Palutena (SSB4)

Palutena in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Kid Icarus
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Black Hole Laser
Tier	F (40)

“	Palutena Alights!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Palutena (パルテナ, Palutena) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. She was confirmed alongside the Mii Fighters and Pac-Man during E3 2014 on June 10th, 2014. She is voiced in Japanese by Aya Hisakawa, who reprises her role from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and in English by Brandy Kopp, who replaced Ali Hillis due to availability conflicts.

Palutena is currently ranked 42th out of 58 on the tier list, placing her in the E tier and making her the second highest ranking low-tier character. Palutena has good mobility overall, which is especially evident on the ground due to her fast walking and dashing speeds and high traction. She possesses a useful set of aerial attacks, with her back aerial being in particular very useful due to its invincibility, her forward aerial being an impressive combo tool, neutral aerial being a great pressure option and up aerial being infamous for garnering early KOs with rage. Her moveset also grants her a good combo game thanks to her jab cancel, aerials and down throw, the latter of which is further supplemented by her impressive grab range and excellent pummel. Lastly, most of her grounded moves possess respectable power, most notably her smash attacks.

However, Palutena's weaknesses are quite glaring: she has very sluggish frame data in relation to her power, especially on her grounded moves, which gives her a predictable neutral game and an almost nonexistent approach on the ground. Her KOing ability is also unimpressive despite her smash attacks' high power, since her KOing options are difficult to land, due to their slow startup and ending lag, or hard-to-land hitboxes. Her special moves also have poor synergy with her moveset and, in some cases, low utility overall, with her Counter being a great example. Her tall size, below average weight, and high gravity also make her susceptible to combos, juggles and KOs. She does gain significant benefits from custom special moves that remedy her approaching issues and bolster her mobility, damage racking ability, and combo game, but since most tournaments disallow customs, she cannot make use of those advantages to improve her playstyle in the current metagame.

As a result of these factors, Palutena's representation and results in non-local tournaments are rather poor. Despite this, she still has some dedicated players to her credit, such as TLTC, Iceninja, and Prince Ramen, with the latter of the three scoring a major upset at CEO 2016 by defeating ZeRo 2-0 in pools. Additionally, her tournament results and representation have slowly improved since then.

Attributes

Palutena's attributes are a unique blend of archetypes: she is tall like Mewtwo, Zelda and Rosalina, yet is among the lighter middleweights and boasts fast walking and dashing speeds, the seventh highest traction, high jumps and her air acceleration is tied with Rosalina's, Peach's and Mega Man's for the fastest in the game. On the other hand, she has below average falling speed, slow air speed and high gravity. These characteristics give Palutena quick grounded movement, make her good at ground-to-air transitions, and allow her to quickly change direction in midair. However, they also make her unreliable at air-to-ground transitions, which leaves her susceptible to juggling. While Palutena is tied with Duck Hunt as the second lightest middleweight and she is not necessarily a floaty character, her high gravity also makes her susceptible to vertical knockback and combos.

Palutena's air game is impressive, thanks to her aerial moves' utility, fast start-up and, in most cases, low landing lag (excluding her neutral and up aerials). Her neutral aerial is a useful damage racking move, which can also be used to pressure the opponent on a platform or from out of an air dodge since it has a fairly long duration. It also is great for edgeguarding, as its duration and large hitbox allow for easy stage spikes when used off-stage. Her forward aerial has the longest horizontal range of her aerial moves and the least amount of landing lag, as well as completely autocancelling when SHFF'd. This makes it a good spacing move and a set-up at low to low-mid percentages, since it is able to lead into other moves like a neutral attack, a grab, her tilt attacks or other aerial. In comparison, her back aerial has invincibility frames during start-up and as long as its hitbox is out. While it is able to KO at high percentages, its damage output and knockback are noticeably lower than that of other back aerials, which makes it better suited for edgeguarding. Her up aerial has very strong vertical knockback with good range above her. Despite having minimal horizontal range, fairly high landing lag, and being interruptible before it can even autocancel, it is both one of her most viable KOing options and a viable juggling option. However, some of her aerial moves have rather high ending lag in proportion to their power, duration and range, meaning they must be spaced accordingly. Her down aerial, in particular, is unarguably her worst aerial; despite its lack of sourspots making it an easy-to-use meteor smash, it lasts for only 1 frame, has low range, and the highest ending lag of any aerial in the entire game, rendering her unable to perform any other action while still being unable to autocancel from even from a full hop.

Another advantage Palutena has is her very useful grab game. She has the fourth longest, non-tether grab range in the game, while her pivot grab has impressive range as well. Her pummel has average speed, but an excellent damage output, both of which make it one of the best pummels in the game. Her back throw is her strongest throw and is a great way to launch the opponent off-stage to set up an edgeguard, but its KO potential is hindered by it having the lowest base knockback out of her throws and being easily DI'd due to it launching at the Sakurai angle. As a result, her up throw is generally a better option to KO the opponent due to its higher base knockback. Said up throw also works to pressure the opponent onto landing. Her forward throw has high base knockback, deals good damage, and is generally better than her back throw at setting up an edgeguard. Additionally, Autoreticle can be used after it to help putting the opponent on an unfavorable position and capitalize on their mistake. Her most versatile throw, however, is her down throw: its overall knockback grants it impressive combo potential into her aerials except for her down aerial and possibly an up smash if she reads the opponent's reaction, though it stops doing so at high levels of rage. It can even combo into a reverse aerial rush back aerial or an up aerial at KO percentages, depending on their DI, which grants her guaranteed KO set-ups on the majority of the cast (though it is worth mentioning that said KO set-ups sometimes only work for some characters during their tumbling or reeling animation, depending on the character).

Palutena's grounded moveset also has some interesting options. Her neutral attack comes out slowly (on frame 8) and its finisher has noticeable ending lag, yet it is a very reliable damage racking option and has excellent jab cancel potential due to its very quick interruptibility. Despite its somewhat slow start-up, her down tilt is has very low ending lag, making it a good spacing option at long range and allowing it to punish sidesteps rather easily. It is also decently strong and can KO at high percentages. Her dash attack, while being very unsafe on shield, has extremely fast start-up, invincibility frames like her back aerial, and KO power. Her up smash has excellent vertical range and high power (being among the strongest when sweetspotted), making it suited for vertical KOs, although its high ending lag can make it risky to use.

Despite these advantages, Palutena's weaknesses still counterbalance them. Most notably, her biggest weakness is her extremely poor frame data in relation to her power, which is overall the worst in the entire game. Despite not being a super heavyweight like King Dedede or Ganondorf, Palutena's offensive moveset is overall slow and carries a below average damage output overall, which are major issues that set her apart from other middleweights. Her most prominent example is her grounded moveset, which is unfitting for a character with great grounded mobility. Aside from her neutral attack and down tilt, her other grounded moves have disproportionately high ending lag: her dash attack, forward tilt and up tilt have more than 25 frames of ending lag, all of her smash attacks have more than 40 frames of ending lag, and her special moveset is overall fairly sluggish in regard to both start-up and ending lag. This makes her missed attacks very susceptible to punishment, even if the opponent is a fair distance away from her, which in turn gives her an almost nonexistent grounded approach. This renders the player's accuracy crucial when landing her grounded moves, and can often make Palutena solely rely instead on her safest grounded moves and her quicker aerial moves.

Palutena's abysmal frame data also extends outside of her attacks: despite her item throws being fast, most of them have very high ending lag, which limits most follow-ups she might have if she is able to steal an item from an opponent. While she possesses a safe edge grab, all of her other options are very unsafe, with her edge attack being slow and short-ranged, her edge roll having little intangibility frames and her normal get-up and edge jump being the slowest in the game. As a result, she faces edge recovery problems, a weakness unique to her, as her aerial attacks are unsafe on hit should she drop from an edge and then jump while attacking. The only remotely safe option she has is using Warp and aiming for the middle of the stage, though its lack of invulnerability can render her prone to being punished afterward. Because of this makes her easy to predict when trying to recover back onto the stage and punish her to make sure she does not reset the neutral game, despite her bigger number of edge options compared to other characters.

On top of this, Palutena's default special moveset is also infamously unversatile, due to the poor synergy it has with her non-special moveset, the limited utility on some of her moves and her aforementioned frame data issues. Autoreticle can outright stop or force an approach (and being much harder to predict when b-reversed), has homing capabilities and its damage output makes it reliable for locking. These traits make it useful in the long-ranged neutral game, depending on how mobile or tall the opponent is. Even so, the projectiles move only toward the fixed reticle, and have rather slow start-up. Reflect Barrier has an unblockable hitbox, a small push effect, a long duration and can be used as soon as it breaks. However, it is still the weakest reflector of its kind, it neither covers her entirely or accompanies her in midair, and has slow start-up. Warp is considered to be her best default special move due to its utility: it is a quick teleport that allows for a rather safe recovery and swift re-positioning, is easily edge cancelled (which can make her movement unpredictable on stages with platforms, especially when shortened) and improves her neutral game. However, it has no hitboxes or invincibility, which can leave her open to attacks before and just after she teleports. Lastly, her Counter has a high damage multiplier, but is the weakest counterattack in the game, one of the very few to have a sourspot, and is burdened with considerable startup and ending lag as well as a very short countering window.

Due to her grounded moves' ending lag issues, Palutena also suffers from noticeable KOing problems; her smash attacks, up tilt, and back and up aerials have high knockback, but they are either difficult to land, risky to use, or lack power overall. Some of these facts also give her a poor out of shield game despite her excellent traction, and leave her with only a few reliable options outside of her grab. Finally, as a result of the above facts, and the fact she has high gravity, Palutena is often susceptible to heavy pressure: due to her frailty on her own right and her trobule at taking a stock, it isn't uncommon for an opponent to live their respective stock with a high level of rage enough to KO her before she does, and she can sometimes have difficulty at resetting the neutral game against some characters. Her reliance on shielding at close range can often leave her shield small and vulnerable to a very damaging attack, so it isn't uncommon for her to get her shield broken if overused. While she is already easy to hit due to her tall frame, her attributes also make her vulnerable to KOs from an attack with mainly vertical knockback, as well as most meteor smashes, susceptible to juggling due to her unsafe landing options and her below average falling speed, and prone to being comboed due to her lack of anti-pressuring options.

All of these aspects make Palutena a frail, yet defensive character with a surprisingly high cerebral curve, as without punishing, her approach options are lacking, more so than most other characters. While her punishment game is quite strong, her basic and slow moveset coupled with a lack of reliable approach options means she will mostly have to rely on a very aversive playstyle, by spacing her attacks and baiting the opponent, as well as shielding attacks at close range and turtling for a good portion of the match if the opponent is faster than her until a proper opening can be found, as long as she is not left wide open as well. Because of this, she requires a high amount of patience and precision in order to deal with the fast-paced metagame. While Palutena is not exactly one of the most susceptible characters to pressure when mastered, she does require to keep the opponent away in the neutral game until she finds the proper opening. If she is able to find the opportunity, though, she can then strike back and quickly rack up as much damage as possible with her most reliable moves and thus make it difficult for the opponent to pass through her defense. Thus, she is most rewarding for players with good fundamentals, who can use most of her tools to her fullest while carefully weaving in and out to avoid substantial punishment.

