Piranha Plant (SSBU)

Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Mario
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	Petey Piranha
Tier	D- (77)

“	Piranha Plant Pipes Up!	”
—Introduction tagline

Piranha Plant (パックンフラワー, Packun Flower) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Revealed alongside Ken and Incineroar on November 1st, 2018, it is the first DLC character in Ultimate, and was made available for purchase on February 1st, 2019. However, it was made available at no cost as early as January 29th, 2019 for players who purchased the digital version of Ultimate or registered their physical version with My Nintendo by January 31st, 2019. Piranha Plant is not part of either Fighters Pass, making it the only DLC character with this distinction. Piranha Plant is classified as Fighter #70.

Piranha Plant is ranked 77th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing it in the D- tier and making it the lowest ranking DLC character overall. Piranha Plant's most noteworthy attribute is its trapping potential. Ptooie is considered one of the strongest and most versatile projectiles in the game, being able to dish out a lot of damage, cover aerial approaches, be used as a ledgetrapping tool, and even be employed as a defensive deterrent in the event of the opponent interrupting it in close-quarters engagements. Poison Breath can be utilized to pile on immense damage if Piranha Plant manages to lock in the opponent into its area of effect, or to deny the enemy of approach routes that can circumvent damage. Piranha Plant bolsters these strengths with its possession of very fast frame data on the ground, with moves such as its neutral attack, and forward tilt being able to be employed as effective damage dealing pokes. Its fast frame data extends to its grab and up smash, benefitting its KO power, as its up throw also serves as a KO throw. These traits round out to make Piranha Plant a highly defensive powerhouse that can respond to several approaches with effective keep away and anti-air options. It is also classified as a heavyweight, offering it a strong level of endurance, which is also complemented by a long-distanced recovery in the form of Piranhacopter.

Piranha Plant is almost completely undone however by its lack of mobility. Lacking in range across all of its close-quarters attacks to offset its poor grounded and aerial movement, Piranha Plant struggles immensely in mounting an offensive neutral, and its advantage state is highly reliant on circumstantially effective attacks to keep the opponent at bay. Long-Stem Strike grants Piranha Plant more range but its high startup, finicky control and vulnerable hurtbox during its extension phase makes it an inconvenient attack to use in many situations. This is exacerbated by Piranha Plant's moveset lacking in the way of notable synergy; while many of its attacks have decent utility, it has very little in the way of optimal combos or routes to pursue the opponent. Many of its moves and aerials pose high amounts of ending lag, while some such as neutral aerial and up aerial are plagued by awkward hitbox placements. Finally, Piranha Plant's reliance on Ptooie serves as a double-edged sword; as the main cornerstone of its game plan, it is completely invalidated by characters with reflectors, making several matchups highly problematic for the character.

Since its release, Piranha Plant has seen low tournament representation, and although it has seen success from players such as Brood, Lucky, and Tas, it is considered a fairly weak character in competitive play.

Attributes

Piranha Plant is a heavyweight fighter with below-average mobility and effective anti-air tools. Compared to other heavyweights, it fits in the mold of an archetypal heavyweight: while its dashing speed is average and its gravity is very high, it has a slow walking speed, air acceleration, and air speed, and a fast falling speed.

One of Piranha Plant's most effective strengths is its diverse special moves. Its neutral special, Ptooie, is a unique projectile that can be tossed in either direction or held in the air as a good anti-air option, and a good trading tool due to its power and transcendent priority. Poison Breath is a slow-moving projectile that does not make opponents flinch, but deals massive damage, especially when fully charged; opponents must be very wary of it, making it a good area-denial tool. Its up special, Piranhacopter, has hitboxes beside itself and travels a great distance, pairing well with Piranha Plant's heavy weight and fast falling speed to give it excellent survivability. Its down special, Long-Stem Strike, grants super armor during its pot phase and tremendous range when fully charged, at the cost of extending its hurtbox significantly.

Piranha Plant's ground game is overall rather versatile; its tilts are good for starting juggles or combos, as well as spacing and KOing. Up tilt can lead into various aerial attacks, and a forward smash at low percents; forward tilt behaves similarly to Snake's in that it is a natural combo consisting of two hits, of which the second hit can KO at very high percentages; and down tilt is a versatile combo starter, being capable of leading into moves such as forward tilt or forward aerial at low to mid percentages, and into aerials afterward. Its smash attacks are generally slow but powerful, such as its forward smash, which is somewhat slow in terms of startup and ending lag, but can KO opponents near the ledge as early as 60% if sweetspotted.

