Sheik (SSBB)

This article is about Sheik's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Sheik. Also, for information about Sheik's alter-ego, see Princess Zelda.

Sheik in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Alternate form	Zelda
Other playable appearance	in Melee
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Light Arrow
Tier	E (25)

Sheik (シーク) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Sheik transforms from Zelda by using her down special move Transform, and can also transform back from Sheik. Her design saw great changes in that she was given a great deal more detail in her costume, as well as a knife and pony-tail. The most significant change to her design is in her figure, which now appears much more feminine than in previous titles. Sheik's Brawl design isn't based on her appearance from Ocarina of Time like it was in Melee. It is actually based on conceptual designs that were created for Twilight Princess.

The playability of Sheik had earlier been hinted by Eiji Aonuma, the director of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, who stated that he sent Twilight Princess-style designs of Sheik and Ganondorf to Sakurai.

Sheik can be selected off of the Character Select screen by clicking on her image, like selecting a starting Pokémon with Pokémon Trainer. However, unlike Pokémon Trainer, there is no Random option between the two.

Sheik saw a large drop in her tier position, from being rank 4th in the top tier of Melee, to being currently ranked 25th in the middle tier of Brawl. Sheik retains her blinding attack speed from Melee, possessing some of the fastest movement, and frame data only rivaled by Meta Knight. Additionally, Sheik possesses a transcendent and fast projectile with high damage potential in her Needles, as well as great combo ability, and a lock in her forward tilt that can rack up over 50% in damage on most characters. Her power was significantly nerfed from Melee however. She possesses few attacks that can KO under 150% outside edge guarding, and of those few potential finishers, only two can be considered reliable in KOing (her sweetspotted up smash and the explosion in Vanish), both of which are difficult to land. Sheik also has very poor endurance; suffering from the combination of being tall and light, causing her to sustain high knockback while being rather easy to hit, which is exasperated by her poor momentum cancelling, and her short distanced and easily edge hogged recovery. Additional problems Sheik has include her fast falling speed leaving her vulnerable to some juggles and chain throws, as well as short reach in the majority of her attacks. This has resulted in average matchups and below average tournament results for Sheik. Despite ranking significantly higher than Zelda, who rests at 37th on the tier list (second to dead last), her Zelda/Sheik form is considered a better character and is ranked higher than Sheik alone (currently 21st), mainly as transforming into Zelda can help alleviate the very severe KO problems Sheik has in some matchups (such as against King Dedede).

Attributes

Sheik is one of the fastest characters in the game, having the fourth fastest running speed, high attack speed, and a quick, long and deadly DACUS. She has one of the best comboing abilities, as her attacks have very little start up and ending lag, with overall low knockback, allowing them to chain effectively. The best example of this is Sheik's forward tilt. As in Melee, the forward tilt can smoothly follow after her up tilt, down tilt, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, down smash, and jab cancel; it can also repeatedly link into itself to easily rack up 50% or more, especially on fast-fallers or heavy characters, such as Fox. Sheik's up tilt can combo into itself very low percentages, and at slightly higher percentages, it leads well into a forward tilt. It has a very large hitbox in terms of size and duration, making it a powerful defensive move.

As for stronger moves with greater KO potential, Sheik's down smash has multiple hits and has long range. Her up smash can KO easily at around 100%, but only when it is sweetspotted, which is not always easy. Her forward smash isn't very powerful, but it is a two hit combo and has fairly good range.

Sheik has a fairly powerful air-game that really only lacks in one area: versatility. Her back and neutral aerials have very similar knockback and speed and negligible landing lag outside of auto-cancel. If hit in the initial few frames, they have decent knockback, making them useful for edgeguarding, and they have good range. Her up aerial has some landing lag and has less knockback. Her forward aerial is a quick swipe with low knockback but a great semi-spike trajectory, low lag, but sub-par range. This makes it a great move for KO'ing at higher percentages. Her down aerial is a stall-then-fall, negating all vertical knockback, but unfortunately, it has high landing lag.

Sheik does have versatility amongst her special moves, however. Needles are a fast projectile that can be very hard to dodge and can be charged for increased damage. Sheik's up special is somewhat low in terms of recovery distance, but it has the second highest knockback of any of Sheik's moves. Combined with the invulnerability it grants, this can occasionally be used against some moves as a powerful counter, but it's also one of the hardest moves to hit with unless used in this way: it can also be used to edgeguard through Vanish Gliding. Sheik's forward special is the Chain, which can be used for a tether recovery, and also has some offensive potential through Chain Locking, which is great for punishing shielding, rolling, and sidestepping, and Chain Jacket, which can be used to insert the knockback and priority of the last attack into the Chain, giving an advantage over characters with less priority or projectiles. It is slow coming out and returning, however, and leaves her vulnerable from behind, a problem that can be capitalized on. Sheik's down special transforms her into Zelda, which allows use of two different characters in the same match, which can help to balance some of Sheik's weaknesses. Sheik also can wall jump, wall cling, and crawl.

