User:Yo'ster/Waxing Crescent Meta Knight

Waxing Crescent Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Normal
Universe	none
Availability	Modding
Final Smash
Tier	N/A (N/A)

Waxing Crescent Meta Knight (メタナイト, Waxing Crescent Meta Knight) is a modded character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, accessed by selecting color 9 of Meta Knight.

As in Super Smash Bros. 4, Eric Newsome and Atsushi Kisaichi's portrayals of Meta Knight from Brawl were repurposed for the English and Japanese versions of Ultimate, respectively.

Waxing Crescent Meta Knight excels in many areas, with great mobility, impressive frame data, solid range (that's also disjointed), high damage output, and killpower that rivals super heavyweights. These traits grant him an amazing edgeguarding and combo game, while also making it easy to rack up damage and take stocks. Waxing Crescent Meta Knight's gameplan is heavily centralized around his deadly ladder combos that consistently lead to high damage and/or early KOs of the top, though he can still find opportunities to dominate neutral and KO opponents in many other situations. On top of that, Waxing Crescent Meta Knight's grapple game is among the best in the series, with the fastest grab in Ultimate, a highly damaging pummel, and throws that deal high damage and are great for either tech chasing or scoring KOs. Waxing Crescent Meta Knight is hardly lacking in defensive prowess, either, as he packs a variety of strong out-of-shield options that have either combo or KO potential to boot. He also boasts a fantastic recovery, with multiple midair jumps and special moves that all function as recoveries with large or lingering hitboxes, making Waxing Crescent Meta Knight one of the hardest and riskiest characters to edgeguard. In addition, his down special serves as a very potent combo breaker, with long-lasting frame 1 intangibility, free directional movement, and an optional counterattack on the way out that breaks full shields and even kills.

Despite being unarguably oppressive Waxing Crescent Meta Knight isn't perfect. Though heavier than his base form, he's still relatively light, and because Waxing Crescent Meta Knight's speed and power incentivize a highly aggressive playstyle, this can make his gameplan predictable, leaving him vulnerable to fighters with counters and turning his great strength against him.

Overall, Waxing Crescent Meta Knight is shown to be leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of the competition in almost every scenario.

Attributes

Meta Knight combines several unusual traits. He has multiple jumps, but unlike other characters who share this ability, he has strong mobility, comprising fast dashing and walking speeds, high falling speed and gravity, and average air speed. He is also the only small character to use a sword, which gives his attacks a bit more range relative to his stature. Overall, unlike other characters with multiple jumps, Meta Knight is neither lacking speed nor range.

As expected, Meta Knight's playstyle relies heavily on his speed, both in terms of mobility and frame data. His low, quick short hop and fast, low lag aerials allow him to continuously apply pressure to opponents at close range. He is not lacking in grounded pressure either, having a fast down tilt that can trip, and a dash attack that can cross-up shields, and both of these moves are capable of setting up combos. If Meta Knight finds himself on the defensive, he has several options to relieve pressure, such as a fast, decently long-ranged forward tilt for countering aerial approaches, a fast, long-lasting, and strong neutral aerial, and the 2nd fastest down aerial in the game. For attacks that are poorly spaced, he can opt for a grab, from which he has a down throw that can start combos up to mid-percentages, a back throw to set up edge-guards and KO at very high percentages while near the edge, and an up throw that can also KO at very high percentages (especially on platforms).

While his damage output per hit is not impressive, Meta Knight's speed and jumps allow him to rack up damage through combos at lower percentages and chase opponents through the air through to higher damages, punishing their escape options. His dash attack and down throw can combo into an up smash or aerials at lower damages, while his up aerial can link into other aerials or his up special. Even after his opponents are launched too far for a true combo, he can continue pressuring them by punishing their air dodges and landing options through effective use of his aerials, dash attack, and up tilt. Thanks to his flexible aerial mobility, he has little trouble chasing opponents offstage, and his aerials are well-suited to edge-guarding. Neutral aerial has a lingering hitbox and strong knockback, back aerial is fast with high power, and down aerial is a safe semi-spike than can gimp deceptively early.

Meta Knight's edge-guarding prowess is mainly courtesy of his recovery, which is arguably the best in the game. In addition to having five jumps and passable air speed, his special moveset is full of recovery options. Shuttle Loop, his up special and main recovery method, is fast, offers high vertical recovery, and has a large hitbox. Mach Tornado and Drill Rush travel far horizontally and with long-lasting active hitboxes, and the latter can be angled. Dimensional Cape allows Meta Knight to cover the distance in any direction while invisible, and offers the option to attack upon reappearing. Such options grant him the ability to vary his recovery to make it incredibly difficult to punish him offstage, let alone gimp him.

Meta Knight does have several weaknesses. His attacks generally have very few active frames, forcing him to be extremely precise with his moves lest his opponent punishes him. Despite being a lightweight, Meta Knight's falling speed, gravity and unusually round hurtbox make him highly vulnerable to combos, which combined with his low weight grants him poor overall endurance. Though he has a strong, safe finisher in his forward smash, a fast, powerful back aerial and up smash, he has difficulty landing these moves. Forward smash has high startup, making it easy to avoid, up smash is risky due to its ending lag, and back aerial has trouble connecting on grounded opponents. Furthermore, his up and back throws require rage and favorable positioning to KO at reasonable percentages. While Meta Knight's neutral game is fairly good, his lack of a projectile can be a thorn in his side, especially against zoning characters such as Mega Man.

