R.O.B. (PM)

R.O.B. in Project M and Project+
File:PPlus Mario Kart DS R.O.B.png File:PPlus Virtual Boy R.O.B.png
Universe	R.O.B.
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	R.O.B. (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Virtual Boy R.O.B. Mario Kart DS R.O.B. Wii R.O.B.

R.O.B. is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. He has been slightly improved upon his appearance in the mod.

R.O.B. ranks 32nd out of 41 on the official tier list, at the bottom of the C tier. This is a significant drop from his placement on the Brawl tier list, where he is 18th out of 38.

Attributes

R.O.B.'s Virtual Boy alternate costume in Version 3.5.

R.O.B.'s Wii alternate costume in Version 3.6.

R.O.B.'s playstyle is characterized by his long juggles into aerial followups, and deep offstage edge-guarding. R.O.B. has more success when focused on low-percentage off stage edge guards than in on stage brawling. R.O.B. has a high durability due to his heavy weight and flexible recovery, which somewhat compensates for his difficulty winning neutral.

R.O.B.'s forward smash and up smash are strong finishers at high percents. R.O.B.'s up smash is useful for juggling fast fallers at low percents and killing light characters off the top blast zone. His forward smash comes out quickly, but has limited range despite its disjoint in front of R.O.B.. R.O.B.'s down smash is one of his fastest moves, and also a primary defensive option for close opponents attempting to pressure R.O.B.. It hits multiple times and pops up opponents for easy aerial followups.

R.O.B.'s up tilt is useful for juggling on characters with low gravity, or at higher percents. R.O.B.'s forward tilt is useful when R.O.B. has to engage with a character geared for hand to hand combat. Its quick speed and surprisingly long range are ideal when opponents are too far away to grab, but too close to set up for a stronger attack. R.O.B.'s down tilt comes out close to the ground and sends opponents at a low angle, making it good at shield stabbing taller characters, and punishing opponents who fail to sweetspot the ledge. R.O.B. can use this move in succession to pressure an opponent in shield. In general it has similar utility to Marth's down tilt.

R.O.B.'s back, down, and neutral aerials make use of his booster, and accordingly are slow but strong. His back aerial is an excellent tool for onstage edgeguarding. Its large hitbox and high power throughout mean that precision is not required to successfully land the move. R.O.B.'s down air powerfully launches foes downwards, but can be difficult to successfully land due to stricter timing and the inherent risk R.O.B takes by being above an opponent. R.O.B.'s neutral air swings his booster around him in a full circle, and launches opponents hit by it upwards for aerial followups. R.0.B.'s up air has him release multiple blasts from his eyes in an arc above his head. This move comes out quickly, and sends opponents out at an angle, which makes it useful for forcing airborne opponents off stage. This move is especially powerful against fastfallers due to the ease R.O.B. has comboing into it, and the arc at which these characters are launched, allowing for edgeguard opportunities and K.O.ing opponents outright in some situations. R.O.B.s forward air is his fastest aerial and has high damage scaling. It is useful at low percents to flinch opponents attempting to recover offstage, and as an approach out of a horizontal Robo-Booster.

R.O.B.'s up special and aerial side special have been combined into the Robo-Booster, allowing R.O.B. a short boost of speed three times in any of three directions. This allows him flexibility in his recovery, but since he does not recover his three boosts until landing on stage, one successful edgeguard can leave him unable to recover in a similar manner to Yoshi. Grounded, his side special is an advancing spin. Though useful as a surprise attack, it is unsafe on shield and punishable if overused. It is useful if R.O.B needs to rush to the ledge to intercept a recovering opponent as the leading edge of the spin hits low to punish opponents who recover on stage or fail to sweetspot. R.O.B.'s down special produces a Gyro which can be launched at opponents and will spin for a while and flinch opponents that touch it if not picked up. Often it is better for R.O.B. to pick up the Gyro as it gives him access to several advanced techniques based around aerial glide tossing which can improve his otherwise somewhat lacking movement. R.O.B.'s neutral special is an angleable bouncing laser fired from his eyes. The laser is not destroyed on contact with a character or object and will continue traveling to it's maximum distance. It charges over time and has three distinct power levels. Uncharged the laser does not travel very far and is of limited use. At the second stage the laser travels quickly and deals little knockback. It is able to flinch opponents attempting to perform an action and can K.O. opponents attempting to recover. Fully charged the laser travels slower, but still fairly quickly, and deals significant knockback to all opponents it hits, killing at higher percents. The fully charged variant can be dangerous to use against foes with reflectors as the slower speed gives them more time to react, and if hit by a reflected laser, R.O.B. can be easily K.O.ed due to the high power of the laser after reflection and his inability to react due to the length of his animation.