Sheik is not a character without any weaknesses, however. Above all, Sheik does not have much KO'ing power on most of her moves, as a majority of her KO'ing moves in Melee were severely nerfed. Her two most powerful KO'ing moves are her sweetspotted up smash and Vanish, which are hard to connect with compared to Sheik's other moves. Sheik can use techniques such as DACUS and forward tilt to help connect her up smash, to an extent, but nothing else KO's reliably below 150%. This makes Sheik very reliant on getting numerous hits to rack up damage and edgeguarding. Additionally, Sheik's best chain of attacks (the forward tilt-lock) often stops working before the opponent reaches ko percentage (stops at about 50%, depending on the match-up of course: lasts to later percentages on fast-fallers and heavy characters like Wolf and Bowser, but stops sooner on light and floaty characters like Kirby and Jigglypuff). Because of this, it may be best to turn back into Zelda to KO the opponent. Sheik also has poor priority and attack range on a good number of moves. Sheik is also very light-weight and tall for her weight class, making her easier to defeat than many characters (though this is not without its advantages, as it allows Sheik to escape some chaingrabs, including Dedede's infamous Chaingrab), and her poor recovery often comes up short. Sheik is also one of the fastest-falling characters in the game, making her vulnerable to any chaingrab that is effective against fast-fallers.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Sheik has undergone a large nerf, resulting a dramatic drop on her previously high tier position in Melee. Her specials have seen some change. Needle Storm immediately begins charging if special move button is tapped, rather than firing a single needle. The special button must be tapped twice to fire a single needle. Needle Storm will eventually stop charging by itself, instead of requiring the player to throw the needles or press the grab button to save them. Her recovery is also slightly improved, as Chain can now be used as a tether recovery, and Vanish now has more damage, more knockback, more distance, and less landing lag. Like Zelda, her in-game transformations take longer than before, but render Sheik/Zelda invincible. Chain also moves more freely than in Melee. Her normal moves have also undergone changes. Her forward smash has increased knockback on the second hit. Down throw can no longer chain grab most characters. Her down smash has lower knockback. Her up smash has increased knockback on the sides. If Sheik is close enough, the tip and side hits can both strike the opponent, sending the enemy at a ~60 degree angle. Her forward tilt has less knockback, but is better at comboing. Her up tilt has more knockback on the second hit. Her Down aerial now angles diagonally downwards, and is a stall-then-fall. Her up aerial is now a better juggler, but it cannot KO until 130%. Her neutral and back aerial is weaker (back and neutral aerials can not reliably KO under 150%) Her forward aerial can still semi-spike, but it has less knockback and a smaller sweetspot (cannot KO until 150% when edgeguarding). She also has a better, shorter short hop, and can crawl.

In cosmetic terms, Sheik looks more feminine, has a lighter skin tone, smaller eyes, and a different outfit. She also now has a braid. She can now be chosen instead of Zelda at the character selection screen (one simply selects Zelda and then clicks on the image of Sheik behind Zelda's portrait.)

Moveset

Ground attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack - Sweeps her right hand left then right, then repeatedly jabs with her arm straight and with her fingers sticking out. First two hits, 3%. Jabs, 2% each, 1% if hit with the tip of her fingers.
• Dash attack - Throws her arms forward and forcefully separates her hands. 7%.
• Forward tilt - Kicks her leg in an arc. Its high speed and low knockback allows good combo ability, being able to do it repeatedly or follow up with another attack. 5%.
• Up tilt - Sheik raises her right leg above her and slams it down. First hit, 6%. Second hit, 7%. A good combo ender.
• Down tilt - Sheik does a quick spin kicking the ground with her leg. 8%.

Smash attacks

• Forward smash - Sheik kicks in front of her twice, trapping the enemy in the first kick at low percentages and knocks them back with the second kick. Below-average knockback. First hit, 5% uncharged, 7% fully charged. Second hit, 9% uncharged, 12% fully charged.
• Up smash - Sheik raises her arms above her head holding them together and forcefully separates them to the left and right sides of her body. Powerful knockback when sweetspotted, but less powerful when sourspotted. It is also possible to hit twice with it for huge damage. Body (hits first), 17% uncharged, 23% fully charged. Wind, 12% uncharged, 17% fully charged.
• Down smash - Sheik spins her body on the ground sticking her legs out. First hit, 13% uncharged, 18% fully charged. Second and third hits, 10% uncharged, 14% fully charged. Decent knockback.

