
• Linking hits of up smash have slightly reduced SDI capacity, enough for opponents to control launch point when hit by the move but never enough to escape it in any normal circumstances.
• Hit sound effects on linking hits of up smash altered to be softer.
• Melee sized sweetspots (first frame) for forward aerial regained a bit more of their old damage and knockback power.
• Melee sized electric flubs (later frames) for forward aerial now use average KO move values instead of the non-magical sourspot values.
• Back aerial's critical sweetspot deals slightly more knockback and shield damage.
• Non-magical sourspots for forward and back aerials have more effectual damage and knockback growth values, but don't lead into the sweetspots as easily.
• Fire hitboxes for up air have slightly more base knockback.
• Up air has very slightly increased shield damage on large fire hitbox.
• Hit sound effect of fire sweetspot for up air upgraded.
• Sweetspotted down aerial now deals extra shield damage.
• Down aerial's damage and knockback growth against grounded targets significantly increased.
• Down aerial's knockback growth against aerial targets slightly increased.
• Thigh flub hitbox on down aerial has slightly improved power and combo potential from ground bounces.
• Sweetspot duration reduced for down aerial.
• Graphics altered for down aerial to better match the presence of the sweetspot.
• Down aerial animation adjusted for the hitboxes to be aligned with the axis for its hit duration.
  • Grounded version of Nayru's Love deals more damage.
• Aerial version of Nayru's Love has quicker intangibility startup, equal to ground version.
  • Size of the last hitbox on aerial version was reduced to be consistent with the linking hits.
  • Knockback on aerial Nayru's Love adjusted slightly; it has less base knockback but more growth to induce tumbling later.
• Grounded Nayru's Love is visually larger, and aerial Nayru's Love visually smaller to better show their hitbox size difference.
• Travel speed of Din's Fire was slightly increased.
  • Has slightly lower maximum channel time.
• Din's Fire starts out smaller, while ending size is unchanged.
• Din's Fire damage growth with travel duration on explosion hitbox altered slightly, now does a minimum of 10% and a maximum of 20%.
• Din's Fire explosion hitbox has slightly more base knockback and slightly less knockback growth for combo purposes.
• Farore's Wind landing lag reduced.
• Aerial reappearance transitions properly into helpless state.
• Pivot grab's hitbox size increased, now being able to grab very low crouching targets.
• Forward throw slightly reduced in knockback growth.
• Down throw graphical effects altered to look more similar to Melee.
• Neutral aerial's graphical effects terminate earlier, closer to when the move stops hitting.
• Zelda's Transform graphical effects adjusted to better match their timing.
• Light Arrow uses a new Light element.

v2.6b

• Up tilt knockback increased very slightly.
• Up smash's lifting hitboxes fine tuned to not throw certain characters out of the move after several connected hits. The move also has another linking hit, dealing 1% more damage.
• Lightning Kicks' flub damage increased slightly to be closer to Melee's, along with adjusted knockback to compensate for this. Critical sweetspots were slightly increased in size to offer more consistency, while still being tiny (2/3 the size of Rest). Non-critical electric hits have increased damage/knockback, closer to their Melee iterations.
• Critical sweetspot of back aerial has slightly more base knockback. Non-critical forward aerial's hitboxes have slightly lower launch angle, similar to the critical hit, but not quite as potent.
• Up aerial's sweetspot size minutely increased, while the weak electric hit was slightly improved, and graphical effects/sound effects were edited for more accuracy.
• Down aerial has somewhat increased shield damage and a bigger sweetspot, and more knockback growth against grounded targets. Sourspot damage was also increased slightly.
• Forward and down throws' damage increased slightly.
• Din's Fire's flashing graphics loop one more time than previously. Minimum time to set is slowed down, and set animation has its lag increased to deter walling. The explosions are significantly larger and deadlier.
• Up smash's IASA frames are no longer increased from those of Melee, but equal to them.
• Neutral attack's launching hitbox has a higher angle, along with slightly higher base knockback and less knockback growth.
• Neutral aerial inflicts a consistent damage output depending on number of hits rather than their placement.
• Graphical effects on grabs adjusted.
• Din's Fire's set fireballs have smaller hitboxes, but these activate sooner after setting the projectile.
• Transform's startup is faster, and its intangibility was adjusted slightly, but its interruptibility also occurs slower.

