Squirtle (SSBU)

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This article is about Squirtle's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For other uses, see Squirtle. Also, for information about Squirtle in regards to Pokémon Trainer, see Pokémon Trainer (SSBU), Ivysaur (SSBU), and Charizard (SSBU).

Squirtle in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Pokémon
Shares character slot with	Pokémon Trainer Charizard Ivysaur
Other playable appearance	in Brawl
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Triple Finish

Squirtle is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. It is part of Pokémon Trainer's rotation along with Ivysaur and Charizard. Along with the Pokémon Trainer, Squirtle is classified as fighter #33.

Michele Knotz and Rikako Aikawa reprise their roles as Squirtle after having previously voiced the character in the Pokémon anime and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Squirtle is considered the strongest party member of the Pokémon Trainer's team due to a combination of its quick mobility overall, fast attacks and excellent aerial game, which made it a potentially viable contender in competitive play. He also holds the strongest up-smash in the game, compared to Lucas, who use to hold the title. Unlike the other party Pokémon, Squirtle's moveset has been reworked into newer, different attacks, with many of its standard attacks being altered.

Squirtle has gained new KO options (such as all of its smash attacks and back throw), and has a stronger combo game due to the removal of hitstun canceling, with its down throw, forward aerial and back aerial gaining more combo potential. Squirtle's specials are now stronger for repositioning, as Withdraw moves faster and has more priority, and Water Gun's push force and range has been substantially increased. As a result, it now plays quite differently from Brawl, as its combo initiators and KO options have been altered.

However, Squirtle has received significant nerfs. While Squirtle's grounded movement is technically much faster, Squirtle has lost its multiple unique advanced techniques, most notably shellshifting (due to the change to its dash animation), hindering its grounded movement. Squirtle's aerial mobility has also been toned down (especially when relative to the cast) as unlike most returning veterans, Squirtle's air speed has been decreased (going from being one of the highest in Brawl, to being merely average in Ultimate), which is further hindered by its decreased air acceleration. Squirtle's overall damage output is lower, making it even more dependent on combos and its speedy attacks than before, and while Squirtle has gained a few new KO options,they remain hard to land overall, and Squirtle also lost two of its most potent KO moves as well in forward aerial and down throw, in exchange for more combo ability. Squirtle also has less juggling potential mainly due to its up aerial sending opponents at a less favourable angle, as well as being weaker and having more ending lag. Lastly, the removal of type effectiveness hinders Squirtle's more than the rest of its party as its survivability during certain matchups is much worse, as it previously had a disproportionate resistance to flame attacks compared to the rest of its party's respective weaknesses.

Overall, Squirtle has been retooled to fit more in line with the speedy, combo-centric playstyle it used to represent in the Pokémon Trainer's team. As of now, it remains to be seen how Squirtle will perform without its advanced techniques, and how it fares compared to the cast.

Aesthetics

• Squirtle's design and proportions have changed. It has slightly larger eyes, which are a darker shade of magenta and its nostrils and eyelids are less pronounced. It has a rounder head, stubbier arms and legs, and its shell has a sleeker, shinier design. It is more vibrantly colored overall, with its skin being a lighter shade of blue and the top of its shell being a lighter shade of brown with the bottom being a lighter shade of yellow. Due to these changes, it now matches its appearances in the more recent Pokémon titles.
• Much like other characters, Squirtle always faces the screen regardless of which direction it is facing, making its stance mirrored.
• Squirtle has a more upright stance.
• Squirtle is much more expressive, with its eyes changing size in certain animations.
• Squirtle is now proportioned correctly to the Pokémon Trainer in its victory poses.
• Squirtle's side taunt has a different ending animation. It now teeters clumsily after spinning on its tail.
• Squirtle has a new dash animation, now involving it surfing on a small wave of water.
  • Due to Squirtle's new dash and turnaround animations, Squirtle can no longer shellshift, removing many of its advanced techniques.
  • Squirtle no longer retreats into its shell outside of Withdraw, so cannot make use of armor frames.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Squirtle's jumpsquat animation now takes three frames to complete (down from 4).
• Squirtle walks faster (1.2 → 1.281).
• Squirtle dashes significantly faster (1.37 → 1.76).
• Squirtle's falling speed is slightly higher (1.3 → 1.35).
• Squirtle's gravity is higher (0.1067 → 0.128).
• Squirtle's air speed is slower (1.081 → 1.01), especially when relative to the cast. It has went from the 7th highest out of 39 characters to the 52nd highest out of 77 characters.
• Squirtle's air acceleration is lower (0.12 → 0.105).
• The Stamina mechanic has been removed, eliminating the necessity of switching out Pokémon to restore their power.
• Type effectiveness has been removed. This affects Squirtle the most adversely out of the Pokémon Trainer's party, as it previously had a disproportionate resistance to the common flame attacks of the cast.
• Squirtle's aerial grab release animation sends Squirtle much further out. When combined with the changes to aerial grab releases and the removal of chain grabing, this makes Squirtle significantly less vulnerable to aerial grab releases as it no longer suffers from being a victim to many inescapable grab release follow ups (including an infinite chain grab from Zero Suit Samus).
• Spotdodge has less ending lag (frame 26 → 24).
• Spotdodge has more startup lag and a shorter duration (frames 2-20 → 3-16).
• Forward roll has less ending lag (frame 30 → 28).
• Rolls have a shorter duration (frames 4-19 (both) → 4-15 (back), 4-14 (forward) and back roll has more ending lag (frame 30 → 33).
• Air dodge has less startup lag (frame 4 → 2).
• Neutral air dodge has a shorter duration (frames 4-29 → 2-26) and has more ending lag (frame 40 → 53).

Ground attacks

• All of Squirtle's grounded attacks now have higher base knockback.
• Neutral attack:
  • Squirtle's full neutral attack has a different animation, now consisting of a punch, a jumping kick, and a roundhouse tail whip.
  • The second and third hits of neutral attack have less startup lag (frame 5 → 4 (hit 2), frame 6 → 5 (hit 3)) and all three hits have a longer duration (1 frame → 2). The third hit also has less ending lag (frame 36 → 31).
  • The first hit of neutral attack has more startup lag (frame 1 → 2) and the first two hits deal less damage (3% → 2% (hit 1), 2% → 1.5% (hit 2)). The second hit also has more ending lag (frame 21 → 24).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has more startup lag and a shorter duration (frames 4-7 → 5-6). It also deals less damage (6% → 5%).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has more ending lag (frame 18 → 20).
• Down tilt:
  • Squirtle has a new down tilt, a ground-level leg sweep with a water effect. While it only hits once, it has further reach and less ending lag (frame 36 → 29). It also sends opponents horizontally and has more knockback, improving its KO and edgeguarding potential.
  • Down tilt has more startup lag (frame 6 → 8) and deals less damage (13% → 9%).
• Dash attack:
  • Squirtle has a new dash attack: it lunges out with a kick with both feet similar to Bowser's forward smash which produces a corkscrew of water.
  • Dash attack has less ending lag (frame 41 → 35).
  • Dash attack has more startup lag and a shorter duration (frames 6-22 → 8-17). The clean hit also deals less damage (9% → 8%).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has been altered. Squirtle now quickly lashes a torrent of water in front of itself, instead of doing a tackle in its shell.
  • New forward smash has less ending lag (frame 58 → 50) and deals more damage (14% → 15%) improving its KO potential.
  • New forward smash has more startup lag (frame 18 → 20) and no longer has armor.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash reaches much higher, along with being slightly stronger.
  • The removal of DACUS (and more significantly pump sliding) greatly hinders up smash's approach potential. The strong hit also has more startup lag (frame 20 → 21).
  • Squirtle no longer leaps up and pounds the ground to generate the torrents of water; instead, it points upwards as the torrents burst upward.
• Down smash:
  • Squirtle has a new down smash: it spits out water around it low to the ground.
  • New down smash deals more damage (11% → 13%), no longer has sourspots and has less ending lag (frame 52 → 40).
  • Down smash has more startup lag and a shorter duration (frames 17-30 → 18-19 (hit 1), 24-25 (hit 2)) and decreased knockback (0 (base), 102 (scaling) → 50/74).

