Pyra

For fighter info, see Pyra (SSBU).

Pyra
Official artwork of Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Universe	Xenoblade Chronicles
Debut	Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022, cameo)
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo Switch
Species	Blade
Gender	Female
Place of origin	Alrest
Created by	Tetsuya Takahashi
Designed by	Masatsugu Saito
English voice actor	Skye Bennett
Japanese voice actor	Shino Shimoji
Article on Xeno Series Wiki	Pyra

Pyra (ホムラ, Homura) is one of the main protagonists of Monolith Soft's Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the third entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series.

After making a cameo as a spirit in the base version of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pyra transitioned into a playable character in Ultimate as the fourth character of Fighters Pass Vol. 2.

Origin

Pyra is a Blade, a personification of a weapon, used by a Driver. Blades are essentially immortal, only returning to their Core Crystals once their Driver dies. Pyra specifically is one of two legendary Blades known as the Aegis, and possesses fire elemental abilities. Rex, the protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, becomes Pyra's Driver after she shares part of her life force with him to save his life after being mortally wounded. This link makes Pyra dependent on Rex's survival: if he were to die in combat, she would die with him. Rex vows to protect Pyra on their shared quest to find the paradise land of Elysium. Pyra differs quite drastically from Mythra. Pyra is very friendly, is an excellent cook, and fights more gracefully. In contrast, Mythra is more blunt, is a horrible chef, and fights heavy-handed.

In the aftermath of the Aegis War, Mythra was able to witness firsthand how much destruction her battles against Malos, the other Aegis, had caused. In anguish, she transformed into Pyra to cope with the consequences of her actions, splitting her personality. Addam, the prince of the Kingdom of Torna and her Driver at the time, traveled with Pyra to seal away Mythra's true sword that he was unable to control; then he put Pyra in stasis on the Ancient Ship and sank it under the Cloud Sea to prevent her from reawakening and losing control.

500 years later, Rex, a Leftherian salvager, was hired by the new terrorist organization known as Torna to bring up the Ancient Ship. Rex accidentally touches the core crystal of Aegis and is promptly killed by Jin, the leader of Torna and the antagonist of the game. Just before Rex died, he meets Pyra in a vision at Elysium. Pyra offers half of her life force to Rex to save his life if he helps her reach Elysium, to which Rex agrees. The two managed to escape Jin and go on an adventure to find Elysium. Along the way, they amass a party of other Blades and Drivers that have similar goals.

Early on in the adventure, Mythra leaves most of the fighting to Pyra, as she is afraid to use her power after the Aegis War. After Rex has a near death experience at the hands of Malos, Mythra is forced to reawaken and save Rex. After the battle, Pyra explains her past as an Aegis and her battles against Malos to Rex. After a while of reluctantly allowing herself to used in battles, Mythra becomes more open and willing to work with Rex, and she eventually enables herself to swap with Pyra during battles.

After many encounters with Torna, Jin eventually dispatches the party and attempts to kill Rex; Pyra ends up offering herself over instead to make sure Rex lives on. After Pyra is taken by Torna, Malos begins to siphon data from Pyra's Core Crystal to regain his lost powers, stealing much of Pyra's life force. Though faced with the setback, Rex and the group are informed of the third Aegis Sword that Addam and Pyra sealed away. At the end of the dungeon known as Spirit Crucible Elpys, they are able to find the sword, but it disintegrates in Rex's hand. Rex, now knowing what he must do, is unfazed and leads the party to where Pyra was taken.

Malos reveals that with his powers now intact, Pyra has become akin to a corpse. In the ensuing confrontation, Pyra and Mythra implore Rex to leave them behind; they reveal that, due to their guilt over the Aegis War, they wished to go to Elysium was to beg the Architect, the creator of Alrest, to let them die. Rex, however, assures them that they do have a place in this world and that he will continue to stand by them. In doing so, Rex summons the third sword and becomes the Aegis' true driver; Pyra then rises from the ground and takes on a new form known as Pneuma. With Pneuma and Rex's new powers, the group easily dispatches Jin and Malos.

