Piranha Plant (SSBU)
| Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | |
|---|---|
 
| |
| Universe | Mario |
| Availability | Downloadable |
| Final Smash | Petey Piranha |
| “ | Piranha Plant Pipes Up! | ” |
| —Introduction Tagline | ||
Piranha Plant (パックンフラワー, Packun Flower) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Revealed alongside Ken and Incineroar on November 1st, 2018, it is the first DLC character in Ultimate, and was made available on February 1st, 2019. However, it was made available at no cost as early as January 29th, 2019 for players who pre-purchased the digital version of Ultimate or registered their physical version with My Nintendo by January 31st, 2019. Piranha Plant is not part of the Fighters Pass making it the only currently revealed DLC character with this distinction. Piranha Plant is classified as fighter #70.
Attributes
Piranha Plant is a super heavyweight fighter with below-average mobility and effective anti-air tools. Compared to other heavyweights, it fits in the mold of an archetypal heavyweight: while its dashing speed is average and its gravity is very high, it has a slow walking speed, air acceleration and air speed, and a fast falling speed.
One of Piranha Plant's most effective strengths are its special moves, which are well-varied and good for various situations. Its neutral special, Ptooie, is a unique projectile that can be tossed in either direction or held in the air as a good anti-air option, and a good trading tool due to its power and transcendent priority. Poison Breath is a slow-moving projectile that does not make opponents flinch, but deals massive damage, especially when fully charged; opponents must be very wary of it, making it a good area-denial tool. It also has a great recovery in the form of Piranhacopter, which has hitboxes beside itself and travels a great distance, which when combined with Piranha Plant's heavy weight and fast falling speed gives it excellent survivability overall. Lastly, its down special, Long-Stem Strike, has super armor during its pot phase, and tremendous range when fully charged. However, it can at times be risky, as it significantly increases the size of Piranha Plant's hurtbox during the actual attack.
Piranha Plant's ground game is overall rather versatile; its tilts are good for starting juggles or combos, as well as spacing and KOing. Up tilt can lead into various aerial attacks, and a forward smash at low percents; forward tilt behaves similarly to Snake's in that it is a natural combo consisting of two hits, of which the second hit can KO at very high percentages; and down tilt is a versatile combo starter, being capable of leading into moves such as forward tilt or forward aerial at low to mid percentages, and into aerials afterward. Its smash attacks are generally slow but powerful, such as its forward smash, which is somewhat slow in terms of startup and ending lag, but can KO opponents near the ledge as early as 60% if sweetspotted.
Its aerials are overall well-rounded, making its air game overall decent despite its rather sluggish mobility and moves with relatively high landing lag. Neutral aerial is a multi-hit move that functions much like Palutena's and Ivysaur's neutral aerial, being a capable combo move with the ability to drag opponents down for combos and potentially makes it a gimping tool due to this trait; forward aerial is good for edgeguarding thanks to its wide range; back aerial is a slow but very powerful move that KOs at 80% near the ledge; up aerial is one of its best comboing and juggling tools thanks to its speed and wide range, and can autocancel in short hop; and down aerial is a long-ranged and decently strong meteor smash with very fast startup.
Another strength Piranha Plant possesses is a decent grab game; while its grab range is short, its grabs' frame data is among the fastest in the game, and its throws have their own unique perks; forward throw is a useful throw for positioning and edgeguarding, back and up throws have KO potential at high percentages, and down throw is a viable combo starter at low to high percentages.
Piranha Plant does, however, have some noteworthy flaws. Its overall mobility is lackluster, having an average initial dash speed and dash speed, but poor air acceleration and a slow air speed. This gives it difficulties keeping up with faster characters such as Zero Suit Samus or Wolf, especially in the air, which makes it rather easy to zone out. Piranha Plant's heavy weight and and tall hurtbox make it vulnerable to combos, particularly from those with strong combo games such as Peach or Mario, and has trouble landing from juggles due to its lack of fast enough tools to escape from them. Finally, Piranha Plant's approach options are rather predictable, with its overall frame data being generally slow. This is no exception to its KOing options either, with most of Piranha Plant's KO moves being either short-ranged or laggy.
