Ice Climbers (SSBU)

Ice Climbers in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Ice Climber
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Iceberg
Tier	B- (56)

The Ice Climbers (アイスクライマー, Ice Climber) are playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Alongside the rest of the veterans, they were confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Unlike Ultimate's predecessors, the Ice Climbers are now unlockable, instead of being available from the start. Although they are a tag-team, the Ice Climbers are collectively classified as Fighter #15.

Sanae Kobayashi voices the Ice Climbers once again in all regions, using a combination of new voice-clips and recycled ones from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The Ice Climbers are ranked 56th out of 82 on the Ultimate tier list, placing them at the end of B- tier. This is an extreme drop from their previous placement in Brawl, ranking 2nd out of 38, and is by far their worst placement in the series to date. The Ice Climbers are known for having some of the greatest damage output across the cast, which is supplemented by their quick frame-data and excellent KO potential. Their relatively small size and low crouch also makes him rather hard to hit; their crouch especially allows them to avoid most grabs and some attacks. Even then, their hammers are disjointed hitboxes, giving them good range for their size. Their grab game still remains among the best across the cast; forward throw and back throw can leave the opponent in very unfavorable positions, while up throw and down throw can start combos at lower precents and KO at very high precents. Finally, their special moveset boasts flexible versatility: Squall Hammer and Blizzard can both start/extend combos, Ice Shot is a decent zoning tool, and Belay is an excellent recovery for both climbers.

However, if the partner is gone, the remaining climber will be drastically weakened, especially in terms of raw power and recovery. The fact that the partner has less endurance and flawed artificial intelligence compared to the leader further amplifies this issue. In addition, the Ice Climbers both have rather poor endurance, as their moderately light weight makes them susceptible to early KOs. Their poor mobility, as well as a lack of reliable projectiles, hoists a lot of problems in the neutral game. Despite having disjoints, their range is still relatively lackluster, giving them trouble approaching and fighting those that can outrange him. Finally, while covering considerable distance, their recovery is rather predictable and situational, as Belay and Squall Hammer travel rather linear distances, while their poor air speed and floatiness make them vulnerable to edgeguarding.

Overall, while not as dominating as before, the duo still retain the tools to beat out every matchup once their desynced combos and zero-to-deaths have been fully mastered. As such, they still maintain excellent success in competitive play due to the efforts of players such as Harasen, Futari no Kiwami Ah~! and especially Big D.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with the Ice Climbers being the 10th characters to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Link or any character in his unlock tree, being the 2nd character unlocked after King K. Rool.
• Have the Ice Climbers join the player's party in World of Light.

The Ice Climbers must then be defeated on Summit (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

The Ice Climbers are a pair of short middleweights (weighing the same as Lucario, Wolf, Villager, Mythra, and Steve, residing them at the lower end of the weight class) who, true to their franchise, are known for being a slow, yet floaty duo. Together, they have the 34th highest jumping height, the 14th lowest gravity (tied with Mewtwo and Ivysaur), are tied with Wii Fit Trainer and Isabelle for the 8th-10th slowest fast falling and falling speeds, the 46th fastest walking speeds, the 47th fastest dashing speeds, the 21st-22nd highest air acceleration, and the 9th-slowest air speed. The leader also has the 35th slowest walking speed, the 18th slowest running speed, is tied with Ganondorf for the 3rd-4th slowest air speed, and is tied with Banjo & Kazooie for the 10th slowest initial dash. While their traction is the 2nd lowest in the game (surpassed by Mii Gunner and Banjo & Kazooie), their traction is among the highest in the game by the conditions of slippery surfaces, such as ice, due to wearing ice cleats. Due to these statistics, the Ice Climbers have difficulty approaching opponents, although wavedashing compensates that to a degree.

Unique to a majority of the roster, the ice Climbers are the archetypical tag-team fighters in Ultimate. Together, however, each Ice Climber is a unique character in their own right. The partner (Nana, by default) is controlled by a CPU and mimics what the leader (Popo, by default) performs with a seven-frame delay. As such, the player is essentially controlling a pair of characters at the same time with slight tweaks; the partner has increased mobility, worse artificial intelligence, they will inflict less damage, receive more damage, and are knocked back farther than the leader. When separated, the partner's AI takes control over their movement, and guides them back to the leader, ignoring most opponents in their path. While one Ice Climber deals respectable damage and can KO opponents rather easily on their own, the two's power combined can make them formidable. This is supplemented by the majority of the Ice Climbers' attacks being characterized by quick speed, which allows them to consistently apply pressure to their opponents, especially against characters that cannot outmatch their attacking speed without getting heavily punished for it, such as Palutena.

Most of the Ice Climbers' grounded moveset is fairly quick and disjointed, allowing for versatile usage. Their neutral attack is quick, hits twice, and launches at a low angle, making this attack fairly good at guaranteeing follow-ups at lower percentages, giving the duo a reliable stun-lock, and allowing the Ice Climbers a quick option to keep opponents away from them, making it a useful get-off-me tool that deals respectable damage to boot. Forward tilt can be angled, and has a chance to trip opponents. It has impressive knockback growth, and can KO fellow middleweights at about 135% at the edge of Final Destination. Their up tilt is short-ranged and weak, but one of the Ice Climbers' most effective tools in their kit, hitting multiple times with low knockback and dealing excellent damage. It also allows for a direct chain into a series of up aerials until about 115%, making it paramount in initiating combos. Down tilt is one of their quickest grounded moves, acting as a strong semi-spike that can KO at high percentages by the edge, and making follow-ups into dash attack or similar moves very easy. Dash attack has relatively fast start-up lag, can cross-up shields, sends opponents above the leader for quick transitions into up aerials, comparatively to up tilt. It also propels each Ice Climber forward, making it a viable tool for approaching. While it is useful in starting aerial combos, it can KO at very high precents while nearing the upper blast zone.

Complimenting their tilts, the Ice Climbers' smash attacks are some of the strongest in the game while being surprisingly quick and rather safe for their power, making them very useful and excellent KO options in their disposal. Forward smash is the duo's strongest smash attack, dealing impressive damage despite its quick speed, and respectable knockback even at lower percentages, reliably KOing at about 70% at edge of the stage. Up smash is similarly powerful, sending opponents flying quite early and KOing fellow middleweights under 115% on grounded levels. While the move's particularly slower start-up and ending lag and mediocre base knockback make it more situational as a KOing option, it is still viable due to its quick speed, impressive damage output and respectable power. It hits in a wide area directly above and behind the Ice Climbers. Down smash launches opponents at a diagonal angle, and is the weakest of the duo's smash attacks, but is still among the strongest of its kind as it KOs middleweights at 105% at the center of Final Destination without rage. Its instantenous start-up lag also especially makes it useful as a burst or emergency KO option when none of their other options yield better results. Each Climber sweep in specific directions, allowing this move to catch rolls and surprise opponents who approach from behind. However, with only a single Ice Climber present, they become vulnerable to rolls due to the lack of a hitbox from behind.

The Ice Climbers' aerial game is among the best in Ultimate, being the basis of most of their combos and useful for KOs at higher precents. Neutral aerial is short-ranged, and deals weak knockback, but is also quick to start and has a long-lasting hitbox, making it passable as a gimping tool. When an opponent is launched upward, it also can add on some extra damage when using up tilt is unfavorable, or launch opponents directly forward to set up an edgeguard. It is also a fairly strong sex kick, as the clean hit KOs fellow middleweights at about 165% by the edge with rage. Forward aerial is a disjointed and powerful hammer-swing, which deals heavy damage and is surprisingly safe for its power due to its moderate ending lag and low landing lag. While the move's sourspot can KO earlier than 135% by center stage, the partner's version of the move has a sweetspot that hides a very strong meteor smash that can net a KO at impressively low precents offstage, and acts as one of the Ice Climbers' most viable edgeguarding tools in their kit. Back aerial can be a useful move for its quickness, large, disjointed hitbox, and respectable knockback, KOing as early as 105% when edgeguarding with it. It is deceptively strong offstage as such, and when used properly, it can allow for a stage spike and particularly useful edgeguard. It is also safe on shield, with the following Ice Climber's attack actually being positive on shield. Up aerial is the duo's strongest aerial and one of their best KO options in their kit onstage. The move has excellent juggling capabilities at low percents, and KOs most opponents at around 110-125% when used out of a down throw. Down aerial is a stall-then-fall that covers the entirety of the Ice Climbers' underside, and moves slightly diagonally forward, making it excellent at punishing opponents who attempt to juggle them and getting out of disadvantage. While the leader's attack can only KO at very high precentages, the partner's attack completely offsets that; it is a steep semi-spike that KOs middleweights at around 125% by the edge. In addition, it can be effectively used out of a short hop to attack opponents directly in front of the Ice Climbers, while also being quick to act out of makes it situational for edgeguards.

The removal of chain grabbing (and by extension, wobbling) means that the duo's grab game has become more situational and in-line with the rest of the roster, limiting its effectiveness. However, while it is not as potent as it once was, the Ice Climber's grab game is still outstanding and among the best across the cast. The Ice Climber's grab itself has been vastly changed. For starters, only the leader grabs opponents, while the partner cheers. This means that the duo can no longer grab more than one opponent at a time. Additionally, the Ice Climbers have the shortest-ranged set of grabs in the game, making it risky to attempt to grab in the first place. However, this is compensated by their grabs being among the fastest in the game. Forward throw is a basic throw with moderately strong base knockback and causes tumble from 0%, which allows it to open options for a tech-chase or lead into an edgeguard, while its moderate knockback growth allows it to KO at very high precents at the edge with rage. Back throw has incredible base knockback at the expense of minimal knockback scaling, making it difficult to use in either combos or as a KO option, but useful in desyncs and leading to edgeguards. Up throw notably allows quick access to juggling with up aerial and leads to various follow-ups at lower precents, while it can KO at very high precentages near the upper blast zone. By far, down throw is factorized as the duo's best component of their grab game; it can KO middleweights at around 180% with rage, while it is capable of initiating aerial combos or follow-ups, desynced combos, KO confirms and juggles at low precents, all of which can be devastating. All of their aerials excluding down aerial can all be used for combos out of down throw and the opponent's placement in air can make it difficult for them to escape from a combo once it has been started, especially if desynced.

