Marth (SSBM)

Marth in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	S (4)

“	Marth is a magnificent swordsman. While his swordplay is faster than that of Link, he lacks power, and his quickness is offset by a marginal endurance.	”
—Description from Marth's trophy.

Marth (マルス, Marth) debuted in the first game of the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light (Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi). Marth was placed in Super Smash Bros. Melee due to heavy requests from Japanese players; as his games had never been released outside of Japan prior to Melee, his character was among the most obscure in the game in other regions. His popularity as a character, alongside Roy, eventually caused Nintendo to begin releasing the Fire Emblem games internationally; the first internationally released game came two years after Melee.

Marth currently ranks 4th place on the tier list, in the S tier. This is due to fast overall startup in his attacks, long and disjointed range, large amounts of extra power when attacks hit at the tip of his blade, very potent juggling and combo ability with one of the largest non-disjointed grab ranges, and a great edgeguarding ability. Marth is also blessed with a multitude of good movement options to approach and pressure with. He has a long dash dance and a long wavedash, both of which compliment his large reach. Marth also has many options to KO enemies and close combos, such as his down aerial (a very potent spike when sweetspotted, and the closer to the notorious Ken Combo) and forward smash. Compared to other top-tier characters, Marth's learning curve is not very high as he does not require an extensive amount of tech skill to be used effectively, making him easy to pick up and play. On the downside, his ability to punish approaches are somewhat limited in comparison to other top tier characters due to the lack of a projectile and the short duration of his moves. Marth also suffers from a general lack of options when put on the defensive. His weight makes him very easy to combo and does not provide sufficient knockback resistance to survive heavy hits at kill percent. Marth's out of shield game is also notoriously poor. His recovery is also problematic; while it is extendable with his side special and can end with a fast up special that covers decent distance, it is also rather predictable. Marth's main weakness though is that despite the fast startup of his moves, his moves have considerable endlag and are thus very whiff punishable. As such Marth is very susceptible to momentum shifts; a punished move puts Marth in a defensive position where he has little options. So overall, despite his low technical learning curve, many consider Marth to be one of the most difficult characters to play at high levels due to the intricate spacing ability required of top-level players to overcome his aforementioned flaws. Regardless of these flaws, Marth has excellent match-ups against many characters, including six that are nearly unloseable.

How to unlock

To unlock Marth, players have to use all fourteen starter characters in VS. matches, complete Classic mode with all fourteen starter characters, or play 400 VS. matches. Upon completing this, Marth will be fought on Fountain of Dreams, with the track "Fire Emblem" playing.

Attributes

The majority of Marth's moveset is highly effective at edgeguarding.

Marth falls under the character archetype of being fast, with the ability to easily outmaneuver most of his opponents; Marth has a very fast dashing speed, a long wavedash and rather good jumping speed, with average falling speed, contributing to a good SHFFL. With a good dash dance and a disjointed hitbox, Marth has good approach options in the game, both in the air and on the ground.

One of Marth's greatest strengths is his range in his normal attacks; Falchion grants Marth a disjointed hitbox that can allow him to safely attack from a distance. Additionally, the tip of Falchion, its sweetspot, is remarkably easy to land with, making Marth stronger when he's farther from his opponent. This long hitbox with a far away sweetspot also contributes to Marth's combo game.

In addition to his disjointed range, Marth has almost unparalleled combo ability; despite a slightly below average air speed, with a combination of good jumping prowess, and an average falling speed, as well as quick, low lag, high ranged, easy-to-sweetspot aerials, Marth has among the best air games in Melee, and a great combo ability. Additionally, Marth's grab game is also good, due to a surprisingly good grab range (the best for non-grapple grabs). His throws possess low damage and knockback, allowing him to chain his throws into each other and combo into other attacks. In particular, his up throw can chain throw most fast fallers at low to mid percentages, and it can directly segue into an up tilt or an aerial. Marth's long dash dance also makes him a superb tech chaser. Despite the presence of this disjointed hitbox, however, Marth requires significant knowledge of spacing with his aerials in order to properly combo. For most of his attacks, the sweetspot hitbubbles have lowest priority, so they only hit if none of the weaker hitbubbles connect on that frame. Priority is determined by hitbubble ID which is listed in the moveset subpages.

