| Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | |
|---|---|
| |
| Universe | Kirby |
| Availability | Modding |
| Final Smash | Darkness Illusion |
| Tier | N/A (N/A) |
Waxing Crescent Meta Knight (メタナイト, Waxing Crescent Meta Knight) is a modded character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, accessed by selecting color 9 of Meta Knight.
As in Super Smash Bros. 4, Eric Newsome and Atsushi Kisaichi's portrayals of Meta Knight from Brawl were repurposed for the English and Japanese versions of Ultimate, respectively.
Meta Knight great mobility and frame data, which grants him an amazing edgeguarding and combo game. Meta Knight's gameplan is heavily centralized around his deadly ladder combos that can lead to high damage and/or early KOs of the top, He also boasts a fantastic recovery, with multiple midair jumps and special moves that all function as recoveries with large or lingering hitboxes, making Meta Knight one of the hardest characters to edgeguard.
Overall, Meta Knight, while seen as a step down from even his SSB4 counterpart, is still a viable fighter. Though Meta Knight's playerbase has been below average for most of Ultimate's competitive lifespan, he has nevertheless retained fairly noticeable success, with players such as Abadango, Metara, and Yei achieving commendable results.
Attributes
Meta Knight combines several unusual traits. He has multiple jumps, but unlike other characters who share this ability, he has strong mobility, comprising fast dashing and walking speeds, high falling speed and gravity, and average air speed. He is also the only small character to use a sword, which gives his attacks a bit more range relative to his stature. Overall, unlike other characters with multiple jumps, Meta Knight is neither lacking speed nor range.
As expected, Meta Knight's playstyle relies heavily on his speed, both in terms of mobility and frame data. His low, quick short hop and fast, low lag aerials allow him to continuously apply pressure to opponents at close range. He is not lacking in grounded pressure either, having a fast down tilt that can trip, and a dash attack that can cross-up shields, and both of these moves are capable of setting up combos. If Meta Knight finds himself on the defensive, he has several options to relieve pressure, such as a fast, decently long-ranged forward tilt for countering aerial approaches, a fast, long-lasting, and strong neutral aerial, and the 2nd fastest down aerial in the game. For attacks that are poorly spaced, he can opt for a grab, from which he has a down throw that can start combos up to mid-percentages, a back throw to set up edge-guards and KO at very high percentages while near the edge, and an up throw that can also KO at very high percentages (especially on platforms).
While his damage output per hit is not impressive, Meta Knight's speed and jumps allow him to rack up damage through combos at lower percentages and chase opponents through the air through to higher damages, punishing their escape options. His dash attack and down throw can combo into an up smash or aerials at lower damages, while his up aerial can link into other aerials or his up special. Even after his opponents are launched too far for a true combo, he can continue pressuring them by punishing their air dodges and landing options through effective use of his aerials, dash attack, and up tilt. Thanks to his flexible aerial mobility, he has little trouble chasing opponents offstage, and his aerials are well-suited to edge-guarding. Neutral aerial has a lingering hitbox and strong knockback, back aerial is fast with high power, and down aerial is a safe semi-spike than can gimp deceptively early.
Meta Knight's edge-guarding prowess is mainly courtesy of his recovery, which is arguably the best in the game. In addition to having five jumps and passable air speed, his special moveset is full of recovery options. Shuttle Loop, his up special and main recovery method, is fast, offers high vertical recovery, and has a large hitbox. Mach Tornado and Drill Rush travel far horizontally and with long-lasting active hitboxes, and the latter can be angled. Dimensional Cape allows Meta Knight to cover the distance in any direction while invisible, and offers the option to attack upon reappearing. Such options grant him the ability to vary his recovery to make it incredibly difficult to punish him offstage, let alone gimp him.
Meta Knight does have several weaknesses. His attacks generally have very few active frames, forcing him to be extremely precise with his moves lest his opponent punishes him. Despite being a lightweight, Meta Knight's falling speed, gravity and unusually round hurtbox make him highly vulnerable to combos, which combined with his low weight grants him poor overall endurance. Though he has a strong, safe finisher in his forward smash, a fast, powerful back aerial and up smash, he has difficulty landing these moves. Forward smash has high startup, making it easy to avoid, up smash is risky due to its ending lag, and back aerial has trouble connecting on grounded opponents. Furthermore, his up and back throws require rage and favorable positioning to KO at reasonable percentages. While Meta Knight's neutral game is fairly good, his lack of a projectile can be a thorn in his side, especially against zoning characters such as Mega Man.