As the Goddess of Light, Palutena fights using Powers she grants Pit and fighters in the multiplayer mode of Kid Icarus: Uprising. As such, her custom moves are rivaled only by the Mii Fighters' in regard to variety and versatility. As a result, because of her default special moveset's lack of versatility, she finds herself benefiting from custom moves more than any other character. Super Speed is considered to have immense utility, as it allows Palutena to move faster than even Sonic's uncharged Spin Charge and it can either be jump cancelled into any aerial move and an up smash or perform a ramming attack. The ramming attack can also chain into the aforementioned attacks, but only as long as it is not telegraphed or interrupted with a disjointed hitbox. As a trade-off, it has approximately three seconds of cooldown. Lightweight amplifies her movement speed and jump force for approximately twelve seconds and a half, to the point where she dashes faster than Captain Falcon and jumps higher than Falco. This drasticaslly improves Palutena's mobility, making her off-stage presence and already good combo game become some of the best in the game (the latter of which includes a guaranteed combo into her up or down aerials that both KO reliably after 80%), while her recovery becomes quicker and safer. As a trade-off, it doubles the damage (but not knockback) taken, and after it expires, Palutena moves at half of her regular speed for approximately five seconds, while her damage vulnerability and jump force returning to their original values. Regardless of their weaknesses, these two moves give her various mix-ups, mindgames, combos and edgeguards her default moveset otherwise does not have.

Palutena's other custom moves also have noticeable advantages, but some of them are held back by their easily exploitable weaknesses. Explosive Flame is a pinpoint explosion that is just as slow as Autoreticle, though its limited range makes it even more difficult to land than Autoreticle, as well as being easily punishable if the opponent is in the middle of her and the explosion. Heavenly Light has no use outside of being an invaluable healing move for Ness, Lucas and Mii Gunner in doubles play, as it will never land on any opponent that is not stunned in singles play. This makes her neutral special attacks inferior by Autoreticle on most situations. Angelic Missile is a good recovery move and a potent edgeguarding option, thanks to its high base knockback, but it has slow start-up lag, surprisingly low knockback scaling and a linear path, making it easy to intercept. Jump Glide grants extreme horizontal distance, allows for safe approaches with her aerial moveset and can help her extend combos out of Super Speed or Lightweight, but it has the same fatal flaw as Pit's Wings of Icarus in Brawl: if for any reason she flinches during the move, she cannot use it again if she does not touch solid ground, which may lead to an inevitable KO. Rocket Jump, other than having a meteor smash hitbox below her midair and a strong hitbox that notably improves her out of shield game, is inferior to both Warp and Jump Glide in every other way. Lastly, Celestial Firework has intangibility during start-up and is an excellent anti-air move in general, easily hitting aerial targets and potentially hitting grounded targets stuck on heavy lag, though it is hard to hit with otherwise. In addition, very few none of her custom special improve her KOing issues, except Super Speed and Lightweight, both of which speed her movement up and give her reliable and guaranteed set-ups, and Celestial Firework, which deals surprisingly impressive knockback.

Even as of update 1.1.6, Palutena's weaknesses outweigh her strengths when custom moves are not in effect. This at first resulted in her being one of the poorest regarded characters in the game in the Western scene, despite her highest tournament representation being there. However, her overall viability has become more apparent as of CEO 2016, with the most notable instance being Prince Ramen scoring an upset by defeating ZeRo, at the time the undisputed best SSB4 player in the world. In addition, her results have slowly improved as well, with TLTC placing rather high within his region and having placed 33rd at both EVO 2016 and Super Smash Con 2016; it is also important to note the latter tournament had another Palutena player place 33rd. Regardless of her flashes of success, Palutena has low tournament representation due to her high learning curve, aversive playstyle and basic moveset without her custom moves, her playstyle being a case of "high-risk, medium-reward", and her unpopularity compared to other characters, with only a handful of dedicated mains such as Iceninja, Prince Ramen and TLTC. Custom moves amplify her strengths and somewhat alleviate her weaknesses, allowing her to be viewed more favorably. However, it is currently unknown if she will ever have the option to use them in the tournament scene, due to the current universal ban of character customization established at EVO 2015, despite her custom moves being readily available instead of having to be unlocked.

Update history

Palutena has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in game updates, though it is unclear whether she has been overall buffed or nerfed. The changes to game mechanics have worsened her defensive game, though she was also overall buffed directly, as most of her moves were changed, each in a different way, with the majority of them noticeably improving her previously mediocre offensive game.

Update 1.0.4 made her up and down tilts faster, most notably the latter, to the point it is now one of her safest grounded attacks. However, it also fixed a useful bug on her Counter, removing any mindgames the move could have, and her pivot grab's infamous range was shortened. Update 1.0.6 removed another beneficial glitch on Super Speed, where the momentum would be maintained after jump cancelled attacks. Update 1.0.8 further improved her up tilt by increasing its damage output and improving its hitboxes' placements. Update 1.1.0 brought a mix of buffs and nerfs, though the buffs were more plentiful, increasing the hitbox sizes of her down tilt and neutral aerial, increasing the damage output of her forward aerial and decreasing her grabs' ending lag. On the other hand, forward tilt's knockback properties on its hitboxes were reversed, and the hitboxes' sizes were increased to make its hits connect together better, though it removed its rehit rate, which eliminated its risky, yet useful shield pressuring properties, since it previously let the move hit an opponent up to three times, and thus overriding the move's buffs by making it significantly less safe on shield.