After the battle, Rex, Pyra, and the others begin climbing the World Tree. They face multiple challenges on the journey up, including battles with Jin. With Pyra's newfound powers and Rex's ability as a true Aegis Driver, they are able to surpass these roadblocks and make it to Elysium. There they meet the Architect, a scientist named Klaus, whose experiments to create a new universe split the world into separate dimensions. Alrest's counterpart dimension is the world of the Bionis, where half of Klaus's consciousness resides as the evil god Zanza. Klaus reveals that Pneuma and Logos (Malos's original identity) were originally processor units on a device known as the Conduit. A third processor, Ontos, went missing in the accident that split the worlds (implying that Ontos is in fact Alvis, the personification of the Monado).

After meeting the Architect, Rex, Pyra, and the others engage Malos in a final battle to prevent him from destroying Alrest once and for all. Rex and Pneuma eventually deal a fatal blow to Malos, ending the conflict. However, the World Tree begins to collapse, and Pneuma offers to stay behind in order to destroy the World Tree before it crashes down and destroys Alrest, much to Rex's objection. She leaves Rex with her Core Crystal, thereby restoring his heart, and the party escapes as Pneuma self-destructs the World Tree. After the credits, Pneuma's Aegis Core Crystal begins to glow again, and Pyra and Mythra return, now in separate bodies, although it is left ambiguous as to whether they remember Rex or have been reborn without memories as Blades usually are. The story ends with Pyra and Mythra rejoining the group as they travel towards an island that the Titans merge into to create a new, expansive landmass.

Pyra is last seen in a photograph taken some time after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 holding a baby with the same hair color as herself, implying it to be her child. Her ultimate fate is unknown, as she does not appear in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

Pyra, as she appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

During Ultimate's development, Masahiro Sakurai considered adding characters from ARMS and Xenoblade Chronicles 2; however, as their games were announced after he completed the roster early in development in order to secure all returning fighters, he passed them over, and Sakurai chose to have Pyra be a spirit instead. Like Shulk's English voice actor Adam Howden for Super Smash Bros. 4, on June 29, 2020, before her official reveal, Pyra's English voice actress, Skye Bennett, had posted on her Twitter that she had done recording for a game that has "lots of screaming". Three years after the game's release, Pyra would be announced as the tenth DLC fighter alongside Mythra in the February 17, 2021 Nintendo Direct. A character showcase was streamed March 4th, 2021 (March 5th in some time zones), with Pyra being released later that same day.

Spirits

Fighter spirit

• 

  1,458. Pyra (Fighter)

Support spirit

Prior to the release of the Pyra/Mythra fighters, Pyra appeared as a Legend-class support spirit.

Pyra uses a Lucina puppet fighter and is fought on the Halberd's Battlefield form. She is fought along a Shulk puppet fighter representing Rex. During the battle, the floor is lava and the Fire Bar items appear, referencing Pyra's status as a Fire Blade with the ability to engulf the battlefield in flames.

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Cost	Ability	Series
967		Pyra		★★★★	1	Assist Killer	Xenoblade Chronicles Series

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	ホムラ, Homura
English	Pyra
French	Pyra
German	Pyra
Spanish	Pyra
Italian	Pyra
Chinese	焰, Homura
Korean	호무라, Homura
Dutch	Pyra
Russian	Пайра

Trivia

• Pyra and Mythra are the only two-in-one DLC fighters.
• Pyra's fighter design has been censored in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by giving her pantyhose underneath her shorts. This was likely done to avoid raising the game's age rating, as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has a higher age rating than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in most regions.
  • Unlike Mythra, neither of her spirits use this redesign for their artworks.
  • Additionally, Pyra's redesign does not appear as a costume in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, whereas Mythra would gain the "Massive Melee Mythra" costume in her respective game.
• Pyra and Mythra are the third and fourth fighters to have debuted on the Nintendo Switch. The first was Byleth (who properly debuted in Fire Emblem: Three Houses after they technically debuted in Fire Emblem Heroes) and the second was Min Min.