Its aerials are overall well-rounded, making its air game overall decent despite its rather sluggish mobility and moves with relatively high landing lag. Neutral aerial is a multi-hit move that functions much like Palutena and Ivysaur's neutral aerials, being a capable combo move with the ability to drag opponents down for combos and potentially makes it a gimping tool due to this trait. Forward aerial is good for edgeguarding thanks to its wide range, whereas back aerial is a slow but very powerful move that KOs at 80% near the ledge. Up aerial is one of its best comboing and juggling tools, thanks to its speed and wide range and can autocancel in short hop. Lastly, down aerial is a long-ranged and decently strong meteor smash with very fast startup.

Another strength Piranha Plant possesses is a decent grab game; while its grab range is short, its grabs' frame data is among the fastest in the game, and its throws have their own unique perks; forward throw is a useful throw for positioning and edgeguarding, back and up throws have KO potential at high percentages, and down throw is a viable combo starter at low to high percentages.

Piranha Plant does, however, have some noteworthy flaws. Its overall mobility is lackluster, having an average initial dash speed and dash speed, but poor air acceleration and slow airspeed. This gives it difficulties keeping up with faster characters such as Zero Suit Samus or Wolf, especially in the air, which makes it rather easy to zone out. Piranha Plant's heavyweight and tall hurtbox makes it vulnerable to combos, particularly from those with strong combo games such as Peach or Mario, and has trouble landing from juggles due to its lack of fast enough tools to escape from them. Finally, Piranha Plant's approach options are rather predictable, with its overall frame data being generally slow. This is no exception to its KOing options either, and most of Piranha Plant's KO moves are either short-ranged or laggy.

Another problem Piranha Plant has is that its two projectiles, which are a crucial part of its toolkit, are notably vulnerable to reflectors due to the slow startup of Ptooie and the fact that Poison Breath can be reflected at any point during its duration, which forces it to use its projectiles more shrewdly when facing opponents with reflectors.

Overall, Piranha Plant is a unique heavyweight fighter that utilizes various projectiles and attacks to effectively zone and KO opponents, but must be careful when throwing out normal attacks to avoid being punished due to the end lag that many of them have, thus making it a patient fighter when it comes to approaching.

Update history

Piranha Plant was significantly buffed in game updates. Patch 3.0.0 increased its edge attack and Ptooie hitbox size, the latter of which makes Ptooie a lot easier to hit with overall as a trading tool and conventional projectile. 3.1.0 gave further small improvements towards its jab, allowing it to function a lot more consistently, with neutral attack 3 now out-ranging neutral attack 2.

The first significant set of buffs came in 4.0.0, which provided drastic improvements for Piranha Plant's advantage state and slight improvements to its neutral. Up tilt's decreased lag allowed it to become safe on hit, as well as being much safer on shield and a better combo tool. Dash attack's angle change allows Piranha Plant to set up edgeguards and ledgetraps easier, as well as occasionally KO opponents with bad DI, and Poison Breath's decreased startup and endlag allow Piranha Plant to set up its ledgetrapping faster, and use it more safely in neutral. Finally, Long-Stem Strike's significantly increased shield damage and decreased endlag made it a far more potent pressure tool, being able to cause shieldbreaks much more frequently, working well in tandem with Ptooie's already high shield damage.

8.0.0 gave by far the biggest changes towards Piranha Plant, giving good improvements to its neutral, advantage, and disadvantage states. Up tilt's increased speed makes it a far safer anti-air to use, combined with a more suitable angle for KOing and especially comboing, ultimately making for a much more deadly anti-air. Down smash's decreased startup made it Piranha Plant's fastest smash attack, and one of its fastest kill options overall, giving Piranha Plant a good close-range KO option. Forward aerial's speed was significantly increased, which gave Piranha Plant a new, decent out-of-shield option, tied with its grab for its fastest, whilst hitting smaller opponents much more effectively due to the increased speed. It also makes it better as an edgeguard tool, as it is now tied with up aerial for its fastest aerial, useful when combined with its decent hitbox, also making the move more versatile in spacing scenarios in neutral as well. Back aerial got increased knockback scaling, allowing it to KO around 6% earlier at the ledge, however, Piranha Plant's biggest change by far in 8.0.0 was towards up aerial. Now being disjointed, better for damage racking and KOing whilst maintaining its great combo ability at low percents, it serves as a very quick, yet deadly aerial at any percent. It can even KO opponents off the ground at similar percents to up tilt's sweetspot, and the intangibility makes it a decent ledge drop double jump aerial for beating out numerous moves safely, and even KOing opponents for it.