The Ice Climbers' special moveset has very flexible versatility. Their neutral special move, Ice Shot, has the duo each create a slab of ice that slides across the stage, shrinking as they melt. Unlike most projectiles, the ice acts more like a container or soccer ball in that the incoming projectile is completely stop, allowing the Ice Climbers to counter most projectile-spam playstyles more easily. At extremely high percents, it can also freeze opponents, allowing use of setups or reads. If the ice get attacked by a move that deals damage, the projectile's ownership will change, allowing it to harm the Ice Climbers if collided with. The ice's decent amount of hitstun also make it useful for edgeguarding. Their side special, Squall Hammer, is a respectable mobility-based tool for racking up damage and approaching while being relatively safe on shield or cross-ups. Upon excessively continued presses, the attack can cover distance for recovering, which renders them helpless after usage. It is also one of the easiest methods to access desyncs available to the player. Meanwhile, the finishing hit can KO at high precentages while nearing the blast zones. Their up special, Belay, covers an excellent amount of distance and functions as a tether recovery as it auto-grabs any ledges within range, making it one of the best recoveries in the game. The following Ice Climber also has a window of full invincibility during its entire duration until pulling up the leader, which makes it useful for punishing or as a situational counterattack with proper timing. The partner also has a very situational, albeit strong hitbox on the way up, allowing for an early KO from the top blast zones, or a means to apply extra damage at the end of an aerial combo. Finally, down special, Blizzard, is a slow, read-based punishing tool that freezes opponents in their tracks and deals significant amounts of damage at point-blank range. Using the attack while an opponent is already frozen increases the freeze time slightly and can allow the duo to make space between them and their opponent if need be, or tack on extra damage while frozen. Specifically, this move is especially formidable when edgeguarding, as freezing an opponent near the edges of a stage can make it easy to nudge them off without any means to escape and/or recover. It also has priority over some other projectiles and can cancel them if the two collide. Overall, the duo's specials are all useful in specific situations and can help to create openings for additional combos or surprise KOs.

An extremely prominent factor of playing Ice Climbers is learning how to consistently perform a crucial technique, called desynching. It is an advanced technique that allows a player to manipulate the following Ice Climber into acting slower than normally. At its most basic form, whenever the following Ice Climber is not within a specific range of the leader, the partner's AI will take manual control of the partner and return it to the leader. During this time, none of the leader's inputs are read by the partner and its AI inputs are prioritized until it has returned to the leader, and might act independently of the leader's current movements being performed. Using desyncs can allow for some remarkable combos, zero-to-deaths and setups that are completely impossible with other fighters.

However, the Ice Climbers have noticeable flaws, with the biggest one being the remaining climber being drastically weakened without the partner, similar to Rosalina & Luma. While having outstanding damage output and KO potential, it becomes heavily diminished if the partner is KO'd, and the fact that the partner sustains more damage/knockback and has flawed artificial intelligence further compounds this issue. In addition, due to the duo's fairly sub-par weight combined with being among the lightest middleweights in the game, their endurance is also unimpressive, making them quite vulnerable to early KOs, especially vertically due to their floatiness. Rage further pronounces these flaws, since damaged opponents can send the duo flying even earlier without leaving them much means of benefiting from their own rage due to their sub-par endurance. To make matters worse, if the leader is KO'd before the partner, the game counts the partner as KO'd as well. When separated, the AI guides the partner back to the leader and the partner is unable to act and defend themselves from any threats. When the leader is grabbed by an opponent, the partner will act shocked or scared and cannot attack until the leader has escaped or been thrown, which now makes previously near-guaranteed escapes from grabs impossible. The partner also has their own hidden percentage that racks up separately of the leader's and can make it easy for an opponent to KO them first. Because of this, it is important for the leader to hurry back to the partner in an attempt at defending them, though this can potentially lead the leader into dangerous situations as well. Their recovery, despite covering a considerable distance, is also largely situational and predictable. If the partner is unable to reach the ledge, it can put the leader at a disadvantage, even if they successfully return back to the stage. Since the partner flings the leader at a greater height, it is possible to overshoot the ledge, leaving the leader unable to defend themselves while descending helplessly onstage due to their floatiness. In addition, Belay and Squall Hammer travel rather linear distances, and the former often inadvertently costs the partner if not tethered, while their slow air speed and floatiness make them vulnerable to edgeguarding. Should the CPU-controlled Ice Climber get KO'd during the stock, the remaining Ice Climber will have drastically nerfed damage output, KO ability, and recovery, with Belay becoming practically useless and Squall Hammer losing a good deal of distance (whereas with both Ice Climbers, they are excellent recovering tools).

Outside of the issues of the following Ice Climber, the duo's moveset comes with its own problems. Barring their situational projectile from Ice Shot, the Ice Climbers lack a reliable projectile and can be easily camped out or their projectiles turned against them. In addition, while the duo have surprisingly great range for their size due to their disjointed hitboxes, their overall range still remains sub-par. This is worsened considering the fact that their hammers are among the shortest of any weapon. As such, characters with superior disjoints can easily outrange them (specifically swordies)—notable examples being Marth or Sephiroth. Conversely, Blizzard's range has been nerfed significantly and is dangerous to use liberally. When combined with their poor mobility, this combines to give the duo major difficulty approaching, especially against the likes of speed demons (like Fox or Sonic). The duo are also vulnerable to juggling, due to their aforementioned slow falling and air speeds. Furthermore, the duo suffer from the loss of a few important tools between the transition from Brawl to Ultimate. Arguably, the changes that impair the Ice Climbers most are the changes to grab-based mechanics in Ultimate. The additional period of intangibility between grabs and the partner's lack of a grab makes the Ice Climbers' previously most potent tool, chain grabbing, impossible. This significantly impedes their damage output compared to Brawl or Melee and no longer gives the Ice Climbers an almost guaranteed stock off of a single grab. Desynching, in itself, can also have certain drawbacks. An accidental desync off of up tilt or down throw might make it more difficult to follow-up with the duo's combos, or can even cause the partner's attack to miss entirely, hindering the duo's damage-racking capabilities. Desyncing can also leave the following Ice Climber vulnerable because of the increase in reaction time between the leader and the partner and nerfed defenses; in particular, abilities, such as dodging and jumping, are significantly delayed, giving the opponent ample time to counterattack if properly read. Finally, the Ice Climbers suffer from being rather predictable and are forced to endure a severely poor disadvantage state. Because of their reliance on mid-air combos and some situational oddities, the general playstyle of the Ice Climbers can be easily picked apart and exploited early on in a match. In cases like this, it can become difficult, if not impossible to return to neutral or even win trade-offs without having to take serious risks.

Overall, the Ice Climbers are among the least beginner-friendly characters on the roster, but offer amazing potential with practice. The duo's playstyle is a polarizing hybrid of the tag-team and glass cannon archetypes, being gifted with an extremely versatile moveset, with an outstanding damage-racking and combo game, excellent KO potential, dominating off-stage presence, a long and flexible recovery, an impressive out of shield game despite their low traction, along with a formidable grab game in conjunction with desyncs, although they are compensated with their poor endurance, awkward properties within the partner and lackluster defensive game. The inherent complexity of controlling two characters at once can also be difficult to understand for new players, and combined with their somewhat situational moveset, and severe handicaps when the partner is lost are also considerable barriers of entry. However, learning the quirks of the pair, especially desynching, can open an incredibly potent and powerful game-plan. This includes long and relatively free-form combos, many being zero-to-death options—some even being true—as well as other unique setups and mix-ups that very few characters have any proper answers for. While the aforementioned strengths and weaknesses have led to a relatively small pool of players that main the Ice Climbers, those that do and put in the effort to learn their intricacies are frequently able to bulldoze their opponents better than almost the entire roster.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Near the end of both Melee and Brawl, the Ice Climbers were considered one of the best characters among the roster due to being known for possessing arguably the greatest damage-racking capability in both installments via wobbling in the former game and infinite chain grabbing in the latter game; in particular, the Ice Climbers can even acheive a guaranteed early KO and/or zero-to-death after using them, although both of those aforementioned tactics required great practice to pull off. Most likely owing to this, the Ice Climbers received a plethora of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Brawl to Ultimate, being drastically nerfed overall, although not enough to outweigh their received buffs.

The Ice Climbers' KO potential and damage output have been further improved: a sizeable portion of their moveset, including forward smash, down smash and forward aerial, inflict more damage while retaining disproportional KO power, while other moves, such as their aerial attacks and up smash, have increased knockback values as a whole. In addition, all of their throws (sans back throw) are now capable of KOing at very high precentages, giving the Ice Climbers access to newfound KO options that were previously absent from their kit; this further extends the prevalance of the Ice Climbers' most prominent key strengths in Ultimate, their damage-racking capability and KO potential.

The universal reduction of landing lag has also exponentially benefitted their aerials. Known for possessing high landing lag in their attacks in Brawl, all of their aerials now have among the lowest landing lag relative to the cast in Ultimate. This not only improves the safety of his aerials, but now gives them the capability to lead into follow-ups in conjunction with desynching. The Ice Climbers also have a drastically improved combo game on their own due to the removal of hitstun canceling, the weakening of SDI, and the aforementioned desynching remaining mostly intact, although the removal of hitstun canceling comes at the expense of making the Ice Climbers more vulnerable to combos themselves. In addition to the universal 3-frame jumpsquat, this allows the Ice Climbers to make better utility of their aerial attacks. Thanks to Ultimate's improved freezing properties, Blizzard can also freeze opponents easier and longer, which can lead to high damage output, access to early and guaranteed KOs while edgeguarding, shield pressure, and follow-ups if performed correctly.

However, the Ice Climbers have received several noticeable nerfs, with the most devastating ones revolving around their grab game. In particular, the Ice Climbers' grab game was drastically and adversely affected the most; the following Ice Climber now lacks the ability to grab and/or controllably act when the leader is grabbed or throwing an opponent (excluding when the partner is in the air). In addition to the expansion of invulnerability to grabs after a grab release, this dramatically alters how their combo game functions: it removes the Climbers' extremely powerful chain grabbing technique in Brawl and, by extension, wobbling in Melee, instead forcing them to rely on desynching in order to combo the opponent at the fullest. Moreover, the leader's grabs, while still quick relative to the cast, have noticeably more startup and ending lag, and much less range, now being the shortest set of grabs in the game. Outside of this, the Ice Climbers' moveset have received various reductions to their damage output and a considerable portion of their moveset connect less reliably and consistently when the Ice Climbers are together during the stock due to the reduction of hitlag. The following Ice Climber also has significantly worsened endurance compared to the leader due to sustaining 1.02x times increased damage/knockback from attacks, and the partner's artificial intelligence is now flawed, leading to more likely inadvertent self-destructs and making it harder to maintain both Ice Climbers during the current stock. Upon using Blizzard, the following climber also no longer performs it behind the leader when Blizzard is performed on the ground, and the move itself is less effective as a spacing tool due to its lack of knockback at maximum proximity. Finally, due to the changes in Belay's hitboxes, the move's height can be drastically reduced if the hitbox is out-prioritized, and its overall size is smaller, making it harder to connect against grounded opponents.

Universal changes to Ultimate's engine both assist and impair the Ice Climbers. The universal growth to mobility has improved the Ice Climbers' ability to approach and chase down their opponents; in particular, the partner is significantly more mobile compared to the leader, which makes them harder to separate. However, since their overall mobility still remains slow relative to the cast, their problematic matchups against speed demons from their previous incarnations still remain in Ultimate, although the reintroduction of wavedashing compensates for that by restoring their fearsome grounded approach from Melee. Dash-canceling's expanded utility also improves the utility of their grounded attacks. The increased shieldstun and increased startup on shield grabbing notably benefits the Ice Climbers' safety on hit, due to their moveset's natural high damage output and low ending lag, making them harder to punish, yet it does not drastically compromise the Ice Climbers' own punishes due to their quick grabs, formidable grab game and improved out of shield game. Conversely, the universal nerfs to grabs make it riskier for the Ice Climbers to throw out one, as their ending lag can prove more punishable, especially since their grabs are now the shortest-ranged in the game. The revamped air dodging mechanics have significantly improved their edgeguarding game, and the reintroduction of directional air dodging has improved their recovery via either using one as a short-ranged recovery without the necessity of using Squall Hammer or Belay when separated or if the partner is gone, or to extend their recovery in a pinch with both Ice Climbers. However, this has also resulted in their air dodges becoming some of the slowest in the game, and since air dodges can only be performed once while landing, this makes them more vulnerable to edgeguarding and juggling due to their floatiness and predictable landing options. The introduction of rage improves their KO potential to an extent, but due to their rather poor endurance, damaged opponents can benefit from it by sending the Ice Climbers flying even earlier with high levels of it. Finally, despite their exploitable improvements, most of the Ice Climbers' former flaws that plauged them in Brawl and Melee still reprise in Ultimate, such as the difficulty in maintaining both climbers during the stock, severe handicaps when the partner is gone, sluggish aerial mobility, and susceptibility to camping, with the former issue being further pronounced as well.

Overall, the Ice Climbers are drastically less effective than in Brawl and Melee. Their learning curve has became drastically more steep, as the removal of chain grabbing and wobbling and weakening of miscellaneous toolkits force them to rely on desynching to perform at full capacity. As such, the Ice Climbers are by far the most nerfed characters in the transition to Ultimate. However, due to their aforementioned received buffs to both their moveset and from the game's engine, combined with the game's updates offering them noticeable benefits and improvements, the duo's current tier standing still remains to be determined: the Ice Climbers still remain as relatively viable characters in Ultimate, albeit heavily underperforming compared to Melee and Brawl.

Aesthetics

• Due to Ultimate's graphical improvements, the Ice Climbers gain a sleeker design with more subtle detailing in their hair and parkas, and their overall color scheme is significantly more vibrant and subdued. The duo wear coats with detailed furry lining, similar to Melee. The duo have slightly smaller more proportionate heads, more faint blushes on their cheeks, and slightly thinner eyes on top of losing the purple hue in their eyes. Their boots and hammers also appear to be covered in light powdered snow.
• Both Ice Climbers face the foreground at an angle, instead of facing directly forward. In addition, they always face the screen regardless of which direction either of them turn, making all of their animations mirrored while altering some.
• The Ice Climbers have a new idle pose of them turning to look behind themselves. It replaces the animation of them dropping their hammers and then lifting them back up.
• Like other fighters, the Ice Climbers are more expressive than before: they appear excited when using their specials and forward smash, scowl when shielding and charging their up and down smash, and the partner climber will also panic when the leader is grabbed.
  • In addition, the partner climber will have a worried expression and wince periodically when the main climber gets frozen, dizzy, or gets attacked.
• Nana has received new voice-clips for a few of her moveset, such as her smash attacks.
• The Ice Climbers' spot dodging, air dodging and ledge-hanging animations have changed.
  • When air dodging, the Ice Climbers look towards the camera for longer.
  • When hanging onto a ledge, the Ice Climbers grab the ledge with their free hand instead of with both hands.
• The Ice Climbers' on-screen appearance has them give each other an enthusiastic high-five, which was waist-height in Brawl. The animation also no longer differs depending on the starting position based on the player's controller port.
• The Ice Climbers only jump once when using up taunt, as opposed to three times.
• At the end of a solo-match, only the leading Ice Climber will be shown inside the losing pane on the results screen. Both Ice Climbers are still shown if the match ends in a No Contest.
• The Ice Climbers' victory pose where they alternate left and right now has them circling their heads around .
  • Their victory theme has been shortened to only contain the second half.
• The Ice Climbers' crowd cheer is "I scream, you scream, Ice Climbers!"
• Nana's crowd cheer is no longer the back-sound of the menu if she is currently the leader.
• The Ice Climbers' knockback-based voice-clips will no longer play if Nana is the leader.
• The Ice Climbers has been updated with universal features introduced in Smash 4.
  • The Ice Climbers has a Boxing Ring title, a Palutena's Guidance conversation, and two additional alternate costumes.
    • Their black costume has slightly been modified: Nana's parka is now brown instead of black. Additionally, their costumes have been re-ordered; the Nana-leading costumes now occupy the second half of their costumes instead of the even-numbered costumes and they also show her in front while Popo is in the back, which is how their costumes were ordered in Melee
  • The Ice Climbers' voice-clip numbers in Sound Test are numbered individually (i.e. "Popo: Voice [number]"/"Nana: Voice [number]"), similar to other team-based fighters as well as the Mii Fighters, Assist Trophies, Poké Ball Pokémon and bosses.
• The sound effects of the partner are quieter. This is best heard when they are either Star or Screen KO'd.

Attributes

• Like all characters, both of the Ice Climbers' jumpsquat animations take 3 frames to complete (down from 4).
• The partner climber is generally faster than the leader. This helps them keep up if the two are separated.
• If either Ice Climber lands a hit, the other one takes a small amount of hitlag, regardless of whether their attack connects or not.
  • This makes desynching slightly more difficult to perform.
• The partner Ice Climber sustains 1.02× times the damage and knockback from attacks, making them slightly easier to separate and KO.
• The partner now stands slightly behind the leader, in addition to being slightly in the z-axis. This reduces their grounded moveset's range, minus down smash due to hitting behind the partner.
• The partner has a longer delay (4 frames → 6), causing some of the partner's attacks to miss but also improving their combo and frame-trapping potential.
• The Ice Climbers walk faster (0.96 → 1.008 (leader), 1.1088 (partner)).
• The Ice Climbers run faster (1.388 → 1.53 (leader), 1.683 (partner)).
  • Their initial dash is noticeably faster (1.4 → 1.68).
• The Ice Climbers' air speed is faster (0.7708 → 0.83 (leader), 0.8715 (partner)).
• The Ice Climbers' falling speed is faster (1.2 → 1.3).
• The Ice Climbers' gravity is slightly higher (0.077 → 0.082), although it is lower relative to the cast.
• As with all returning veterans, the Ice Climbers have much more traction (0.035 → 0.077), although it is still the second lowest in the game.
• The following Ice Climber's air acceleration is slightly higher (0.09 → 0.0945).
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 30).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-19 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-19 → 5-16) and more ending lag (FAF 31 → 35).
• Spot dodge has more startup with less intangibility (frames 2-20 → 3-17).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 48 → 58)
• Air dodge has less startup (4 → 3).
• The reintroduction of directional air dodging benefits the Ice Climbers more than most of the other returning veterans, as the duo have access to using a secondary recovering option with them or can extend or mix-up their recovery by using one, especially when combined with Belay's long distance as a tether recovery.
  • The following Ice Climber now performs a directional air dodge if off-stage when separated from the leader, instead of typically using Belay to recover.
  • The introduction of air dodge landing lag glitch benefits the Ice Climbers more than any other returning veteran, as if the duo perform an uninterrupted air dodge and land on the floor in their helpless states after using Squall Hammer, their normal landing lag will get approximately reduced.
• The removal of chain grabbing hinders the Ice Climbers more than any other character, as it drastically reduces their cheesing ability, and zero-to-deaths, while still possible, are now much harder. They also greatly suffer from the ability to tech footstools as it removes their guaranteed lock setups from grabs.
• The following Ice Climber's AI is worse as they have more difficulty recovering and making it back to the leader, which can lead to them self-destructing.
• The duration opponents are frozen from the Ice Climbers' ice attacks are much longer, allowing for easier unavoidable follow-ups at high percentages. At very high percentages, Blizzard and Ice Shot can even freeze them long enough to be unable to recover from near the ledge.
• Ice Climbers arguably benefit the most from the reintroduction of wavedashing because of their very low traction, significantly increasing their approach and mobility, as well as giving them more mixups with grabbing and attacking opponents.
• The partner Ice Climber's attacks affect the duo's staleness queue; in previous games, they would use the queue but could not alter it. This generally means that the duo's attacks will both stale and refresh twice as quickly.
• When the leader is KO'd by reaching 0 HP during their last stock in Stamina Mode, the partner climber instantly enters the defeat animation regardless of being hit or not, similar to Rosalina's Lumas.
  • This consequently removes the partner Ice Climber's ability to intervene the results of opponents, hindering their impact on Stamina battles.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack can lock opponents and connect both hits together more consistently due to its altered angle (60° → 361°/180°).
  • The partner's second hit deals more damage (2% → 2.6%) without full compensation on knockback (45 (base)/100 (scaling) → 60/95), improving its KO potential when combined with the second hit's lowered angle.
  • The first hit transitions into the second hit earlier (frame 11 → 10).
  • The first hit can be transitioned into the second hit by holding/tapping onto the attack input for 10-30 frames, or by holding onto the button until frame 13, as opposed to tapping the button until frame 11.
  • The move deals less damage (3% → 2% (leader hit 1), 4% → 3.5% (leader hit 2), 2% → 1.5% (partner hit 1), 11% → 9.6% (total)).
  • Second hit of neutral attack has more ending lag (FAF 20 → 30).
  • Both hits have a shorter duration (frames 4-7 (hit 1), 4-6 (hit 2) → 4-5 (both)).
  • The first hit has an increased hitlag multiplier (1.0× → 1.3×), giving the opponent more time to SDI it.
  • The first hit has gained 2 additional hitstun frames. This allows it to stun opponents longer to connect into the second hit, and thus pressure them more effectively, but also gives them more time to SDI it.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has less ending lag (FAF 33 → 30).
  • The partner's forward tilt deals less damage (7% (non angled) → 6.75%).
  • The move has a shorter duration (frames 9-12 → 9-10).
  • The partner's forward tilt has an increased hitlag multiplier (0.5× → 1×), matching the leader's.
• Up tilt:
  • The final hit of up tilt has more combo potential due to the removal of hitstun canceling.
  • The partner's final hit deals less base knockback and more knockback scaling (40 (base), 100 (scaling) → 38, 118), allowing it to combo better from low/medium percents, while also improving its KO potential at very high percents.
  • The partner hits two more times, now matching the leader.
  • The final hit has more startup lag (frame 26 → 27). With its interruptibility unchanged, this gives the move one less frame of endlag. Combined with a faster jumpsquat, this improves it as a combo starter.
  • The looping hits deal more knockback (15 (base), 20 (scaling) → 65/60/20, 10), with the higher knockback hitboxes being used to raise the opponent towards the higher, low knockback hitboxes.
  • The move deals less damage (1% (loop hits) → 0.8% (leader loop hits), 0.6% (partner loop hits), 17% → 15.4% (total)).
• Down tilt:
  • The partner's down tilt deals consistent damage (4%/5% → 4.5%), making it deal more damage at point-blank range but dealing less damage elsewhere.
  • Due to the increased traction across the cast, opponents do not slide back as much upon tripping from down tilt, improving its reliability for starting combos.
  • The move connects less consistently at higher percents when both climbers are present due to the partner being more delayed.
• Dash attack:
  • The partner's dash attack deals more damage (4% → 4.5%) and has increased knockback scaling (40 → 60).
  • The move has a longer duration (frames 11-12 → 11-14).
  • The outermost-hitbox has been extended forward (Y offset: 5u → 5u—7.5u), increasing its range.
• Forward smash:
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 49 → 47).
  • It has more base knockback (30 → 50) and the partner's forward smash has more knockback scaling (118 → 126).
  • It has an altered animation where the Ice Climbers don't slam their hammers as far as horizontally, hindering its range. It also no longer hits behind and above the Climbers.
  • It no longer provides a sweetspot that deals more damage, reducing its overall maximum damage output (13% → 12% (leader), 10% → 9% (partner), 23% → 21% (both)).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has less startup lag (frame 13 → 12).
  • The partner's up smash has more knockback scaling (113 → 126).
  • The loss of hitstun canceling improves the move's ability to lead into combos.
  • The partner's up smash deals less damage (9%/8% → 8.25%/6.75%).
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 48 → 50).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has been reworked: each Ice Climber individually sweep their hammers at specific directions (with the leader sweeping in front, while the partner sweeps behind the leader).
  • The move provides more horizontal coverage when together, making it more versatile for punishing rolls and approaches.
  • The hitboxes come out sooner (frame 9 → 7), improving its utility as a burst punishing option.
  • It deals more damage (12%/10% → 13% (leader), 9%/8% → 9.75% (partner)) and more knockback than the previous sweetspots (30/50 (base), 105/102 (leader scaling), 113 (partner scaling) → 50, 105, 126)
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 44 → 41).
  • The move only hits on a single side with a solo-climber, making the remaining climber more vulnerable to rolls.
  • Due to its altered animation, it is drastically harder to connect with both climbers.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (15 frames → 7 (neutral/back), 20 → 10 (forward), 30 → 14 (up), 42 → 20 (down).
• The Ice Climbers can no longer perform a two back or up aerials in a short hop due to their increased falling speed, as well as the latter having increased ending lag.
• Neutral aerial:
  • The partner's neutral aerial deals more damage (5% → 5.25%).
  • The partner's neutral aerial also has less knockback scaling (128 → 120) hindering its KO potential despite its higher damage.
  • The move's lowered landing lag improves its utility in combos both desynced and synced.
  • The move connects less consistently when both climbers are present, especially at higher percents.
• Forward aerial:
  • The partner's sourspot deals more damage (7% → 9%) and has more knockback scaling (100 → 114).
  • The removal of meteor canceling improves the partner's sweetspot's reliability.
  • The removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes improves the combo potential of the partner's sweetspotted forward aerial onstage, compounded further by its reduced landing lag.
  • The partner has less active frames, now matching the leader (19-21 → 19-20).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial deals less damage (11% → 10% (leader), 8% → 7.5% (partner), 19% → 17.5% (both)) although its knockback was mostly compensated (scaling: 107 (leader), 128 (partner) → 115/138) and connects less reliably when both climbers are present especially at higher percents.
    • The partner's attack now has more knockback overall, and is more in-line with the leader's, although it is still a bit weaker.
• Up aerial:
  • The Ice Climbers' up aerial has been reworked: an overhead hammer-swing in a horizontal arc. Compared to their previous up aerial, it provides much more horizontal range and hits in front of them, providing more efficient coverage than before.
  • It has more knockback scaling (120 (leader), 142 (partner) → 129, 154.8), improving its KO potential despite its lowered damage.
  • It deals less damage (10%/9% → 9% (leader), 7%/6% → 6.75% (partner)).
  • It has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 6-23 → 7-11) and more ending lag (FAF 30 → 36).
  • It provides less vertical range compared to the previous one, making it much harder to connect against grounded opponents.
• Down aerial:
  • The partner's down aerial deals more damage (5% → 6%).
  • It auto-cancels earlier (frame 58 → 54).
  • The removal of the stall-then-fall glitch allows the Ice Climbers to land with the move more reliably out of hitstun.
  • The Ice Climbers bounce up before performing down aerial, similar to Sheik's down aerial.
    • As a result, it has more startup with a shorter duration (frames 9-51 → 12-51).
  • Its initial auto-cancel window has been removed.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • If missing a grab, the leading Ice Climber will receive a surprised expression.
  • Their dash grabs grant more horizontal momentum and substantial speed-boost, improving their approaching potential despite their increased ending lag.
  • All grabs have more startup (frame 6 → 8 (standing), frame 8 → 10 (dash/pivot)) and ending lag (FAF 30 → 40 (standing), frame 40 → 48 (dash), frame 40 → 41 (pivot)).
  • All grabs have smaller hitboxes (4.5/3.5u → 3.6/1.8u (standing), 5.5/3.8u → 2.9/1.45u (dash), 5.5/3.8/3.8u → 3.6/1.8u (pivot)).
• The partner cannot act while the leader is held by an opponent's grab while on the ground, and enters a panicking animation instead (although this can be avoided with desyncs).
• The partner can no longer grab, and will taunt with a cheerful jump during the leader's throw while on the ground. This removes their chain grabs and locks the Ice Climbers were infamous for in previous titles.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals more hitlag (1 frame → 10 frames), but has drastically less startup (frame 11 → 1) and ending lag (FAF 19 → 7), overall resulting in a 1 frame shorter loop.
  • The hitbox has a shorter duration (frames 11-12 → 1).
• Throw:
  • All throws no longer have SDI multipliers.
  • Back throw and down throw are now weight-independent. This improves their combo ability against heavyweights, but worsens it against lightweights.
• Forward throw:
  • The removal of hitstun canceling improves its utility in tech-chasing and setting up an edgeguard.
  • The collateral hitbox no longer has fixed knockback (90 → 50 (base)/60 (scaling)).
  • The collateral hitbox has a significantly increased hitlag multiplier (0.3x → 1.2×), making it much easier to DI.
  • The collateral hitbox is smaller (7.2u → 5.0u), but with an altered positioning (Y offset: 5.6/0u → 6.5/10.0u).
• Back throw:
  • The removal of hitstun canceling allows back throw to lead into follow-ups both desynced and synced, as well as improving its ability to set up an edgeguard.
  • The removal of chain grabing drastically hinders the move's utility.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw deals more damage (2% (hit), 4% (throw), 6% (total) → 3%, 5%, 8%) without full compensation on the throw portion's knockback scaling (28 → 26), making it more reliable for combos at lower precents when combined with the loss of histun canceling, while allowing it to KO slightly earlier.
  • The collateral hitbox no longer has fixed knockback (90 → 75 (base)/60 (scaling)), making the throw portion slightly stronger and allowing it to KO at very high precents.
  • The collateral hitbox lasts longer (frame 25 → 25-26).
  • The collateral hitbox has a significantly increased hitlag multiplier (0.2x → 1.2×), giving the opponent much more time to DI.
  • The collateral hitboxes are smaller (7.2/5.76u → 5.0/4.0u), but with altered positionings (Y offset: 5.6u → 6.0u).
• Down throw:
  • The leading Ice Climber clinches the opponent with both hands, lift them up in the air before slamming them on the ground.
  • The changes to hitstun canceling improve down throw's combo potential beyond lower percents with a solo-climber.
  • It deals has higher knockback scaling (100 → 116).
  • The removal of chain grabbing hinders down throw's damage-racking potential at lower percents, even with a solo-climber.
• Floor attack:
  • The leader's floor attacks deals more damage (6% → 7%).
  • The partner's floor attacks deals less damage (6% → 5.25% (front & back), 5% → 3.75% (trip)).
• Edge attack:
  • The Ice Climbers ram their hammers horizontally in a straight line, similar to their slow ledge attack in Brawl.
  • It deals consistent damage compared to their previous ledge attacks, even though the partner's is weaker (8% (hammer)/6% (body) → 8% (leader), 6% (partner)).
  • It deals less damage compared to their old slow ledge attack (10% (hammer), 8% (body) → 8% (leader), 6% (body)).
  • The Ice Climbers do not hunch over when performing it, making them easier to punish.

Special moves

• Ice Shot:
  • Ice Shot deals more damage (3%-1% → 3.5%-~2.25%).
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 60 → 56).
  • It can function as a projectile blocker since the sliding ice pieces won't get destroyed by any projectiles, and will cancel them out no matter how powerful they are.
  • It has more startup lag (frame 17 → 18).
  • Reflected ice chunks can damage the Ice Climbers.
  • Ice Shot makes a different sound effect.
• Squall Hammer:
  • Solo Squall Hammer ends with a stronger hit that much more knockback (5 (base), 30 (scaling) → 50, 100) and launches at an altered angle (30° → 361°).
  • Solo Squall Hammer has less startup (frame 12 → 10).
  • Desynced Squall Hammer has more consistent utility to trap opponents between both Ice Climbers.
  • Squall Hammer's multihits launch at altered angles (30° → 25/32) and have altered knockback (5 (base), 80 (scaling) → 25/13, 95).
  • Duo Squall Hammer deals more damage (2% (hits 1-7), 3% (final hit), 17% (max) → 2.2%, 4%, 19.4%). When combined with the introduction of the 1v1 multiplier, this improves the move's damage-racking ability and the final hit's KO potential.
  • All of Duo Squall Hammer's hits come out earlier with slightly less gaps in between (frames 9, 13, 18, 22, 27, 32, 40, 53-54 → 10, 14, 18, 23, 28, 34, 40, 51-52).
  • All of Solo Squall Hammer's hits come out earlier (frames 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 28, 32, 36, 42, 49, 56 (solo) → 10, 15, 21, 28, 37, 49-50). Although it has slightly more gaps in between (combined with the fact that Solo Squall Hammer now has 6 hits instead of 11), it now includes back hitboxes during the move which come out later than the frontal hits (frames 10, 15, 21, 28, 37 → 13, 18, 24, 32, 42) to offset that.
  • Squall Hammer grants much less vertical distance with button mashing, worsening its usage for recovery.
  • Duo Squall Hammer has more startup (frame 9 → 10) and ending lag (FAF 70 → 78).
  • Solo Squall Hammer deals less damage (2%/3% → 1.3%/2% (leader), 0.975%/1.5% (partner)).
  • Squall Hammer emits a twinkling sound effect when performed, especially with both Ice Climbers.
• Belay:
  • If the partner is separated from the leader off-stage, the partner will perform a directional air dodge to reach the ledge instead of typically using a Belay.
  • Belay has increased tether recovering distance.
  • The leader is no longer prevented from using the move if it is automatically performed by the partner.
  • Belay covers slightly more distance with a solo-climber, and the solo-climber possesses more control while using it.
  • Belay has less startup (frame 16 → 13).
  • When both Ice Climbers are present, the solo-climber covers more vertical distance, but less horizontal distance, making their recovery slightly more linear.
    • The duo's faster air speed and improved aerial mobility nevertheless makes Belay less linear, improving their recovery.
  • Belay has a smaller hitbox (7.0u → 6.0u), making it harder to land against grounded opponents.
  • Belay uses a unique sound effect rather than regular jump sound from Ice Climber.
• Blizzard:
  • Both Ice Climbers aim Blizzard forward while on the ground instead of aiming it in both respective directions, similar to their aerial version in previous installments. This increases its damage output when performed on the ground, but this means that Blizzard can no longer hit the opponents behind them, hindering its spacing potential and overall coverage.
  • The universal changes to freezing duration result in Blizzard freezing opponents for a much longer period overall, no longer allowing the opponent to thaw out almost immediately.
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 80 → 85).
  • It deals less damage at point-blank proximity (2% → 1.8%).
  • It also no longer causes hitstun or freezes opponents when further from point-blank proximity, both removing its ability to lock and hindering its spacing potential simultaneously.
• Iceberg:
  • Iceberg spins and features a teetering Polar Bear that launches opponents with greater knockback. During the move, a Condor will circle the Iceberg around the top of the screen, which the Ice Climbers can grab onto, and it will also deal damage to opponents that touch it.
  • Opponents can no longer damage the iceberg and make it recede.
  • Iceberg lasts a shorter duration. While this does make it less obstructive to the following Ice Climber, this makes it overall much easier for opponents to stall out and avoid entirely, while other changes made to the move make it less likely to cause problems for the partner Ice Climber anyway.
  • When paired, the Ice Climbers no longer emit a whooshing sound upon activating Iceberg.
  • The iceberg no longer has solid terrain, and instead utilizes stronger windboxes to push both opponents and the Ice Climbers out. This overall weakens the move's ability to interrupt recoveries, especially combined with the new vertical knockback, and prevents the Ice Climbers from standing on the peak. However, it also does not obstruct the Climbers as much, nor will it block ledges, making it less likely to cause the following climber to SD. In addition, it can no longer be performed to make the Ice Climbers clip through stage-objects, as this was caused by a pair of merging walls.
  • The iceberg can be moved across the stage, although doing so can be risky if the Ice Climbers are not holding on to the Condor.
  • Iceberg no longer freezes opponents.
  • Iceberg no longer causes platforms to damage the opponents.