As such, Marth requires significant knowledge of hitbox spacing with his moves in order to properly combo; the non-tipper and tipper hitboxes of Marth's moves have very different knockback values and angles and in many cases a specific hitbox is needed to extend the punish.

Marth also has plenty of powerful attacks; some of these attacks are very fast and have high range, such as his up tilt, while others can KO at close ranges, such as the Reverse Dolphin Slash technique. Marth's forward smash is feared due to its high speed and power, and it can actually "break" through some projectiles found in the game; it also works well when wavesmashed, due to Marth's long wavedash. Marth's down tilt and Shield Breaker act as good edgeguarding options. Most notably, however, is his down aerial; it acts as a powerful spike in NTSC regions, and an equally powerful meteor smash in PAL regions; it can KO reliably even as low as 40%, and many of Marth's attacks can easily combo into his dair, most notably his forward aerial as part of the Ken Combo. Marth also has access to a grounded meteor, in his Dancing Blade. While its uses for KOing are somewhat situational, it can set up tech chases well as well as free jab resets.

Marth's primary flaw is his rather lackluster recovery. His up special, Dolphin Slash, grants little horizontal distance and decidedly average vertical distance; its ending lag also makes it very easy to punish. Marth's average air speed also prevents him from moving far after entering a helpless state. However, Marth can mitigate the lack of a true horizontal recovery by using Dancing Blade to give him some horizontal distance, though this grants no vertical recovery and must be timed well.

Additionally, Marth's ground-based approach is slightly held back by a lack of a projectile, limiting his approach in comparison with other high tier characters, such as Fox. Marth also has a large target for a character of his weight; Marth is also vulnerable to Fox's waveshine combos in the NTSC regions, though his lighter weight in the PAL regions makes multiple waveshines impossible, limiting Fox's only follow-up to a jump canceled grab. Players, however, can potentially avoid being waveashined with proper horizontal DI.

PAL differences

Like some other characters, Marth received some changes in the PAL version of Melee, which slightly Nerfed him overall, but do not heavily effect his tournament results.

• Down aerial is no longer a spike but a meteor smash, meaning it can be meteor cancelled, making it a less effective and reliable finisher.
• Weight has been lowered from 87 to 85. While this can be seen as a nerf by hindering his survivability, this change also makes him immune to Fox's waveshine combos; in the NTSC regions, his weight is just above the threshold to allow him to be waveshined.

