Palutena (SSB4)/Back aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Palutena's back aerial.

Overview

Palutena attacks behind her using her shield. It is her strongest aerial in terms of damage, which makes it great at edgeguarding. Her shield also renders her upper body's back invincible for 8 frames, which lets it beat any attack or projectile that comes in contact with her back. However, it is easy to miss if the opponents is too close to her since it does not have a hitbox around her, and its high ending lag sometimes makes it punishable if it misses (though doing so is quite hard), which makes it necessary to cancel this move from a short hop, or by SHFFing if the opponent does not have a move fast enough. It also has a small sourspot at her feet that deals 3% less damage, but makes the same sound. While the hitbox is small and is overlapped by the sweetspot, the sound it makes renders it almost unperceptible if the move is hitting with the sourspot.

This move can also be comboed from a down throw, then SHFFd to avoid taking the move's ending lag. Its landing lag, however, while relatively low, makes it more viable as a possible, albeit hard to land, KO setup at high percents, while using her neutral or forward aerials at low percents to avoid getting punished due to either their lower ending or landing lag, respectively.