Update history

Aside from glitch fixes and only three nerfs (one of them was eventually addressed), the Ice Climbers have been buffed significantly via game updates. Update 2.0.0 improved the following Ice Climber's artificial intelligence in order to make them follow the leading Ice Climber more reliably and make unintentional self-destructs less possible, though this comes at the expense of making desyncing harder to perform and requiring more practice to execute successfully. Aside from this, Belay has been improved for recovery via its enlarged edge-grabbox, allowing it to be used as a safe tether recovery more reliably that does not often requires to sacrifice the following Ice Climber to recover.

The Ice Climbers' Final Smash (Iceberg) has been granted rather significant improvements following update 3.0.0, where it increased Iceberg's power via the FS Meter, and especially update 8.0.0, where this update slows the opponents more during Iceberg's startup, sped up Iceberg's appearance and increased the peak's hitbox to make it harder to avoid, and extended the Condor's search-radius. The latter buff is especially crucial for the Ice Climbers, as they can grab onto it more easier to control the iceberg without the risk of self-destruction. Aside from Iceberg's improvements, the Ice Climbers also benefit from the universal expansion of shield-sizes in update 7.0.0, making them much less susceptible to shield poking.

Update 9.0.0 granted the Ice Climbers some of the largest improvements. This update slightly addressed one of the Ice Climbers' most overwhelming issues by reducing the partner's damage and knockback-multipliers. Alongside their improved AI since update 2.0.0, this made them less susceptible to being separated from the leader and improved their endurance by making them less vulnerable to early KOs. Belay has also received noticeable improvements, thanks to its tether recovering distance being lengthened and the leader no longer being inadvertently prevented from using it if the partner automatically performed it. Aside from these improvements, a few of their moveset received quality-of-life buffs: dash attack has slightly more range and improved consistency, down smash's knockback has been strengthened, and Squall Hammer will sweetspot edges earlier, improving its recovering potential.

Finally, update 13.0.1 improved the Ice Climbers once again by granting them a few impressive buffs. Belay's start-up lag was decreased, which improved both its versatility for recovery and utility as a follow-up from up tilt. Comparatively, dash attack's overall frame-data has been improved, which made it safer and improved its utility for setting up aerial pressure or leading into aerial combos. Lastly, down smash's KO power has been improved even further by strengthening its knockback scaling like in update 9.0.0. The latter improvement, in particular, has now made the Ice Climbers' down smash one of the strongest in Ultimate.

Overall, the Ice Climbers fare drastically better than during the launch of Ultimate. Although desynching requires more practice to be performed successfully, their learning curve has became less steep and their neutral game is more viable, as their KO potential has been improved, the Ice Climbers are more difficult to separate from each other and their combo game is more reliable without having to be reliant on desyncs.

1.2.0

• The Ice Climbers have been affected, although the changes are currently unknown.

2.0.0

• The partner Ice Climber's AI has been improved: the partner will now follow the main climber better.
  • This makes desyncs even harder to perform.
• The ledgegrab-box for Belay has been increased (X offset: 0u → -1u).
• Fixed a bug that allowed the partner climber to survive after the leader runs out of stocks.

3.0.0

• Partner climber's AI was adjusted.
  • The partner climber returns to the leader when grabbing an opponent.
  • Scenarios where desyncs would occur have changed.
• The hitlag multiplier of the final hit of the partner climber's up tilt has been increased.
• Iceberg via the FS Meter deals more knockback.

3.1.0

• Ice Climbers recover midair jumps in the same way as other fighters.
• Partner climber will no longer jump when pressing the jump button right after a grab. This removes its combo and 0-to death potential.
• An unknown glitch that launches the partner climber at significant high knockback has been fixed.

4.0.0

• Partner climber is no longer able to ledge trump opponents.

5.0.0

• The partner can now ledge-trump opponents, fixing an issue introduced in 4.0.0.

6.1.0

• Fixed the Buster Wolf freeze glitch that cause Terry and the partner climber to become unable to move while intangible.

7.0.0

• Overall shield size has been increased.

8.0.0

• Pummel has a larger hitbox (4.8u → 5.8u) that is placed further horizontally (Z offset: 6.4u → 7.4u), allowing it to connect more consistently.
• Iceberg:
  • Iceberg slows opponents more during startup.
  • The Iceberg appears much faster, and the peak's hitbox size was increased.
  • The Condor has a larger search radius (8u → 9.5u), making it easier to grab onto.

9.0.0

• The partner climber takes less damage and knockback (1.05× → 1.02×), making them harder to separate.
• The partner climber's AI behavior has been adjusted.
• Dash attack:
  • The outer hitbox has been extended forward (Y offset: 5u → 5u—7.5u), increasing its range.
  • It has increased hitlag (1× → 1.2×), allowing both climbers' dash attacks to connect more reliably.
• Down smash has more base knockback (45 → 50).
• Squall Hammer sweetspots edges earlier (frame 61/63 → 55/57).
• Belay:
  • Belay has increased tether recovery distance.
  • The player is no longer prevented from using the move if it is automatically used by the partner climber.

13.0.1

• Down smash has higher knockback scaling (100 → 105 (Popo), 120 → 126 (Nana)).
• Dash attack has less startup (frame 11 → 9, FAF 42 → 40).
• Belay has less startup (frame 16 → 13).

Moveset

• Although the Ice Climbers have among the lowest traction in the game, their traction is completely unaffected by slippery terrain, such as ice.
• The following Ice Climber will taunt whenever the leader throws an opponent.
  • Additionally, when the leading Ice Climber is grabbed, the partner will panic.

For a gallery of the Ice Climbers' hitboxes, see here.

