Zelda (SSBU)/Neutral aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Zelda's neutral aerial.

Overview[edit]

Zelda spins twice with magic infused in her hands. It has fast startup and covers both sides, with five large hits spread over a long duration; it is also her only aerial to auto-cancel both in a short hop and a full hop fast fall. Due to these favorable traits, among her aerials, it is her most reliable anti-air and air-to-air. Its multiple hits can be used to catch jumps, launch into a Phantom, and edge guard.

Compared to many aerials with autolink angles, the launch behavior of its multihits is unintuitive with six different hitboxes. All looping hits use set weight, resulting in uniform knockback across the cast; however, they do not use set knockback, which means they become slightly stronger with rage.

On grounded opponents, the looping hits pop up and slightly away from Zelda. Due to this outward angle, the opponent will typically fall out of the rest of the move if they are at the outer edge of the hitboxes and/or Zelda is drifting away. A fast-falled single looping hit on grounded opponents can start a combo at any percent, most notably into an up tilt, up smash or Lightning Kick. In order to connect only one hit, especially at low percents, Zelda must land almost immediately afterward, and/or be at maximum spacing; performing a full hop forward, back, neutral or down aerial first can help set up for a single landing hit of neutral air. The grounded looping hits' knockback scales significantly, so at higher percents they will send into tumble and become susceptible to DI and knockback speed-up. This will compound its aforementioned traits—on one hand, connecting the rest of the move will become harder, but single-hit combos will also be easier by making the timing and spacing less strict. Deliberately landing a single hit is difficult given Zelda's poor mobility; however, when performing a falling neutral aerial on shield, opponents may be shield poked, drop shield prematurely, or fail to properly parry all the multihits. Being prepared for a pop-up in any of these cases and reacting successfully will convert into heavy damage or an effective KO.

The aerial looping hits are similar to Pikachu's forward aerial, but are much weaker and send into Zelda instead of outward. This means that the opponent can only be moved minimally from their initial position, and more significantly, that the looping hits always work against Zelda's momentum if she drifts toward the opponent. Consequently, whether the ultimate hit launches forward or backward is highly dependent on Zelda’s drift. If she drifts into the opponent during the move, they will tend to be launched on the other side; to keep them on the same side, she must drift back to some extent. To be close enough for a follow-up, Zelda will need a high air speed in the same direction as the opponent's final launch. This will generally require her to switch her drift sometime in the middle of the looping hit portion (e.g. away from the opponent in the early portion, and into them in the late portion). The exact timing will depend on Zelda's air speed and distance from the opponent at the beginning of the move; it will also depend on whether the initial hit is on a grounded or aerial opponent, since they launch in different directions and with different knockback. Additionally, while by nature happening only inadvertently, whiffing a portion of the looping hits on aerial opponents will reduce their inward knockback and thus make it easier to keep them on the same side.

Zelda's low air acceleration makes changing her drift somewhat difficult, but a well-executed auto-canceled neutral air can most reliably combo into up tilt and dash attack. Other possibilities include jab, down tilt, down smash, up special, itself or Lightning Kick. Auto-canceling early instead of executing a full short hop can also help with frame advantage. A successful conversion not only increases Zelda's damage output, but also pushes the opponent farther from center stage (either into the corner or even off stage) which makes the difference between a quick reset to neutral versus a strong positional advantage.

When the grounded hits start sending into tumble, the looping hits become more unpredictable, and the final hit will also start sending too far for combos. At this point, Zelda should primarily focus on the launch direction for stage positioning. It also serves as a rough indicator of the end window of auto-cancel combos and the start window of practical single-hit combos.

Chief among neutral aerial's weaknesses are its unusual hitboxes, angles and strict conditions, which make it less flexible and consistent compared to many other aerials in the game. Because the aerial looping hits have minimal knockback, if Zelda's velocity is too high, typically when she is rising (i.e. during jumps, especially the initial height of full hops) or falling too quickly, opponents will fall out of the move and be actionable almost immediately for an easy punish. Also, if one or more of the looping hits whiffs—especially so for the upper hitboxes, which usually only inflict 5-8 frames of hitstun—the opponent can possibly escape the move or outright interrupt it with a sufficiently fast option. The minimal knockback also renders drag-down combos unviable, as they are minus on landing until unrealistically extreme percents. A falling neutral aerial in comparison can combo, but requires the final hit; it can most easily link into dash attack, and most commonly sees usage when jumping onto platforms.

Among other downsides are the gaps between each hit, making it inconsistent at catching options and in air-to-airs. It is also unsafe on shield, though Zelda can try to mix up her landing with auto-canceling, landing before the last hit and/or crossing up the opponent. It is also completely transcendent, so it will leave Zelda wide open to projectiles.

Overall, neutral air is an important move to Zelda’s neutral due to being relatively low-risk and having the potential to convert into many other moves. Synergizing with the move’s multihit behavior can improve Zelda’s damage output and advantage across a wide percentage range.

Update history[edit]

7.0.0

Neutral aerial's looping hits launch aerial opponents at more horizontal angles (92°/270°/92°/270° → 132°/230°/152°/210°), causing them to connect more reliably if Zelda is drifting away, but less reliably when Zelda is rising or falling.
- Due to now sending toward Zelda's opposite side, the final hit's launch direction is much more volatile. This makes follow-ups more difficult, especially from an auto-canceled short hop.
Neutral aerial has less landing lag (15 frames → 12), matching its Brawl counterpart. This makes it safer on shield and improves its single-hit combo potential on grounded opponents, making KO setups into Lightning Kicks more reliable.

Hitboxes[edit]

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Sound	Hit bits	Hit part
Hits 1-4
0	0	0	2.5%	0	Standard	50	80	0	5.0	top	0.0	10.0	7.6	0.6×	0.8×	0%	Magic	All	All
1	0	0	2.5%	0	Standard	30	10	0	1.5	top	0.0	6.5	5.0 to 10.0	0.6×	0.8×	0%	Magic	All	All
2	0	0	2.5%	0	Standard	15	10	0	1.5	top	0.0	13.0	5.0 to 10.0	0.6×	0.8×	0%	Magic	All	All
3	0	0	1.5%	0	Standard	50	80	0	5.0	top	0.0	13.0	-5.0	0.6×	0.8×	0%	Magic	All	All
4	0	0	1.5%	0	Standard	30	10	0	1.5	top	0.0	9.5	-3.0 to -8.0	0.6×	0.8×	0%	Magic	All	All
5	0	0	1.5%	0	Standard	15	10	0	1.5	top	0.0	16.0	-3.0 to -8.0	0.6×	0.8×	0%	Magic	All	All
Hit 5
0	0	0	5.0%	0	Standard	35	130	0	5.0	top	0.0	13.5	-7.0	2.0×	1.0×	0%	Magic	All	All
1	0	0	5.0%	0	Standard	35	130	0	5.0	top	0.0	9.0	8.5	2.0×	1.0×	0%	Magic	All	All
2	0	0	5.0%	0	Standard	35	110	0	6.0	top	0.0	7.0	0.0	2.0×	1.0×	0%	Magic	All	All
3	0	0	5.0%	0	Standard	35	110	0	6.0	head	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.0×	1.0×	0%	Magic	All	All