After an absence of changes, Piranha Plant received a small number of useful buffs via update 13.0.1. Forward tilt's second hit gained more knockback, granting it better KO ability & stage control by the edge. Long-Stem Strike hitbox & armor comes out slightly faster, improving its safety. Most notably, down tilt gained an extra active frame and had its ending lag reduced. Improving its use in neutral and combo ability, to the point where it can combo into back aerial as a kill-confirm around the ledge.

Overall, Piranha Plant fares much better than it did when it was first released, thanks to its buffs granting a better neutral game, along with stronger and more consistent KO options.

3.0.0

• Edge attack has more range.
• Ptooie has a larger hitbox.
• Piranha Plant's portrait briefly glints on its fang when Poison Breath is fully charged.
• The screen KO visual glitch in Pilotwings has been fixed.
• The void glitch has been removed.

3.1.0

• Neutral attack 3 has more range (5.0u → 5.5u, Z-offset: 11.8 → 12.8 (head hitbox)).
• Neutral infinite deals more hitstun (3 frames → 4).

4.0.0

• Up tilt has less ending lag (FAF 32 → 29).
• Dash attack launches at a lower angle (55° → 45°), improving its edgeguarding and KO potential.
• Poison Breath's damage increase caps after being reflected multiple times.
• Poison Breath has less startup (frame 23 → 21) and ending lag (FAF 49 → 46).
• Poison Breath has a slightly longer hitbox duration (97 frames → 99 (uncharged), 133 → 135 (fully charged), 18 → 19 (windbox)).
• Long-Stem Strike charges faster (Max charge: 78 frames → 68).
• Long-Stem Strike has less ending lag (Uncharged: FAF 65 → 60, max charge: 126 → 116, max charge (sideways): 136 → 121).
• Long-Stem Strike deals more shield damage (0 → 5).
• The Strike Cancel glitch has been fixed.

7.0.0

• Piranha Plant's top lip is briefly intangible after deactivating its shield.

8.0.0

• Up tilt:
  • The move has less startup (frame 8 → 6), with its total duration reduced as well (FAF 29 → 27).
    • Due to the frame speed multiplier used in the speed change, up tilt has much more trouble hitting behind, possesses a large hurtbox extension, and the final active frame dips lower, worsening its overall effectiveness as an anti-air.
  • It launches opponents at a higher angle (80°/85° → 85°/90°), improving both its combo and KO potential.
• Down smash has less startup (frame 12 → 10), with its total duration reduced as well (FAF 46 → 44).
• Forward aerial has less startup (frame 10 → 7), with its total duration reduced as well (FAF 48 → 45). It also autocancels earlier as a result (frame 42 → 39). This makes it more reliable as an approach tool.
• Back aerial has more knockback scaling (100 → 105).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial deals more damage (8% → 10%), with knockback scaling not fully compensated (110 → 104), allowing it to KO under 150% from ground level.
  • It grants intangibility on Piranha Plant's stem and head during active frames, allowing it to contest opposing aerial attacks more effectively.

9.0.0

• Rapid jab and its finisher have transcendent priority, preventing them from being canceled out by weak attacks.

13.0.1

• Forward tilt 2 has more knockback growth (110 → 117).
• Down tilt has more active frames (9-10 → 9-11) and less endlag (FAF 29 → 27).
• Down aerial's clean hit is active for longer (9-10/11-14 → 9-11/12-14).
• Long-Stem Strike gains armor one frame earlier and can be manually released earlier (frame 28 → 26).

Moveset

For a gallery of Piranha Plant's hitboxes, see here.