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Right Sweep (右はらい) / Left Sweep (左はらい)	leader: 2% partner: 1.5%	A pair of one-two combo hooks with their hammers. A great "get-off-me" tool that inflicts exceptional damage for a neutral attack with both Ice Climbers to boot. It is extremely quick due to coming out on frame 4, and both hits have somewhat low ending lag. These traits make it effective for jab canceling or as an out of shield option. Both hits can also jab lock.
			leader: 3.5% partner 2.625%
Forward tilt		Side Strike (横たたき)	leader: 9% partner: 6.75%	Throw a horizontal straight roundhouse swipe with their hammers. It is quick, due to coming out on frame 9, possessing low ending lag and can be angled. Due to its high knockback growth, it is able to KO middleweights at around 80%-90% at the edge of Final Destination, with its incredible speed especially making it useful for burst KOing. Its impressive disjoint also makes it viable for spacing. This makes it a useful 2-framing and edgeguarding option when angled downwards.
Up tilt		Hammer Spin (くるくるハンマー, Spinning Hammer)	leader: 0.8% (hits 1 - 6), 4% (hit 7) partner: 0.6% (hits 1 - 6), 3% (hit 7)	Point their hammers straight up, then twirl them in circles over their heads in a buzzsaw-like manner. This creates a lingering hitbox that hits multiple times. Altogether, it deals excellent damage, making it useful for juggling and pressuring shields. It is an extremely versatile combo starter at low/medium percents, especially on fast-fallers, due to it coming out on frame 9 and possessing both low ending lag and disjointed range. It can follow up into a chain of up aerials at low precents, while it can follow up into Belay for a guaranteed KO combo at higher precents, especially out of Blizzard. It also covers the sizable portion of both the hammers and the upper portion of the Ice Climbers' bodies, which can give them protection above them and makes it useful as an anti-air tool despite its rather poor range, especially horizontally. The latter pratically forces the Ice Climbers to stand next to a grounded opponent to land the move in succession.
Down tilt		Shin Attack (スネたたき)	leader: 6% partner: 4.5%	Sweep their hammers across the ground in front of themselves while crouching. A steep semi-spike that functions extremely well as both a poking option in neutral and edgeguarding option, thanks to its quick start-up, impressive range, and low ending lag. In addition, it can KO middleweights at around 140% near the edge of Final Destination, and hits low enough to shield stab opponents with tall hurtboxes. It is fairly spammable due to coming out on frame 8 and possessing minimal ending lag. When coupled with its tripping potential, and the fact that the Ice Climbers' crouch allows them to dodge several attacks with high hitboxes, it can be a very useful set-up option especially after a crouch.
Dash attack		Dash Strike (ダッシュたたき)	leader: 6% partner: 4.5%	The Ice Climbers leap forward, lunging and ramming their hammers in front of themselves, similar to Palutena's dash attack. It has decent startup at frame 9 with a fairly long-lasting and disjointed hitbox, and deals vertical knockback to make it effective for initiating aerial pressure or aerial combos. It can also lead into cross-ups against shielding opponents and can KO middleweights at around 190%/165% on top of the mid/top platforms on Final Destination with high levels of rage, respectively. It also gives the Ice Climbers a substaintial speed-boost and covers good distance, making it reliable for approaching. While it can lead into cross-ups, it is punishable on shield due to its ending lag.
Forward smash		Stake Smash (クイ打ち)	leader: 12% partner: 9%	Based on their standard and original attack from Ice Climber. The Ice Climbers lift their hammers up, then smash them straight down to the ground. The animation is visually similar to King Dedede's forward smash. Due to becoming active at frame 11, it is disproportionately quick for a forward smash. It can be angled and the Ice Climbers slam their hammers at moderate distances, giving it deceptively good range. Its clean hitbox also deals respectable damage and has extremely high knockback growth, which makes it a powerful and reliable KOing option. It is among the strongest forward smashes in Ultimate. While near the edge of Final Destination, it KOs middleweights starting at around 70%. The late hitboxes share the amount of KO potential due to their knockback reminaing intact. However, the hitbox has a deceptively short duration compared to the animation, and has noticeable ending lag (33 frames), making it unsafe on shield and punishable without wise usage. A powerful punishing option that is also capable of 2-framing reliably.
Up smash		Icicle Crasher (つらら割り)	leader: 11% (hammer), 9% (body) partner: 8.25% (hammer), 6.25% (body)	An overhead hammer-swing in a wide arc. It can hit behind the Ice Climbers, while its clean hitbox deals respectable damage and has extremely high knockback growth akin to forward smash, KOing middleweights at around 100% from anywhere on Final Destination. Has moderate startup and ending lag, coming out on frame 12 and possessing 32 frames of ending lag, which gives it decent interruptibility. Its impressive coverage and disjointed hitboxes make it useful as an out-of-shield or punishing tool against rolls or opponents with predictable landing options. Its late hitbox is noticeably weaker, but still boasts respectable KO power for an up smash, KOing middleweights at around 120% from anywhere on Final Destination.
Down smash		Hammer Sweep (足もと打ち, Leg Strike)	leader: 13% partner: 9.75%	Each Ice Climber individually sweep their hammers across the ground in specific directions (the leader sweeps in front, while the partner sweeps behind at the corresponding direction). If the partner is absent, however, the remaining Ice Climber will sweep in only a single direction. If both Ice Climbers are included during the stock, it hits in front of and behind the Ice Climbers. While not as dominating as it was in Brawl, it deals respectable damage and has extremely high knockback growth like their forward and up smashes. Due to hitting on frame 9, with the fastest startup among the duo's smash attacks, it is tied with Toon Link, Mii Gunner, Mii Gunner and Samus' down smashes for being the sixth-fastest smash attack of any kind in Ultimate. It launches diagonally with above-average power, KOing middleweights under 90% from anywhere on Final Destination. Additionally, it is a reliable 2-framing option that is very useful for edgeguarding as a result, as well as punishing rolls or opponent who approach the duo from behind. Due to it possessing 24 frames of ending lag and hitting on frame 9, it has the fastest interruptibility among all of the Ice Climbers' smash attacks.
Neutral aerial		Climber Turn (クライマーターン)	leader: 7% partner: 5.25%	Perform a cartwheeling spin with their hammers outstretched. Its minimal landing lag makes it a decent set-up option at low percents, especially for desyncs, or a tool for shield pressure when short hopped, while its high knockback growth makes it a decent anti-pressure and out of shield option. In addition, on Final Destination, it can KO middleweights under 185% at center stage and at around 150% at the ledge if hit cleanly. It has large hitboxes that cover most of the Ice Climbers' torsos, especially at the beginning, giving good protection and coverage around them. It can also edgeguard, combined with it having the second-lowest amount of ending lag out of the Ice Climbers' aerials. Due to the properties of the partner's neutral aerial, it has the properties of a sex kick. It also auto-cancels in a short hop, making it effective for combos at lower precents. Due to coming out on frame 6, it has the fastest startup of the Ice Climbers' aerials, although this also makes it slightly slower in comparison to other sex kicks with comparable properties.
Forward aerial		Hammer Slam (ハンマードロップ, Hammer Drop)	leader: 12% partner: 12% (sweetspot), 9% (sourspot)	Rear their hammers backward, then swing their hammers straight downward in a manner similar to their forward smash. Due to coming out on frame 19, it has the slowest startup of the Ice Climbers' aerials, as well as having the highest amount of ending lag of 36 frames. However, it has above-average knockback scaling and excellent damage output, making it one of the strongest forward aerials in Ultimate. It deals enough knockback to KO middleweights at the center of Final Destination at around 130% and 35% earlier at the edge without rage, making it fairly efficient for edgeguarding despite its short duration. Its low landing lag also allows it to be used as set-up options into other moves, especially if meteor smashing an opponent. A versatile aerial that is good for combos both synced and desynced and edgeguarding, it is capable of connecting into itself for a wall of pain or a 2-frame punish in certain instances. Auto-cancels in a full hop. The partner's hammer provides a sweetspot that can meteor smash opponents, which can KO incredibly early offstage.
Back aerial		Reverse Strike (ふりむきたたき)	leader: 10% partner: 7.5%	Perform a quick backfist with their hammers behind themselves. It has quick startup lag, due to it coming out on frame 8. It can auto-cancel in a short hop and also deals the second-highest damage out of his aerials, and possesses excellent knockback growth, which make it a viable KOing option. While near the edge of Final Destination, its clean hitbox KOs middleweights at around 105%-110%, which is around the same KO percentages of the Ice Climbers' forward aerial. It also boasts good range due to its disjointed hitbox and its animation makes it unpredictable, which makes it a viable edge-guarding and 2-framing option, and makes it effective for a wall of pain, as well as a good approaching option in conjunction with a reverse aerial rush. It can also stage spike with proper usage, making it especially deadly off-stage. Both hits are extremely safe on shield, with the secondary climber's hit being one of the few moves that is positive on shield.
Up aerial		Overhead Sweep (頭上はらい)	leader: 9% partner: 6.75%	An overhead hammer-swing in a considerable arc. An excellent combo and juggling tool that can quickly rack up damage both desynced and synced, and can even function as a guaranteed KO confirm from down throw at around 70% on most characters. Comes out on frame 7, having the second-lowest startup of the Ice Climbers' aerials. It can also be used for continuing a combo due to its low landing lag. Can be used as an out-of-shield option if the opponent has a large enough hurtbox. Due to its impressive damage and knockback, it is the duo's strongest aerial, being powerful enough to KO middeweights at around 145% on Final Destination on grounded levels, making it a useful KO option after a full hop, or above platforms. It can auto-cancel in a short hop fast fall, like their other aerials minus forward and down aerials.
Down aerial		Hammer Swoop (急降下ハンマー)	leader: 8% partner: 6%	Hold their hammers below themselves and perform a double axe handle with them while falling downward. A stall-then-fall, though with a slower traveling speed than comparable attacks of its kind. Additionally, it is unable to meteor smash, unlike most attacks of its kind. The hitbox covers most of the Ice Climbers' underside, making it good for punishing opponents who attempt to juggle. It can be effectively used out of a short hop to attack opponents directly in front of the Ice Climbers, especially out of shield. While it can potentially cause the Ice Climbers to self-destruct while using it off-stage, their effective recovery, coupled with it having the lowest ending lag of the Ice Climbers' aerials and the move traveling slower than the other stall-then-falls makes this unlikely. The partner's down aerial is a steep semi-spike that can KO middleweights at around 165% at the center of Final Destination. While having a rather good auto-canceling window and being good for edgeguarding, its usage offstage is only serviceable against characters with slow/linear or exploitable recoveries, as the leader's down aerial only starts KOing middleweights at around 185% on Final Destination at grounded levels with high rage. As a result, it typically has usage as a niche landing or out-of-shield option.
Grab		Grab (つかみ)	—	The leader reaches in front of themselves with their free hand. All of the Ice Climbers' grabs are extremely quick, but are burdened with very short range.
Pummel		Grab Headbutt (つかみ頭突き)	1%	A headbutt. The partner takes no action at all. It inflicts average damage, but is among the fastest pummels in the game.
Forward throw		Hockey Shot (ホッケーショット)	3% (hit), 5% (throw)	A hockey shot. Its moderately high base knockback makes it a viable option for tech-chasing and forcing the opponent off-stage to start edge-guards. If desynced, the partner can follow-up with a forward aerial or forward smash during forward throw's animation for a guaranteed KO confirm. It also has decent knockback growth, allowing it to KO middleweights at about 192% by the edge of Final Destination with high rage.
Back throw		Snowy Mountain Throw (雪山投げ)	6%	The leader heaves the opponent behind themselves in an arc, bouncing them off the ground. Its high base knockback allows it to set up edgeguards, while its somewhat low ending lag makes it versatile for combos both synced and desynced. However, its high launching angle prevents it from having true follow-ups or forcing the opponent off-stage at a unfavorable position, while its high base knockback prevents it from leading into true KO confirms at higher precents. Additionally, due to its low knockback growth, minimal damage output, combined with it launching at a very high angle, it lacks notable KO potential, not KOing at all until well past 500% even with unoptimal DI.
Up throw		Grab Icicle Crasher (つかみつらら割り)	3% (hit), 5% (throw)	The leader heaves the opponent overhead before swinging their hammer overhead in an arc, bashing them and launching them upward. It has the second-highest base knockback of all up throws at the expense of having weakest knockback growth among all up throws in Ultimate. Although it lacks much versatility compared to down throw in terms of follow-up potential, it is useful for comboing and quick air-to-ground transitions, leading to up aerial and rarely neutral aerial at 0% to medium precents, and Belay at around high precents for KO combos. It also leads to access of juggling with chains of up aerials, and can KO at extremely high precents near the upper blast zone.
Down throw		Avalanche Crusher (なだれつぶし)	6%	A powerbomb. Due to its high knockback growth, it has the highest KO potential out of the Ice Climbers' throws, as it KOs middleweights at around 185% on Final Destination with rage. However, it deals the lowest base knockback among the duo's throws, which makes KO attempts with it best suited for later instead of earlier. It is also excellent for starting or extending combos, especially when desynced or synced. It can lead into neutral aerial from 0% to low precents, or Belay or up aerial at high precents for guaranteed KO combos. It can also lead into a chain of up aerials for juggling or racking up damage early. Due to these collective factors, this throw is considered among the best factors of the Ice Climbers' grab game.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			leader: 7% partner: 5.25%	The Ice Climbers spin 360°, thrusting their hammers around themselves while getting up.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			leader: 7% partner: 5.25%	The Ice Climbers sweep their hammers in quick arcs from back to forth while getting up.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			leader: 5% partner: 3.75%	The Ice Climbers sweep their hammers in a straight line while getting up in a similar manner to their back floor attack.
Edge attack Edge getups			leader: 8% partner: 6%	The Ice Climbers climb up and slam their hammers in front of themselves in a straight line.
Neutral special		Ice Shot	3.5-2.2% (ice chunks), 3.5% (hammers)	Each Ice Climber summon a small stalagmite of ice and knock it straight forward with their hammer, causing it to slide along the ground, gradually shrinking as it travels. It bounces off walls and shields. The ice can freeze the opponents at high percents. Unlike most projectiles, the ice functions more like a container or soccer ball in that the incoming projectile is completely stop, allowing the Ice Climbers to counter most projectile-spamming playstyles more easily. At extremely high percents, it can also freeze opponents, allowing the usage of setups or reads. It stuns the opponent long enough to make it viable for edgeguarding or gimping vulnerable recoveries. However, similar to King Dedede's Gordo Throw, the ice can easily be reflected with an attack that deals damage. If done so, the projectile's ownership will change, allowing it to harm the Ice Climbers if collided with. The first midair usage will pop the Ice Climbers up slightly.
Side special		Squall Hammer	both: 2.2% (loop), 4% (last) leader: 1.3% (loop), 2% (last) partner: 0.975% (loop), 1.5% (last)	The Ice Climbers stand back-to-back while spinning around an axis with their hammers outstretched, hitting opponents multiple times. The attack is concluded with them ramming their hammers upward, which launches the opponents upward. By repeatedly tapping the special input, the Ice Climbers will rise in the air, allowing them to recover. This, however, also renders them helpless after Squall Hammer's performance. If only a solo-climber is present, the move inflicts less damage and reduced knockback, and gains less height. However, Solo Squall Hammer stalls the remaining Ice Climber's gravity with excessive button mashing. Squall Hammer is a prime key factor as a method to begin desyncs, and can trap opponents between each Ice Climber once a desync is achieved. Similar to Bowser Jr.'s Clown Kart Dash, it covers impressive horizontal distance in a short and quick amount of time (covering nearly the full length of Final Destination), allowing them to alleviate their poor approach and overall sluggish movement, especially in the air. The final hit is strong enough to KO middleweights at around 159% near the top blast zones on Final Destination without rage. As a result of these collective factors, Squall Hammer is one of the duo's most versatile tools in their kit.
Up special		Belay	16% (partner)	The leading Ice Climber flings the partner the air with a rope at a considerable height, slamming into opponents during the process. After covering enough distance, the partner pulls the leader upwards at an even greater distance. If nearing a ledge, the partner will immediately target it, and then proceed to pull the leader to the ledge as well. During the entire duration of Belay, the partner has an invincibility frame-window upon startup and the period the hitbox is out until it dissipates, allowing for a safe recovery for both Ice Climbers. This also lets the Ice Climbers perform a pseudo-counterattack against almost all attacks that hit the Ice Climbers during startup, which makes it good for interrupting aerial approaches or attacks. Additionally, the following Ice Climber possesses a hitbox that deals powerful vertical knockback and high damage, dealing enough knockback to KO grounded middleweights at 140% on Final Destination, though it is rather difficult to use as a combo finisher due to the difficulty of aiming the partner. Without a partner, the move will grant essentially no distance. In addition, if the partner collides with an opponent or the hitbox gets out-prioritized, Belay's distance will reduce, similar to PK Thunder 2. Each Ice Climber becomes helpless after Belay's usage.
Down special		Blizzard	both: 1% (far loop), 1.8% (close loop)	The Ice Climbers blow a stream of frigid air from their palms in front of themselves, potentially freezing opponents. If using Blizzard on an already frozen opponent, they will remain frozen for a longer duration. If both Ice Climbers are present, this move can deal a maximum of 31.5%. As the name implies, it freezes opponents in their tracks, making it reliable for set-ups and follow-ups, and deals significant amounts of damage at point-blank proximity. Using the attack while an opponent is already frozen increases the freeze-time slightly and can allow the duo to make space between them and their opponent if need be, or tack on extra damage while frozen. Specifically, this move is very useful when edgeguarding or ledge trapping, as freezing an opponent near the edges of a stage can make it easy to nudge them off and near the lower blast zone without any means to escape or recover easily. It also has priority over some other projectiles and can cancel them if the two collide.
Final Smash		Iceberg	13% (peak, rising), 11%/9%/7% (iceberg), 16% (Polar Bear), 5% (Condor)	The Ice Climbers high-five each other and raise their arms up, summoning a rotating and giant iceberg to rise up from the center of the stage. If only a single Ice Climber initiates the Final Smash, the leading Ice Climber spins, lifts their hammer up while raising it. For the duration of the Final Smash, it can be directed left and right. The range of how far it can move is shown by the mist. The iceberg deals damage to opponents who touch it: the closer they are towards the peak, the more damage they receive. Towards the base of the iceberg is a Polar Bear, which has high launching power. A Condor also appears, flying above, which the Ice Climbers can grab onto. This allows the iceberg to be more easily controlled without worry of self-destruction, although the partner will be at risk of potentially being pushed offstage if they fail to grab it. Upon ending, the iceberg will lower itself, and the Condor will fly off to the side of the stage.

