Aesthetics
- Ike's appearance as a Ranger in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - the basis of his appearance in Brawl - is once again his default costume. His appearance as a Hero in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, which was his default design in SSB4, is now an alternate costume, and five of his previous costumes have been distributed among the two appearances. Additionally, Ike has a new costume-purple jacket. They replace his "ordinary soldier" and Chrom-inspired costumes, with the latter being coincide with Chrom's inclusion as a playable fighter.
- Palutena's Guidance conversation for Ike has been changed to accommodate for his Path of Radiance costume.
- As with all veterans returning from SSB4, both of Ike's models feature a more subdued color scheme, and his clothing on both designs now feature simple detailing. Additionally, both models have been updated:
- For his Path of Radiance model from Brawl, the inside of his cape is now light pink instead of yellow, and his boots are now colored brown instead of orange. His facial features are slightly different, with Ike's face being less narrow, and now having slightly larger and rounder eyes, making them closer to his appearance in Path of Radiance. Most notably, his hair has a simpler, tamer appearance, being overall flatter and now mostly flowing downwards. While this makes it look less like how it appears in PoR's pre-rendered cutscenes, it gives it a closer resemblance to more recent depictions of Ike.
- For his Radiant Dawn model from SSB4, his skin tone is noticeably more tanned, and his facial features have been notably modified; his face is narrower, his eyes are sharper and closer together, and his hair is slightly more voluminous and spiked. In addition, Ike's neck is longer, his collar has been made smaller and is now flared, and his cape hangs lower from the front, giving a better overall view of his face. His pauldron now jutts outwards and no longer moves with his left arm, and his arm bandaging is less visible. Finally, Ike's muscles are more pronounced.
- Ike's voice changes slightly depending on the costume. In the Japanese version, Ike's voice is deeper and more masculine in his Radiant Dawn costume. In the English version, Ike sounds more energetic and aggressive in his Path of Radiance costume, and more serious and composed in his Radiant Dawn costume.
- Ike has a new idle animation, which is more similar to his idle stance in Path of Radiance: he faces more towards the screen, and his left arm is no longer suspended, while clenching his left fist.
- Ike no longer does a backflip during his backward jumping animation.
- Ike's clapping animation now differs slightly depending on which outfit he is using. Path of Radiance Ike has a new clapping animation, whereas Radiant Dawn Ike reuses the previous animation from Brawl and SSB4.
- Additionally, Ragnell is no longer present in the "No Contest" screen.
- During his victory animations, Ike has different quotes depending on which outfit is used.
- On the first one where he swings Ragnell twice, Path of Radiance Ike says, "Your skills were... remarkable," (あんたの戦い、見事だった, Your combat was excellent.) and Radiant Dawn Ike says, "Don't stand in my way." (どうして俺の前に立った, Why do you stand before me?).
- On the second one where he plants Ragnell into the ground, Path of Radiance Ike says, "I submit to no one," (誰にも、譲る気はない, I cannot yield to anyone.) and Radiant Dawn Ike says, "I must move forward." (俺は前に進む, I move forward.).
- On the third one where he performs Aether, Path of Radiance Ike says, "You'll get no sympathy from me," (極めれば…誰にも負けはしない, To the end... I will not lose to anyone.) and Radiant Dawn Ike says, "I fight for my friends." (俺には守るべき物が在る, I have things I must protect.).
Attributes
- Like all characters, Ike's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 7).
- Ike dashes slightly faster (1.5 → 1.507), although it is by far the lowest increase out of everyone.
- Ike's initial dash is faster (1.5 → 1.815).
- Ike walks slightly faster (0.869 → 0.912).
- Ike's air speed is slightly faster (1.08 → 1.134).
- Ike's traction is significantly higher (0.044 → 0.112), improving his punish game out of shield.
- Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 33 → 31).
- Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-18 → 4-15).
- Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-18 → 5-16), and more ending lag (FAF 33 → 36).
- Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 27).
- Spot dodge grants less intangibility (frames 3-18 → 3-17).
- Air dodge has more startup (frame 3 → 4) and significantly more ending lag (FAF 34 → 50).
- Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-28 → 4-31).
Ground attacks
- Neutral attack:
- The first hit transitions into the second hit faster (frame 10 → 9), which transitions into the third hit faster (frame 11 → 9), allowing them to connect better.
- The first and second hits have altered angles and knockback to keep opponents close to Ike, akin to other neutral attacks. While this removes their already minimal jab canceling potential, this more prominently allows them to connect better and jab lock.
- The first and second hits deal less damage (3% → 2.5%).
- The third hit has more ending lag (FAF 39 → 41).
- Forward tilt:
- The move has faster startup (frame 13 → 12).
- However, as its interruptibility frames remain unchanged, this gives it one frame more ending lag.
- It deals more damage (12.5% → 13.5%) without compensation on knockback, improving its KO potential.
- The move has faster startup (frame 13 → 12).
- Up tilt:
- The move has drastically less ending lag (FAF 48 → 40), which combined with Ike's faster jumpsquat grants the late hit combo potential.
- The clean hit lasts longer compared to the late hit (frames 11-13/14-21 (clean/late) → 11-16/17-21).
- The hitbox is smaller and has been repositioned (Y offset: 1-13 → 2.8-13.5), making it less extended and moving it further up the blade. This reduces its horizontal range.
- The move deals less damage (14% → 12% (clean), 10% → 8% (late)) without compensation on knockback. This hinders the clean hit's KO potential.
- Down tilt:
- The move has increased combo potential due to Ike's faster jumpsquat.
- Its hitboxes are smaller (3.8u/3.8u/3.8u/3u → 3.4u/3.4u/3.4u/3u) and have been repositioned, reducing both its vertical and horizontal range.
- Dash attack:
- The move has less ending lag (FAF 52 → 48).
- The move's hitboxes are larger (6.3u/4u → 7u/5u) and have been repositioned, and it has an extra hitbox. This improves the move's range, and makes it easier to land the sweetspot, since the new hitbox is a sweetspot.
- The changes to jostle mechanics allow dash attack to hit opponents close to Ike more easily.
- It has increased shieldstun (1x → 1.2x), improving its safety on shield.
- Forward smash:
- The move's sweetspot deals more base knockback (40 base/86 scaling → 49/85), improving its KO potential despite its slightly decreased knockback scaling.
- Down smash:
- Both hits deal more damage (14% → 16% (hit 1), 17% → 19% (hit 2, clean), 8% → 9% (hit 2, late)) without compensation on knockback, improving the move's KO potential.
Aerial attacks
- All aerials have less landing lag (14 frames → 8 (neutral), 18 frames → 14 (forward), 19 frames → 11 (back), 15 frames → 9 (up), 23 frames → 14 (down)).
- Neutral aerial:
- The move has faster startup (frame 12 → 10).
- It deals less damage (10% → 7.5% (clean), 7% → 6% (late)) without compensation on knockback. As a result, it has lost its KO potential, but significantly improves its combo potential combined with its lower landing lag.
- The swing has been slightly sped up, reducing the duration of its hitboxes (frames 12-27 → 10-22), but allowing it to hit around Ike faster.
- The clean hit now lasts shorter compared to the late hit (frames 12-21/22-27 (clean/late) → 10-14/15-22).
- It auto-cancels earlier (frame 64 → 50), but still requires a double jump to auto-cancel.
- Its initial auto-cancel window has been shortened (frames 1-5 → 1-2).
- It has a different animation, with Ike facing more toward the screen and no longer tucking his legs in. His entire body now moves with the sword. The new animation increases its range.
- Forward aerial:
- The move has faster startup (frame 12 → 11).
- It now always launches opponents in the direction Ike is facing, even if hit from behind, improving its reliability for edgeguarding.
- It now sends opponents at a lower angle (361° → 30°), further improving its edgeguarding use.
- It has increased ending lag (FAF 55 → 60).
- The hitboxes have been moved towards the middle of the blade, reducing the move's range and giving it a larger blindspot.
- It deals less damage (13% → 11.5%) and has altered knockback (30 base/100 scaling → 55/65). This drastically hinders its KO potential, no longer KOing middleweights until around 175% from the center of Final Destination.
- Its higher base knockback makes it much safer on hit at lower percentages.
- It auto-cancels later (frame 36 → 42), thus no longer doing so in a short hop. This hinders Ike's already poor approach.
- It no longer has an initial auto-cancel window.
- Back aerial:
- The move now has four smaller hitboxes instead of two large hitboxes, which are moved lower and one of them is now extended, significantly reducing its vertical range.
- Up aerial:
- Ike has a new up aerial: a wide overhead swing starting from the front, similar to the rest of the Fire Emblem cast, but going inwards rather than outwards, and without a backflip.
- It has significantly increased range and coverage around Ike, especially horizontally, allowing it to juggle opponents much more effectively.
- It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 13-29 → 13-18).
- Ike has a new up aerial: a wide overhead swing starting from the front, similar to the rest of the Fire Emblem cast, but going inwards rather than outwards, and without a backflip.
- Down aerial:
- The removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes improves down aerial's combo potential onstage, compounded further by its lower landing lag.
Throws and other attacks
- Grabs:
- All grabs have more ending lag (FAF 33 → 37 (standing), 41 → 45 (dash), 39 → 40 (pivot)).
- All grabs have reduced horizontal range (Z offset: 4u-9.4u → 4u-8.4u (standing), 4u-11.2u → 4u-10u (dash), 4u-15.4u → 4u-14.2u (pivot)).
- Pummel:
- It deals much less damage (3% → 1.6%).
- It has faster startup (frame 5 → 1), deals more hitlag (5 frames → 15), and has significantly less ending lag (FAF 23 → 7), shortening its duration and increasing the amount of times Ike can pummel the opponent before throwing them or before they break out.
- Forward throw:
- It deals more damage (3% → 3.5% (hit 1), 7% → 7.5% (total)).
- Up throw:
- It deals more damage (3% → 3.5% (hit 1), 7% → 7.5% (total)).
- It has faster startup (frame 26 (hit 1), 28 (throw) → 18, 20).
- However, the move's total duration remains the same, increasing its ending lag. Ike's faster jumpsquat also fails to compensate, thus hindering its combo potential.
- The collateral hitbox has been moved down (Y offset: 21 → 9). This noticeably reduces the throw's vertical range, but makes it much easier to hit bystanders in front of Ike.
- Down throw:
- It has increased combo potential due to Ike's faster jumpsquat.
- Edge attack:
- Edge attack deals more damage (8% → 10%).
Special moves
- Eruption:
- The move now produces multiple flaming pillars of decreasing sizes as it charges, producing two pillars when at a high level of charge, and three pillars at maximum charge. This greatly improves its range and edgeguarding potential.
- Much like in Brawl, Ike vocalizes when unleashing a fully charged Eruption.
- Fully-charged or high charge levels of Eruption cause Special Zoom when it hits.
- Quick Draw:
- The move has less ending lag both when missed (FAF 57 → 53) and when the attack is triggered (FAF 45 → 35).
- It has much greater vertical range.
- Its charge can no longer be held indefinitely, now releasing it after roughly two seconds of being fully charged.
- Aether:
- The move has faster startup (frame 18 → 15), with faster super armor on the aerial version as well (frame 18 → 15).
- The grounded version grants much more super armor (frames 18-38 → 5-35), allowing it to tank through opposing attacks more effectively.
- The move has less landing lag (38 frames → 36).
- The landing hit has significantly more knockback scaling (80 → 115). This grants it KO potential, now being able to KO middleweights at around 180%.
- Ragnell can no longer clip through the bottom of stages while using Aether, instead moving along the stages' perimeters, making it less safe against opponents at the ledge.
- The changes to knockback received during meteor smashes significantly improve Aether's sacrificial KO potential, as Ike is now less likely to be KOed first than his opponent.
- Counter:
- The move's intangibility is faster (frame 9 → 8).
- In addition to its full intangibility, it grants intangibility on Ike's head for the entire counter duration.
- It has a shorter counter duration (frames 8-35 → 8-33).
- It has more ending lag on both the counter (FAF 59 → 74) and the attack (FAF 35 → 44), making it much riskier to use.
- It now gives off flaming visuals from Ragnell after Ike performs a successful counterattack.
- Ike's vocalizations in English during a successful counterattack have been altered. Path of Radiance Ike says "Gotcha!", and Radiant Dawn Ike says "Amateur!"
- Great Aether:
- The final hit launches at a lower angle (70° → 63°), weakening its KO potential.
- The sword deals less damage when hitting opponents while flying up for Ike to grab it (10% → 3%), thus reducing the maximum damage of the final smash (60% → 53%).
- The move is significantly flashier, with a dark blue backdrop alongside flaming visuals. Before the final hit, the victim flashes with blue light, and the landing eruption now appears significantly more cartoony, with fewer smoke effects.