Fox (SSBM)/Down aerial

Overview

Hitboxes of Fox's down aerial.

Fox does a drill downwards while airborne, doing a maximum of 19.38% damage if all hits connect (due to how staleness works) and very low set knockback. It's a very weak spike, and can only produce knockback on low handicapped opponents and Wire Frames, which combined with its long duration makes it mostly unreasonable to use offstage. However, it is a good move for racking up damage and a useful comboing move - upon landing it can be followed up with other moves, such as an up tilt to combo into another aerial, or a waveshine to continue the combo with other moves.

Dair is one of Fox's best moves in neutral due to its effectiveness against CC and its large hitbox and long active duration. It's the go-to option to cover an opponent dashing towards Fox and can be used to go over some grounded pokes, like Marth/Roy Dtilt. It's also very fast and works very well as a whiff punish tool, particularly because it can be timed to cover a potential spotdodge. One matchup where Dair plays an important role is against Yoshi: due to Dair being a multi-hit move, it's extremely effective against parry, often turning what would be an advantage for Yoshi into an advantage for Fox.

A notable aspect of this move is that is commonly has different uses in combos depending on if it is staled or not. When unstaled, it is possible to true combo it into Fox's up smash, grab, and down tilt, leading to it being a very threatening move. Once staled, it will frequently have a small gap in hitstun between landing and the hitboxes of those moves, which can lead to Fox getting punished out of a spotdodge or shine. Additionally, the frame disadvantage this move has on shield can vary with staling, as it is often impossible to shieldgrab unstaled and shieldgrabble staled.

Due to its multiple hitboxes, it can be quite vulnerable to Smash DI. Its miniscule knockback and spike-angle also makes it very dangerous to use against an aerial opponent, who can often land from being hit by it before Fox can and get a punish.