Ice Climbers (SSBU)/Side special

Overview

The duo twirls back-to-back with its mallets extended, happily swinging up and out at the end. If separated, the climber who is present twirls on their tiptoes and ends by swinging out horizontally. It sports a relatively fast startup and a long-lasting multihit nature, with adjustable trajectory and vertical gain, and deals great damage if the move connects in its entirety. During the first 53 frames of the move, pressing B will make the Ice Climbers hop off the ground, even flying through the air if pressed repeatedly. Despite technically being very unsafe on shield, it's quite difficult to difficult to punish since players can put a significant distance between them and their foes at the end of the move, made extra unpredictable by its ability to cross up shields. On top of being disjointed, the move sports comically high priority, able to overcome such powerful moves as Ganondorf's forward smash and Villager's down special. Similarly to their up special, using Squall Hammer teleports the partner climber to the leader's position in order to use its dual variant (provided the partner is not using a different special move, in hitstun, grabbing the edge, or outside of its search radius) This also doubles as a way to quickly regroup the duo and cancel the 2nd Climber's move during a desync. A side special can be done out of a short hop to turn the move into an out of shield option. While the collective 13 frame startup is a little slow for a punish, the partner's shield lag somewhat nullifies this flaw, and the payoff for punishing with a side special is well worth the downside, anyway. For inexperienced players, Squall Hammer is an attractive option due to its great versatility and ease of use, and can lead to spam playstyles early on. Its high speed, priority, and damage output incentivize excessive use of the move at low-level play, and even at higher levels in several scenarios.

At low percentages, a side special can lead to an up tilt or up aerial, inducing monstrous combos with the up airs that often follow. While conversions out of Squall hammer are seldom true, they're often only a few frames away, and usually work since the opponents won't have enough time to escape anyway. The move occasionally works as a combo finisher after an up aerial, but this is situational, since it's difficult to get the entire move to land from below an opponent and puts the duo in freefall afterwards. With some desyncing, one of the two can be made to perform their single variant of their side special. This can be used to surround and protect the other climber with disjointed hitboxes while giving them freedom to use any other move, or to trap victims in a prolonged attack that allows the other climber to land a variety of followups. A desynced Squall Hammer with just the 1st Climber can carry the opposition across a large chunk of the stage while granting the 2nd Climber plenty of time to spike the opponent with a forward aerial. When attempting this, their forward air should be done out of a dash to make sure they're close enough to land it if the aforementioned Squall Hammer knocks the target away. The moves can also be done the other way around, having the duo's leader use a forward air. While this can KO at high percents, it's not nearly as potent as the one that spikes. Additionally, a single side special performed this way can confirm into grabs and initiate a slew of other deadly setups, such as their infamous forward throw to forward aerial confirm. When desynced only slightly, each of the duo will perform their single-climber variant as if they were separated. This can often occur as a result of buffering the move right after taking a hit or using a different special. This is usually undesireable because it won't have the damage or combo potential of its stronger form, but if positioned just right, opponents can get pulled in between the climbers, taking more of the multihits than they're supposed to and actually putting on more damage than the dual variant would've dealt. A synced side special also works as a desync setup since it makes the duo act at the exact same time. (being perfectly synced can actually result in a desync since the partner can buffer inputs sooner)

Squall Hammer autocancels as long as the Ice Climbers land within a 5 frame window that starts after the aerial version's 25 frames of ending lag, meaning the player should be airborne during the end of the move to autocancel it. Pressing B a couple times during the last swing of the move will cause the Ice Climbers to hop off the ground and enter the autocancel window if they are airborne for long enough. The amount of ending lag left to incur before landing will be continued upon hitting the ground, so landing shortly before entering the autocancel window is sometimes acceptable.

Hop off of Battlefield (SSBU) (or Small Battlefield)'s platforms (upper to lower or lower to ground) on frame 40-44 or frame 53 to autocancel. Doing so on frame 45-46 will make only the partner autocancel. Hop off of Pokémon Stadium 2's platforms on frame 38-42 or frame 53 to autocancel. Doing so on frame 43-44 will make only the partner autocancel.

When used offstage, it serves as a very impressive horizontal recovery option, with passable verticality on top of that. However, it can be interrupted by transcendent projectiles. If only one climber is hit, the other may become helpless, potentially gimping the duo if the player reacts poorly. Another thing to note is that if the move is hitting an opponent, it won't respond to player input during the hitlag, so hitting an enemy while offstage can hinder recovery attempts. This issue is compounded by the move's inability to snap to the ledge, requiring careful usage off stage. As such, it should be saved for use as a mixup or in situations where Belay wouldn't go far enough horizontally.