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2.4%	Jabs forwards with its leaf, followed by a leaf jab with its other leaf, followed by a headbutt, which can be hard to punish on shield due to its low ending lag. Alternatively, the leaf swipes can be followed by a flurry of chomps, ending in a more powerful chomp; similar to Corrin's rapid jab. The first hit is incredibly fast at frame 2, making it a good, albeit short-ranged option to interrupt attacks. The flurry can deal up to ~20% in one go, making it good for racking damage. Meanwhile, the three hit combo has low endlag and sends at the Sakurai Angle, making it good for tech-chasing. Holding the attack button will have Piranha Plant perform the first jab repeatedly.
			2.2%
			4.4%
			0.6% (loop), 3.4% (end)
Forward tilt		Push and Pull (押しパックン, Pushing Pakkun)	5.5%	Two forward bites. Pressing the attack button a second time will have the Piranha Plant perform its following bite. It is Piranha Plant's fastest and most damaging tilt and possesses the longest horizontal range out of all its tilts. Piranha Plant's jaws on the first hit are intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out. It can KO middleweights from the edge of Final Destination at around 144%. Resembles the attacks Piranha Plants made in Super Mario 64.
			6%
Up tilt			9% (head), 7% (body)	Flails its head upward. Its head is intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out. Due to its poor horizontal range and good vertical range, it works best as an anti-air tool, and can KO middleweights at around 147%. At low percents, it is unsafe on hit, but can combo into itself and aerials at slightly higher percents.
Down tilt			6% (base), 7% (tip)	Swipes its leaf low to the ground. Piranha Plant's slowest tilt, but it has great combo potential into an instant dash attack at low percents, and can lead into a neutral aerial or forward aerial up to middling percents.
Dash attack			10% (clean), 7% (late)	Performs a "dropkick" using its pot/pipe. Usually used to tech-chase opponents, or punish from farther distances when Ptooie is too slow. Despite the animation, it struggles to kill even at very high percents.
Forward smash		Prickly Swing (イガイガスイング)	19% (head), 15% (stem)	Turns into a Prickly Piranha Plant from Super Mario Galaxy 2 and headbutts forward. Its head is intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out. It has a sweetspot on its head. While its startup is rather slow, it is respectively powerful, with the sweetspot KOing middleweights at the edge of Final Destination at around 65%, while the sourspot can KO at around 84%.
Up smash			3% (hit 1), 12% (hit 2)	Lunges upward and bites. Like its up tilt and forward smash, its head is intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out, and thanks to its seven active frames, up smash works as a potent anti-air. Due to its multi-hit nature, though, opponents can occasionally fall out of up smash, making it somewhat unreliable at times. It can KO middleweights at around 91%.
Down smash			12% (front), 14% (back)	Sweeps its pot/pipe around itself. Both the front and back hits can KO middleweights from the edge of Final Destination at around 95% and 82% respectively. Its strong semi-spike angle makes it a versatile edgeguarding move, and as of update 8.0.0, it is Piranha Plant's fastest smash attack and effective for a quick KO option. However, the hitbox is deceptively smaller than the animation entails, as it doesn't even fully cover the pot/pipe on both hits.
Neutral aerial			2% (hits 1-4), 3% (hit 5)	Twirls rapidly with its leaves extended, hitting multiple times. Resembles Ivysaur's neutral aerial but with lesser range and frame data. Due to its looping hits using an auto-link angle, it can be used to drag opponents down to start grounded combos.
Forward aerial			11% (pot), 9% (body)	Swings its pot/pipe upwards in front of itself. A useful edgeguarding tool, as it has wide range and respectable damage and knockback when sweetspotted. Its main drawbacks, however, come from its high landing lag and auto-cancel window, making it quite unsafe to use often. As of the 8.0.0 update, forward aerial's startup lag and autocancel window were improved, allowing it to hit grounded opponents more consistently out of a short hop.
Back aerial		Fire Breath (火炎ふき, Flame Wipe)	14.5%	Turns around and spits out a burst of fire. Its slowest aerial, but it is also its strongest, KOing middleweights at around 86% from the edge of Final Destination. It has a very high amount of ending lag, making it potentially risky to use against offstage opponents, as Piranha Plant will be at risk of self-destructing. Fire Piranha Plants originated in Super Mario Bros. 3.
Up aerial			10%	An upwards headbutt. It is Piranha Plant's fastest aerial, and the only one that can autocancel in a short hop, which makes it a decent juggler with the assistance of platforms. However, due to the move having only 3 active frames and a small hitbox that only exists on its head, it can often whiff due to the deceptive animation. As of the 8.0.0 update, up aerial is now disjointed due to Piranha Plant's head being intangible while the move is active, and its knockback has been substantially increased to the point it is a reliable KO move, as it can KO at ground level at 150% and as low as 115% near the top platform of Battlefield.
Down aerial		Flowerpot Meteor (植木鉢メテオ)	11% (clean), 9% (late)	Flips and stomps its pot/pipe below it. Sweetspots at the bottom of the pot, which will meteor smash rather powerfully. It has very fast startup compared to most meteor smashes, coming out on frame 9, although the sourspot is prioritized over the meteor hitbox, making it difficult to land.
Grab		Grab (つかみ)	—	Reaches out with its leaves. Decent range and among the fastest grabs in the game.
Pummel			1.4%	Bites the opponent. Average speed, while dealing marginally more damage than other similar pummels. It shares this distinction with Pichu.
Forward throw			3% (hit), 8% (throw)	Headbutts the opponent away. Generally only used for stage control purposes or setting up an edgeguard.
Back throw			11%	Flings the opponent behind with its mouth. It can KO middleweights from the edge of Final Destination at around 148%.