However, update 1.1.1 brought an indirect, yet immense nerf, as the changes to shield mechanics have hindered her more than any other character: the increase in shieldstun and the fact hitlag now applies to shields have worsened Palutena's already poor out of shield game even further, subsequently neutralizing the crux of her defense, and giving her a harder time against characters with moves that possess high hitlag, such as Ryu. While these changes also make spacing her aerial moves more of an option for her, it is also important to note that due to the disproportionate amount of ending lag compared to her damage output, she remains one of the the easiest characters to punish out of shield as the ending lag still leaves her vulnerable, thus also neutralizing any benefit she could get from these changes. The same update also buffed Explosive Flame's damage output and hitbox sizes, but made it even less useful overall by now making it blockable. Another glitch was also removed where she could instantly renew Lightweight on platforms.

An unknown parameter was altered in update 1.1.4, though it is currently unknown how it affects her. Lastly, update 1.1.5 brought some other useful buffs by making her neutral attack and her neutral and forward aerials more damaging, with the latter's knockback compensated, slightly improving her combo game. Ultimately, Palutena's abundant buffs are arguably counterbalanced by the few nerfs she also received, which results in her position relative to the cast questionable, mostly due to other characters also receiving very useful buffs, such as Samus, Charizard, Lucina and especially Mewtwo.

1.0.4

• Forward, back and up item tosses' ending lag decreased: frame 30 → 28 (grounded)/24 (aerial).
• Up tilt's ending lag decreased: frame 75 → 68.
• Down tilt's ending lag decreased: frame 45 → 42.
• Up smash's hitboxes last longer: frame 18-22 → 18-26
• Pivot grab's range was slightly decreased (Z2 offset: 19.4 → 17.4).
• Fixed a glitch where using Counter at certain parts of a walk or run animation would propel Palutena forward a short distance.

1.0.5

• Up aerial has improved visual effects.

1.0.6

• Due to concerns raised by CERO, Palutena's underwear were replaced with shorts, and her skirt was darkened and lengthened in the Japanese version in order to be less revealing. In international releases of the game, only her underwear is replaced with shorts.
• Fixed a glitch where Super Speed's momentum could be maintained after jump cancelled attacks.

1.0.8

• Up tilt's loop hits deal 0.2% more damage: 1% → 1.2%.
• Up tilt's hitbox placements adjusted: bone 1000 → 0. This means its hitboxes are now centered around Palutena rather than her staff, which make its hits connect together better.

1.1.0

• Forward tilt's hitbox sizes increased: 3.8u/2.5u → 4.1u/2.8u and its hitboxes have reversed properties. Frames 17-24 had their angles altered: 361° → 48° and knockback scaling decreased: 100 → 65, while frames 25-39 had their angle altered: 48° → 361° and knockback scaling increased: 65 → 100. Altogether, these changes make its hits connect together better at low percentages.
• Down tilt's hitbox sizes increased: 2.4u/1.9u → 2.7u/2.1u.
• Forward tilt no longer has a rehit rate: 10 → 0. This means it can no longer hit a target up to three times.
• Down tilt's ending lag decreased.
• Neutral aerial's hitbox sizes increased: 3u → 3.4u.
• Forward aerial deals 1% more damage: 7% → 8%.
• All grabs' ending lag decreased: 34 frames (standing)/42 frames (dash/pivot) → 32/40.

1.1.1

• Explosive Flame deals 0.2% more damage: 0.6% (initial)/4% (last) → 0.8%
• Explosive Flame's hitbox sizes increased: 3.7u (loop)/4.8u (last) → 14u/15.5u.
• Explosive Flame's last hit is no longer unblockable.
• Fixed a glitch where Palutena could infinitely renew Lightweight on platforms.

1.1.4

• Unknown parameter decreased: 36 → 16.

1.1.5

• Neutral infinite finisher deals more damage: 3% → 3.5%.
• Neutral aerial deals more damage (1.5% → 1.7% (loop), 4% → 5% (last)).
• Forward aerial deals more damage: 8% → 9% with its knockback compensated.

Moveset

• Palutena's special moves are based on their respective Powers of the same name from Kid Icarus: Uprising.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Thrusts her staff forward to emit a blast of light from its orb that hits multiple times, followed by an upward swipe. Long range and useful for spacing, making it Palutena's best ground attack. It is easily jab cancelled, and can combo into itself, grabs and, at very high percentages, a neutral aerial, back aerial or an up smash. The neutral infinite's finisher deals decent knockback, but has high ending lag. It is also tied with Wario's for the fourth slowest neutral attack in the game, being surpassed only by Bayonetta's, King Dedede's and Zelda's, with its first hit being active on frame 8.
			1% (loop), 3.5% (last)
Forward tilt			6% (staff head), 4% (staff tail)	Twirls her staff in front of herself, hitting up to three times. Long duration, good range and can be used to punish sidesteps and rolls or pressure shields. It is unclankable, meaning it will not suffer ending lag if it collides with an attack without transcendent priority. However, it leaves her very vulnerable to other attacks due to its very slow start-up, long duration, high ending lag and lack of reliable protection.
Up tilt			1.2% (loop), 2.5% (last staff head), 1.5% (last staff tail), 8.7%/9.7% (all hits connect)	Kneels and twirls her staff overhead, hitting up to seven times. Despite having a relatively low hitbox, it has decent vertical range. It has the fastest start-up of her tilt attacks and good KO potential at very high percentages. It also makes Palutena's hurtbox very low, even lower than her crouch. However, it has a rather long duration and fails to hit small opponents, such as Kirby. This move is unclankable.
Down tilt			8.5% (grounded opponents, staff's head or tail on aerial opponents), 5% (staff's handle, aerial opponents only)	Twirls her staff along the ground in front of herself. It is her fastest tilt (though it still has relatively slow start-up), as well as her tilt attack with the lowest duration and the least ending lag. It can be used for edgeguarding and spacing, or to punish sidesteps and rolls, though it is more situational than her neutral attack in terms of general spacing due to its slower start-up. This move is unclankable.
Dash attack			9% (clean), 5% (late)	Rams into the opponent with her shield. The attack grants her 12 invincibility frames on her frontal part of her body. It is easy to hit the opponent with the attack due to it granting Palutena a small boost forward. It is also tied for the fastest dash attack, but it has high ending lag. These traits make it usable for catching landing opponents and penetrating through strong attacks without suffering damage. Its clean hit begins KOing at 150%, when hit by her arm.
Forward smash		Goddess Wings	16% (near), 13% (far)	Conjures ethereal wings and flaps them forward. Deals high knockback and has long horizontal range, giving it great KO potential. It has a sourspot near the tip of the wings, which deals less knockback, and a windbox that can push opponents that try to punish the move and gimp some some recoveries. However, it has high ending lag at 47 frames, making it somewhat risky to use. Its sweetspot KOs at 100%, while its sourspot KOs around 115%. She occasionally calls out its name upon use (ゴッド ウイング, God Wing in the Japanese version).
Up smash			16% (base), 12% (middle), 9% (top)	Conjures a blue beam of light that erupts from the ground. It has the highest vertical range of any up smash in the game as well as the second highest vertical range of all up smashes in the series, surpassed only by Snake's up smash in Brawl. It has three hitboxes: one at the base, one at the middle and one at the top, the bottom one being the strongest of the three. Its high vertical hitbox and great KO potential make it a very good edgeguarding tool, as it KOs at 100% when sweetspotted at the base. However, it has minimal horizontal range and high ending lag, though it is her smash attack with the least ending lag at 42 frames, as well as the least risky to use. Can KO at 100% when sweetspotted.
Down smash		Goddess Wings	15% (clean), 13% (late)	Conjures ethereal wings and flaps them downward on both sides. It also has a windbox at the tip of the wings that can push opponents that try to punish the move and gimp some recoveries. However, it has high start-up lag for a down smash (though ironically, the fastest of her smash attacks) as well as the highest ending lag of all down smashes and the second highest ending lag of all the smash attacks in the game at 52 frames, making it very risky to use. It sends on a mainly vertical trajectory and KOs at 114% when clean, and is a semi-spike that KOs at 145% when late. She occasionally calls out its name upon use (ゴッド ウイング, God Wing in the Japanese version).
Neutral aerial			1.7% (loop), 5% (last), 13.5% (all hits connect)	Spins her staff around her. The first five hits have the auto-link angle, which can potentially trap opponents into the rest of the attack. It is a great pressuring tool against opponents on platforms above, and it can combo into aerial or ground attacks at low percentages.
Forward aerial			9%	A flying kick. Long horizontal hitbox and low landing lag makes it her most reliable spacing tool, and is a good combo option into grabs and other attacks, though it has relatively high ending lag. It can also be autocancelled from SHFF. It is less safe on shield since it delivers less shieldstun, unless it hits with the tip of her foot.
Back aerial			12% (shield), 9% (arm)	Rotates her body to slam her shield into the opponent. The attack grants her 8 invincibility frames on her upper body, allowing her to out-prioritize other attacks and some projectiles. Comes out one frame faster than her forward aerial, it has decent landing lag and can be autocancelled from a short hop. These traits make it a good spacing tool at medium range if it hits with the shield's edge. However, it is easy to miss if the opponent is too close to Palutena, since it does not have a hitbox around her. It also has high ending lag for an aerial at 41 frames. KOs at 119% near the edge.
Up aerial			1% (loop), 5% (last), 9% (all hits connect)	Twirls while emitting her halo, which hits up to five times. Its fast start-up and long duration allow it to reliably pressure aerial opponents above her. Has great KO potential at high percentages, often KOing at 100% near the upper blast line, and KOing at roughly 137% if all hits connect on a grounded opponent. However, it has fairly high ending lag at 24 frames. Interestingly, this attack has more interruptible frames than autocancelling frames, meaning it cannot be autocancelled at all. This can, however, be mitigated by using other attack with lower ending lag before she hits the ground, like her forward aerial. As it pulls opponents when fast falling, it is possible for it to combo into a grab at low percentages despite its ending lag, if the opponent fails to react properly.
Down aerial			9%	A roundhouse kick. It meteor smashes anyone below her and it will always meteor smash due to lacking a sourspot. However, it lasts for only 1 frame and it has very low horizontal range, making it difficult to land, and it has the highest ending lag of any aerial attack in the game while not autocancelling even from a full hop. As a result, it works better as an out of shield option, though it is still more situational than her other attacks.
Grab			—	Telekinetically grabs the opponent. Palutena's grab range is fairly large and disjointed, although her dash grab has some ending lag.