Overall, Meta Knight is at his best so long as he has his opponent in a disadvantaged state, being able to rack up damage well at lower percentages, before keeping the pressure on them through juggles and edge-guards. A player must be patient in finding an opening, as he cannot sustain much damage himself, and such patience is especially needed when his foe is at high percentages where Meta Knight may find difficulty in landing his finishers.
Differences from Meta Knight (SSBU)
Despite his infamous reputation in Brawl leading to nerfs in Smash 4, Meta Knight remained a strong character in the game thanks to the combination of his excellent mobility and recovery, great edge-guarding potential, numerous buffs from game updates and, most notoriously, his deadly punish game that allowed him to perform zero-to-death combos with his up aerial and Shuttle Loop. Possibly as a result, Meta Knight has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate, though despite his comparatively numerous buffs, he has been objectively nerfed overall.
Meta Knight benefits from
Some of Meta Knight's moves such as his tilts and aerials also have increased range, with his down tilt notably no longer possessing blind spots, and his neutral attack is more effective as a close-range option to rack up damage, due to having faster startup and linking much more reliably. His special moves have also seen improvements, as Shuttle Loop conserves more momentum at the end and thus improves his already outstanding recovery, Mach Tornado now consists of a single hit that deals higher knockback when clean, and Drill Rush sends at a lower, more desirable angle. The latter two moves have also become powerful, if risky moves for edgeguarding.
Overall, Meta Knight's changes have
Attributes
All sword attacks except for those of down special have larger motion lines- 's sword doesn't glow when using any move except for his final smash
Waxing Crescent Meta Knight is noticeably heavier (80 → 88).
Ground attacks
- Neutral attack:
- The rapid jab deals much more damage per hit (1 → 1.5).
- The rapid jab's knockback no longer scales with percent, allowing it to connect reliably even at extremely high percentages.
The rapid jab has more base knockback (10 → 25), reducing the amount of times opponents can be hit before being pushed out of range.- The rapid jab hitbox's base Z position has been increased (8 → 9), preventing it from reaching behind Waxing crescent Meta Knight
- Most notably, this prevents neutral attack from dealing massive damage by trapping large fighters behind Waxing Crescent Meta Knight.
- The rapid jab hitbox's extended Z position has been increased (13.5u → 17.5u), significantly improving its range.
- The rapid jab has a much higher hitlag multiplier (.5 → 1.2).
- The rapid jab can no longer be SDI'd.
- The rapid jab deals much more shield damage (0 → 1).
- The rapid jab has a different attack sound level (S → M).
- The finisher hit's hitbox 0 is much larger (5u → 9u).
- The finisher hit hitbox 0's Y position has been increased (8u → 11u).
- The finisher hit hitbox 0's Z position has been increased (11u → 22.5u).
- The finisher hit's hitbox 1 is now attached to 's sword.
- The finisher hit's hitbox 1 becomes active 1 frame sooner, and inactive 1 frame later(frame 3 → frames 2-4).
- These changes, combined with the previous change improve the finisher hit's vertical coverage.
- The finisher hit no longer has a hitbox 2.
- The finisher hit deals much more damage (2 → 5), drastically improving its KO potential.
- The finisher hit deals much more shield damage (0 → 10).
- This change, combined with the increased shield damage of the rapid jab, allows neutral attack to break shields with ease.
- The finisher hit has a different collision sound (cutup → fire).
- Forward tilt:
- The 1st hit deals more damage (2 → 3).
- {{buff|Te 1st hit becomes inactive 1 frame later (frame 6 → frame 6-7)
- The 1st hit's knock back no longer scales with percent, allowing it to reliably lead into the 2nd hit even at extremely high percentages.
- The 1st hit's hitbox 1 has slightly more knockback (25 → 28).
- The 1st hit's hitbox 1 launches opponents at a lower angle towards , allowing it to lead into the 2nd hit more consistently. (88 → 160).
- The 1st hit has gained an additional hitbox designed to clip the ledge. Compared to hitbox 0:
- It's larger (3.5u → 4u)
- {{buff|It deals more damage (3 → 4).}
- It has more hitstun (+10 frames → +18 frames).
- It has much more knockback (25 → 115).
- It has a different launch angle (68 → 90).
- Its Y position is lower (7.4 → 1.2).
- Its Z position is higher (8 → 14).
- {{change|It causes sting damage instead of cutup damage.