Up throw			12%	Tosses the opponent upward, and launches them with a bite. A reliable KO throw, being capable of KOing middleweights at around 151%.
Down throw			2.5% (hits 1-2), 3% (throw)	Throws the opponent to the ground and bites them twice. Can combo into an aerial at low percents, or into a dash attack if the opponent DIs outward.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%	Sweeps its head around itself.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%	Sweeps its head around itself.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Kicks its pot/pipe forward and back.
Edge attack Edge getups			10%	Dropkicks with its pot/pipe.
Footstooled attack			4%	If Piranha Plant is footstooled while crouching, it will automatically stretch upward and perform a biting attack. The attack is surprisingly useful if it goes off, with strong potential for both combos and KO confirms, but successfully getting it to trigger is incredibly rare.
Neutral special		Ptooie	14% (held), 18% (thrown, early), 13% (thrown, late)	The Piranha Plant spits up a metal spiky ball, keeping it suspended by blowing air upwards. The spiky ball can then be blown either in front or behind the Piranha Plant. Holding the special move button will keep the spiky ball afloat, while letting go will cause the Piranha Plant to swallow it, canceling the move. The spiky ball has transcendent priority (although a strong enough hit can cause it to bounce off), and the move stalls Piranha Plant's fall if used in the air, making it a deadly edgeguarding tool. It is also capable of punishing opponents that attack Piranha Plant out of the move, as the ball will likely drop on their heads and act as a punish. If the ball is blown at its highest, it will be thrown less distance, while it'll be thrown significantly farther when it is at its lowest. The move has moderate ending lag, but this is significantly reduced if the spiky ball hits something while it is afloat, allowing for unique combos. Based on the Ptooie enemy introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3.
Side special		Poison Breath	1.2% (uncharged, center loop), 0.6% (uncharged, edge loop), 2.7% (fully charged, center loop), 1.6% (fully charged, edge loop)	The Piranha Plant spews a damaging cloud of poison in front of it. If all hits connect, it will deal a great amount of damage. The cloud itself has no knockback and deals no hitstun, but it can be countered/reflected and shielded. If an opponent attempts to shield against this attack, it will do detrimental damage to the shield itself. The move is chargeable, and it can be saved for later use. During execution, Piranha Plant changes its color to match the Putrid Piranha enemy from the Paper Mario series.
Up special		Piranhacopter	1.2% (hits 1-8), 4% (hit 9)	The Piranha Plant spins its leaves in a fashion akin to a propeller, causing it to rise upward. It can be angled to the left and right during the ascent. Covers excellent distance, being able to successfully recover from near the bottom blast zone. Its looping hits can potentially drag opponents to a blast zone for early KOs, however, this is unlikely due to the final hit activating surprisingly early, and its weak knockback scaling. Furthermore, the move's looping hits have SDI multipliers of 3 and 3.5, albeit with only a small window to make inputs. It does have a notable weakness in lacking a hitbox above it, causing its large head to be able to be hit easily. Based on the Jumping Piranha Plants from Super Mario World.
Down special		Long-Stem Strike	8.4% (uncharged, close), 12% (uncharged, far), 18.2% (fully charged, close), 26% (fully charged, far)	The Piranha Plant retreats into its pot/pipe and extends outward to bite opponents in the direction aimed. The longer it is charged, the further the bite reaches, though this also extends the character’s hurtbox. Piranha Plant can move its pot to aim in one direction while charging, though it is not possible to switch directions after doing so. The move can also be canceled by pressing the attack button while charging, which will cause Piranha Plant to bite early without extending. Piranha Plant gains damage-based heavy armor (tanks up to 15%) and decreases damage slightly during the charge, and has intangibility on its head during the bite. A deadly edgeguarding tool due to its aforementioned absurdly high reach and power, notably when fully charged. Its hitbox is also large enough to hit ledge hanging opponents, and also deals high shield damage, depleting more than half a shield at full charge. However, the full extension significantly extends Piranha Plant's hurtbox, making it possible to hit it from afar when timed correctly. Likely a reference to Elasto-Piranhas or Stalking Piranha Plants.
Final Smash		Petey Piranha	4% (cage), 5% (high jump landing), 5% (fire, caged), 3% (fire, collateral) 20% (cage slam)	The Piranha Plant summons Petey Piranha, who stomps around the stage with his cages from his boss fight in The Subspace Emissary. The player has some influence over Petey Piranha's actions: he will always start moving in the direction that Piranha Plant was facing when summoned; he can change direction and hop further based on which way the control stick is held and by how much; holding a jump input makes him jump higher, dealing damage to opponents below him when landing. Opponents that get hit by a cage will be placed inside of an unoccupied cage, regardless of which cage they are hit by. After three seconds, he will stop hopping and breath fire into each of the cages—the fire can hit characters that aren't in cages, but they take less damage than those inside of cages. Afterwards he will slam both of the cages to the ground, dealing heavy damage and knockback to the opponents who were trapped in the cages as well as anyone too close when he slams them. It is possible for Petey Piranha to fall off the stage, taking any trapped opponents with him, though it is not a guaranteed KO if the opponent has leftover jumps, a strong recovery or both. He also doesn't move much from his starting position, making him easy to avoid if the stage is big enough.

