Ice Climbers (SSBU)/Neutral special

Hitbox visualization showing the Ice Climbers' neutral special, Ice Shot.

Overview

Each of the duo creates a tiny iceberg and knocks it forward, sending it sliding across the stage, shrinking as it melts. Up to two icebergs from each climber can exist at a time. Interestingly, it hits twice as many times if used at point-blank range. It can also freeze opponents, but not within realistic percents. If struck hard enough, the projectile's ownership may change, allowing it to harm the Ice Climbers if collided with. The icebergs have physics that can be affected by walls and slopes, but this seldom comes into play in a competitive setting due to the lack of sloped or walled stages available in high-level play.

Unlike most projectiles, the ice acts more like a container or soccer ball in that the incoming projectile is completely tangible, tanking opposing projectiles even as strong as a Shadow Ball or Charge Beam. This allows the Ice Climbers to counter some projectile spam playstyles more easily. Even if the Ice Shots are sent back at the climbers themselves, that's a lot better than taking a Shadow Ball. Alongside absorbing even the most powerful ammunition, it's great for dealing with utility-based projectiles such as Gordo Throw, Gyro, and Remote Bomb. When desynced, the duo can launch 1 Ice Shot at a time and in rapid succession, making for a very dangerous edgeguard and even a frustrating zoning tool in certain matchups.

While Ice Shot can't start or finish combos on its own, it's capable of locking opponents. The two shots are able to buy the Ice Climbers enough time to hard punish missed techs from a distance, and can cover various options if they tech successfully. Due to the special properties of Ice Climbers specials, using their neutral special can set the duo slightly out of sync, so buffering a different special move afterward can cause them to be used in their singe-climber state, and can set up a proper desync with good timing. The neutral special itself is often buffered after a side special, landing aerial, or turnaround to desync them. The partner can be made to use Ice Shot alone while the leader runs alongside it, making for an approach option that can start combos, cover multiple options, and pursuade opponents to jump. Desynced Ice Shots also have a niche in locking opponents to extend combos, usually those involving footstools.

In edgeguard scenarios, ice shots can disrupt opposing recoveries, throwing off their timing. On top of that, the move's hitstun increases with percentage, so opponents will lose height after getting hit by it, enough to gimp them, sometimes. Due to the two climbers being positioned slightly differently by default, it's possible to launch Ice Shot from such a position that the leader's shot will be knocked off the edge while the partner's lands onstage for a moment before sliding off. This effectively has each iceberg fall off of the stage at different angles, improving the edgeguard's coverage for when the player isn't sure where their opponent is going to recover from. Its threat to offstage opponents can be exasperated with the aforementioned desync. Allowing the shots to string together with enough hitstun to be nearly inescapable. Since those trapped in this deadly setup may instinctively try to recover even when they're too far down already, continuing to spam them with desynced Ice Shots even serves as a means of stalling, preying on persistent players who don't know when they've been beaten. Alternatively, if the duo is in a hurry to take the stock, they can instead have only the partner climber Ice Shot the enemy, while the lead climber runs off the stage to followup with a forward or back aerial. If the lead climber is sent high off the stage, they can use their neutral special to disrupt edgeguard and juggle attempts, and prevent the opponent from chasing down the 2nd Climber.

If used midair, the Ice Climbers' neutral special will send them slightly upwards, but only the 1st time before returning to the ground. While the move's ending lag is too high for this to gain any profitable altitude, it still has some use for air stalling. The sudden jump can catch opponents off guard to ward off anti-airs. Additionally, if the leader is offstage when the two climbers are too far apart for their up special to work, air stalling with Ice Shot delays the user's fall toward the blast zone, giving their partner a little more time to catch up and help them recover. The move is also unique in how it incurs landing lag if a climber using it lands before the animation ends. While this is normally a burdensome attribute, since subsequent midair uses of the move don't delay the user's fall, landing with Ice Shot can be preferable in situations where its landing lag is shorter than its ending lag, just like with many air attacks. This can be used to launch Ice Shots in unusually rapid succession, or provide the move with some extra combo potential.

Without the 2nd shot, Ice Shot's utility and damage racking capabilities are far worse, but it can still work as a disruptive move offstage, and a better than nothing means of chipping away at enemies from a distance.

While far from the best projectile the cast has to offer, Ice Shot's unique properties combined with those of the duo give it great versatility and can be a huge boon in certain matchups.

Hitboxes

The ice chunk decays in damage and size after being active for 50 frames, with both being multiplied by 0.996× in each subsequent frame. More specifically, its damage multiplier is equal to 0.996 ^ (active frames - 50), for a minimum of approximately 0.643468× (2.252139% damage) at its maximum lifetime.

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
Early hit
0	0	0	3.5%	0		Speed-based	5	50	0		3.3	top	0.0	3.4	0.0	0.8×	1.0×	0%							Freeze		No floor	All
Late hit
0	0	0	3.5%	0		Speed-based	5	50	0		3.3	top	0.0	3.4 to 4.0	0.0	0.8×	1.0×	0%							Freeze		No floor	All

Timing

Shot

Early hit	18
Late hit	19-67
Decaying period	68-177
Interruptible	56
Animation length	59

Landing

Interruptible	17
Animation length	21

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Prop event

Interruptible

Differences for Kirby's Copy Ability

• The landing animation is slightly longer (21 frames → 23), increasing the time before Kirby can activate a held Assist Trophy after it.

Parameters

Move

Ice chunk X/Y offsets	[10, 2]
Added vertical speed on aerial startup	1.4
Landing lag	16 frames

Ice chunk

The ice chunk has a hurtbox with 50 HP, and can be launched back at the Ice Climbers if hit by opponents, changing its ownership. The ice chunk's damage and size still decay after it is hit back, and they are not affected by its HP being reduced.

Only two ice chunks per Ice Climber (four total per pair) can be active at a time.

Initial upward speed when shot	2.2
Gravity when shot	0.27
Initial horizontal speed	1.6
Maximum horizontal speed	3.3
Friction	0.004
Gravity when sliding off edge	0.15
Falling speed	8
Period before decaying in damage and size	50 frames
Decaying period	110 frames
Total lifetime	160 frames
Damage and size multiplier per decaying frame	0.996
Tilting speed when traveling across slopes	3°
Minimum vertical speed to bounce off ground	2.6
Vertical speed when bouncing off ground	0.65
Acceleration multiplier on slope	0.5
Acceleration decrease uphill	0.25
Acceleration increase downhill	0.29
Initial rotation speed	8° to 19°
Rotation speed multiplier per decaying frame	0.97
Minimum rotation speed by decay	1°
HP	50
Lifetime reduction when hit back	6 frames
Minimum lifetime when hit back	5 frames
Base horizontal speed when hit back	1.7
Added horizontal speed by knockback when hit back	0.6
Maximum horizontal speed when hit back	3.3
Base vertical speed when hit back	1.2
Added vertical speed by knockback when hit back	0.4

Ice Climbers's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2) · 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