Ridley (SSBU)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Ridley's down aerial.

This article or section may require competitive expertise. You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Overview

Ridley does a stomp, with stall-then-fall proprieties; the move comes out relatively quickly for a stall-then-fall (frame 11), having a spike hitbox that is pretty strong, actually having more base knockback than Ganondorf's down aerial. The sourspot is not that weak either, still being able to take stocks at around 130%, and the move is a good option after a footstool out of shield.

However, this move has a lot of flaws that prevent it from being a useful move: first of all, the move is very risky; to give it some credit, it's not as risky as other stall-then-falls, because Ridley is one of the few characters that can still make it back after using it, but that doesn't make this move risk free. It has one of the saddest hitboxes because the sweetspot is so small compared to the sourspot, and the move has plenty of landing lag (32 frames), meaning that the move is very unsafe on shield (-27 on shield) leading into some pretty big punishes, and the high landing lag also means that the move has no combo potential against grounded opponents (unlike other spikes).

Overall, this move is considered quite bad, arguably one of the worst down aerials in the game, and it's probably his worst move as well (competing with his down special).

Update History

2.0.0

• Ridley can grab the ledge earlier after using his down aerial.

4.0.0

• Down aerial no longer has its downward movement disabled when used out of hitstun.

Hitboxes

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
Clean hit
0	0	0	14.0%	0		Standard	55	75	0		3.5	top	0.0	-0.5	0.5	1.2×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	12.0%	0		Standard	45	95	0		8.0	top	0.0	3.5	1.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Late hit
1	0	0	12.0%	0		Standard	45	95	0		8.5	top	0.0	3.5	1.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All

Timing

Attack

The move resets Ridley's horizontal momentum and first sets his vertical speed to 1 on frames 1-10, then sets it to -3.8 from frame 11 onward. Manual horizontal movement is also disabled during frames 1-54. Jostling is disabled during frames 7-40, and ledge grabs are enabled from both sides starting on frame 80.

Initial autocancel	1-3
Clean hit	11-18
Late hit	19-40
Ending autocancel	50-
Interruptible	56
Animation length	79

Landing lag

Interruptible	33
Animation length	58

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Interruptible

Ridley's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3 · inf) · 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