Moveset

Marth's aerial attacks

For a gallery of Marth's hitboxes, see here.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Slash, Counter Slash	4% (base), 6% (tip)	The first hit swings upward. Useful for both offensive and defensive spacing, especially when used with wavedashing, due to the move's non-commital nature with regards to movement. Due to its speed and disjoint and relative power for a jab, the move is also highly useful for edgeguarding linear recoveries. The second hit is another upward swing from the other side of Marth's body. While not as useful as the first jab, it can be used to cover some unorthodox recovery options (such as the shortened Fox Illusion or Falco Phantasm) by virtue of the fact that the two jab hits can be chained continuously.
			4% (base), 6% (tip)
Forward tilt		Sharp Edge	9% (base), 13% (tip)	A fast forward sword swipe, much like the dash attack with less lag and a higher angle.
Up tilt		Anti-Air Slash	8%, 9%, 10%, 12%, or 13% depending on time and position	Swings his sword in a large arc above his head, with a large hitbox that can peg opponents behind him. This move has many varied uses; most notably, it can juggle and trap opponents in conjunction with a forward smash, a nair, or an up air on top of platforms. It can also set up aerial combos. At high percentages, it is an effective KO move, KOing reliably at 130% and above when tipped.
Down tilt		Low Stab	8% (base), 9% (middle), 10% (tip)	A quick crouching sword poke. As it pokes out and is a semi-spike, it is very useful for edgeguarding, and is also a staple in Marth's neutral game as it can safely be used to interrupt dash dancing and wavedashing approaches or follow-ups. It may also lead into a grab follow-up below 100%.
Dash attack		Raid Chop	9% (base), 11% (middle), 12% (tip)	A quick upward sweeping diagonal slash with medium lag, high range, and relatively high damage. Depending if it's tipped or not, it can either send opponents behind him or above him. Very good for setting up combos.
Forward smash		Dragon Killer	14% (base), 20% (tip)	Rotates body counter-clockwise with a strong arc-like swing from his head to the ground, similar to the animation of his neutral special. Very fast and long ranged. The knockback of the move is stronger on the tipper hitbox of the sword.
Up smash		Justice Sword	8% (sides), 15% (sword), 18% (tip)	A quick, direct upward thrust. The move has very weak sourspots next to Marth if used on the ground, so it is not a reliable KO move on grounded enemies next to Marth, but it can act as a surprise KO option on enemies directly above him in the air or on platforms.
Down smash		Whirlwind Blade	11% (base), 16% (tip)	Sweeps his sword on the ground toward the front then toward the back. If tipped it sends opponents upward with high vertical knockback, star KOing opponents at high percentages, and is one of the strongest down smashes in the game. If hit at the base, it sends opponents with low horizontal knockback, but it can still KO at high percentages. It is generally not a safe option to use in most situations, as the attack has a fair amount of ending lag and takes longer to fully execute than his other smash attacks.
Neutral aerial		Double Slash	4% (hit 1), 10% (hit 2)	Two horizontal slashes around himself. Both hits connect easily, can follow up into each other. Oddly enough, both the tipper hitbox and the non-tipper hitbox deal the same damage and knockback; the only difference between the 2 hitboxes is the sound effect.
Forward aerial		Aerial Swipe	9% (base), 10% (middle), 13% (tip)	Marth does a forward vertical swipe slash (up to down). It is considered Marth's most versatile aerial as it is his fastest and has the most combo potential. It also has the least ending lag of all his aerials and it is his safest aerial on shield since it deals 7 frames of shield stun and has 7 frames of endlag; Marth can dash dance away after doing the move on shield. Because of its ability to link into virtually any other of Marth's moves, it sets up edgeguards perfectly. The move however has a very short duration and thus despite its speed, it is unsafe when spammed in neutral.
Back aerial		About Face	9% (base), 10% (middle), 13% (tip)	Bottom to top sword slash behind him. The attack has the unusual property of turning Marth around when used in the air; in this regard, his back aerial can be used to potentially set up a Ken Combo.
Up aerial		Luna Slash	9% (base), 10% (middle), 13% (tip)	A forward to back upward wide sword slash in a full delayed somersault. It is not particularly powerful, tippered or non-tippered, but conversely it shows no mercy juggling opponents when combined with forward smash, up tilt, and other aerials.
Down aerial		Half Moon	9% (base), 10% (middle), 13% (tip)	A forward to back downward outward sword slash. The attack, when sweetspotted, sends opponents flying downward. In NTSC regions, the attack is a spike, while PAL regions, it's a meteor smash. Due to its high ending lag and Marth's lackluster recovery, the attack is of high risk if used offstage at a low altitude. Regardless, the move is extremely useful anywhere else on the stage. Its long horizontal reach makes it a great tech chase option (for reading rolls) as well as an out of shield option. This is the primary finish to a Ken Combo.
Grab			—	4th longest grab range overall and the longest non-tether grab.
Pummel		Knee	3%	Knees opponent.
Forward throw		Bounce	4%	Grabs and pushes forward, tripping with the leg.
Back throw		Throw Away	4%	Pulls and extends leg simultaneously.
Up throw		Emblem Toss	4%	Powerful upward throw with one arm. Can chain throw fast fallers at low percentages, and is the third strongest up throw in the game.
Down throw		Slam	5%	Hooks arm and drags to the floor sending the opponent backward. Set ups tipper forward smash at low percentages.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Sweeps the tip of his sword on the ground front to back. Less range than floor attack from back.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Quick stab to the left followed by horizontal slash to the right.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8% (sword), 6% (base)	Flips onto ledge with a quick downward diagonal slash from left to right.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			8% (sword), 6% (base)	Quick, low, horizontal slash with medium lag. Less range than normal ledge attack.
Neutral special		Shield Breaker	7% (uncharged) to 28% (fully charged)	An overhead slash similar to the forward smash, but can be charged for longer with more powerful results.
Side special		Dancing Blade	3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 10%, 12%, or 14% depending on hit	A sequence of sword maneuvers with several variations.
Up special		Dolphin Slash	10% (grounded base), 13% (grounded tip), 7% (aerial sword), 6% (aerial base)	A super-quick jumping uppercut slash that can be reversed before frame 6. Dolphin Slash has many uses, but is very risky to use due to the large degree of vulnerability Marth receives if the move is whiffed. The move is easily comboed into (though DI must be correctly read); it can be used as an alternative (instead of a down air) to finish a Ken Combo. It is also Marth's fastest option to punish rolls (provided he is close enough) as well as his fastest out of shield option.
Down special		Counter	7%	Blocks and retaliates against incoming attacks.

Taunt

Swings his sword around and declares "Everyone, look at me!" in Japanese (Minna, miteite kure!).

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Marth has among the most positive matchup spreads in the game, being soft countered by two characters, having four even matchups, soft countering three characters, countering ten, and hard countering six. He tends to have an advantage against characters with poor range, such as Dr. Mario (who he can easily outspace on the ground and in the air alike), and characters with poor mobility on the ground, such as Zelda. He is also one of the three characters in the game to have an even matchup against Fox. However, his recovery is rather poor, as characters such as Jigglypuff, Sheik, and Fox can edgeguard or gimp him pretty easily in most offstage situations. Additionally, he is vulnerable to combos and dash dance follow-ups from faster characters such as Captain Falcon if he fails to land reads or punishes. Overall, however, Marth is one of the most difficult matchups for many of the characters in Melee.

Notable players

See also: Category:Marth professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  Azen
•  Ether
•  I.B
•  Ken
•  KoreanDJ
•  Mew2King
•  PewPewU
•  PPMD
•  Salepate
•  Tai
•  The Moon
•  ZoSo

Inactive

•  Bob$
•  Husband
•  Ice
•  Mango
•  Taj

Tier placement and history

Very early in the Melee metagame, Marth was seen as a character that relied too much on rolling and C-stick spamming, traits that led to a negative low-level image of him despite his high tier placement. Shortly before the third tier list (June 2003), Ken won Tournament Go 4 with Marth, introducing the uses of dash-dancing, chain throwing, and a higher focus on spacing and aerial combat, including the creation of the famous Ken Combo. Later, Ken incorporated other advanced techniques, such as wavedashing, into Marth's metagame, and showed how powerfully he could punish enemies off small mistakes and reads. Because of this, Ken is credited for largely improving Marth's metagame. Ken, and a handful of other top Marth mains such as Azen, are credited for moving Marth up to the top tier for years to come, usually around the second to fourth highest spot on the list. Marth's first drop into the high tier since then was in the eighth tier list (July 2006), where he dropped to fourth place. However, in the ninth tier list (October 2008), he again moved up to second place, before dropping to fifth place in the tenth list (September 2010), and rising to fourth in the eleventh (current) tier list as of July 2013.

In the post-Brawl metagame, however, professional opinions of Marth began declining. After Mew2King's absolute dominance with Marth for a short time span around Brawl's release, Marth mains began falling in tournament placings as previous Marth mains retired and newer players learned to exploit his weaknesses. Mew2King eventually switched to playing primarily Sheik, and up-and-coming Marth players, such as Tai and PewPewU, were far too inconsistent at the time to place well in larger tournaments. This led to questionable claims by certain players about Marth's viability. Upon returning to the scene briefly in 2012, Ken claimed that Marth was a mid-tier character who lost in every important top-tier matchup. Mew2King's personal tier list in 2014 decisively ranked Marth as fifth because in his opinion, while Marth can punish the entire cast solidly, he gets punished too easily in return, leading to losing matchups against Fox, Falco, Sheik, and Jigglypuff on all non-Final Destination stages.

Despite this, new innovations in the modern metagame by the aforementioned PewPewU and PPMD, as well as frame data compiled by various community members such as Kadano, have maintained Marth's viability and changed several opinions concerning his tier placement. PPMD's victory at Apex 2015, where he beat several Fox players using primarily Marth, showed that despite Marth's more apparent weaknesses today, he remains a character who can win large, top-level tournaments.

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Marth can appear in one-on-one matches, team battles alongside Link and Zelda, and as a metal opponent in the mode's penultimate stage. In his appearances, bar his metal match, Marth appears on Great Bay. On a team with Zelda, he appears on Temple. In all such instances, the track "Fire Emblem" plays on the stage, which does not occur in any other mode; unusually, this does not happen when fighting Marth + Link, during which it will still play the "Great Bay" theme.

In Adventure Mode

Marth makes no appearances in the game's single-player Adventure Mode. Music associated with him, however, can play in the Underground Maze.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Marth and his allies are fought on Fountain of Dreams, as Marth was not designated a specific home stage. When fought on the stage, the track "Fire Emblem" plays instead of the standard music.