By surrounding the user in prioritized, disjointed hitboxes and allowing them to air-stall or descend quickly, Squall Hammer sometimes comes in handy when dealing with opposing juggles. The ability to mix up one's momentum in several directions and speeds combined with a flurry of attacks makes the move surprisingly difficult to intercept

Upon isolation, side special's finisher hit only covers one side, and packs a horizontal launch angle rather than a diagonal one. This changes its utility significantly, setting up tech chases rather than combos or juggles. On top of that, it deals much less damage and no longer gains height when used midair. While the single and dual variants of Squall Hammer are quite different, the dual variant is unsurprisingly much better, and an incredible move in general. But the single variant is not bad by any means.

Hitbox visualizations

	Leader	Partner
Singular
Dual

Hitboxes

Singular (leader)

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
Front hits 1-5
0	0	0	1.3%	0		Forward	25	95	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	3.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	1.3%	0		Forward	13	95	0		4.0	top	0.0	8.0	8.5	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
Back hits 1-5
2	0	0	1.3%	0		Standard	25	95	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	-3.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
3	0	0	1.3%	0		Standard	13	95	0		4.0	top	0.0	8.0	-8.5	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
Final hit
0	0	0	2.0%	0		Forward	50	100	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	4.0	1.0×	1.5×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	2.0%	0		Forward	50	100	0		5.0	top	0.0	8.0	10.0	1.0×	1.5×	0%							Kick		All	All

Singular (partner)

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
Front hits 1-5
0	0	0	0.975%	0		Forward	25	95	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	3.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	0.975%	0		Forward	13	95	0		4.0	top	0.0	8.0	8.5	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
Back hits 1-5
2	0	0	0.975%	0		Standard	25	95	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	-3.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
3	0	0	0.975%	0		Standard	13	95	0		4.0	top	0.0	8.0	-8.5	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
Final hit
0	0	0	1.5%	0		Forward	50	100	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	4.0	1.0×	1.5×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	1.5%	0		Forward	50	100	0		5.0	top	0.0	8.0	10.0	1.0×	1.5×	0%							Kick		All	All

Dual

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 1-7
0	0	0	2.2%	0		Forward	25	60	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	4.5	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	2.2%	0		Forward	13	60	0		4.5	top	0.0	8.0	10.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
2	0	0	2.2%	0		Standard	25	50	0		3.5	top	0.0	7.5	-4.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
3	0	0	2.2%	0		Standard	13	50	0		4.0	top	0.0	8.0	-10.0	0.7×	1.3×	0%							Kick		All	All
Final hit (early)
0	0	0	4.0%	0		Standard	50	140	0		5.0	top	0.0	6.0 to 12.0	10.0	1.5×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	4.0%	0		Standard	50	140	0		5.0	top	0.0	6.0 to 12.0	-10.0	1.5×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Final hit (late)
0	0	0	4.0%	0		Standard	50	140	0		7.0	top	0.0	12.0	4.0 to -4.0	1.5×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All

Timing

Singular

In the air, the move enables ledge grabs from both sides starting on frame 56.

Front hits 1-5	10, 15, 21, 28, 37
Back hits 1-5	13, 18, 24, 32, 42
Final hit	49-50
Interruptible (grounded)	78
Animation length	94

Grounded
Aerial

Dual

In the air, the move enables ledge grabs from both sides starting on frame 58.

Hits 1-7	10, 14, 18, 23, 28, 34, 40
Final hit (early, late)	51, 52
Interruptible (grounded)	78
Animation length	83

Grounded
Aerial

Helplessness landing

Interruptible	30
Animation length	37

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Interruptible

Parameters

The move alters the Ice Climbers' physics until frame 51 for a singular attack, and frame 53 for a dual attack, period during which it can also gain height by pressing the special move button.

Maximum distance between climbers to attack together	30
Initial horizontal speed	0.8 (grounded) 1 (aerial)
Horizontal acceleration by input	0.12 (grounded) 0.08 (aerial)
Minimum stick sensitivity for acceleration	0.25
Horizontal speed modifier on slopes	0.25
Speed multiplier when bouncing off wall	0.5
Minimum speed when bouncing off wall	0.4
Maximum horizontal speed	1.1 (grounded) 1.3 (aerial)
Initial upward speed in the air	0.6 (singular) 1.2 (dual)
Gravity	0.1
Falling speed	2.8
Added upward speed via button press	0.8 (singular) 1 (dual)
Delay between button presses	10 frames

Ice Climbers's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2) · 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