Pummel			3.1%	A small blast of light. Its average speed, yet high damage output makes it one of the best pummels in the game.
Forward throw			9%	Curls herself, then telekinetically pushes the opponent forward. It is Palutena's weakest throw in terms of knockback, though it can be used to set up an edgeguard.
Back throw			10%	Telekinetically elevates the opponent, then performs an inverted version of the Arabesque, a ballet kick, which flings the opponent backward. It is her strongest throw, but since it launches at the Sakurai angle, it is easy to DI, and will not KO most middleweights until 155%.
Up throw			8%	Elevates her staff, then telekinetically throws the opponent upward. It is her second strongest throw, making it usable with rage, but it can also KO opponents earlier on stages with platforms.
Down throw			5%	Telekinetically slams the opponent onto the ground with her left hand. It is her best throw, due to its impressive potential for combos and KO set-ups. Depending on the opponent's DI, it can combo into a neutral aerial, forward aerial, reverse aerial rush back aerial, up aerial. It can even be followed up with a down aerial or an up smash, though both require the opponent's air dodge to be successfully read and the opponent to fail to DI properly.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%	Swings her staff behind herself, then in front of herself.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%	Same as her frontal floor attack.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Swings her staff in front of herself, then behind herself.
Edge attack Edge getups			7%	Performs a legsweep while climbing up.
Neutral special	Default	Autoreticle	2.9% (per hit)	Aims a reticle over the opponent, then fires three blasts of light at that location. It can only be initiated only if an opponent is within range, with nothing blocking her target, and said opponent is not currently intangibile. It can be used as a way for stopping direct approaches and locking, as well as forcing an approach. It is also able to hit opponents behind Palutena (if she is moving during the attack and the opponent is at the maximum horizontal range towards her). In addition to its offensive potential, it has defensive potential due to it stalling her in midair, making it useful to discourage opponents from edgeguarding or gimping her. However, it has high ending lag if it doesn't target anything.
	Custom 1	Explosive Flame	0.8% (loop), 4.2% (last)	Creates a Smart Bomb-like explosion approximately three character lengths away. Decent spacing and zoning tool, but its high start-up lag and set distance make it easily predictable.
	Custom 2	Heavenly Light	1% (per hit)	Emits a large, rectangular field of supernal light above herself. Its duration can be extended as long as the special button is held. It deals damage in its area without producing knockback or flinching, as well as repelling all opponents from the sides. Because of this, this move can be used to steal a KO from a character who launched another. It can be absorbed, although this grants it supplemental use for a teammate if they have a move to absorb it.
Side special	Default	Reflect Barrier	5%, 1.17x (reflected projectiles)	Raises her shield forward to emit a rectangular barrier which pushes opponents away and reflects projectiles. Palutena's shield has a hitbox when it is being raised, allowing her to damage opponents with an unblockable hit. If the barrier reflects an attack that deals at least 50%, it will break. However, unlike other reflectors, it can be used immediately after being broken. The barrier stays out for almost a full second (58 frames).
	Custom 1	Angelic Missile	13%	Shoots herself forward to perform a flying, corkscrew battering ram, similarly to Skull Bash and Green Missile. It can aid her recovery significantly without rendering her helpless. It is also a decent, albeit somewhat avoidable, gimping and KOing option while off-stage.
	Custom 2	Super Speed	2.6%+distance	Performs a charging attack where she glides along the ground very quickly for a long distance. She can damage opponents by ramming into them. While in the air, the move will propel her diagonally downward. It is considered her best side special move due to its speed and ability to retain its momentum after cancelling the attack, which gives Palutena a plethora of options for mix-ups, recovery, pressure, and mobility. Can be cancelled with her jump, up smash, grab, dash attack, and other attacks. It has a small amount of cooldown at approximately three seconds (184 frames).
Up special	Default	Warp	—	A teleport. Palutena disappears and then reappears in a chosen direction. It can be edge cancelled, allowing for defensive and movement options, but renders Palutena helpless after reappearance unless edge cancelled.
	Custom 1	Jump Glide	—	Jumps a fair distance up and then glides, similarly to Peach Parasol. It can be cancelled into any aerial move, which in turn makes it a great move for keeping vertical follow-ups, and it has deceptively longer horizontal recovery distance than Warp. However, it cannot be edge cancelled and, if she flinches during the move, Palutena cannot do anything until she lands on the ground aside from moving, which may lead to an inevitable KO. It leaves her helpless at the end of the move or if she cancels it with an aerial.
	Custom 2	Rocket Jump	12% (grounded), 10% (aerial)	Creates an explosion to propel herself upward. The explosion damages nearby opponents and strongly meteor smashes airborne opponents below her. However, it gives her the least vertical distance of all her up specials and very little horizontal movement.
Down special	Default	Counter	1.3x (min 10%)	Covers her chest with her shield in a defensive position. If she is hit, Palutena performs a counterattack with her staff, similarly to the counterattacks used by majority of the Fire Emblem characters. It has a surprisingly high damage output, as well as very long horizontal range, but it is the second weakest counterattack in the game in regards to knockback. It is also one of the few counterattacks with a sourspot, which is located at the tip of her staff, while the rest of her staff deals even less knockback. While it has remarkable horizontal range, bits vertical range is poor, and it has high ending lag should it miss, giving the opponent a chance to punish.
	Custom 1	Lightweight	—	Increases her speed and jump height for approximately twelve seconds and a half (755 frames). While under this effect, it significantly improves her off-stage game and allows her to have more follow-ups and an access to her guaranteed KO set-ups on all characters from her down throw. However in exchange for this effect, she will take increased damage while the knockback remains the same. After it wears off, she will become slower for almost five seconds (299 frames).
	Custom 2	Celestial Firework	3.2% (toss), 1.2% (explosion)	Shoots an explosive firework diagonally above herself. It has invincibility frames before firing the firework, and the explosion has good range. KOs at 125% if it lands on a grounded opponent and all hits connect.
Final Smash		Black Hole Laser	2.4% (loop), 12% (last)	Upon activation, Palutena twirls her staff overhead, then speeds away off-stage. She then fires a Black Hole, which vacuums opponents towards it and puts them in a tumbling state, then fires a Mega Laser into the Black Hole to deal damage, concluding with a final hit that launches the opponents as Black Hole dissipates. Palutena then returns to the stage after it ends. KOs at 50%.