In Event Matches

Marth appears in multiple Event Matches:

• Event 40: All-Star Match 4: Marth is the first opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles him on the Temple stage with a stock of 2 while Marth has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other four characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage: Luigi, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, and Mr. Game & Watch.
• Event 41: En Garde!: A one-on-one battle between the player as Marth and the enemy Link on the Temple stage, with the two characters having 2 stock each and unlimited time.
• Event 46: Fire Emblem Pride: The player battles and must defeat a team of Marth and Roy in an untimed match in the Hyrule Temple stage, with all three characters receiving 3 stock.

Ending images

• 

  Classic Mode.

• 

  Adventure Mode.

• 

  All-Star Mode.

Japanese translations

Marth is considerably more verbose than Roy in the games, speaking in the Results screen, in his taunt and during his Counter if it activates. He also has one unused soundbite.

• Marth's taunt in battle is "皆、見ていてくれ！" "Minna, miteite kure!" which translates to "Everyone, please watch me!".
• Marth's counter move is performed while saying "そこだ！" "Soko da!" or "させるものか！" "Saseru mono ka!" which roughly translates to "There!" and "Like I'd allow that!" respectively.
• Marth's three possible victory statements are:
  • "今回は僕の勝ちだね。" "Konkai wa boku no kachi da ne?" which translates to "This time, victory is mine, right?"
  • "今日も生き延びることが出来た。" "Kyou mo ikinobiru koto ga dekita", which translates to "Today, too, I managed to survive."
  • "僕は負ける訳には行かないんだ。" "Boku wa makeru wake-ni wa ikanain'da!" which translates to "There's no way I can lose!"
• In the Debug Menu of the game, Marth has an additional phrase that he does not say in the game: "レッツダンス！" "Rettsu dansu!", the phrase "Let's Dance!" approximated phonetically in Japanese.

Trophy descriptions

In addition to the normal trophy about Marth as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Classic, Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Marth on any difficulty:

Marth (Classic Mode):

The betrayed prince of the Kingdom of Altea, the blood of the hero Anri flows in Marth's veins. He was forced into exile when the kingdom of Dolua invaded Altea. Then, wielding his divine sword Falchion, he led a revolt and defeated the dark dragon Medeus. Afterwards, Altea was annihilated by King Hardin of Akanea.

• Fire Emblem
• Japan Only

Marth (Adventure Mode):

Marth is a magnificent swordsman. While his swordplay is faster than that of Link, he lacks power, and his quickness is offset by a marginal endurance. His Shield Breaker gains power the longer it's held. The Dancing Blade combination uses both the Control Stick and the B Button to produce a series of up to four attacks.

• B: Shield Breaker
• Smash B: Dancing Blade

Marth (All-Star Mode):

The tip of Marth's blade causes the most damage, so you should try to create adequate distance between you and your enemy to gracefully strike with that point. Marth's Dolphin Slash is fast and powerful, but it leaves him vulnerable upon landing. Marth uses Counter to block a foe's attack and deal a return strike. If you're fighting a Counter-happy Marth, grab him.

• Up & B: Dolphin Slash
• Down & B: Counter

• 

  Marth [Classic Mode] trophy

• 

  Marth [Smash, Adventure Mode] trophy

• 

  Marth [Smash, All-Star Mode] trophy

Alternate costumes

Marth's alternate costumes in Melee.

Trivia

• Marth is the only newcomer and unlockable character to have a clone.
• Marth and Roy are the only characters in Melee that speak Japanese even when English is turned on. To date, they are the only two fighters to speak solely in Japanese.
• Marth and Roy are the only playable characters in Melee that don't have a stage representing their universe, though hacked data shows that one was planned.
  • As a result of not having a stage, Marth is fought on Fountain of Dreams in All-Star Mode and his character unlock battle. In Event Matches, he appears in Temple, and in Classic Mode, he appears on Great Bay.
• Marth, Roy, and Peach are the only characters in Melee with a special move that can counter.
• Along with Roy, Marth was originally going to be a Japanese-exclusive character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but was kept in all versions on request of an employee at Nintendo of America. American fans became interested in Fire Emblem because of Super Smash Bros. Melee, which helped Fire Emblem to enter the countries where the games in the series had not been released.

Marth is cool