Stats

Stats	Weight	Dash speed	Walk speed	Traction	Air friction	Air speed	Air acceleration	Gravity	Falling speed	Jumpsquat	Jump height	Double jump height	Empty landing Lag
Value	112	1.82 – Initial dash 1.72 – Run	0.76	0.088	0.008	1	0.01 – Base 0.05 – Additional	0.14	1.95 – Base 2.73 – Fast-fall	3	37.4 - Base 17.5 - Short hop	38.52	4

Announcer call

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• English

• Japanese/Chinese

On-screen appearance

• Rises straight up out of its pot/pipe, making a Warp Pipe noise as it does so.

• 

  Piranha Plant's on-screen appearance

Taunts

• Up taunt: Rises up out of its pot/pipe, using the same animation and sound effects as its entrance animation. Some of Piranha Plant's teeth deform to make the taunt look better from afar. This is most noticeable when zooming on Piranha Plant while pausing.
• Side taunt: Bites the air around it multiple times, similar to one of Bowser and King K. Rool's taunts.
• Down taunt: Spins around and strikes a pose with a grin.

• 

  Piranha Plant's up taunt.

• 

  Piranha Plant's side taunt.

• 

  Piranha Plant's down taunt.

Idle poses

• Quickly bites the air twice.
• Dozes off for a second, it then wakes up and rotates its head 360°.

• 

  Piranha Plant's first idle pose.

• 

  Piranha Plant's second idle pose.

Crowd cheer

	Cheer (English)	Cheer (Japanese/Chinese)	Cheer (Italian)	Cheer (Dutch)	Cheer (French)
Cheer
Description	Pira - nha Plant!	Pack - un! *clap 3 times*	Pianta Piranha!	Pi - ran - ha!	Fleur quoi? Piranha! Plante quoi? Piranha!

	Cheer (German)	Cheer (Spanish)	Cheer (Russian)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
Description	Piranha Pflanze, schau schau schau!	Planta pi-raña! Ñam ñam! Ñam ñam! Ñam!	Rasteniye Piranya!	Pack - un! Flow - er!

Victory poses

• Left: Bites the air around it three times, before smiling.
• Up: Mario runs towards Piranha Plant's pot/pipe and jumps over it, only for Piranha Plant to pop out and bite Mario, sending him flying, before smiling, a reference to its reveal trailer.
• Right: Hangs down from the ceiling and poses.

A music piece based on the same melody as the Mario victory theme, but instead of a standard orchestral arrangement, the piece is played with slightly distorted electric guitars. It also sounds similar to the level clear theme of Bowser's sidequests in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

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In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Piranha Plant players (SSBU)

•  Brood - The greatest Piranha Plant player of all-time. He is best known for placing 2nd at Umebura SP 4 defeating Shuton, Kameme, and Gackt, the best Piranha Plant performance of all-time and the first time a Piranha Plant player placed in the top 8 at a major, a feat that has only been replicated once afterwards. Although he briefly dropped Piranha Plant for Banjo & Kazooie, he returned to the character in the post-online metagame, though despite initial strong performances such as 5th at WINNER! -Next Gen- defeating Abadango and 33rd at Kagaribi 5, his results would take a significant downturn as time went on.
•  Greward - The best Piranha Plant player in Europe in the early metagame and one of the best players from Spain during this time, ranking 49th on the European Smash Rankings and placing 13th at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2019 and 17th at Albion 4. He became less active in the post-pandemic metagame.
•  Lucky - The all-time best Piranha Plant player in North America who was also the best in the world in 2022 and 2023. He regularly places highly at Midwest events, including winning Warp Zone 2, placing 9th at The Big House 11 and Diamond Dust and placing 17th at The Big House 10, the latter being one of the best major placement for a Piranha Plant in the post-pandemic metagame. Outside of his region, he has also placed 17th at Patchwork defeating Cosmos.
•  Tas - The best Piranha Plant in the world in 2024. He is best known for placing 7th at Sumabato SP 50 after Asimo and DIO, the second time a Piranha Plant player placed top 8 at a major and by far the best Piranha Plant performance since Brood's run at Umebura SP 4; this achievement made him the Player of the Month for August 2024. Outside of this tournament run, he had also placed 13th at Sumabato SP 49 defeating Kaninabe and 5th at Maesuma'LANDMARK 2 defeating karaage and Jogibu.