Overall, Piranha Plant is a unique heavyweight that utilizes various projectiles and attacks to effectively zone and KO opponents, but must be careful when throwing out normal attacks to avoid being punished due to the endlag that many of them have, thus making it a patient fighter when it comes to approaching. Although Piranha Plant had amassed great popularity as a character itself at its early stages, its representation has been extremely sparse in tournaments due to its weaknesses and its small playerbase. This has led to most professionals considering Piranha Plant as a low-tier character. However, it still has garnered notable mains, such as Brood, who managed to place 2nd at Umebura SP 4, and Lucky, who placed 49th at Smash 'N' Splash 5.
Update History
Piranha Plant has been buffed in updates so far by reducing the overall lag on some of its attacks, and having other attacks deal more damage to shields, allowing for better pressure.
Edge attack has more range.- Ptooie has a larger hitbox.
Piranha Plant's portrait briefly glints on its fang when Poison Breath is fully charged.
The screen KO visual glitch in Pilotwings has been fixed.- The void glitch has been removed.
- Neutral attack 3 has more range (5.0u → 5.5u, Z-offset: 11.8 → 12.8 (head hitbox)).
- Neutral infinite deals more hitstun (3 frames → 4).
- All grabs have an altered Y position, no longer having the grabbox go into the ground (Y/Y2-offset: 144984 → 6.6).
- Up tilt has less ending lag (FAF 32 → 29).
- Dash attack launches at a lower angle (55° → 45°), improving its edgeguarding and KO potential.
- Poison Breath's damage increase caps after being reflected multiple times.
- Poison Breath has less startup (frame 23 → 21) and ending lag (FAF 49 → 46).
- Poison Breath's cloud has a slightly longer hitbox duration (97 frames → 99 (uncharged), 133 → 135 (fully charged), 18 → 19 (windbox)).
- Long-Stem Strike charges faster (Max charge: 78 frames → 68).
- Long-Stem Strike has less ending lag (Uncharged: FAF 65 → 60, max charge: 126 → 116, max charge (sideways): 136 → 121).
- Long-Stem Strike deals more shield damage (0 → 5).
- The Strike Cancel glitch has been fixed.
Moveset
- Fighter ability: If Piranha Plant is footstooled while crouching, it will automatically stretch upward and perform a biting attack, which has 4% base damage with vertical knockback.
Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.
| Name | Damage | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral attack | 2.4% | A leaf jab, followed by a swipe with the opposite leaf, followed by a headbutt, which can be hard to punish on shield due to its low endlag. Alternatively, the leaf swipes can be followed by a flurry of bites, ending in a more powerful bite; similar to Corrin's rapid jab. The flurry can deal up to ~20% in one go, making it good for racking damage. Holding the attack button will have Piranha Plant perform the first jab repeatedly. | ||
| 2.2% | ||||
| 4.4% | ||||
| 0.6% (loop), 3.4% (end) | ||||
| Forward tilt | Push and Pull | 5.5% | Two forward bites. Pressing the attack button a second time will have the Piranha Plant perform its following bite. It is Piranha Plant's fastest and most damaging tilt, and possesses the longest horizontal range out of all its tilts. Piranha Plant's jaws on the first hit are intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out. It can KO middleweights from the edge of Final Destination at around 144%. Resembles the attacks Piranha Plants make in Super Mario 64. | |
| 6% | ||||
| Up tilt | 9% (head), 7% (body) | Piranha Plant flails its head upward. Its head is intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out. Due to its poor horizontal range and good vertical range, it works best as an anti-air tool, and can KO middleweights at around 147%. At low percents, it is unsafe on hit, but can combo into itself and aerials at slightly higher percents. | ||
| Down tilt | 6% (base), 7% (tip) | A swipe with its leaf. Piranha Plant's slowest tilt, but it has great combo potential into an instant dash attack at low percents, and can lead into a neutral aerial or forward aerial up to middling percents. | ||
| Dash attack | 10% (clean), 7% (late) | Performs a "dropkick" using its pot/pipe. Usually used to tech-chase opponents, or punish from farther distances when Ptooie is too slow. Despite the animation, it struggles to kill even at very high percent. | ||
