Palutena Bow
| Palutena Bow | |
|---|---|
 Pit charging Palutena Bow in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. | |
| User | Pit Dark Pit (Silver Bow) |
| Universe | Kid Icarus |
| Article on Icaruspedia | Palutena's Arrow |
| “ | Change the angle of fire and trajectory of your ethereal arrows once you've drawn the bow. | ” |
| —Brawl's instruction manual | ||
| “ | Fire a guidable arrow. You can also point the bow up. | ” |
| —Smash for 3DS's foldout | ||
| “ | Fires a guidable arrow. While charging, the bow can be aimed straight up. | ” |
| —Description from Ultimate's Move List | ||
Palutena Bow (パルテナの神弓, Palutena's God Bow), known as Palutena's Arrow (パルテナアロー, Palutena Arrow) in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is Pit's neutral special move.
Overview
Pit will pull his bow string back, and fire it when the button is released. The arrow does 3.3% uncharged and up to 8.6% charged. The player can change the direction the arrow will go while holding it; backwards, forwards, and upwards. Pit's arrows move much more quickly than other characters' arrows, and can be controlled in midair. He is not able to hold his drawn bow indefinitely in normal use; however, if the player keeps changing the direction the arrow will be released, he can hold onto it until the player stops (when he will lose the arrow, unlike Link and Toon Link).
Palutena's Arrows can actually be curved around in a full circle if controlled properly and thus avoid going off screen. Also, if two of Palutena's Arrows collide, they will cancel each other out.
Starting at 294%, a fully charged arrow can KO a middleweight such as Mario — making it deadly in Super Sudden Death — and an uncharged arrow can KO at 562%.
This is one of the few Special moves that can perform a 180˚ and 360˚ reversal, by holding away from the direction the player is facing while charging an arrow. This does not affect attack power.
In Smash 4, the move functions the same, although the range of Pit's arrows have been drastically reduced, no longer able to curve in a full circle on large maps and only traveling almost the length of Final Destination before fading into sparkles. However, the arrows still maintain their incredible accuracy, making the distance nerf negligible. Fully charged, Pit's arrows travel much further, almost the length of two Final Destinations. However, the arrows disappear when it reaches the blast zone, removing techniques and mindgames that involves the blast zone (such as Arrow Rain).
Silver Bow
| “ | Fires an arrow of darkness. Stronger than Pit's arrows, but they don't curve as much. | ” |
| —Description from Ultimate's Move List | ||
Dark Pit's variant of the move, which instead uses the Silver Bow (神弓シルバーリップ, God Bow Silver Lip), has him fire a dark arrow. Silver Bow does not have as long a range as its counterpart and cannot be curved as much, but it has a slightly faster traveling speed, deals 1% more damage when uncharged and 2% more damage when fully charged, and possesses slightly higher knockback. Its range can be increased by fully charging it, similar to Pit's version.
Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:
| 1. Palutena Bow | 2. Piercing Bow | 3. Guiding Bow |
|---|---|---|
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 |
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| "Fire a guidable arrow. While charging, you can aim the bow straight up." | "Fire a stronger arrow that can pierce through foes. Charging takes longer. Can't be guided." | "Fire an arrow that can be guided much more easily but has less power." |
| 1. Silver Bow | 2. Piercing Bow | 3. Guiding Bow |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
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| "Fire an arrow of darkness. Stronger than Pit's arrows, but they don't curve as much." | "Fire a giant arrow that travels through foes. A powerful shot, but leaves you quite open." | "Fire a mystical arrow that can be easily controlled but is slower and less powerful." |
- Palutena/Silver Bow: Default.
- Piercing Bow: Shots take longer to charge and cannot be controlled in the air, but they can pierce through opponents. They are also stronger: damage rises by 3-6% for Pit and 5-8% for Dark Pit.
- Guiding Bow: Shots are weaker and slower (down by 1-2% for Pit and .5-1% for Dark Pit), but they can be more easily controlled.
- In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, this variation is a Challenge unlock for Dark Pit, only obtainable by using Dark Pit to get a score of at least 25 in Rival Smash.
Piercing Bow being used in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Guiding Bow being used in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Palutena's Bow
The Bow of Light, also known as the Sacred Bow of Palutena, is Pit's weapon of choice. The bow splits into two blades, which Pit can wield. Before Kid Icarus Uprising, Pit's bow did not have the ability to split into two blades. This is explained in the Subspace Emissary.
