Template:SSB4 to SSBU changelist/Greninja

Aesthetics

• Greninja's model features a slightly more subdued color scheme, more closely resembling its appearance in recent mainline Pokémon games. Its body and tongue appear to have a glossy, wet sheen. The textures on Greninja's tongue have also been adjusted.
• Greninja is slightly more expressive, squinting akin to how it does in the Pokémon anime in a few of his animations.
• Every move that once used water katanas now uses water kunai, similar to when Ash's Greninja uses Cut in the Pokémon anime.
• Greninja's tongue has less physics-based movement than the previous game.
• Greninja has altered animations for its sidestep, roll, and airdodge animations; it now disappears in a small whirlwind with leaves scattering, similarly to when Substitute is successful.
• Greninja's victory pose where it flips in the air and lands with its arms crossed has been altered: the camera doesn't move as much, causing Greninja's body to face away from the camera.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Greninja's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 4).
• Greninja walks faster (1.43 → 1.502).
• Greninja dashes faster (2.08 → 2.288).
  • Its initial dash is significantly faster (1.6 → 2.178).
• Greninja's air speed is faster (1.18 → 1.239).
• Greninja is lighter (94 → 88), worsening its survivability.
• Greninja's traction is much higher (0.045 → 0.102).
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 30 → 29).
• Back roll grants more intangibility (frames 4-14 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more ending lag (FAF 33 → 34).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 26 → 25).
• Spot dodge has more startup with less intangibility (frames 2-16 → 3-16).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 2-26 → 2-27).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 32 → 42).
• The changes to locking and the ability to tech aerial footstools hurts Greninja more than the rest of the cast, weakening notorious damage racking and KO setups it possessed in Smash 4.
• The increased shieldstun, shield grab startup and shield drop lag further hinder Greninja's poor out of shield game, now being arguably the worst out of the cast, as unlike most other characters, all its options that can bypass shield drop lag are either too slow or, in the case of its back aerial, cannot hit most opponents on the ground.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first two hits have lower knockback (hit 1: 30 base/30 scaling → 20 / 25/25/15/15; hit 2: 30 base/50 scaling → 20/ 25/25/20), and keep opponents on the ground (hit 1: 70°/60°/80° → 361°/361°/180°/361°; hit 2: 70°/60°/90° → 361°). This allows them to connect better and jab lock.
  • The first three hits have smaller hitboxes overall (hit 1: 3u/2.5u/3.5u → 2.0u/2.0u/2.2u/2.2u; hit 2: 3u/2.5u/4u → 2.5u/2.8u/3.0u; hit 3: 5u/3u/3u → 3u/3.4u/4u). This reduces their vertical range.
  • The second hit deals more damage (1.6% → 2%).
  • The third hit deals less damage (3.5% → 3%), and thus less knockback.
  • The third hit uses stationary hitboxes rather than hitboxes connected to Greninja's arms.
  • The infinite has faster startup (frame 6 → 4), a shorter gap between hits (4 frames → 3), and has reduced knockback scaling (40 → 10) while gaining a hitstun modifier of 2 on each hit, allowing it to connect much more reliably.
  • The infinite has a lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.5×) and SDI multiplier (1.1× → 0.4×), making it harder to escape.
  • The infinite is comprised of one extended hitbox rather than two normal ones (size: 5.2u/6.2u → 5.5; Y/Z-offset: 7/7 → 7.5/7.5; Z-stretch: 13 → 14).
  • The infinite has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 4×. This allows it to lock opponents into their shields between each hit, and thus pressure them more effectively, but also allows them to cancel shieldstun and punish Greninja more easily if they shield 10 hits or more.
  • The infinite's finisher has three hitboxes instead of two, with different sizes (5.6u/6.6 → 4.2u/4.2u/4.8u) and positions (ID 0: 7 Y-offset/8 Z-offset → 7.5/9; ID 1: 7 Y-offset/16 Z-offset → 7.3/13 → ID 2: 7.5 Y-offset/16.5 Z-offset. This increases its horizontal range, but lowers its vertical range.
  • The infinite's finisher has reduced hitlag (3× → 2×).
• Forward tilt:
  • It deals more damage when angled (7.3% → 8.3%).
  • It has significantly altered knockback (angled up: 20/30/40 base / 110/90/70 scaling → 50 / 100/79/58; non-angled/angled down: 20/30/40 base / 110/90/70 scaling → 50 / 98/77/56).
    • This improves its KO power if sweetspotted, especially when angled up, allowing it to KO middleweights at around 170% from center stage.
    • However, this hinders its KO power if sourspotted, and removes its ability to lock opponents at low percents.
• Down tilt:
  • Greninja has a new down tilt: a downward hand sweep instead of a shin kick.
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 27 → 23).
  • It has altered knockback (60 base/40 scaling → 30/110). This slightly narrows its combo range at low percentages, but increases it from mid to higher ones, to the point it now allows for KO confirms at high percents.
  • It launches opponents at a more upward angle (70° → 79°/77°/75°), further improving its combo potential at high percents.
  • It deals less damage (7% → 4%).
  • It has smaller hitboxes (4u/3.5u/3u → 3u/2.5u/3u), reducing its vertical range.
• Dash attack:
  • The move has an altered animation with Greninja stopping halfway through the spin.
  • It deals more damage (7% → 8%), with base knockback compensated (100 → 90).
  • It has a longer hitbox duration (frames 7-10 → 7-11) and less ending lag (FAF 31 → 29).
  • It sends at a higher angle (60° → 70°). Combined with its lower ending lag and base knockback, this improves its combo ability.
• Forward smash:
  • It deals more knockback (30 base/101 scaling → 35/104).
• Up smash:
  • The first hit has a new hitbox that only hits grounded opponents with significantly reduced knockback (30 base/120 scaling → 20/10) and SDI multiplier (1× → 0.5×), whereas the previous hitbox can now only hit aerial opponents and has reduced knockback scaling (120 → 90). This makes the first hit connect more consistently into the second hit, no longer failing against opponents on platforms above Greninja.
• Down smash:
  • The move has much less startup lag (frame 16 → 11), with its total duration reduced as well (FAF 55 → 50).
  • The arms' hitboxes have been extended towards Greninja (Z-stretch: 0 → 7), and the move has one additional hitbox at each side during the last active frame, removing its blindspots.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (12 frames → 7 (neutral), 15 → 11 (forward), 13 → 10 (back), 15 → 14 (up), 32 → 30 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • The move has considerably less ending lag (FAF 65 → 53), making it much less likely to cause a self-destruct offstage.
  • The late hit has a longer duration (frames 14-16 → 14-19).
• Forward aerial:
  • It has much more knockback scaling (84 → 95), allowing it to KO roughly 20% earlier.
  • The move has a new, smaller extended hitbox directly in front of Greninja (size: 3u; Y/Z-offset: 7.5/8; Y-stretch: 8.5), removing its blindspot.
  • The move's two other hitboxes are smaller (5.4u/4.4u → 4.7u/3.7u), and one of them is offset further from Greninja (Y-offset: -7 → -8), creating a new blindspot between them.
• Back aerial:
  • The move has less ending lag (FAF 46 → 41).
  • It has bigger hitboxes (hits 1 and 2: 5u/4u/2u → 5.5u/4.3u/2.5u; hit 3: 5.8u/4.5u/2u → 5.8u/4.5u/2.5u).
  • The last two hits have less startup (hit 2: frame 8 → 7; hit 3: frame 13 → 11).
  • The first hit sends at different angles, one of them being a different autolink angle (365°/30°/30° → 367°/35°/35°). This allows it to connect better into the second hit.
  • The third hit deals more damage (4% → 6%), with its knockback scaling not fully compensated (120 → 95), allowing it to KO slightly earlier.
• Up aerial:
  • The fifth hit uses the autolink angle like the previous hits (85° → 367°), allowing it to connect more reliably into the final hit, and increasing the move's window for drag-down setups.
  • The first five hits have more base knockback (45 → 55), and the fifth hit no longer uses set knockback. This is overall beneficial to the move, as it inflicts more hitstun to opponents that further facilitates drag-down setups, without drastically disrupting its linking ability due to using the autolink angle.
• Down aerial:
  • The move has less ending lag if it misses (FAF 57 → 52), making it slightly safer to use offstage.
  • Greninja no longer loses its double jump when hitting with the move.
  • It has more ending lag when it hits an opponent (FAF 13 → 21), hindering its combo potential and making it less safe on shield.
  • Its hitboxes are smaller (clean: 6u → 4.3u; late: 7u → 5.2u) and higher up (Y-offset: -2 → 0.1), reducing its range.

Throws and other attacks

• Grab:
  • All grabs have more ending lag (standing: FAF 30 → 39; dash: 40 → 47; pivot: 36 → 42).
  • Standing and pivot grab have one frame faster startup (standing: frame 11 → 10; pivot: frame 15 → 14).
  • Dash grab has slower startup (frame 9 → 13).
  • Dash grab's grabbox doesn't extend out as far (Z-stretch: 20 → 17.5), reducing its range.
  • Pivot grab's grabbox extends further (Z-stretch: -22 → -25.3), increasing its range. It is now the largest non-tether pivot grab in the game.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals more hitlag (4 frames → 11), but has less startup (frame 6 → 2) and significantly ending lag (FAF 27 → 8). It is now one of the fastest pummels in the game, rather than one of the slowest.
  • It deals less damage (2% → 1%).
• The speed of Greninja's forward, back, and up throws is no longer weight-dependent. This improves up throw's combo potential against heavyweights, but worsens it against lightweights.
• Forward throw:
  • The move has gained a hitbox before the throw, increasing its damage (5% → 3.5% (hit 1), 4.5% (throw); 8% total) and allowing it to hit bystanders.
  • It launches at a lower angle (50° → 40°) with much more knockback overall (70 base/45 scaling → 65/100), to the point it has above-average knockback for a forward throw rather than being one of the weakest in the game, greatly improving its utility for setting up edgeguards and KOing at very high percents.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw deals more damage (8% → 9%).
  • It has an altered animation: Greninja turns towards the screen instead of remaining facing forward, and swings its arms horizontally towards its back to toss the opponent.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw has one frame less ending lag (FAF 44 → 43).
• Down throw:
  • Down throw has less ending lag (FAF 43 → 38), improving its combo potential.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).
• Down taunt:
  • Down taunt has much more ending lag (FAF 80 → 110), further reducing its very limited utility.
  • Greninja now suffers hitlag when down taunt connects, but the opponent only suffers hitlag on the ground, as the air only hitboxes are flinchless, and thus cannot inflict hitlag. This effectively reduces the move's hit rate.

Special moves

• Water Shuriken:
  • Water Shuriken has slightly increased range.
  • Opponents don't fall out of the fully charged shuriken as much as before.
  • Uncharged Water Shuriken has less knockback scaling (85 → 45).
  • Water Shuriken looks sharper.
• Shadow Sneak:
  • It can now be used multiple times in midair.
  • Shadow Sneak's shadow travels faster.
  • Both attack variants have less startup.
  • Forward Shadow Sneak has a new animation: it is a forward kick instead of a handstand kick. It launches at a much lower angle (48° → 36°), improving its KO potential.
  • Greninja now cloaks itself in a whirlwind before disappearing.
  • The shadow is notably darker, and the shadow's eyes flash red just before release. This makes it easier to predict the attack.
• Hydro Pump:
  • Hydro Pump now has an arrow pointing in the direction of travel, similar to Pikachu's Quick Attack and Pichu's Agility.
  • Hydro Pump can now be ledge-cancelled.
  • Greninja no longer loses its double jump if it is hit out of Hydro Pump.
  • The water shots have considerably reduced knockback (65 (base)/100(scaling) → 60/80), and smaller hitboxes (6u → 4.7u), greatly reducing the move's offensive utility.
• Substitute:
  • The counter window is longer (frames 8-29 → 8-34).
  • It has more ending lag if it misses (FAF 65 → 70).
  • Substitute slows down the opponent when the attack activates, allowing the attack to land more consistently.
  • All of the attack's variants have one frame faster startup (frame 41 → 40).
  • All of the attack's variants now grant Greninja intangibility during the attack (frames 1-37 → 1-56).
  • All of the attack's variants have slightly more ending lag (FAF 85 → 87).
  • The side variant has much less knockback scaling (100 → 85).
  • The up and diagonal up variants deal less damage (up: 14% → 13%; diagonal up: 13% → 12) and have less knockback scaling (both: 100 → 95), noticeably hindering their KO power.
  • The down variant deals less damage (14% → 13%) and has less knockback (grounded: 100 scaling → 95; aerial: 50 base/100 scaling → 25/65). This hinders its KO power; particularly, the aerial version is no longer among the strongest meteor smashes in the game.
  • The diagonal down variant deals less damage (13% → 12%) without compensation on knockback, hindering its KO power.
  • Substitute has more vibrant particle effects.
• Secret Ninja Attack:
  • Greninja now turns into Ash-Greninja during its Final Smash.
  • Greninja and its opponents are no longer silhouetted during the attack.
  • The final hit has considerably less knockback scaling (160 → 125), reducing the move's KO potential to the point where it is now weaker than the similar final smashes of Robin and Mii Brawler, both of which also deal less knockback now.