Tier placement and history

Despite having received noticeable attention due to its unexpected inclusion, initial reactions towards Piranha Plant were underwhelming due to its susceptibility to combos as well as sub-par mobility and approach options. In spite of its versatile projectile and recovery, many professionals considered Piranha Plant to be a low-mid tier character, and Piranha Plant saw little representation. However, the summer of 2019 saw a brief shift for Piranha Plant, mainly due to Brood's unexpected run to 2nd at Umebura SP 4, the closest a Piranha Plant player came to winning a major. In addition, Piranha Plant also saw successful runs from players such as Lucky and Greward, which helped boost its representation. As such, this period saw several professionals reconsider their opinions on Piranha Plant, with these players believing Piranha Plant had potential to be a mid-tier character.

Following the summer of 2019, Piranha Plant's results and representation once again declined as Brood switched characters and Greward becoming less active nationally. This stagnation remained even in the post-online metagame: most notably, although Brood eventually returned to Piranha Plant, his results would decline as time went on. Although Lucky remained a threat in the Midwest and other Piranha Plant players such as Budoshu and Dmitrii began making noticeable impacts in their region, their major results were often inconsistent, let alone anywhere close to Brood's run at Umebura SP 4. As such, Piranha Plant became one of the least popular characters in competitive play, having ranked in the bottom 5 in terms of representation since 2021, and players widely consider it to be a low-tier character. This is reflected in its tier list placement, where it was ranked 77th on the first and second tier lists.

Classic Mode: New Bloom

Piranha Plant's congratulations screen.

All of Piranha Plant's opponents are the base roster newcomers in the game. With the exception of the first match, each battle features one unique newcomer and one Echo Fighter, with the matches being placed in the order of the former's reveal. The stage and music choices reference each of the character reveal trailers. The boss, Rathalos, fits with the theme as it is new to the series.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	Inkling (x8)	Moray Towers (Battlefield form)	Splattack! (Original)	Horde Battle (3 at a time)
2	Ridley and Dark Samus	Norfair	Vs. Ridley
3	Simon and Richter	Dracula's Castle	Vampire Killer (Remix)
4	King K. Rool and Chrom	Pirate Ship	Gang-Plank Galleon	Free-for-All. The stage references Gangplank Galleon, King K. Rool's ship.
5	Isabelle and Daisy	Smashville	Tour - Animal Crossing: New Leaf
6	Incineroar and Ken	Boxing Ring	The Battle at the Summit!	Free-for-All. References their shared reveal trailer.
Bonus Stage
Final	Rathalos	Forest Hill	Roar/Rathalos

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Piranha Plant has Underground Theme - Super Mario Bros. accompany the credits. As a downloadable character, Piranha Plant uses the same character unlock tree as Mario.

Role in World of Light

The message that shows Piranha Plant's availability in World of Light

Due to its status as downloadable content, Piranha Plant does not have a legitimate role in World of Light. Instead, it is unlocked for use in the mode after freeing 10 fighters from Galeem's control. If loading an existing save file that meets this condition before downloading Piranha Plant, it is immediately unlocked.

Spirit

Piranha Plant's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode as Piranha Plant. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Piranha Plant has been downloaded. Unlocking Piranha Plant in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Its fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in Ultimate.

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  1,303. Piranha Plant

Alternate costumes

Gallery

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  Piranha Plant's unused render of a red plant inside of a warp pipe instead of a plant pot.

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  Piranha Plant's splash art.

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  Piranha Plant's amiibo.

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  Piranha Plant's fighter card.

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  Piranha Plant's unlock notice after downloading it from the Nintendo eShop.

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  Piranha Plant's Unused Third Jump (can be accessed with spirit effects.)

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  Piranha Plant attacking Wario eating a Maxim Tomato on Skyloft.

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  Piranha Plant using Ptooie at Chrom on Halberd.

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  Piranha Plant shooting poison at Toon Link on Mushroom Kingdom.

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  Piranha Plant falling on Midgar.

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  Mario with a Super Leaf floating over Piranha Plant's blue, gray, pink, and green costumes on Super Mario Maker.

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  Piranha Plant taunting near Jigglypuff while it is using Sing in Living Room.

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  Piranha Plant using Piranhacopter in Mushroom Kingdom U.

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  Piranha Plant spitting poison on Hanenbow.

Trivia

The UV error on Piranha Plant's official artwork. Note the textures being squished.

• Piranha Plant is the only DLC fighter in Ultimate:
  • To not have an internal codename, instead being referred to in the game files as its Japanese name "packun". This may be due to it being developed and revealed pre-release, thus avoiding the need to conceal its identity to eventual dataminers.
  • Who is not part of a Fighters Pass.
  • Whose Final Smash:
    • is not cinematic at all.
    • will still play out in full even if no one is caught in the initial hit.
  • To have a fighter showcase video on the official website, likely due to being revealed before release.
  • To have received a unique Palutena's Guidance conversation in the game it was DLC in; other Ultimate downloadable fighters use a generic conversation that was previously used by the Smash 4 DLC characters.
  • Who shares a victory theme with another fighter (Bowser and Bowser Jr.).
    • Most of these distinctions in addition to the theme of its Classic Mode route have led players to speculate that Piranha Plant may have originally been planned to be a part of Ultimate's base roster, but was held back either due to time constraints or to have a bonus character for those who purchased the game early.
• Piranha Plant's official artwork has a UV mapping error near the base of its pot, where the texture appears to squish vertically.
• On the character selection screen, Piranha Plant's icon in the Japanese version shows its name within only one row, while in the English version it is shown with two rows. This trait is shared with Captain Falcon, Mr. Game & Watch, Zero Suit Samus, Pokémon Trainer, Wii Fit Trainer, Rosalina & Luma, the Mii Fighters, and Banjo & Kazooie.
  • Piranha Plant’s image in the character selection screen is lower than the English version of the icon.
• Piranha Plant is one of only two fighters to have a victory pose that features another playable fighter (in this case, Mario). The other is Robin, whose victory pose features Chrom.
• Piranha Plant is the second DLC fighter to be free for a limited time after launch, the first being Mewtwo in Super Smash Bros. 4.
  • Both characters were the first to be released as DLC in their respective games.
• Piranha Plant is the only unique newcomer in Ultimate that does not have an animated reveal trailer.
• The splash art for Piranha Plant was the first one that used a font other than DF Gothic Japanese, which has been used in nearly every other character reveal splash art since Super Smash Bros. 4. The substitute font is named Source Sans Pro.
  • The second splash art that used a different font was Kazuya's, which uses the same font from Tekken 7's battle loading screen.
• Piranha Plant's "eye glint" effect for pre-match splash screens and its HUD icon for Final Smashes is applied differently from other fighters, as it has no eyes; the twinkle effect is applied to one of its teeth instead.
• Datamining Piranha Plant's character data reveals some interesting information:
  • Some of Bowser Jr.'s motion files can be found in Piranha Plant's character data, indicating that some of Piranha Plant's animations are taken from him.
  • Files indicate that Piranha Plant was programmed with three jumps, including animations; however, it was removed before release, with the day one patch streamlining its jumps to two.
• If Piranha Plant gets grabbed by a grab that uses a unique animation on capturing characters (Snake's grab, Ganondorf's Flame Choke, etc.) while using either its forward smash or Poison Breath, it will remain in that form until it gets released.
• Piranha Plant is the only fighter who was not added to the panoramic artwork until after being made available in-game.
  • Although Joker was not added to the banner after he was announced, he was added immediately after the first gameplay footage of him was shown, which was a day before his actual release.
• In Spanish, French, German, and Italian, the name tag and voice clip from the announcer on the victory screen is slightly different from the one used on the character select screen, instead featuring a noticeable translation of "the" (la Planta Piraña, la Fleur Piranha /Plante Piranha , die Piranha-Pflanze, la Pianta Piranha). Piranha Plant shares this trait with Wii Fit Trainer, Pokémon Trainer, Villager, Inkling, the Ice Climbers, the Mii Fighters, Hero, Zombie, and Enderman.
• Piranha Plant's description on the North American amiibo website is based on its trophy description from Brawl.
• In the victory animation featuring Mario, the game's "whoosh" sound effect when receiving knockback can be heard when he flies away.
• Piranha Plant is one of three characters never to appear in any Spirit Battles, the others being Terry and Sephiroth.
• The base of Piranha Plant's pot has a chipped part on the bottom. This trait is shared with its artwork from Mario Party 3.
• In the results screen after a team battle, if the winning team consists of Villager in the front and Piranha Plant behind him to the left, Villager’s net will clip through Piranha Plant’s face.