Trophy information
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Palutena's Bow
The bow Pit got from Palutena after the Medusa incident. As a standard bow, it's capable of firing arrows of light that can change direction. It can also be split to form two short swords--Pit holds one sword in his right hand in a standard grip and one in his left in a reverse grip. He may hold them like this so he can shift between bow and swords without losing a beat.
: Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
- Palutena Bow
A bow crafted by the goddess Palutena herself. It is said that one night, as Palutena was caring for this bow, the moon's light formed a beam and fell upon it, blessing it with power. A legendary weapon like this requires skill and training to wield effectively.
A bow crafted by the goddess Palutena herself. She worked diligently on it, and as she finished, the moon's rays focused into one great moonbeam that shone down onto the bow. Naturally, a legendary weapon like this requires great skill and a lot of training to wield effectively.
Origin
Palutena's Arrow didn't appear in a Kid Icarus game prior to Super Smash Bros. Brawl (though it does appear in the later game Kid Icarus: Uprising as the Palutena Bow, which bases much of its aesthetic on designs which debuted or appeared in Brawl), but in the original games, Pit used a bow as his trademark weapon. The move appears to be based on the Arrow of Light, one of the three Sacred Treasures used to defeat Medusa. Normally, Pit fired regular arrows. Also in the original titles, Pit could aim his bow upwards, much like how he can with the Palutena Bow in Smash Bros.
The Silver Bow appears in Kid Icarus: Uprising as a usable weapon. It is always Dark Pit's weapon as a non-playable character during land stages, starting with the final boss fight against him in Chapter 6.
Dark Pit's use of the Silver Bow to fire dark arrows, which the weapon did not do in Uprising, may be a reference to Dark Pit's appearances in flight stages in that game, namely the ones in Chapter 6 and Chapter 9. During those stages, Dark Pit wielded a First Blade, Pit's default weapon in Uprising and the most basic type of Blade; however, Dark Pit's version fired shots of darkness, unlike the player's version firing light shots.
Gallery
Pit's bow in Brawl.
Pit and Link using their bows alongside each other.
Challenge board unlock image for Guiding Bow.
Mewtwo dodges Dark Pit's arrow.
Pit using Palutena Bow as shown by a Skill Preview in Ultimate.
Dark Pit using Silver Bow as shown by a Skill Preview in Ultimate.
Trivia
- The trophy is the only one that is not a Final Smash, Subspace Emissary enemy, item, or alloy to have Super Smash Bros. Brawl on its game list.
- The first time that this item is seen in the Kid Icarus universe is in Kid Icarus: Uprising, where it was dubbed "Palutena Bow".
- This is the only special move Pit keeps in Super Smash Bros. 4 from Brawl.
- Normally, Pit has golden rings hovering around his wrist (from wielding the Bow). When he uses this move, the rings slide onto the bow while charging before returning to his wrists when he fires.
- In Kid Icarus: Uprising, these golden rings will only appear when he is wielding the Palutena Bow, suggesting that they are a part of the weapon itself. His initial appearance in The Subspace Emissary also suggests this, as when Palutena gives the bow to him, the rings appear once he holds the bow.
- In Brawl, if Pit has the arrow on the screen after he is KO'd, he can continue to control it in unlimited time. An example can be seen here: [1].
- If Kirby copies Silver Bow and uses the move at the end of his forward, back, or up throw, he will float in the air until he stops charging the move. This was fixed in version 1.0.5 for the 3DS.
- In Kid Icarus: Uprising, the Silver Bow fires green bolts of light, but in SSB4 it fires black and purple colored arrows, possibly to be in line with Dark Pit's "dark" motif and to be an antithesis to Pit's light-colored arrows.
- The arrows themselves seem to be based on the ones shot by the Darkness Bow or from Skuttlers, as they share a similar coloration.
- In a similar line to CPU Luigi players spamming Fireballs upon using Negative Zone, higher-leveled CPU Pit players will immediately fire a Palutena's Arrow after throwing an enemy. They do not aim these arrows either, making it possible that this is just a programming error.
- Ironically, the description for the Silver Bow in Kid Icarus: Uprising specifically emphasizes the bow’s high fire rate and homing capabilities, while the version in Smash has low speed and little maneuverability.