| Forward smash | Prickly Swing | 19% (head), 15% (stem) | The Piranha Plant turns into a Prickly Piranha Plant from Super Mario Galaxy and headbutts forward. Its head is intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out. Has a sweetspot on its head. While its startup is rather slow, it is respectively powerful, with the sweetspot KOing middleweights at the edge of Final Destination at around 65%, while the sourspot can KO at around 84%. | |
| Up smash | 3% (hit 1), 12% (hit 2) | The Piranha Plant lunges upward and bites. Like its up tilt and forward smash, its head is intangible for as long as the hitboxes are out, and thanks to its seven active frames, up smash works as a potent anti-air. Due to its multi hit, though, opponents can occasionally fall out of up smash, making it somewhat unreliable at times. It can KO middleweights at around 91%. | ||
| Down smash | 12% (front), 14% (back) | The Piranha Plant sweeps its pot/pipe in front, and then behind itself. Both the front and back hits can KO middleweights from the edge of Final Destination at around 95% and 82% respectively. Due to it being Piranha Plant's fastest smash attack and launching at a strong semi-spike angle, it makes it a versatile edgeguarding move, however the hitbox is deceptively smaller than the animation entails, as it doesn't even fully cover the pot/pipe on both hits. | ||
| Neutral aerial | 2% (hits 1-4), 3% (hit 5) | The Piranha Plant spins rapidly with its leaves extended, hitting multiple times. Resembles Ivysaur's neutral aerial. Due to its looping hits using an auto-link angle, it can be used to drag opponents down to start grounded combos. | ||
| Forward aerial | 11% (pot), 9% (body) | The Piranha Plant swings its pot/pipe upwards in front of itself. A useful edgeguarding tool, as it has wide range and respectable damage and knockback when sweetspotted. Its main drawbacks however come from its high landing lag and auto-cancel window, making it quite unsafe to use often. | ||
| Back aerial | Fire Breath | 14.5% | The Piranha Plant turns around and spits out a burst of fire. Its slowest aerial, but it is also its strongest, KOing middleweights at around 86% from the edge of Final Destination. It has a high amount of end lag, making it potentially risky to use to stage spike. Fire Piranha Plants originated in Super Mario Bros. 3. | |
| Up aerial | 8% | An upwards headbutt. It is Piranha Plant's fastest aerial, and the only one that can autocancel in a short hop, which makes it a decent juggler with the assistance of platforms. However, due to the move having only 3 active frames and a small hitbox that only exists on its head, it can often whiff due to the deceptive animation. | ||
| Down aerial | Flowerpot Meteor | 11% (clean), 9% (late) | The Piranha Plant flips then stomps below itself with its pot/pipe. Sweetspots at the bottom of the pot, which will meteor smash rather powerfully. Has very fast startup compared to most meteor smashes, coming out on frame 9, although the sourspot is prioritized over the meteor hitbox, making it difficult to land. | |
| Grab | — | The Piranha Plant reaches out with its leaves. Among the fastest grabs in the game, but has short range. | ||
| Pummel | 1.3% | Bites the opponent. | ||
| Forward throw | 3% (hit), 8% (throw) | Headbutts the opponent away. Generally only used for stage control purposes or setting up an edgeguard. | ||
| Back throw | 11% | Flings the opponent behind with its mouth. It can KO middleweights from the edge of Final Destination at around 148%. | ||
| Up throw | 12% | Tosses the opponent upward, and launches them with a bite. A reliable KO throw, being capable of KOing middleweights at around 151%. | ||
| Down throw | 2.5% (hits 1-2), 3% (throw) | Throws the opponent to the ground and bites them twice. Can combo into an aerial at low percents, or into a dash attack if the opponent DIs outward. | ||
| Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge |
— | — | ||
| Techs | — | — | ||
| Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front) |
7% | Sweeps its head around itself. | ||
| Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back) |
7% | Sweeps its head around itself. | ||
| Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip) |
5% | Kicks its pot/pipe forward and back. | ||
| Edge attack Edge getups |
10% | Dropkicks with its pot/pipe. | ||