v3.0

• Nayru's Love's final grounded hit has normalized SDI modifiers.
• Up taunt's hitboxes pull enemies in further towards Zelda.
• Forward tilt's sweetspots have less knockback growth.
• Forward air's critical sweetspot has slightly less knockback growth.
• Back air's critical sweetspot has slightly less base knockback.
• Nayru's Love's aerial land cancel has slightly more lag.
• Din's Fire static hitboxes inflict less damage (6% as opposed to 8%).
• Transform now detonates all current fireballs on the screen.

v3.5

• Up and down tilt deal more damage.
• Up smash endlag reduced by 1 to match Melee.
  • It deals less damage overall.
• Both Lightning Kicks' critical sweetspots have been removed.
  • Both their sweetspots deal more damage.
• Up aerial deals more knockback.
• Standing and turn grabs have shorter duration.
• Pummel's damage has gone from 4% to 3%.
  • However, it is slightly faster.
• All throws cause less damage.
• No longer invincible when using Nayru's Love in the air.
• Din's Fire buffed, increasing in size and power as it goes a greater distance.
  • New function implemented. Pressing the side special button while a fireball is set stationary will allow it to return to Zelda. The time it takes for the fire to return and the amount of damage depends on how far Zelda launched it; if no action is taken after it is set, the fire will automatically return to her itself later.
  • Din's Fire slowly builds up power once Zelda places it, and it will self detonate after a set time. The explosion is large and powerful, and gives an advantage to attack those with higher damage or are stuck airborne.
  • The number of fireballs that can be on the screen at one time has been reduced from 3 to 1.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.5.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		2% (hits 1-2), 3% (hit 3) (7% total)	Zelda extends one arm. A circular magical spark appears at the end of it, hitting up to three times. Disjointed with decent range.
Forward tilt		14% (tip), 13% (hand), 9% (body)	Zelda steps forward and slashes one arm in front of her, with a trail of sparkles. The attack has moderate knockback. The attack sends enemies behind Zelda. Can be angled.
Up tilt		15% (clean), 13% (late)	A surprisingly powerful attack wherein Zelda sweeps her hand above her to launch enemies away
Down tilt		11% (body), 10% (leg)	Zelda crouches and stabs one foot forward. This attack can meteor smash airborne opponents.
Dash attack		13%/9% (clean arms/spark), 8%/7% (late arms/spark)	Zelda lunges herself forward in a pushing motion, attempting to crash into the enemy
Forward smash		1% (hits 1-4), 13% (hit 5) (17% total)	Zelda extends her hands with a thrust, and a burst of sparkles appears. If an enemy is hit by this, it shocks them multiple times before launching them away with high knockback. Quick, with large range. However it can be escaped from with good SDI.
Up smash		1% (hits 1-11), 4% (hit 12) (15% total)	Waves her hand in an arch above her three times. This move is powerful. However it can be SDI'd out of.
Down smash		12% (hit 1), 13% (hit 2)	Zelda kicks along the ground in front of her and then behind her. This smash comes out very quickly and powerfully knocks enemies away horizontally. Zelda is able to hit a bomb in front of her with this move without taking any damage.
Neutral aerial		2% (hits 1-5), 5% (hit 6) (15% total), 3% (landing)	Zelda spins around quickly, releasing short bursts of light magic from her hands.
Forward aerial	Lightning Kick	19% (sweetspot clean), 16% (sweetspot late), 8% (leg/body)	A quick kick forward. Is extremely weak and doesn't KO until over 300% if the kick isn't sweetspotted, but is extremely powerful if the sweetspot at the tip of her foot connects and can KO as early as 80% on heavyweights if used near the blastlines.
Back aerial	Lightning Kick	18% (sweetspot clean), 15% (sweetspot late), 8% (leg/body)	Same as Zelda's forward aerial, except the opposite direction and comes out three frames earlier.