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Squirtle has a new neutral aerial: a midair cartwheel.
  • New neutral aerial deals more damage (9% (clean), 6% (late) → 10%/7%) and has less ending (frame 46 → 42) and landing lag (12 frames → 8).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less ending (frame 37 → 36) and landing lag (12 frames → 6).
  • Forward aerial's sweetspot deals much less damage (12% → 7%) hindering its KO potential.
  • Forward aerial's kick now produces a corkscrew of water.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial is now a multi-hit move, and has Squirtle spin in a horizontal corkscrew while stretching out its tail, similar to Pikachu's back aerial.
  • Back aerial deals more damage (10% → 11%).
  • Back aerial's multihit properties improves its combo potential.
  • Back aerial has more ending (frame 34 → 36) and landing lag (9 frames → 18). It also has slightly less KO potential.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less startup lag and a longer duration (frames 6-8 → 5-9). It also has much less landing lag (21 frames → 6).
  • Up aerial deals less damage (10% → 7%) hindering its KO potential and has more ending lag (frame 24 → 30). It also has an altered hitbox, making it harder to land on grounded opponents, and it sends opponents at a different angle, hindering its juggling potential.
• Down aerial:
  • The final hit of down aerial has less startup lag (frame 23 → 22). Down aerial also has less ending lag (frame 50 → 45), landing lag (19 frames → 16), can auto-cancel with a short hop and the multi-hits deal more damage (1% → 1.5%).
  • The final hit of down aerial deals much less knockback, hindering its KO potential.

Throws/other attacks

• All of Squirtle's grabs have shorter durations (3 frames → 2) and standing grab has more ending lag (frame 30 → 35).
• Pummel is much faster (17 frames → 5).
• Forward throw deals less damage (9% → 8%).
• Squirtle has a new back throw where it lifts the opponent over its head and throws them behind it, similar to Dr. Mario's new back throw.
• Back throw has more KO potential.
• Back throw deals less damage (10% → 8%).
• The changes to hitstun canceling grants up throw combo potential at lower percents.
• Up throw deals less damage (11% → 7%) hindering its KO potential.
• Down throw deals less knockback. This grants it combo potential but removes its KO potential, as it was previously the second strongest down throw in the game (after Lucas).

Special Moves

• Water Gun:
  • Water Gun charges much faster, covers significantly more distance, and has a much stronger pushing ability, able to reach the entirety of Battlefield when fully charged and having enough pushing force to KO off-stage opponents by pushing them into the blast zone. It also has less ending lag (frame 70 → 64).
  • Uncharged Water Gun no longer generates a damaging close-range hitbox, and acts like other charge levels.
• Withdraw:
  • Withdraw is much faster and has high priority.
  • Withdraw now stops on impact, preventing it from racking up further damage. It also has more startup lag (frame 19 → 23) and cannot be cancelled as early (frame 60 → 75).
• Waterfall:
  • Waterfall has less startup lag (frame 10 → 9).
  • Waterfall only hits 8 times instead of 10.
  • Waterfall deals less damage (15% → 12.8%).
  • Waterfall has softer, more realistic water sound effects.
• Pokémon Change:
  • Pokémon Change is much faster due to no longer having to load the next Pokémon during every switch, and it can now be used in the air. Like in Brawl, it also offers brief invincibility upon switching out, though the quicker switch time allows it to potentially combo into another Pokémon's moves, or function somewhat as an alternative "air dodge". It also allows the user to choose the recovery that suits a situation best and it refreshes ledge invincibility giving Pokémon Trainer a unique stall option.
  • Spamming Pokémon Change will grant no invincibility frames for a period of time, and now has a cooldown of around 2 seconds (which can be skipped by using a special move).
• Triple Finish:
  • Triple Finish has a different text box and animations, making it identical to how they appear in the Generation VII games.

Role in World of Light

Pokémon Trainer was among the fighters that were summoned to fight against the army of Master Hands, and he brought his three Pokémon with him.

Squirtle was sent out by Pokémon Trainer, along with Ivysaur and Charizard, shortly before Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Under Pokémon Trainer's command, Squirtle used Water Gun in an attempt to fight the beams of light, but this attempt failed. Pokémon Trainer, Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard were all vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the other fighters, excluding Kirby.

Pokémon Trainer can be found at the southeast near the maze that resembles Pac-Maze. Defeating him allows access to all of their Pokémon.

Gallery

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  Artwork of all playable Pokémon characters and Poké Ball Pokémon, as posted by the official Pokémon Twitter account.

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  Squirtle in Pokémon Trainer's fighter card.

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  Squirtle taunting on Battlefield.

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  With Ivysaur, Charizard, and a Burrowing Snagret on The Great Cave Offensive.

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  With Ivysaur and Charizard on Skyworld.

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  Attacking Inkling with Water Gun on Pokémon Stadium 2.

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  Squirtle getting splashed by Isabelle on Delfino Plaza.

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  Struck by Lucario on the Bridge of Eldin.

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  With Ivysaur and a giant golden Pikachu on Pokémon Stadium 2.