On-screen appearance

• Walks out of a golden door surrounded by a glowing light.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Makes a sweeping gesture with her arms and produces ethereal wings and emits her halo while saying "You shall be purified!" (浄化してあげましょう, You will be purified.)
• Side taunt: Laughs tauntingly while twirling around her staff as she performs an inverted version of the Arabesque.
• Down taunt: Lets go of her staff, which floats next to her, and brushes her hair aside while emitting her halo, saying "Ready when you are." (いつでもどうぞ？, Feel free whenever.)

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Touches the ground with the tail of her staff and shield in front of her, briefly emitting her halo.
• Looks away while crossing her staff and shield in front of her, briefly emitting her halo.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Pa-lu-te-na!	Pa-lu-tena!
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Japanese victory quotes with translations

An orchestral excerpt of Kid Icarus' title screen theme.

• Laughs while twirling around her staff, then assumes a seated stance while floating.
• Twirls while floating and emitting her halo and saying "No one can hide from the light."
  • If Pit is present in the match, there is a chance she will instead say "Oh, so sorry about that, Pit."
• Twirls her staff and points it in front of herself while saying "Too bad for you."
  • If Dark Pit is present in the match, there is a chance she will instead say "Poor little Pittoo." in a condescending manner.

In competitive play

Official Custom Moveset Project

Character	Custom sets available
Palutena	2322	2312	1322	1312	2122
	1122	2332	1332	2313	2323

Notable players

Active

•  Arch - Honorable mention on the Upstate New York Smash 4 Power Rankings. Placed 33rd at Super Smash Con 2016.
•  El_Pitikla - Ranked 9th on the Spanish Smash 4 Power Rankings.
•  Iceninja - The best Palutena player in Canada. Ranked 8th on the Southern Ontario Smash 4 Power Rankings. Placed 5th at Canada Cup 2016 and Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, 7th at Get On My Level 2015, 9th at Summit 2015 and Canada Cup 2016.
•  MM - The best Palutena player in the East. Ranked 3rd on the New South Wales Smash 4 Power Rankings and 9th on the Australian Smash 4 Power Rankings. Placed 2nd at DI Another Day, 9th at Battle Arena Melbourne 8, 13th at Battle Arena Melbourne 7.
•  Prince Ramen - One of the best Palutena players in the world. Ranked 2nd on the Central Florida Smash 4 Power Rankings. Placed 7th at Tampa Never Sleeps 6, 33rd at CEO 2016 (where he defeated ZeRo 2-0), and consistently achieves top 8 placings at CFL Smackdown tournaments.
•  Soru - The second best Palutena player in Canada. Ranked 10th on the Montreal Smash 4 Power Rankings. Has defeated DarkAura, Darkwolf, KingKong and Venom.
•  TLTC - One of the best Palutena players in the world. Was ranked 18th on the SoCal Smash 4 Power Rankings. Placed 9th at 2GGT: Fresh Saga, 13th at 2GGT: ESAM Saga, 2GGT: FOW Saga, 2GGT: KTAR Saga and 2GG: Pay It Forward, 17th at 2GGT: Fatality Saga, 2GGT: EE Saga and 2GGT: Abadango Saga, 25th at 2GGT: The False Awakens and 2GGT: Mexico Saga and 33rd at EVO 2016 and Super Smash Con 2016. Picked up Diddy Kong as a co-main in December 2016.

Inactive

•  AeroLink - The best custom Palutena player in the United States when he mained her. Consistently achieved top 8 placings at Shockwave tournaments.
•  NonoV2 - Ranked 3rd on the Switzerland Smash 4 Power Rankings prior to retiring.
•  Trevonte - Placed 25th at EVO 2015 (custom tournament).

Tier placement and history

In the early metagame, Palutena was considered a highly regarded character due to her attacks' impressive range, as well as being the only character in the game with both a counterattack and a reflector in her default moveset. However, opinions on Palutena started to drop dramatically after her weaknesses began to emerge when custom moves were not accounted for, largely due to her very problematic frame data, flawed special moveset and, surprisingly enough, the lack of offensive options she had outside of her grab game. When custom special movesets began to be discussed, Palutena's tier placement once again began to rise in the eyes of many players, with many considering her to be a high-tier character, and in some cases, even a top-tier character with high potential. After the universal ban of custom movesets post-EVO 2015, however, expectations of her plummeted once again, and she was widely viewed as a low-tier or even bottom-tier character. This negative perception was further compounded by her lack of significant buffs to her default moveset, the notable buffs other poorly regarded characters received and update 1.1.0 indirectly nerfing her due to the increase to shieldstun. Due to these factors, and very poor representation and results, Palutena was ranked 50th on the first tier list, which placed her at the end of the I tier and rendered her as a bottom-tier character.