Other

• Ledge attack - Sheik swiftly kicks her foot up off the edge. Similar to her Up Air, except sideways. 8%.
• 100% ledge attack - Sheik slowly gets up and forcefully brings her elbow forward. 8%.
• Floor attack - Sheik kicks backwards, then brings her leg over her head in a kick, then gets up. 6%.
• Trip attack - Gets up and spins around with her leg extended. 5%.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial -Sheik kicks forward with her leg. Can KO opponents at 120%. 13% during the first several frames, 5% during the rest.
• Forward aerial -Sheik claws in front of her with her left hand. 9%. Good for edgeguarding due to its low angle of trajectory.
• Back aerial - Sheik kicks backward with her right leg. Can KO opponents at 130% who are very close to the ledge. 11% during the first several frames, 6% during the rest. Sweetspot is her foot.
• Up aerial - Sheik does a quick screwdriver kick. This attack cannot KO until the opponent is at 130% and the player must use all of Sheik's jumps and then her up aerial to star KO opponents. 11% during the first several frames, 6% during the rest of them.
• Down aerial - Sheik kicks down throwing herself down with it, in a similar fashion to Sonic's down-aerial. High ending lag. 10%.

Grabs & throws

• Pummel - Sheik hits the enemy with her left elbow. 3%.
• Forward throw -Sheik elbows the enemy with her left arm. 5%, then 2%.
• Back throw - Sheik throws the enemy behind her and kicks backwards. 5%, then 2%.
• Up throw - Sheik flips upside-down and kicks the enemy with both of her feet. 3%, then 2%.
• Down throw -Sheik throws the enemy down to the ground, flips, and axe kicks the enemy's midsection, sending the enemy upward. Two hits of 3%.

Special moves

Sheik's special moves

Neutral special	Needle Storm
Side special	Chain		Burst Grenade
Up special	Vanish
Down special	Transform		Bouncing Fish
Final Smash	—	Light Arrow		Sheikah Dance

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Role In Subspace Emissary

Sheik in the SSE

If one chooses to rescue Zelda from Petey Piranha in the Subspace Emissary, the player can still transform into Sheik, despite her not technically being introduced until much later. Thus, Sheik is the only character in the Subspace Emissary to be playable before she's introduced. After Peach and Zelda are rescued by Lucario, Meta Knight, and Snake, the two princesses are ordered to stay where they are until the Halberd is under their control. Zelda transforms into Sheik and walks out with Peach, opening a window to the outside of the ship. Both princesses then make their way to the front deck of the ship. There, they witness Fox's Arwing attacking the Halberd, and his lasers meant for the Halberd's turret nearly injures Peach. In response, Sheik leaps into the air and uses Vanish onto the Arwing, striking the windshield and forcing Fox to jettison. They fall back to the Halberd, and begin to fight, but Peach offers them both tea, ending any erroneous hostilities.

As they drink their tea, several Mr. Game and Watches fall from the bridge and turn into shadow bugs that coalesce to form the monstrous Duon. The three prepare to fight, but are joined by Lucario, Snake, and Falco. They then proceed to defeat Duon, and it turns into the trophy of Mr. Game and Watch, who Peach revives. Then she and the other heroes journey into subspace for the final battle against Tabuu. Sometime between then and the entrance to Subspace, Sheik transformed back into Zelda.

Costumes

Zelda's and Sheik's alternate costumes in SSBB

Trivia

• Sheik has the shortest on-screen appearance duration out of all the characters in Subspace Emissary, apart from Ivysaur, who only appears as a trophy.
• Unlike Melee, where completing Classic mode with either Zelda or Sheik would get both Zelda and Sheik trophies, Brawl makes one play both characters separately to retrieve their trophies.
• Along with Sonic, Squirtle, and Zero Suit Samus, Sheik is one of the only characters to not be seen in trophy form during The Subspace Emissary.
• Sheik is the only veteran fighter that can wall cling.

Brawl Manual Description

Zelda's alternate form. Graceful, swift attacks make her a close-range threat.

External links

• Sheik's page at Smash Bros. Dojo
• Sheik Character Guide at SWF
• Sheik's hitbox size of each of her moves
• Zelda and Sheik's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice