Palutena (SSB4)/Back aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Palutena's back aerial.

Overview

Palutena attacks behind her using her shield. It is her strongest aerial in terms of damage, which makes it great at edgeguarding. Her shield also renders her upper body's back invincible for 8 frames, which lets it beat any attack or projectile that comes in contact with her back. However, it is easy to miss if the opponents is too close to her since it does not have a hitbox around her, and its high ending lag sometimes makes it punishable if it misses (though doing so is quite hard), which makes it necessary to cancel this move from a short hop, or by SHFFing if the opponent does not have a move fast enough. It also has a small sourspot on her shoulder deals 3% less damage, but makes the same sound. While the hitbox is small and is both overlapped and outprioritized by the sweetspot, the sound it makes renders it almost unperceptible if the move is hitting with the sourspot.

This move can also be comboed from a down throw, then SHFFd to avoid taking the move's ending lag. Its landing lag, however, while relatively low, makes it more viable as a possible, albeit hard to land, KO setup at high percents, while using her neutral or forward aerials at low percents to avoid getting punished due to either their lower ending or landing lag, respectively.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle		BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			SDIx	H×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Type	Effect	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Piercing	Heedless	No GFX	Flinchless	Stretch
0	0	0	12%	3		Backwards	30	92	0	7.0	0	0.0	10.2	-14.0	1.0x	1.2x	0%							Kick		63								—
1	0	0	9%	3		Backwards	30	92	0	3.0	0	0.0	10.2	-11.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Kick		63								0.0	10.2	-9.0

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-2
Partial Invincibility	3-10
Hitboxes	8-10
Ending autocancel	35-
Interruptible	50
Animation length	53

Landing lag

Animation length	16

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Vulnerable

Invincible

Autocancel

Interruptible

Palutena'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 (def · c1 · c2) · Side special (def · c1 · c2) · Up special (def · c1 · c2) · Down special (def · c1 · c2) · Final Smash