R.O.B.'s throws are straightforward, but practical for the rest of his moveset. Up throw and down throw both have chaingrab opportunities on many characters and up throw scales into a kill throw at high percents. Forward throw and back throw have low knockback scaling giving them limited ability to K.O, but allows them to launch opponents off stage for an edge guard even at low percents.

R.O.B does poorly against characters with multiple jumps, or otherwise able to outmaneuver him in the air, furthermore he is susceptible to being edge guarded himself, making these characters very difficult to engage off-stage. Characters with better zoning tools than R.O.B. can force him to approach, making his slow movement an even greater problem. His lack of options out of shield make him somewhat predictable and vulnerable when under shield pressure. R.O.B.'s anti-air capabilities give him favorable match-ups with fast falling characters and characters who approach from above. Due to his high weight he is able to crouch cancel very effectively and successfully defend against characters focused on fast, weak attacks. Most striking is his offstage edge guarding which gives him very strong match-ups against characters with linear or slow recoveries.

Changes from Brawl to PM

In transition from Brawl to PM, his aerial game has been greatly improved; all of his aerial attacks execute much faster and he now has a new recovery. R.O.B.'s no longer has to stay on the ground to recharge his recovery, making his aerial game safer than before. It has been broken into 3 segments. R.O.B.'s side special now funtions as a horizontal recovery segment in the air, while works as a quicker version of Arm Rotor that lunges forward on the ground. R.O.B.'s new up aerial has a wide reach and is also a finisher. R.O.B.'s poor KO ability in Brawl has been well addressed overall. As a whole, R.O.B. has been buffed in PM.

Aesthetics

• Has a helpless animation for his air dodge, in which he falls looking down while flicking his arms slowly, as if he was powered off.

Attributes

• Dashing speed is faster, making him a much faster character, combined with his recovery and Project M physics.
• R.O.B. is slightly lighter. (106 → 104)
• R.O.B.'s fall speed is significantly higher (1.2 → 2.0). This improves his vertical endurance but makes him much more susceptible to combos.

Ground Attacks

• Forward tilt has more knockback.
• Up tilt has increased knockback.
• Down tilt’s IASA frames occur later.
• Dash attack does more damage.
• Forward smash does more damage (14% (close), 13% (mid), 12% (far) → 16/15/13%) and knockback.
• Up smash does more damage (12% (close), 13% (mid), 14% (tip) → 14/15/16%) and has slightly more knockback, and hits grounded foes more leniently as the move now has a new grounded hitbox which deals 4% and leads into the tip of his up smash.
• Down smash deals slightly less damage (13% → 12%) making it a less effective KO move.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial does much more damage (10% → 14%) and more knockback.
• Due to his higher fall speed, R.O.B. can no longer perform two forward aerials in a short hop.
• Back aerial does more damage (11% → 13%) and has more KO potential.
• Up aerial is an eyeblast, similar to his forward smash, that arcs quickly over his head dealing up to 19% acting as a launcher having more utility than his previous up aerial.
• Down aerial no longer haults R.O.B's momentum, making the move more mobile and giving it more flexibility.

Grabs and Throws

• Up throw KO power is increased.
• Down throw has much lower base knockback. This combined with the removal of hitstun cancelling makes it much better for combos.
• Down throw does less damage (10% → 8%).

Special Moves

• Robo Beam's charge time has been shortened.
• Robo Burner and aerial Arm Rotors have been replaced with Robo-Booster. R.O.B. can quickly boost himself sideways or upwards. He can boost three times before he must land, and landing replenishes all his boosts instantly, he can use an aerial attack right out of it which increases his aerial game and approach options. It also leaves him less vulnerable than his old recovery due to having 3 different directions to choose from, and it being faster in general. Grabbing the edge will only give him one boost back if he has run out. R.O.B.'s grounded Arm Rotor is similar to its Brawl incarnation, but moves him forward more quickly, and always aims diagonally downwards instead of having a changeable angle.
• Gyro no longer fades when it hits a shield, and now shoots out with significantly less velocity, greatly enhances its uses for stage control, and also allowing R.O.B. to pick it up quicker.
• Gyro shooting out with significantly less velocity hinders its ability to be used at long range especially when uncharged, and making it much less effective for camping,and the fully charged gyro does less damage and knockback (18% → 15%). R.O.B.'s shorter glide toss also weakens Gyro's approach potential.

Revision

v2.5b

• All of R.O.B's thruster-based attacks now do slightly more shield damage.
• Can now DACUS.
• Forward smash damage and knockback increased, hitboxes match the animation better, and it comes out slightly later.
• Up smash damage increased, hitboxes match the animation better, and it now also has a launcher hitbox (pre-charge).
• Neutral air damage and knockback slightly increased.
• Back air damage and knockback slightly increased.
• Down air endlag decreased.
• Up throw adjusted to allow better follow-ups.
• Grounded Arm Rotor no longer goes half the normal distance when used out of a Run.
• Gets a boost back when grabbed if he has none.
• Gyro shooting endlag reduced.
• Down air no longer has aerial mobility disabled during part of the move.
• Down throw adjusted to not chaingrab fastfallers as harshly, and does slightly less damage.
• Gyro charge cancel no longer goes into air dodge in the air.
• Now gets horizontal momentum from running jumps and on horizontal air jumps.
• Forward tilt's sweetspot hitboxes have priority over the sourspot hitboxes.
• Back air no longer has aerial mobility disabled during part of the move.
• Up air hitlag slightly decreased.
• Grounded Arm Rotor retains its momentum during the startup.
• Grounded Arm Rotor hitboxes start earlier to match the animation.
• Aerial Arm Rotor retains horizontal and vertical momentum during the startup.
• Robo-Booster upward vertical momentum is retained during startup.
• Gets all boosts back when hitting the ground during tumble.

v2.6b

• Dash is now slightly faster and transitions into Run later, increasing dash-dance range.
• Down throw has been slightly increased in knockback growth.
• All three Boosts are returned to R.O.B. if hit out of a techroll or techstand.
• Aerial Arm Rotor resets all momentum during the startup, allowing for it to be used lower to the ground.
• Down air subtracts horizontal momentum and hits slightly earlier.
• Neutral air angles all adjusted to be the same trajectory and has decreased slightly in knockback growth.
• Back air no longer sets vertical momentum and hitbox adjusted to not be out for as long.
• Down aerial does slightly less damage
• Up air is now multihit, damage slightly lowered with knockback compensated.
• Grounded Arm Rotor aesthetics cleaned up and reflects slightly earlier.

v3.0

• Back air vertical momentum canceling returned (reverted to 2.5).
• Down airs after the first give a smaller vertical boost, do 2 less damage, and have slightly smaller hitboxes. Refreshes upon landing on stage.

v3.5

• Up air boosted damage decreased on all hits from +2 to +1.
• Down air initial momentum stall decreased by ~23%
• Robo Beam damage increased from 9 to 13. This will not affect knockback.
• Robo-booster grounded endlag increased by 5 frames.
• Removed the ability to airdodge when you have no Robo-booster charges left.
• Shield size increased by 10%.
• Vertical ledge grab range decreased from 12.5 to 8.0.

v3.6

• As an aesthetic for the Mario Kart DS costume, when R.O.B. uses the Gyro, he will instead shoot Item Boxes similar to those seen in the Mario Kart series.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		3%	R.O.B. does a quick swing with each arm.
		3%
Forward tilt		5% (body), 6% (arm), 8% (arm tip)	Leans forward and does a left hook punch with impressive range. This move can be aimed up or down.
Up tilt		3% (hit 1), 6% (hit 2 body), 5% (hit 2 arms tip)	Throws both arms upwards. Can hit twice, with the first hit having set knockback and the second hit launching enemies upwards. The first hit can lock most fastfallers and heavyweights.
Down tilt		5% (arms), 4% (arms tip)	Quickly pushes both arms forward along the ground. Quick, produces opportunity for multiple hits.
Dash attack		Clean: 7% (arms), 6% (arms tip) Late: 5% (arms), 4% (arms tip)	R.O.B. performs a two-handed downwards swing with both arms.
Forward smash	S3	16% (close), 15% (mid), 13% (far)	R.O.B. shoots a short beam from his eyes. May be considered a projectile, due to the fact that it can't break a Metal Box. Does average knockback. This move can be angled up or down, KOing at 95% fully charged when angled up.
Up smash		4% (startup), 14% (base), 15% (mid), 16% (tip)	R.O.B. plants both his arms on the ground and does a handstand, shooting boosters out of his base upwards. Very high knockback, but is slow and predictable. There are hitboxes at R.O.B.'s arms that drag enemiess into the main hitbox. When sweetspotted and fully charged, it KOs at 100%.
Down smash		2% (hits 1-4), 4% (hit 5)	R.O.B. spins his arms around in a low-angled corkscrewing motion. Low damage and knockback, but decent range and hits multiple times.
Neutral aerial		14% (clean), 12% (late)	R.O.B. pauses for a second, then performs a somersault with his thrusters ablaze. Has good knockback. Despite it's start-up lag, this move can autocancel from a short hop.
Forward aerial		10% (clean), 6% (late)	R.O.B. swings both arms downward in a clobbering strike. It's fast, strong and has good duration, working as an excellent wall-of-pain move.
Back aerial		13%	R.O.B. aims his base backwards and fires his boosters. Pushes R.O.B. forward a little bit, although while he keeps the knockback after getting hit, it does nothing to increase or reduce momentum. The hitbox affects targets both in front of and behind R.O.B., each with decent knockback. This move can be used for recovery in between Robo-Boosters, creating virtually one of the longest horizontal recovery moves in the game along with Pound and gliding.
Up aerial		6% (hits 1-3 beam), 7% (hits 1-3 head)	R.O.B. fires a short beam from his eyes overhead.
Down aerial		11% (base), 9% (mid), 5% (tip)	R.O.B. fires a blast form his boosters downwards. It's powerful, yet slow and can meteor smash. This move boosts R.O.B. a small distance upwards and keeps him stationary in the air for a short time, although he can fast fall with it.
Grab		—
Pummel		3%	Squeezes the opponent with his hands.
Forward throw		10%	Tosses the opponent forward. Very fast.
Back throw		10%	Quickly swings the opponent backwards. Can KO around 165%, if used very close to the ledge.
Up throw		10%	R.O.B. hovers into the air and pile-drives the opponent into the ground. This is R.O.B.´s strongest throw, knockback-wise. Can KO around 150%.
Down throw		8%	R.O.B. drills the opponent's head into the ground.
Floor attack (front)		6%	R.O.B. quickly gets up and spins with both arms extended, hitting both sides of himself.
Floor attack (back)		6%	R.O.B. quickly gets up and hammers both arms extended in each direction.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	R.O.B. lowers his torso, withdraws his left arm and extends his right arm to sweep the floor around.
Edge attack (fast)		7%	R.O.B. climbs onto the stage and does an overhead swing with both arms.
Edge attack (slow)		10%	R.O.B. slowly climbs onto the stage and lunges his left arm forward.
Neutral special	Robo Beam	7% (uncharged), 5% (charged), 13% (fully charged)	R.O.B fires a small pink laser that deals a small amount of damage and stuns an enemy for a second. The shots can be angled up or down and reflect off of walls and floors. It should also be noted that this attack does not stop when it hits an enemy, allowing the player to hit multiple foes. R.O.B. must wait one second for the laser to recharge, or he will shoot a weak, short-range laser. When the laser is charging, the red light on R.O.B.'s head will begin to flash. There are actually two levels of charge and if the beam is left alone for 20 seconds, it will become a Super Robo Beam. Super Robo Beam is much stronger and thicker and has increased range (enough to travel all the way across any stage), though it is significantly slower than a normal Robo Beam.
Side special	Arm Rotor / Robo-Booster	2% (per hit) 0% (air)	Arm Rotor: R.O.B. spins with his arms outstretched, hitting multiple times. This attack can also reflect any incoming projectiles that hit the outstretched arms. The move can be bit difficult to use as a reflector, as there is bit of delay before R.O.B. starts to spin his arms, thus requiring more accurate timing than the other faster reflectors. Robo-Booster: R.O.B boosts himself forward. This move can used up to three consecutive times without touching the ground. Even after using all three three boosts, R.O.B. can still perform a midair jump if one hasn't been consumed. However, he cannot perform an air dodge. Using any aerial attacks during each boost increases their damage.
Up special	Robo-Booster	—	R.O.B boosts himself upwards. This move has three boosts that are automatically replenished when R.O.B touches the ground. Whenever R.O.B. grabs a ledge when out of fuel, he will only regain one boost. Using any aerial attacks during each boost increases their damage.
Down special	Gyro	4-15% (shoot), 2-5% (idle), 8% (thrown), 9% (dash thrown), 3-7% (dropped)	R.O.B. fires a spinning top at the opponent, which acts as a projectile. This move can be charged, which increased the power, speed, and distance the top is thrown. After being launched, the top can be picked up and thrown as a regular item. R.O.B. can only have one top on the stage at a time.
Final Smash	Diffusion Beam	2% (close range) 4% (long range) 15% (hard hit laser)	R.O.B. begins firing a spiral-shaped beam from his eyes. This Final Smash operates similarly to the Superspicy Curry, as R.O.B.'s entire moveset, excluding Robo Beam, is usable in addition to items. Foes caught in the beam will gradually take damage, but the beam itself deals no knockback. However, there is also a powerful laser that appears instead of the spiral-shaped beam at points, which deals strong knockback. As the move's hitbox is directly related to the space in front of R.O.B.'s eyes, the beam can be directed at foes through the use of unorthodox methods, such as taunts. R.O.B. himself is completely invincible while the Diffusion Beam is active.

In competitive play

Notable players

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•  Comb - The best ROB main in the world, ranked #12 on PMRank 2023.
•  DrinkingFood - Placed 7nd at Low Tier City 7. The best player in Louisiana.
•  Jules - Strong EU player. Placed 3rd at Offline Smash.
•  Nogh - Formerly ranked #5 on PMRank 2022 maining multiple characters including ROB.
•  Only Kevin - Ranked 1st on the Idaho Project M Power Rankings. Placed 7th at Nemesis after defeating Bladewise.
•  Sneez - Ranked #32 on PMRank 2023.
•  Timi - Top EU player. Placed 3rd at Lighthouse and 9th at Awakening 5.
•  Ukelele - Strong EU player.

Alternate costumes

Project M

R.O.B. now has alternate costumes based on his appearance in Mario Kart DS, the Virtual Boy, and the Wii.

R.O.B.'s alternate costumes in PM

Project+

In Project+, R.O.B. received three more recolors for his Mario Kart DS costume for use in Team Battles, one of which references the Blue Falcon's appearance in the Mario Kart series. His Wii costume also received additional a full body revamp. The colors represent released console colors, as well as the Devkit Wii console for Green, and all have a Wii Remote embedded into the base.

R.O.B.'s alternate costumes in P+

Secret costumes:

Z-Secret Costume: GameCube R.O.B.

R-Secret Costume: Nintendo 64 R.O.B.

Trivia

• R.O.B.'s console-based alternate costumes contain some Easter eggs:
  • If one looks inside the lenses of the Virtual Boy costume, one can vaguely see a moment from the original Mario's Tennis. Additionally, on the base of the costume, one can see the current phone number of Nintendo of America.
    • The Robo Beam fired from the Virtual Boy costume (as of Project+ version 2.5) has a red-and-black coloration, likely in reference to the very system's infamous limited color palette.
  • R.O.B.'s secret Nintendo 64 costume features a copy of the original Super Smash Bros. inserted.
  • If R.O.B. gets hit while wearing his secret GameCube costume, the cover will open up and reveal a copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee inside.
  • If R.O.B. gets hit while wearing one of his Wii alternate costumes, a different Wii disc will pop out.
    • For his white Wii costume, a Super Smash Bros. Brawl disc will pop out.
    • For his black Wii costume, a Wii Sports Resort disc will pop out.
    • For his red Wii costume, a New Super Mario Bros. Wii disc will pop out.
    • For his green Wii costume, a Super Mario Galaxy 2 disc will pop out.
• Although there are several characters who cannot fall helpless in Brawl, R.O.B. was the only one to not have a helpless state animation present in Brawl's files (the game will freeze if the player accesses R.O.B.'s helpless form). With the reintroduction of Melee's air dodging, R.O.B. now sports a custom made helpless animation in which he slowly waves his arms in a circle to the sides of him as he looks down.

External links

• Labbing Discord Tech Post