Cloud (SSB4)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Cloud's down aerial.

Overview

A downward stab with the Buster Sword that boasts a large, powerful sweetspot and decent speed. It serves as a threatening edgeguard due to its size and spiking capability, and an effective deterrent for juggling because of its surprisingly wide and long-lasting sourspot. Autocancelling the move allows the low knockback of the sourspot to offer combo potential into a variety of finishers, while also making it deceptively difficult to intercept or punish.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	Angle	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			SDIx	H×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Type	Effect	G	A	Sound	Direct
Clean hit
0	0	15%	0		10	100	0	3.6	25	0.0	11.0 to 12.5	0.0	1.0x	1.5x	0%							Cloud Hit
1	0	13%	0		30	105	0	4.5	25	0.0	7.0 to 13.0	0.0	1.0x	1.2x	0%							Cloud Hit
Late hit
1	0	8%	0		80	55	0	3.5	25	0.0	9.0 to 11.0	0.0	1.0x	1.2x	0%							Cloud Hit

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-4
Clean hit	11-13
Late hit	14-42
Ending autocancel	43-
Interruptible	60
Animation length	77

Landing lag

Animation length	26

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Interruptible

Trivia

• Like Cloud's up aerial, the immediate auto-canceling of this move is possibly a coding error caused by the wrong type of timing function being used. In the move's scripts, the hitboxes are deleted on frame 43, then a timer with a count of 37 is placed in the next line for the auto-cancel window. However, this is an asynchronous timer, which enables the auto-cancel on frame 37, rather than a synchronous timer, which would enable it 37 frames after the hitboxes are deleted (on frame 60). As a result, the auto-cancel is instead enabled on frame 43, as the line is still read after the timer for deleting the hitboxes.
  • A very similar error can be seen with Sonic's up aerial.
  • Since this error was not addressed in any updates, it remains unknown whether the move's instant auto-canceling property was intentional or not. However, like with Cloud's up aerial, it was eventually fixed in Ultimate, where the move's auto-cancel properly uses an asynchronous timer on frame 46 (in addition to the hitboxes ending earlier, on frame 40).

Cloud's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash