Piranha Plant (SSBU)/Forward tilt/Hit 1

Hitbox visualization showing Piranha Plant's first hit of forward tilt.

Overview

Piranha Plant delivers a bite forwards. It comes out on frame 7, and its main purpose is to link into the second hit. It has very low (but not set) knockback and 2 frames of teeth intangibility during the active frames, giving it minor disjoint. It possesses less endlag over the second hit, and thus is safer on shield. However, it falls short in numerous areas due to many poor traits the move possesses. Firstly, it is much slower than jab, and the hits are less safe on shield, which means that even with proper mixups, Piranha Plant is better off using jab up close for significantly more safety. To further increase this problem, forward tilt is also unable to true combo into the second hit on select characters, such as Kazuya, as Kazuya has 1 frame of leeway to shield the second hit, then get a strong punish. This means that up close, jab is always the better option to get the opponent off or perform grounded pressure up close.

While the move does possess some range, comparable to down tilt, even that supposed strength is mitigated by an egregious hurtbox extension. Not only does the head stay out for many frames, it also comes out frame 6 with no hitbox, making it exceptionally easy to beat out, and making forward tilt very poor for poking. Thus, it is virtually always better to use down tilt in situations where forward tilt can reach, as down tilt possesses the same range, but better shield safety, better reward, and less hurtboxes to take advantage of (with the benefit of a slight low profile as well).

Despite all these glaring flaws, due to 13.0.1, forward tilt has one feature that warrants its use, being able to kill opponents at reasonable percents at the ledge (130% on Mario with no DI on Final Destination). Especially as its safest when used at ledge, this makes forward tilt useful in securing stocks as most of Piranha Plant's other horizontally-reaching kill moves are not as safe.