Zelda (SSBU)/Forward smash

Hitbox visualization showing Zelda's forward smash.

Overview

A powerful blast of magic consisting of five hits. It boasts the highest disjoint of any of her ground moves; she also pulls back during the startup, making it difficult to challenge. It has relatively low ending lag for a smash attack, making it difficult to punish out of shield, especially when spaced and/or charged.

With all these strengths, forward smash is very strong in ledge traps, as it can hit ledge roll relatively easily, or simultaneously cover various combinations of other getup options. Unlike Pichu's similar forward smash, each hit only lasts a single frame, which makes it inconsistent at catching neutral getups. However, even on neutral getups it becomes a low-risk option when timed well; most fighters must buffer shield to avoid being hit, and even if the forward smash doesn’t catch the single frame of neutral getup vulnerability, it will still be very safe on shield. When layered with Phantom, it can be very difficult for opponents to bypass Zelda's ledge traps, especially if they fail to use the proper getup timings to avoid Phantom.

Uncharged, it is still strong, but for a forward smash, it is slightly below average in strength. While it is large and lacks finicky sweetspots in comparison to her Lightning Kicks, it is much weaker and slower at frame 16. As a raw punish, it should thus be reserved for when there is sufficient frame advantage and it can KO, or if sweetspotting a Lightning Kick is too difficult. At low percents, Zelda's optimal shield break punish for a KO or maximum damage will be a Phantom Slash setup with a Lightning Kick or down aerial finisher. At high percents, however, a fully charged forward smash will become her most reliable shield break punish.

While often hard to punish on shield, this usually requires some degree of spacing; additionally, it is still quite punishable on whiff. While it is much more consistent than its Melee and Brawl iterations, it is still susceptible to SDI if the opponent's inputs are strong enough, though this is quite rare.

Update history

10.1.0

• Forward smash has received various adjustments that allow the move to connect more reliably:
  • The first four hits send at an autolink angle (25°/165 → 366° (both)) and have more set knockback (40/50 → 60 (both)).
    • This tends to pull opponents toward the center of the near hitbox. In the majority of cases, this marginally reduces the move's KO potential compared to before.
  • The last hit's hitbox at Zelda's arm is slightly larger (5.5u → 5.7u).
  • All hits have received a -100% trip chance, preventing them from tripping opponents and missing subsequent hits due to the trip's intangibility.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Hits 1-4
0	0	0	1.0%	0		Forward	0	100	60		4.2	top	0.0	9.1	9.0	1.0×	1.0×	-100%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	1.0%	0		Forward	0	100	60		4.5	top	0.0	9.1	17.0	1.0×	1.0×	-100%							Kick		All	All
Hit 5
0	0	0	13.0%	0		Forward	37	110	0		5.7	top	0.0	9.1	10.5	1.0×	1.0×	-100%							Magic		All	All
1	0	0	13.0%	0		Forward	37	110	0		6.0	top	0.0	9.1	17.0	1.0×	1.0×	-100%							Magic		All	All

Timing

Charges between	10-11
Hits 1-4	16, 18, 20, 22
Hit 5	24
Interruptible	50
Animation length	69

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Charge interval

Hitbox

Interruptible

Zelda's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · inf) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash