Squirtle (PM)

Squirtle in Project M and Project+
Universe	Pokémon
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Squirtle (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Shinobi Squirtle

Squirtle is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. Like Ivysaur and Charizard, it has been separated from the Pokémon Trainer and so fights alone. Its down special move, Pokémon Change, has been replaced with Bubble. Since his Brawl incarnation has also been given significant buffs.

Squirtle is ranked 31st out of 41 on the official tier list and is placed toward the lower half of the C tier. This is roughly the same as its placement as part of the Pokémon Trainer in Brawl, where it ranked 29th out of 38.

Attributes

Squirtle's Shinobi Costume in Project M 3.5

In Project M, Squirtle's kit puts a strong emphasis on movement. Able to out-maneuver most opponents, Squirtle can play evasively while looking for an opening before launching into fast-paced combos to carry opponents to the side blastzones or kill off the top. Squirtle's access to fast burst movement options through its unique run turnaround animation, shellshift, and low friction on the ground enable it to quickly chase down escaping opponents even offstage, where its remarkable up-special allows it to effectively gimp opponents and return to stage from practically anywhere.

However, the trade-off is that Squirtle has generally unimpressive range on his attacks and grab. Squirtle plays similarly to Pikachu in his short range, low profile, good mobility and powerful up smash, and shares the weakness of light weight, but is generally more grounded as a result of his wider variety of ground movement options and advanced techniques.

Changes from Brawl to PM

Squirtle's down special, Bubble.

The most obvious change to Squirtle's moveset from Brawl is the addition of its new down-special move, Bubble. Bubble's hitboxes are transcendent, similar to Falco's lasers, and will trip the opponent like Diddy Kong's banana, making it a valuable tool to combat crouch cancel. In addition, using Bubble while airborne will cause Squirtle's vertical momentum to stall for a short period, making it situationally usable as a recovery tool.

Another major change is the addition of the move Aqua Jet as a powerful kill option. Aqua Jet can be activated by using Squirtle's side-special move, Withdraw. If Squirtle is in contact with an opponent during the first five frames of Withdraw and the player is holding B, the initial move will be canceled with a strong hit upwards and a water particle effect, sending Squirtle into special fall. Though this move is similar to Rest in terms of usage, it is nearly identical to Fox's up-aerial in terms of damage and knockback, but sends at an angle that is five degrees shallower.

Additionally, the momentum boosts of shellshift have been strengthened slightly, enabling Squirtle to hydroplane attacks more effectively, as well as fly farther when using reverse aerial rush and jumping out of the end of the animation.

Squirtle's neutral-special, Water Gun, was also changed. It is now charged by holding B (can be canceled with shield) and fired by releasing, and will no longer trigger the close-range, rapid multi-hit attack that it did at minimum charge in Brawl.

Aesthetics

• New on-screen appearance: Squirtle comes on using Withdraw.
• Pokémon Trainer victory pose replaced: Squirtle squirts water in an arc and then poses.
• Pressing a special button just before Squirtle lands from its up taunt results in it getting black sunglasses based on those worn by the leader of the Squirtle Squad in the Pokémon anime. The glasses shatter if Squirtle is attacked.

Attributes

• Squirtle walks slower (1.2 → 0.9).
• Squirtle dashes faster (1.37 → 1.45).
• Squirtle's air speed is faster (1.087 → 1.2).
• Squirtle is heavier (75 → 82).
• Squirtle falls faster (1.3 → 1.7).
• Squirtle's gravity is higher (0.1067 → 0.126).
• Squirtle's traction is lower (0.042 → 0.025) now being tied with Luigi for the lowest in the game. While this makes it harder for it to punish out of shield, it gives Squirtle a longer wavedash.
• The introduction of wavedashing improves its approach and mobility, given its low traction.
• Shellshifting has been retained and Squirtle now has even more follow up options, most notably a long jump-canceled grab.
• Shellshift now has a hitbox that deals 3% damage and weakly launches enemies away with high base knockback, leading better into shellshift techniques, most notably the Hydroplane for a KO.
• Stamina mechanic has been removed.
• Type effectiveness has been removed, meaning Squirtle no longer resists fire attacks.

Ground Attacks

• Jab combo does more damage.
• Jab 1 has more startup lag (frame 1 → 2) and can no longer be spammed by holding the A button.
• Forward tilt deals higher damage and deals much more knockback and has a sweetspot at the tip of the tail.
• Up tilt does slightly higher damage and has more combo ability at lower percents.
• Down tilt now hits just twice making it faster and harder to escape.
• Down tilt does less damage.
• Dash attack deals horizontal knockback and is better at KOing near the ledge.
• Forward smash deals more damage and has armor.
• Up smash does more damage and has more KO potential, and the pumps just hit once, allowing the first hit to link better with the second and has armor.
• Down smash hits consecutively and deals slightly more damage, with the first hits meteoring the foe, and allows for better follow-ups unlike most smashes even at somewhat higher percents and has armor.
• Down smash deals much lower knockback.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial is now a vertical shell spin with more gimping potential, having better knockback scaling with more damage and a semi-spike angle that has armor and less endlag.
• Neutral aerial has slightly slower startup.
• Forward aerial deals slightly more damage and has more KO and gimping potential.
• Back aerial does more damage and has more KO potential.
• Up aerial has higher knockback scaling.
• Down aerial is better at damaging, and on grounded opponents it acts as a locking meteor smash akin to Jigglypuff's down air.

Grabs and Throws

• Pummel deals higher damage.
• Squirtle keeps momentum upon grabbing opponents, which when combined with shellshifting causes throws to KO more easily, especially down throw.
• Forward throw does less damage.
• Forward throw and up throw have more combo ability.
• Up throw does much less damage.
• Down throw does much more damage and has stronger KO potential, and has a water effect.

Special Moves

• Water Gun now deals consecutive damage and can clash with other projectiles. The move now shoots a stream of water even when uncharged, has faster startup for shooting in all levels of charge, and retains its push effect so that Squirtle is left less vulnerable if the move whiffs.
• Water Gun can now be absorbed, has hitboxes for the first half of the distance it travels, and the windboxes are weaker.
• Withdraw deals 8% instead of 7% and starts much faster, along with having 2 possible speeds between smash withdraw and tilt withdraw and a slightly extended duration. When hitting a hurtbox, Squirtle bounces and quickly exits his shell, leading into aerial followups and techchase situations. Withdraw can be canceled into a frame 6 execute called Aqua Jet by holding B while overlapping with a hurtbox, which is stronger and hits upwards, but leaves Squirtle helpless. The helplessness can be made negligible by edgecancelling off of a platform.
• Waterfall travels faster and higher, and has slightly higher damage and KO potential.
• Pokémon Change has been replaced by a new move called Bubble; a fast, short-ranged projectile with multiple hits that trips grounded opponents (for tech-chases), and has a horizontal angle on aerial targets that can easily gimp them.

Revisions

v2.6b

• Forward smash, down smash, and neutral aerial now have Medium Armor during the initial attack, and Light Armor during the remainder of the time Squirtle is in its shell.
• Turnrun, crawl attack, and Withdraw now have Light Armor while Squirtle is in its shell.
• Dash attack covers more space during the initial lunge. Hits earlier and harder. Hit angles lowered to send foes further in front of Squirtle.
• Forward smash now retains previous momentum.
• Forward aerial's knockback was slightly increased.
• Down aerial hits more frequently and faster. Tweaked the linking hit's knockback to ease the difficulty in landing all the hits.
• Down aerial's final hit sends forward and base knockback increased.
• Turn grab range increased.
• Revamped positioning, sizing, and timing of initial hitboxes so that the sweetspot comes out first and has greater priority among the other hitboxes.
• Lingering hitbox has a higher angle and increased base knockback.
• Withdraw's Aqua Jet landing lag slightly reduced.
• Up tilt base knockback reduced making it juggle better at lower percents.
• Forward tilt start up and cooldown notably reduced.
• Up smash's hitboxes at the top of the water pillars have slightly reduced knockback.
• Fixed a bug with Water Gun charge that could prevent its shield from being damaged.
• Withdraw knockback growth decreased.
• Water burst hitboxes now only hit to the side of Squirtle, with decreased damage, hit angle, and knockback.
• Ground to air physics and aerial friction adjusted so that Squirtle retains more momentum into the air.
• Squirtle's hidden "Shades" no longer break unless Squirtle is sent into tumble from knockback.
• Armor system was streamlined to match the new Project M standard of Light, Medium and Heavy Armor (note that Squirtle has no Heavy Armor).
• Squirtle flashes blue when it has Medium Armor, Withdraw duration and Watergun charge flashes changed to yellow to prevent confusion.
• Aqua Jet has Medium Armor while Squirtle is in its shell.
• Fixed > 100% ledge attack timer on hitboxes. Now hits properly.
• Squirtle now has a crawl attack. It quickly spins forward in shell, popping an opponent up above it as it passes through.
• Jab 1, 2 and 3 movement reduced and knockback tweaked to aid in linking all three hits.
• Forward tilt's knockback power tweaked so that it has less punch at low percents, but is still comparable at high percent.
• Forward tilt and down tilt tail intangibility redone to ensure that all tail hurtboxes are unhittable while Squirtle is attacking.
• Down tilt animation sped up so that Squirtle attacks faster and with less time in between tail swipes. Second hit angle raised slightly>
• Up tilt reverted to a brawl-like animation.
• Up smash now retains more reverse momentum, restoring the ability to perform Reverse Hydroplane up smashes.
• Down smash start up increased, but cooldown was significantly reduced.
• Down smash's hitbox sizes were decreased and lowered to reduce vertical disjoint above Squirtle.
• All of down smash's repeating hitboxes were homogenized to draw in, while the final hit is now a moderate strength pop-up above and behind Squirtle.
• Neutral aerial's lingering hit angle raised.
• Neutral aerial's landing lag now generates a splash instead of a dust cloud.
• Back aerial and up aerial mismatched on-hit sound effects fixed.
• Added a missing body hitbox during up aerial's initial hit, and pushed the outer hitbox out slightly.
• Up aerial's cooldown reduced.
• Up aerial and down aerial tail intangibility added while Squirtle is attacking.
• Down aerial reverted to a brawl-like animation.
• Down aerial's cooldown significantly reduced.
• Forward throw and up throw cooldown reduced.
• Water Gun stream hitboxes do reduced damage and knockback at a lower hit angle to aid in landing consecutive streams. Slightly increased the amount of the stream that only pushes with no knockback or damage.
• Water Gun has a new mid-level charge that shoots eight streams with reduced duration and cooldown.
• Water Gun full charge now shoots fourteen streams with reduced duration and cooldown.
• Withdraw's aerial physics and vertical momentum tweaked on startup to be more consistent.
• Withdraw can now fall off of edges while turning around.
• Withdraw's input changed from "Up B" to "A".
• Withdraw now has two frames of start-up.
• Aerial control during Withdraw's Aqua Jet was removed entirely. You can still reverse it however.
• Withdraw's Aqua Jet bug where it would not rise when used out of hitstun fixed.
• Waterfall start up increased and movement speed increased. Animation edited to reflect changes and transition into special fall better.
• Waterfall hitboxes decreased in size and rearranged to better cover Squirtle while reducing forward disjoint.
• Waterfall linking hits reduced to two, knockback and SDI modifiers tweaked to make linking into the final hit more percent, DI, and weight/fall speed dependent.

v3.0

• Due to the SCD bugfix, much of Squirtle’s moveset required physics compensations. Its gravity was also slightly increased.
• Down smash IASA removed and cooldown increased.
• List of compensated moves: Withdraw, Withdraw jump, Withdraw rebound, Aqua Jet, Waterfall, double jump.
• Tech rolls adjusted so that the movement occurs slightly later in the animation.
• Dash length significantly shortened. As a result, Shell Shift requires less commitment to input.
• Crawl attack’s input made easier.
• Standing grab reverse/inside range increased.
• Withdraw jump can now be inputted during Withdraw turn once Squirtle has changed directions.

v3.5

• Up tilt is weakened overall.
  • Its endlag has been reduced.
• Crawl tilt and down smash have a smaller hitbox.
• Withdraw turnaround and jumping abilities removed.
• Waterfall has faster startup and cannot be angled at the peak.
  • Its endlag has been slightly increased.
• Aqua Jet can only be initiated by making contact with a target during startup and holding B, removing its recovery potential while giving it more kill power and air control.
• Removal of Shell-shift momentum glitch.
• Bubble can only stall once in the air.
• Vertical momentum for short hop has been increased.
• Final Smash added.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Squirtle punches once, jumps and thrusts both legs forward, then flips forward and hits with its tail.
			2%
			6%
Forward tilt	↗		9%	Squirtle gets on all fours and slaps forward with its tail. This move has short range but is very quick and can repeated in rapid succession. Can be angled slightly up or down.
	→		8%
	↘		7%
Up tilt			6%	Squirtle hops upward, attacking with its head. Very quick. Squirtle's small body becomes the hitbox for this move and can lead into other moves.
Down tilt			2% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2)	Squirtle gets on its belly and then spins forward, sweeping foes with its tail.
Crawl attack			3%	Squirtle quickly dashes forward in its shell.
Dash attack			9% (clean), 7% (late)	Squirtle jumps and attacks foes with the back of its shell.
Forward smash			16% (early), 15% (clean), 10% (late)	Squirtle withdraws into its shell and launches forward. Squirtle gains launch resistance frames when performing the attack, but its short reach and long start-up and ending lag limits its effectiveness. This move can be angled up or down.
Up smash			2%-3% (hit 1), 14%, 13%, 12%, 10%, 8% (clean to late hit 2)	Squirtle jumps and slams both hands down on the ground, causing two geysers to rise on both sides, hitting a fairly large area, especially upward. A powerful vertical finisher and is one of Squirtle's most powerful attacks, being able to KO at 65% when fully charged.
Down smash			3% (hits 1-2), 6% (hit 3)	Squirtle withdraws into its shell and spins, shooting water out of both sides that traps the enemy for multiple hits before knocking them away vertically. This attack is comparatively weak and has short range.
Neutral aerial			11% (clean), 8% (late)	Squirtle withdraws into its shell and spins in midair, releasing water from all sides. A good defensive move for spacing.
Forward aerial			13% (clean), 7% (late)	Squirtle quickly thrusts both legs forward. Deals high knockback, being able to KO opponents off the stage at higher percentages. Has sex kick properties.
Back aerial			12% (clean), 8% (late)	Squirtle thrusts its tail backward, hitting opponents behind itself. Deals decent knockback and has sex kick properties.
Up aerial			11% (clean), 6% (late)	Squirtle flips upward, using its tail to knock opponents vertically. Somewhat weak, having a hard time KOing foes with good DI.
Down aerial			2% (hits 1-4), 5% (hit 5)	Squirtle thrusts its tail downward, spinning around in a multi-hit attack. Similar to Mario's Mario Tornado, but with more vertical range due to the tail and the last hit inflicts horizontal knockback and does not have a hitbox upon landing.
Grab			—
Pummel			3%	Headbutts the grabbed opponent. Relatively fast.
Forward throw			2% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Squirtle kicks the opponent forward.
Back throw			5% (hit 1), 5% (throw)	Squirtle puts its opponent behind it, and kicks their back. Has little KO power, KOing opponents near the ledge around 200% damage.
Up throw			2% (hit 1), 5% (throw)	Squirtle throws its opponent upward and tackles them while in its shell.
Down throw			2% (hit 1), 12% (throw)	Squirtle throws its opponent on the ground and slams on top of them. Squirtle's strongest throw, dealing strong diagonal knockback. Easily KOs at around 125% damage.
Floor attack (front)			6%	Squirtle attacks with its tail forward and then backward.
Floor attack (back)			6%	Squirtle attacks with its tail forward and then backward.
Floor attack (trip)			5%	Squirtle spins once, attacking nearby foes with its tail.
Edge attack (fast)			6% (body), 8% (tail)	Squirtle gets up and whips its tail forward. Similar to its forward tilt in both appearance and range.
Edge attack (slow)			10%	Squirtle slowly gets up and headbutts forward. Has limited range.
Neutral special		Water Gun	1% (per hit)	Squirtle shoots out water. The move can charged to spray more water out with more range. The enemy takes small damage if they are close to Squirtle when it release the water and will be pushed back when hit from a set distance. The player may also change the full spray's direction by tilting up or down on the control stick. When fully charged, Squirtle can hold the charge and battle normally until the player presses the special button again.
Side special		Withdraw	8-9% (slide), 15% (Aqua Jet)	Squirtle retreats inside its shell and speeds across the stage, powered by a jet of water shooting out the back of its shell. During this attack, Squirtle's shell behaves like a Green Shell for a limited amount of time and becomes immune to both damage and knockback. The attack can be cancelled by pressing the special button. Hitting an opponent will cause Squirtle to jump out of the move, allowing Squirtle to follow-up using an aerial attack. Getting hit the moment Squirtle goes inside its shell will instead make it use Aqua Jet, an attack that deals high damage and knockback, but will leave Squirtle in a helpless state, making it a risky move to use offstage. The invincibility provided by the move is sufficient to block many Final Smashes that do not involve grabs (e.g., Marth's Critical Hit can be negated, but not Ike's Great Aether).
Up special		Waterfall	5% (hit 1), 2% (hit 2), 1% (hits 3-5), 9% (hit 6)	A torrent of water appears that Squirtle "surfs" on top of. The attack deals multiple hits with strong knockback towards the end. It is difficult to interrupt as a recovery move, as the hitbox is large, disjointed, and directly in front of Squirtle. The movement direction of the attack can be slightly altered with the control stick to be more vertical or more horizontal.
Down special		Bubble	3% (hits 1-3)	Squirtle shoots out a small stream of bubbles that push the enemy away, dealing slight damage and tripping them.
Final Smash		Water Spout	2-3% (small water loop), 25%/24%/22% (big splash low/mid/high)	Squirtle retreats into its shell and starts bouncing on the ground while two large geysers of water attack opponents from either side of it, having a fairly large radius of attack.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Dirtboy - The best Squirtle player in the world. Ranked 2nd on the Michigan Project M Power Rankings and 21st on the PMRank 2016. Placed 1st at Summit 2016.
•  Cloudburst - Ranked 5th on the Arizona Project M Power Rankings. Placed 17th at EVO 2016 and 33rd at The Big Balc.
•  YadoR - Plays Squirtle in bracket often as a counterpick.
•  Phorcys - Ranked 6th on the Houston Project M Power Rankings. Placed 7th at Clutch City Clash.
•  Burnsy
•  Dad - Ranked 4th on the Oklahoma Project M Power Rankings. Placed 9th at ARLO 3.
•  JewChainz - Placed 17th at We Tech Those.
•  Joker
•  Pluto
•  Spaz - Placed 7th at GUTS 3.
•  Swordgard
•  Toronto Joe
•  VJ - Placed 4th at Gaston.
•  JCOnyx - Placed 7th at Northwest Majors VIII

Alternate costumes

Like Ivysaur and Charizard, Squirtle received more significant alternate costumes for Project M. It now uses its default costume for the Blue Team.

Squirtle's alternate costumes in PM

Each of Squirtle's new color schemes are based on other Pokémon.

• The green one (used for Green Team) is based on Turtwig.
• The orange one (used for Red Team) is based on Charmander and Torkoal.
• The yellow one is based on Numel and Koopa Troopa.
• The pink one is based on Mew and Lickitung.
• The purple one is based on a Shiny Blastoise.

In addition, it also has an alternate costume where it is dressed out as a Shinobi ninja, as well as a white recolor for said costume.

Trivia

• Unlike the two other Final Smashes, Squirtle's new Final Smash, Water Spout, is a move in the original Pokémon games that can only be learned through breeding (specifically chain breeding).
  • Project M also has Squirtle use the move in a different fashion compared to its primary users in most Pokémon-based media (where water is normally fired from a blowhole).