Up aerial		5% (hit 1), 14%/17% (explosion center/sides) (19%/22% total)	Zelda throws one hand up, and a small trail of sparkles extends to a point above her where it shortly explodes and launching the enemy upward. Has a hitbox at startup that sends the enemy upward into the explosion afterward.
Down aerial		18% (clean ground), 20% (clean air), 8%/9% (sourspot foot/leg)	Zelda sticks one foot out beneath her. Like her forward & back aerials, if this hits within the first couple of frames with the foot, it causes a pause in the opponent's movement, then deals high damage and meteor smashes the opponent straight downwards very fast. If the opponent is grounded, it does slightly less damage and causes the enemy to bounce off the ground and into the air.
Grab		—	Grabs her enemy with both hands.
Pummel		3%	Discharges magic into the enemy. A very slow pummel.
Forward throw		10%	Magically twirls opponent and throws them forward.
Back throw		11%	Magically twirls opponent behind herself and tosses them. Strongest knockback out of all her throws.
Up throw		8%	Magically twirls opponent above her head, then releases them upward.
Down throw		3% (hits 1-4), 2% (throw) (14% total)	Throws the enemy on the ground and shocks them repeatedly with magical bursts. The enemy will end up behind Zelda. While it is easily DI'd away to prevent any follow-ups, it has very good follow-ups if the opponent DIs wrong. At the edge of the stage, she can set up an early edge guard.
Floor attack (front)		6% (hit 1), 8%/6% (hit 2 leg/body)	Zelda swings her legs around from back to front, hitting enemies on both sides of herself.
Floor attack (back)		6%	Zelda swings her legs around from back to front, hitting enemies on both sides of herself.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	Zelda swings her legs from front to back, hitting enemies on both sides of herself.
Edge attack (fast)		7%	Zelda climbs up and swings her legs in a circular motion, while pulling herself up.
Edge attack (slow)		8% (arm), 11% (tip)	Zelda raises up slowly, and after a short pause, smacks the enemy with the back of her hand.
Neutral special	Nayru's Love	Ground: 1-2% (hits 1-5), 4% (hit 6); Air: 1-2% (hits 1-5), 3% (hit 6)	A quick multi-hitting move that also can function as a reflector.
Side special	Din's Fire	7-12% (fireball), 6-13% (set explosion), 10-25% (auto explosion), 4-9% (return)	Casts a fireball that explodes in a few seconds. The longer the hitbox is out, the bigger the ending explosion will be. The fireball slows down the longer the setting animation is held.
Up special	Farore's Wind	4% (both hits)	Teleports in a given direction.
Down special	Transform		Transforms into Sheik, detonates any undetonated Din's.
Final Smash	Light Arrow	3% (trapping), 40% (arrow) (43% total)	Draws a large bow and sets an arrow. During this time, any characters in her line of sight will flinch. A second later, the Light Arrow is released, dealing significant damage and likely KO'ing the struck characters. Goes through walls.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Grime
•  Idea
•  Irish
•  Justbngoode
•  Riot
•  Rizner
•  Seibrik
•  WhiteLightnin
•  Zhime

Inactive

•  zerothetheif

Alternate costumes

Zelda now has an alternate costume that is more closely based off her appearance in Melee, which itself was based off her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Oddly, the Brawl color palette which references the design featured in the alternate costume stays, despite Ganondorf's Ocarina Of Time based palette swap being replaced with the default color for his alternate costume, which is again based off of his Ocarina design.

Zelda's alternate costumes in PM

Trivia

• Two players can use the same costume for Zelda (and Sheik) as long as one chooses Zelda and the other chooses Sheik with the corresponding palette swap (i.e. default costumes or team colors). This is likely an oversight as a result of being able to choose Zelda and Sheik separately. Upon exiting the results screen and going back to the character select screen, one of the character portraits will use a different alternate costume instead.

External links

• Project M character page