Stats

Popo

Stats	Weight	Dash speed	Walk speed	Traction	Air friction	Air speed	Air acceleration	Gravity	Falling speed	Jumpsquat	Jump Height	Double jump Height
Value	92	1.68 – Initial dash 1.53 – Run	1.008	0.077	0.015	0.83	0.01 – Base 0.08 – Additional	0.082	1.3 – Base 2.08 – Fast-fall	3	34.69 - Base 16.75 - Short hop	34.69

Nana

Stats	Weight	Dash speed	Walk speed	Traction	Air friction	Air speed	Air acceleration	Gravity	Falling speed	Jumpsquat	Jump Height	Double jump Height
Value	92	1.68 – Initial dash 1.683 – Run	1.1088	0.0847	0.015	0.8715	0.0105 – Base 0.084 – Additional	0.082	1.3 – Base 2.08 – Fast-fall	3	34.69 - Base 16.75 - Short hop	34.69

Announcer call

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• English

• Japanese/Chinese

• Korean

On-screen appearance

• The Condor flies in with them hanging off its feet. The Ice Climbers jump off while high-fiving each other, and the Condor flies off.

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  Ice Climbers' on-screen appearance

Taunts

• Up taunt: The duo set down their hammers and jump excitedly once. Originates from their victory animation during the results screen in the Ice Climber NES game.
• Side taunt: The duo point their hammers diagonally upward and shout "Yup!" in triumph as wind blows behind them, in a similar manner to Ness' side taunt.
• Down taunt: The duo dance playfully in a circle, similar to King Dedede's down taunt.

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  Ice Climbers' up taunt.

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  Ice Climbers' side taunt.

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  Ice Climbers' down taunt.

Idle poses

• Both twirl their hammers.
• Each Ice Climber looks behind themselves curiously.

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  Ice Climbers' first idle pose.

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  Ice Climbers' second idle pose.

Crowd cheer

	Cheer (English)	Cheer (Japanese/Chinese)	Cheer (Italian)	Cheer (Dutch)	Cheer (French)
Cheer
Description	I scream, you scream, Ice Climb - ers!	Ice Climb - er!	Na - na! Po - po!	Ice - Ice - Climbers!	Na - na! Po - po!

	Cheer (German)	Cheer (Spanish)	Cheer (Russian)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
Description	Na - na! Pe - pe!	Naaaa - na! Poooo - po!	Nana! Popo!	Eol - eum Ta - gi!

Victory poses

• Left: The Ice Climbers jump indefinitely up and down with joy. Based on their victory animation during the results screen in the Ice Climber NES game, similar to their up taunt.
• Up: Both nod and high-five one another, with Popo chanting "Yup!" before facing the screen while smiling.
• Right: Nana hides behind Popo, only showing her face as Popo shifts from left to right while his arms are positioned next to his hips.

A flourished, albeit shortened remix directly from Brawl. It is the second half of the track that plays when Popo or Nana grab the feet of the Condor at the end of a bonus stage in Ice Climber.

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In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Ice Climbers players (SSBU)

•  Big D - The best Ice Climbers player of all-time and the only Ice Climbers player ever ranked top 100 on a global ranking, ranking as high as 19th on the UltRank 2022.
•  Harasen - One of the best Ice Climber players in Japan since mid-2022, although he has lower activity and peaks than FNKA. He has placed well at several majors, including placing 13th at the supermajor Umebura SP 9 and 25th at the supermajor DELTA 4.
•  Futari no Kiwami Ah~! - One of the all-time best Ice Climbers players in Japan who uses a more synced playstyle. Although inconsistent, he has the highest peaks out of any other Japanese Ice Climbers player, placing 5th at the majors Kagaribi 8 and Seibugeki 12.
•  Kie - Co-mains Ice Climbers with Peach and was considered the best Ice Climbers player in Japan during the early metagame. Placed 2nd at Sumabato SP 3, 3rd at Sumabato SP 4, 4th at Sumabato SP 15, 7th at Sumabato SP 2, and 25th at Umebura Japan Major 2019. Ranked 52nd on the Japan Player Rankings.
•  murasat - Known for his contributions to the Ice Climbers metagame. Although his performance isn't as good as other Japanese Ice Climbers players, he has still seen some respectable results including 25th at the superregionals Kagaribi and Seibugeki 8.

Tier placement and history

Prior to Ultimate's release, players were quick to notify that the Ice Climbers lost their most devastating attributes from Brawl and Melee: their infamous zero-to-death chain grabbing and wobbling, respectively. When combined with the changes to gameplay-based mechanics during the transition from Brawl to Ultimate that either heavily impaired or altogether removed several of their infamous tactics, this caused players to believe that the Ice Climbers wouldn't be viable, a belief that held on throughout the early metagame.

Upon Ultimate's release, the Ice Climbers' competitive perception, which was estimated to be poor, has dwindled even further and, in turn for worse, became more significant than most would think. Several of the cast have immediately acknowledged their retained weakness (which have also been more pronounced): the infamous difficulty of maintaining both climbers in a single stock, the partner's vulnerability, their steep learning curve, poor endurance, slow aerial mobility, their vulnerability to camping and the severe handicaps brought to the leader if the partner dies during the stock, as well as the removal of several quirky combos and zero-to-deaths involving the partner from previous installments. As such, the Ice Climbers’ representation was minuscule, and all the players who mained the duo in Brawl have completely dropped them in favour of other characters. As a result, the general consensus have widely perceived them to be either low or bottom-tier.

A few months after release, the duo's playerbase and competitive scene started to make surprising breakthroughs: with the few that stuck with them discovering new desynching setup and damaging combos, as well as new versatile zero-to-deaths off of desyncs. In turn, players such as Big D, Kie, murasat, Daiki and ???? have picked up the duo, received excellent results in tournaments using the character; the former, in particular, have mastered the duo enough to the point that the Ice Climbers can beat almost every match-up across the board once their desynced zero-to-deaths has been pulled off out of a grab. As a result, the Ice Climbers' improving results have gradually improved the community's perception on the duo, with the general consensus believing that the Ice Climbers are either upper mid-tier or high-tier at least, like in their days of Melee, which is a notable improvement compared to their initial low-tier status. Overall, the Ice Climbers remain as characters that should not be underestimated, although not to the extent of Melee and Brawl, ranking 56th on the first and current tier list.

Classic Mode: Duos for Days

Ice Climbers' congratulations screen.

Referencing themselves being duos, Ice Climbers fight a pair of characters from a given universe in each stage. Continuing the duo theme, both Master Hand and Crazy Hand are fought regardless of the difficulty.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music
1	Link and Zelda	Great Plateau Tower	Main Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2	Ryu and Ken	Suzaku Castle	Ryu Stage
3	Villager and Isabelle	Smashville	Title Theme - Animal Crossing: Wild World (Brawl)
4	Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong	Jungle Japes	Jungle Level (Melee)
5	Palutena and Pit	Palutena's Temple	Title Theme - Kid Icarus
6	Mario and Peach	Princess Peach's Castle	Main Theme - New Super Mario Bros.
Bonus Stage
Final	Master Hand and Crazy Hand	Final Destination	Master Hand / Crazy Hand

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as the Ice Climbers has Ice Climber (Brawl) accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light

Finding the Ice Climbers in World of Light

Although the Ice Climbers are absent from the opening cutscene of World of Light, the duo were vaporized offscreen and later placed under Galeem's imprisonment after unleashing his beams of light to engulf the world, along with the rest of the other fighters (excluding Kirby).

The Ice Climbers are unlocked in the southern portion of the icy mountain next to the Temple of Light (where Pit and Simon are unlocked), located at the top left corner of The Light Realm. Unlocking them eliminates the icy paths so they can be traversed in both directions, as well as opening an additional path to the shrouded forest, making them an obligatory unlock.

Later, the rest of the fighters prepare their final stand against Galeem and Dharkon, including the Ice Climbers among them.

Fighter Battle

No.	Image	Name	Type	Power	Stage	Music
15		Ice Climbers	Grab	7,500	Summit (Ω form)	Ice Climber (Brawl)

Spirit

The Ice Climbers' fighter spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Ice Climbers have been unlocked. Unlocking the Ice Climbers in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Their fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with their artwork in Ultimate.

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  606. Ice Climbers

In Spirit Battles

Conditions in italic aren't listed on the Spirit Battle preview screen.

As the main opponents

Spirit				Battle parameters							Inspiration
No.	Image	Name	Series	Enemy Fighter(s)	Type	Power	Stage	Rules	Conditions	Music	Character
114		Freezie	Mario Bros. Series	•Ice Climbers		1,600	Mario Bros. (Battlefield form)	•Item: Freezie	•The enemy starts the battle with a Freezie	Mario Bros.
373		Mr. Frosty	Kirby Series	•Ice Climbers (80 HP)		2,200	Dream Land (Battlefield form)	•Hazard: Ice Floor	•The floor is frozen •The enemy's ice and water attacks have increased power •Stamina battle	Ice Cream Island
457		Lapras	Pokémon Series	•Ice Climbers		3,800	Wuhu Island (Rocks at sea)	•Buoyancy Reduced	•You can't swim	Pokémon Red / Pokémon Blue Medley
531		Kyurem	Pokémon Series	•Ice Climbers		4,700	Summit (Battlefield form)	•Hazard: Ice Floor	•The floor is frozen •Timed battle (1:30) •The enemy favors special moves	Battle! (Reshiram / Zekrom)
860		Cyrus & Reese	Animal Crossing Series	•Ice Climbers		9,400	Smashville	•Item Tidal Wave •Hazard: Low Gravity	•Gravity is reduced •Certain items will appear in large numbers after a little while	2:00 a.m. - Animal Crossing: Wild World	Reese (Nana), Cyrus (Popo)
878		Ice Man	Mega Man Series	•Ice Climbers (140 HP)		4,600	Summit (Battlefield form)	•Hazard: Ice Floor	•The floor is frozen •The enemy's ice and water attacks have increased power •The enemy has super armor and is hard to launch or make flinch •Stamina battle	Ice Man Stage
1,099		Duon	Super Smash Bros. Series	•Giant Ice Climbers (150 HP)		4,100	Halberd (Ship deck)	•Item: Shooting Types	•Stamina battle •The enemy's shooting items have increased power •The enemy is giant	Boss Battle Song 1	Duon's gun side (Nana) and sword side (Popo)
1,137		Olaf	Advance Wars Series	•Ice Climbers		2,200	Summit (Battlefield form)	•Move Speed ↓ •Hazard: Ice Floor	•The floor is frozen •You have reduced move speed after a little while •The enemy starts the battle with a Steel Diver	Filled with Hope
1,308		Caroline & Justine	Persona Series	•Ice Climbers		9,700	Kalos Pokémon League (hazards off)	•Sudden Damage	•You take serious damage after a little while •Timed battle (1:00)	Aria of the Soul

As minions

Spirit				Battle parameters							Inspiration
No.	Image	Name	Series	Enemy Fighter(s)	Type	Power	Stage	Rules	Conditions	Music	Character
607		Condor	Ice Climber Series	•Ridley (80 HP) •Ice Climbers (80 HP)		4,500	Summit (Battlefield form)	•Hazard: Ice Floor	•Defeat the main fighter to win •The floor is frozen •Timed stamina battle (1:00)	Ice Climber (Brawl)	Ice Climbers

Alternate costumes

Their 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th costumes swap Popo and Nana, making Nana controllable. The stock icons and character select portraits change to reflect this. Popo and Nana act separately in terms of their costume's color.

Gallery

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  Ice Climbers' amiibo.

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  Ice Climbers' fighter card.

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  Ice Climbers' unlock notice.

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  Ice Climbers on Magicant.

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  Attacking a Metroid with Blizzard on Final Destination.

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  Nana grabbed by the Arcade Bunny's claw on Wii Fit Studio.

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  Striking Captain Falcon with Squall Hammer on Summit.

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  Popo performing his forward smash on Kongo Falls.

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  Performing their neutral aerial on Spirit Train.

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  Taunting on Skyloft.

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  With Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Pit, Villager and Inkling on Battlefield.

Trivia

• One of the Ice Climbers' preview pictures show them using Blizzard against a Metroid, referencing the species' weakness to cold in the Metroid series.
• When the leading climber is grabbing and pummeling an opponent, the partner's animation will lag for every pummel-hit.
• Hitting the accompanying Ice Climber will not cause controllers to shake if the vibration setting is turned on. This applies to everything from normal attacks, throws, or Final Smashes.
• When played on the world-map for World of Light, only the leading Ice Climber appears.
• If the partner is caught in a non-cutscene trapping Final Smash (such as Triforce Slash, Great Aether, or Omnislash) and the leader is KO'd, the partner will disappear, leaving the opponent attacking nothing. A similar situation occurs in Brawl.
• When getting hit from behind, the Ice Climbers' back-hitting/wall-bouncing hitstun animation causes them to freeze for a brief moment before going into their tumbling animation. This is due to additional frames being added past the final point of the animation.
  • The animation itself mimics how hitstun animations worked from Smash 64 to Brawl.
  • The freeze itself is a reference to the duo's dying animation in Ice Climber, in which they freeze for a brief moment after touching an antagonist.
• When navigating the camera around the Ice Climbers during certain animations, such as their ledge-hanging animations, the fur trim on the bottom of their coats and around their wrists seem to detach from their jacket, exposing multiple gaps. There are also gaps when looking at their face at certain angles between the fur trim.
  • Additionally, zooming in on Popo's face reveals a gap between his hair and fur trim.
  • Also, looking closely at Nana's hair reveals a small gap underneath between her hair and forehead.
• In a Stock or Stamina battle, if the leading Ice Climber gets KO'd, the vanishing effects of the partner do not appear whenever the leader respawns.
• If one looks closely at one of the Ice Climber's non-leading feet during their wall jump teching animation, it twists the other direction during the move. This can be more easily seen if the match is currently slowed down.
• The Ice Climbers and Lucas are the only fighters that use sprites for their default fighter spirits.
• The Ice Climbers, Banjo & Kazooie, and Pyra/Mythra's Classic Mode routes all share the same theme, facing dynamic character duos as opponents in each round.
• While most other characters have the announcer say "(character) wins!" at the victory screen, the Ice Climbers have the announcer say "Ice Climbers win!" The "(character) win!" audio-clip is typically reserved for the Japanese version, though it is most likely used with the Ice Climbers because of their two-in-one nature and name. Rosalina & Luma and Banjo & Kazooie also share this distinction.
  • In Spanish, French, German, and Italian, the name-tag and voice-clip from the announcer on the victory screen is slightly different from the one used on the character selection screen, instead featuring a noticeable translation of "the" (los, les, die, and gli Ice Climbers, respectively). This trait is shared with Wii Fit Trainer, Pokémon Trainer, Villager, Inkling, Hero, Zombie, Enderman, and the Mii Fighters.
• In the Ice Climbers' battle portrait, the following Ice Climber is slightly positioned lower than they are in their full artwork, in order to make their face fully visible. Banjo & Kazooie are the only other fighter with such an edit.
• The level of artificial intelligence for the following Ice Climber (Nana, by default) is 77 out of 100, which is slightly higher than a level-8 CPU (75 out of 100); the non-standard number is likely a pun on Nana's name, as one of the ways to say seven in Japanese is "なな (nana)".
• While most characters have two different sets of knockback-based voice-clips, the Ice Climbers are the only characters to be an exception to this rule: they vocalize either their low or high knockback-based voice-clips or remain silent, regardless of how far/fast they are launched from knockback.
  • Additionally, the Ice Climbers are the only characters that retain their voice-clips from Brawl, but do not make usage of their unused knockback-based voice-clips, a trait shared with Link, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf from Smash 4.
    • When Popo is the leader, they vocalize either their medium and one of the heavy knockbacks based on a small probability. Both are missing a light knockback and 1 heavy knockback, which goes unused in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and also in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. If Nana is the leader, the Ice Climbers' knockback-based voice-clips won't play for unknown reasons.
• The Ice Climbers are the only characters who have fewer dash-to-run frames when performing a pivot dash instead of a regular dash.
• When playing on a custom stage, there is a visual glitch in the Ice Climber's on-screen appearance where the Condor does not disappear and only does so once "GO!" appears on the screen.
• If both Ice Climbers perform a smash attack with the Home-Run Bat, Nana will vocalize first, which is during the windup rather than before the swing. This is a carryover from Brawl, where all characters will grunt during the windup animation. This is shared with Falco.
• The Ice Climbers' description on the North American amiibo website is based on their trophy description from Melee.
• Instead of being supported by a clear stand on their amiibo, the Ice Climbers are instead supported by a blue iceberg, which is not present in their official render.
• The Ice Climbers are the only characters who wield weapons at all times to be affected by stance mirroring.
• The Ice Climbers seen in Sora's reveal trailer after everyone has been turned back into trophies are actually two Popos.
• During Palutena's Guidance regarding the Ice Climbers, Pit assumes that their absence in SSB4 was due to illegal teaming. This dialogue is a humorous reference to the Ice Climbers being cut due to the consistent technical issues that Masahiro Sakurai and the development team faced when attempting to make them function properly in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
• When functioning as the following climber, Popo and Nana are the only characters capable of dashing through other characters in Ultimate.
• When one Ice Climber gets KO'd off the top blast line, the other Ice Climber has a greater chance of being KO'd the same way. For example, if the leader were to get Screen KO'd, the partner likely would as well, instead of the usual completely randomized chance.
• If Sephiroth performs Shadow Flare against the AI-controlled Ice Climber, they will flinch and take the initial damage, but the shadowy orbs that normally follow from this attack will not appear.