| Neutral special | Ptooie | 14% (held), 18% (thrown, early), 13% (thrown, late) | The Piranha Plant spits up a metal spiky ball, keeping it suspended by blowing air upwards. The spiky ball can then be blown either in front or behind the Piranha Plant. The spiky ball has transcendent priority (although a strong enough hit can cause it to bounce off), and the move stalls Piranha Plant's descent if used in the air, making it a deadly edgeguarding tool. It is also capable of punishing opponents that attack Piranha Plant out of the move, as the ball will likely drop on their heads and act as a punish. If the ball is blown at its highest, it will be thrown less distance, while it'll be thrown significantly farther when it is at its lowest. Based on the Ptooie enemy introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3. | |
| Side special | Poison Breath | 1.2% (uncharged, center loop), 0.6% (uncharged, edge loop), 2.7% (fully charged, center loop), 1.6% (fully charged, edge loop) | The Piranha Plant spews a damaging cloud of poison in front of it. If all hits connect, it will deal a great amount of damage. The cloud itself has no knockback and deals no hitstun, but it can be countered/reflected and shielded. If an opponent attempts to shield against this attack, it will do detrimental damage to the shield itself. The move is chargeable, and it can be saved for later use. During execution, Piranha Plant changes its color to match the Putrid Piranha enemy from the Paper Mario series. | |
| Up special | Piranhacopter | 1.2% (hits 1-8), 4% (hit 9) | The Piranha Plant spins its leaves in a fashion akin to a propeller, causing it to rise upward. It can be angled to the left and right during the ascent. Covers excellent distance, being able to successfully recover from near the bottom blast zone. Its looping hits can potentially drag opponents to a blast zone for early KOs, however this is unlikely due to the final hit activating surprisingly early, and its weak knockback scaling. Furthermore, the move's looping hits have SDI multipliers of 3 and 3.5, albeit with only a small window to make inputs. It does have a notably weakness in lacking a hitbox above it, causing its large head to be able to be hit easily. Based on the Jumping Piranha Plants from Super Mario World. | |
| Down special | Long-Stem Strike | 8.4% (uncharged, close), 12% (uncharged, far), 18.2% (fully charged, close), 26% (fully charged, far) | The Piranha Plant retreats into its pot/pipe, and extends outward to bite opponents in the direction aimed. This also extends the character’s hurtbox. Piranha Plant can move its pot to aim in one direction while charging, though it is not possible to switch directions after doing so. Piranha Plant gains damage-based heavy armor (tanks up to 15%) and decreases damage slightly during the charge, and intangibility on its head during the bite. A deadly edgeguarding tool due to its aforementioned absurdly high reach and power, notably when fully charged. Its hitbox is also large enough to hit ledge hanging opponents, and also deals high shield damage, depleting more than half a shield at full charge. However, the full extension significantly extends Piranha Plant's hurtbox, making it possible to hit it from afar when timed correctly. Likely a reference to Elasto-Piranhas or Stalking Piranha Plants. | |
| Final Smash | Petey Piranha | 49% total | The Piranha Plant summons Petey Piranha, who stomps around the stage with his cages from his boss fight in The Subspace Emissary. Opponents that get too close will get trapped in his cages. When the Final Smash is nearly over, Petey Piranha will breathe fire at both of the cages, then slam both of the cages to the ground, dealing heavy damage and knockback to the opponents who were trapped in the cages as well as anyone too close when he slams them. It is possible for Petey Piranha to fall off stage, taking any trapped opponents with him, though is not a guaranteed KO if the opponent has leftover jumps, a strong recovery or both. He also doesn't move much from his starting position, making him easy to avoid if the stage is big enough. | |
On-screen appearance
Rises straight up out of its pot/pipe, making a Warp Pipe noise as it does so.
Taunts
- Up taunt: Rises up out of its pot/pipe, using the same animation and sound effects as its entrance animation. Some of Piranha Plant's teeth curve unnaturally to make the taunt look better from afar. This is most noticeable when zooming on Piranha Plant while pausing.
- Side taunt: Bites the air around it multiple times, similar to one of Bowser and King K. Rool's taunts.
- Down taunt: Spins around and strikes a pose with a grin.
Piranha Plant's up taunt.
Piranha Plant's side taunt.
Piranha Plant's down taunt.
Idle poses
- Quickly bites the air twice.
- Dozes off for a second, it then wakes up and rotates its head 360°.
Piranha Plant's first idle pose
Piranha Plant's second idle pose
Victory poses
- Left: Bites the air around it three times, before smiling.
- Up: Mario runs towards Piranha Plant's pot/pipe and jumps over it, only for Piranha Plant to pop out and bite Mario, sending him flying, before smiling, a reference to its reveal trailer.
- Right: Hangs down from the ceiling and poses.
In competitive play
Despite having received noticeable attention due to its unexpected inclusion, Piranha Plant's representation has been very low at tournaments. This is due to its noticeable susceptibility to combos as well as sub-par mobility and approach options. In spite of its versatile projectile and recovery, many professionals consider Piranha Plant to be a low-tier character. Despite this, Piranha Plant has achieved several results from players such as Brood, Lucky, and Greward. Brood, in particular, has brought forth more discussion over the character's true viability as a result of placing 2nd at Umebura SP 4.
Notable players
Brood - The best Piranha Plant player in the world. Placed 2nd at Umebura SP 4 and 33rd at Umebura SP 3 while defeating Shuton, kameme, Gackt, and ZAKI.
DiZ - Placed 2nd at GatorLAN Spring 2019, 13th at GatorLAN Fall 2019, and 33rd at Glitch 7 - Minus World. He has taken sets off of players such as Rideae, saj, and dyr.
Greward - The best Piranha Plant player in Europe. Placed 17th at Albion 4 while defeating Elexiao and Afro Smash.- Lucky - The best Piranha Plant player in the United States. Placed 13th at Overextend, 17th at Be Mine?, and 49th at Smash 'N' Splash 5.
- Rai - One of the best Piranha Plant players in Japan. Placed 17th at Umebura SP 4, with a win over OCEAN.
Classic Mode: New Bloom
All of Piranha Plant's opponents are the base roster newcomers in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With the exception of the first match, each battle features one unique newcomer and one Echo Fighter, with the matches being placed in the order of the unique newcomer’s reveal. The stage and music choices reference each of the character reveal trailers. The boss, Rathalos, is also new to the series.
| Round | Opponent | Stage | Music | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inkling (x8)         |
Moray Towers (Battlefield form) | Splattack! (Original) | Horde Battle |
| 2 | Ridley  and Dark Samus  |
Norfair | Vs. Ridley | |
| 3 | Simon  and Richter  |
Dracula's Castle | Vampire Killer (Remix) | |
| 4 | King K. Rool  and Chrom  |
Pirate Ship | Gang-Plank Galleon | Free-for-All |
| 5 | Isabelle  and Daisy  |
Smashville | Tour - Animal Crossing: New Leaf | |
| 6 | Incineroar  and Ken  |
Boxing Ring | The Battle at the Summit! | Free-for-All |
| Bonus Stage | ||||
| Final | Rathalos | Forest Hill | Roar/Rathalos | |
Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Piranha Plant has Underground Theme - Super Mario Bros. accompany the credits. As a downloadable character, Piranha Plant uses the same character unlock tree as Mario.
Role in World of Light
Due to its status as downloadable content, Piranha Plant does not have a legitimate role in World of Light. Instead, it is unlocked for use in the mode after freeing 10 fighters from Galeem's control. If loading an existing save file that meets this condition prior to downloading Piranha Plant, it is immediately unlocked.
Fighter Battle
| No. | Image | Name | Type | Power | Stage | Music | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70 | |
Piranha Plant | There is no fighter battle for Piranha Plant, this fighter is obtained by awaking 10 fighters after it is downloaded. | ||||
Spirits
Piranha Plant's Fighter Spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 500 coins, only after Piranha Plant itself is downloaded. Unlocking Piranha Plant in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a Fighter Spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Each Fighter Spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in Ultimate.
While Piranha Plant itself does not appear in other spirits, Petey Piranha (who appears in its Final Smash) has his own spirit.
1303. Piranha Plant
54. Petey Piranha
In Spirit Battles
Piranha Plant is not currently featured in any spirit battles.
Alternate costumes
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Reveal trailer
Gallery
Piranha Plant's unused render of a red plant inside of a warp pipe.
Piranha Plant's official render of a green plant inside of a warp pipe.
Piranha Plant's splash art.
Piranha Plant's amiibo.
Piranha Plant's fighter card.
Piranha Plant's Unused Third Jump
Piranha Plant attacking Wario eating a Maxim Tomato on Skyloft.
Piranha Plant shooting poison at Toon Link on Mushroom Kingdom.
Piranha Plant falling on Midgar.
Mario with a Super Leaf floating over Piranha Plant's blue, gray, pink, and green costumes on Super Mario Maker.
Piranha Plant taunting near Jigglypuff while it is using Sing in Living Room.
Piranha Plant spitting poison on Hanenbow.
Character Showcase Video
Trivia
- So far, Piranha Plant is the only DLC character in Ultimate to not have an internal codename, instead being referred in the game files as its Japanese name "packun". Most likely, this is due to it already having been revealed over a month prior to the game release and therefore not needing to conceal its identity to eventual dataminers.
- Piranha Plant is currently the only DLC character to be a first party character rather than a third party character.
- Piranha Plant's official artwork has a UV Mapping error near the base of its pot, where the texture appears to squish vertically. It can be seen here.
- Piranha Plant is the only character that counterattacks its opponent when footstooled, albeit only when it's crouching.
- Piranha Plant is currently the only character who doesn't appear in any Spirit battles. Presumably due to being the only downloadable character thus far that wasn't released alongside new spirits, aside from Piranha Plant's Fighter Spirit.
- Piranha Plant is the first newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to have all its alternate costumes shown in its reveal trailer; in fact, they were all shown in one shot, excluding the main.
- Bowser Jr. and Corrin were the first and second characters, respectively, that this has happened with when they was revealed in their respective trailers for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
- Piranha Plant is the first playable character to be a mob.
- Piranha Plant is the only downloadable character in the series who receives an official Palutena's Guidance as Smash 4 and other Ultimate downloadable fighters have a generic conversation.
- It is also the only downloadable character to have a fighter showcase video, likely due to being revealed before release.
- Piranha Plant is currently the only first-party DLC newcomer in Ultimate.
- Piranha Plant is the first (and only, so far) playable character who isn't a Pokémon in the Smash Bros. series to be referred to with gender-neutral pronouns.
- So far, Piranha Plant is the only DLC fighter in Ultimate whose Final Smash is not cinematic.
- Piranha Plant is the second character to have a victory pose that features another playable fighter, the first being one of Robin's involving Chrom.
- Piranha Plant is the second DLC character to be free for a limited time after launch, the first being Mewtwo in Super Smash Bros. 4.
- Both characters were first to be released as DLC in their respective games.
- Piranha Plant is the first and so far only unique newcomer in Ultimate that does not have an animated reveal trailer.
- The splash art for Piranha Plant is so far the only one that uses a font other than "DF Gothic Japanese, " which has been used in every other character reveal splash art since Super Smash Bros. 4.
- Piranha Plant's "eye glint" effect for pre-match splash screens and its HUD icon for Final Smashes is applied differently from other fighters as it has no eyes; the twinkle effect is applied to one of its teeth instead.
- Datamining Piranha Plant's character data reveals some interesting information:
- Some of Bowser Jr.'s motion files can be found in Piranha Plant's character data, indicating that some of Piranha Plant's animations are taken from him. [1]
- Files indicate that Piranha Plant was programmed with three jumps, including animations; however, it was removed before release, with the day one patch streamlining its jumps to two. [2]
- If Piranha Plant gets grabbed by a grab that uses a unique animation on capturing characters (Snake's grab, Ganondorf's Flame Choke, etc.) while using either its forward smash or Poison Breath, it will remain in that form until it gets released.
- Piranha Plant is the only fighter who was not added to the panoramic artwork until after being made available in-game.
References