It was not until the release of Corrin and Bayonetta that Palutena's perception started to improve, even after her best player, AeroLink, dropped her on favor of Bayonetta. After remaining stagnant for four consecutive game updates, update 1.1.5 brought some useful buffs to her offensive options, while Palutena also indirectly benefited from the nerfs to top-tier characters like Sheik, Zero Suit Samus and Bayonetta. Professionals such as TLTC and Prince Ramen would go on to place higher within their respective regions, which soon resulted in Palutena's tier placement becoming debatable. Her tournament results have gradually improved since then, with her most promising showings occurring at CEO 2016, EVO 2016 and Super Smash Con 2016; the former most notably saw Prince Ramen scoring a major upset by defeating ZeRo, arguably the best SSB4 player in the world, 2-0, while all three tournaments saw Palutena place 33rd. Thanks to her improved results, Palutena is currently ranked 40th on the second tier list, placing her in the middle of the F tier. In addition to moving her up from the bottom-tier to the low-tier, her rise is tied with Cloud's for the fifth largest between the first and second tier lists. Her current position on the tier list, while considered accurate, is a small topic of debate, due to the sudden flashes of success she has had, yet said flashes still being rare at the highest levels of play.

Reveal trailer

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Trophies

Palutena

In Kid Icarus: Uprising, the goddess of light uses telepathy to communicate and grants miracles to support Pit on his adventure. In Smash Bros., she has special moves like Warp and Heavenly Light at her disposal. She's very adaptable—you can customize her into a long- or close-range fighter!

Said to be able to perform miracles, this goddess supports Pit in battle, using telepathy to communicate with him. She's no slouch on her own, either. She has a huge variety of moves you can customise and use to your advantage. Short or long range, the sky's the limit! Or maybe not. After all, she can teleport.

: Kid Icarus (08/1987)

: Kid Icarus: Uprising (03/2012)

Palutena (Alt.)

Palutena's Reflect Barrier side special deflects any attacks and projectiles that come at her from the front. Unlike other reflective moves, you can leave this barrier in place and it will keep reflecting. If you really want to ruin someone's day, you can push them over an edge using this move.

Palutena's Reflect Barrier special deflects any attacks and projectiles that come at her from the front. Unlike other fighters' reflective moves, you can deploy this barrier and then leave it to its own devices. You can also push opponents with it, so use it on someone who's teetering on the edge of the stage to push them off.

: Kid Icarus (08/1987)

: Kid Icarus: Uprising (03/2012)

Black Hole Laser

Palutena's Final Smash. After doing a divine twirl, she creates a black hole in front of her, drawing in her opponents. When she's got 'em where she wants 'em, she follows up with a wide laser beam that reaches from one edge of the screen to the other. It even changes direction slightly, just in case someone managed to avoid the black hole.

Palutena's Final Smash. After doing a divine twirl, she creates a black hole in front of her, drawing in her opponents. When she's got 'em where she wants 'em, the next step is a wide laser beam that reaches from one edge of the screen to the other. It even changes direction slightly, for that extra chance of taking out her foes.

• 

  Classic (3DS)

• PalutenaAllStarTrophy3DS.png

  Alt. (3DS)

• 

  Classic (Wii U)

• 

  Alt. (Wii U)

• 

  Black Hole Laser

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• New Challengers 2: Palutena is one of the seven opponents fought in this event alongside Greninja, Robin, Shulk, Dark Pit, Mega Man, and Pac-Man.
• The Demon King and the Goddess: As Ganondorf, the player must initially defeat Link and Zelda. After the two are defeated or some time has passed, a giant Palutena appears and the player must defeat her as well.
• The Destroyer Cometh: Palutena must defeat a giant Ganondorf and two other Ganondorfs before they destroy all of Skyworld's terrain.

Co-op Events

• The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.
• Unlikely Allies: Palutena and Ganondorf must defeat sixteen Mr. Game & Watches.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Artwork of Palutena used on the website. Aside from featuring Pit and Link, Dark Pit is also visible in the background.

• 

  Palutena's splash art.

• 

  The Pic of the Day from the Director's Room, revealing Palutena's inclusion.

• 

  Palutena's amiibo.

• 

  Palutena as she appears in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

• 

  Using Explosive Flame.

• 

  Alongside Phosphora.

• 

  On Mario Galaxy.

• 

  Fighting Marth.

• 

  Using her down taunt.

• 

  Alongside Kirby, who copied Palutena's ability.

• 

  In Battlefield.

• 

  Alongside Mario on Arena Ferox.

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  In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

• 

  Using Black Hole Laser, her Final Smash.

• 

  Palutena taking part in the Home-Run Contest in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

• 

  Using Heavenly Light.

• 

  Using her up smash.

Trivia

• Palutena and the Mii Fighters are the only characters that have their custom special moves readily available.
• Unused sound files exist for Kirby using all three of Palutena's neutral special moves, suggesting either that it was not until late in development that it was decided which would be Palutena's default neutral special move, or that Kirby was originally able to copy any one of her neutral special moves.
• Palutena might sometimes say "Oh no!" after getting KO'd.
• Palutena is the only character who has both a reflector and a counterattack as part of her default special moveset.
• Palutena is the only character to be part of a Final Smash in a previous installment of Super Smash Bros. and a playable character in a subsequent installment.
• Unlike most characters, whose hard landing animations have them simply land on their two feet, Palutena instead twirls upon hard landing.
• Palutena is the first character since Link in Super Smash Bros. to wield a shield at all times that does not protect her while idle.
  • This trait is also applicable to Mii Gunner and Mii Swordfighter, but only while they are wearing the Proto Man, Hunter, Rathalos and Gil costumes. However, unlike the Miis wearing those costumes, Palutena's shield gives her dash attack and back aerial invincibility frames. This means her shield is not entirely aesthetic like theirs.
• Palutena's defeated and No Contest animation depicts her wearing a brown sleeve on her left arm, a feature not present normally in her in-game model. Her left vambrace also disappears during the animation.