Overall, Meta Knight is at his best so long as he has his opponent in a disadvantaged state, being able to rack up damage well at lower percentages, before keeping the pressure on them through juggles and edge-guards. A player must be patient in finding an opening, as he cannot sustain much damage himself, and such patience is especially needed when his foe is at high percentages where Meta Knight may find difficulty in landing his finishers.

Differences from Meta Knight (SSBU)

Waxing Crescent Meta Knight has many of the same attributes as his base form, and moves that appear to be more or less identical at a glance. However, the vast majority of his moves either deal much more damage, or are adjusted/retooled to be far superior in other ways. Waxing Crescent Meta Knight also benefits from significantly improved range due to wielding a larger weapon whose hitboxes more sufficiently cover the animations they're attached to.

Overall, Waxing Crescent Meta Knight's changes hugely amplify some of Meta Knight's primary strengths, while either lessening or completely negating most of his weaknesses. Though a handful of differences between them are somewhat undesirable. they are almost always wholly outweighed by their upsides.

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Attributes

• All sword attacks except for those of down special have larger motion lines
• Waxing Crescent Meta Knight's sword doesn't glow when using any move except for his final smash
• Waxing Crescent Meta Knight is noticeably heavier (80 → 88).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
• The rapid jab deals much more damage per hit (1 → 1.5).
• The rapid jab's knockback no longer scales with percent, allowing it to connect reliably even at extremely high percentages.
• The rapid jab has more base knockback (10 → 25), reducing the amount of times opponents can be hit before being pushed out of range.
• The rapid jab hitbox's base Z position has been increased (8 → 9), preventing it from reaching behind Waxing crescent Meta Knight
  • Most notably, this prevents neutral attack from dealing massive damage by trapping large fighters behind Waxing Crescent Meta Knight.
• The rapid jab hitbox's extended Z position has been increased (13.5u → 17.5u), noticeably improving its range.
• The rapid jab has a much higher hitlag multiplier (.5 → 1.2).
• The rapid jab can no longer be SDI'd.
• The rapid jab deals much more shield damage (0 → 1).
• The rapid jab has a different attack sound level (S → M).
• The finisher hit's hitbox 0 is much larger (5u → 9u).
• The finisher hit hitbox 0's Y position has been increased (8u → 11u).
• The finisher hit hitbox 0's Z position has been increased (11u → 22.5u).
• The finisher hit's hitbox 1 is now attached to 's sword.
• The finisher hit's hitbox 1 becomes active 1 frame sooner, and inactive 1 frame later(frame 3 → frames 2-4).
  • These changes, combined with the previous change improve the finisher hit's vertical coverage.
• The finisher hit no longer has a hitbox 2.
• The finisher hit deals much more damage (2 → 5), drastically improving its KO potential.
• The finisher hit deals much more shield damage (0 → 10).
  • This change, combined with the increased shield damage of the rapid jab, allows neutral attack to break shields with ease.
• The finisher hit has a different collision sound (cutup → fire).

• Forward tilt:
• The 1st hit deals more damage (2 → 3).
• {{buff|The 1st hit becomes inactive 1 frame later (frame 6 → frame 6-7)
• The 1st hit's knock back no longer scales with percent, allowing it to reliably lead into the 2nd hit even at extremely high percentages.
• The 1st hit's hitbox 1 has slightly more knockback (25 → 28).
• The 1st hit's hitbox 1 launches opponents at a lower angle towards Waxing Crescent Meta Knight, allowing it to lead into the 2nd hit more consistently. (88 → 160).
• The 1st hit's hitbox 1 has a lower Y position (5.5 → 5.0).
• The 1st hit's hitbox 1 has a higher Z position (13.0 → 14.0),slightly improving its range.
• The 1st hit's hitbox 1 extends further on the Y axis (5.5 → 6.5).
  • The 1st hit has more hitstun (+0 frames → +10 frames).
• The 1st hit has gained an additional hitbox for 2 framing and combos. Compared to hitbox 0:
  • It's larger (3.5u → 4u)
  • It deals more damage (3 → 4).
  • It has more hitstun (+10 frames → +18 frames).
  • It has much more knockback (25 → 115).
  • It has a different launch angle (68 → 90).
  • Its Y position is lower (7.4 → 1.2).
  • Its Z position is higher (8 → 14).
  • It causes sting damage instead of cutup damage.
• The 2nd hit deals more damage (2 → 3).
• {{buff|The 2nd hit becomes inactive 1 frame later (frame 2 → frame 2-3)
• The 2nd hit's knock back no longer scales with percent, allowing it to reliably lead into the 2nd hit even at extremely high percentages.
• The 2nd hit's hitbox 1 has slightly more knockback (25 → 38).
• The 2nd hit's hitbox 1 launches opponents at a lower angle towards Waxing Crescent Meta Knight, allowing it to lead into the 2nd hit more consistently. (85 → 160).
  • The 2nd hit's hitbox 0 has more hitstun (+0 frames → +20 frames).
  • The 2nd hit's hitbox 1 has more hitstun (+0 frames → +10 frames).
• The 1st hit's hitbox 1 has a higher Z position (16.5 → 20.0), improving its range.