Ness (SSBM)

Ness in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	EarthBound
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Tier	D (23) (North America) H (23) (Europe)

Ness (ネス, Ness) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. His inclusion was officially announced at E3 2001.

Makiko Ōmoto reprises her role as Ness in Melee with new voice clips.

Ness is currently ranked 23rd out of 26 on the tier list, in D tier. This is a slight drop from his already low placement in Smash 64, where he is 8th out of 12, and his worst placement to date. Ness' air combos and grab game are quite good, with solid throws and fast aerials whose combo potential is bolstered by double jump canceling.

Ness is held back by having poor approach options, with below-average dash speed and lackluster range in most of his attacks, but by far his biggest flaw is having arguably the worst recovery in the game. His swooping double jump and up special travel quite far, but their unusual mechanics and long startup make Ness remarkably vulnerable to edgeguarding. In addition, Ness possesses a thoroughly unimpressive set of specials with inconvenient attributes and narrow use cases, and he also has trouble hard-punishing opponents due to possessing some of the weakest smash attacks.

As a result of his significant weaknesses, Ness has losing matchups across the cast, few noteworthy placements in tournaments, and virtually non-existent representation in the modern metagame, with his best player Simna ibn Sind leaving the scene in 2020. Initially, Ness was regarded as a low-mid tier, ranking 17th overall, but his representation in the metagame was minimal, with even more sparse results. As a result, today, he is almost universally regarded as an unviable fighter, remaining as a mainstay in the tier list's bottom five, and even dedicated mains such as JoeyBats struggle to make high placements within competitive play.

Attributes

Ness is an unusual blend of character archetypes; many of his attributes are unique in comparison to other characters, such as his projectiles, his recovery and his midair jump. Ness has below average traction and a below average falling speed, giving him an above-average wavedash that is relatively quick. Ness is a projectile-heavy character, as he has 3 projectiles: PK Flash, PK Fire, and PK Thunder, while also having a healing move (as well as a highly niche, airborne-descent-stalling move) in his PSI Magnet.

Arguably Ness's greatest strength is his combo game. Despite a poor SHFFL due to his high short hop and low falling speed, Ness has many ways to pressure and combo in the air, thanks to his double jump cancel (often abbreviated DJC). By cancelling out of his midair jump with an aerial, Ness can quickly and efficiently use his multiple aerial attacks; this is especially important considering the utility of his aerial attacks. His neutral aerial and forward aerial attacks act as potential combo starters (especially the latter) and his back, up and down air attacks serve as good KO moves. Due to this, his air approach is considered to be much better than his ground approach, save for his rather useful dash attack.

Although Ness has a poor ground approach, he still boasts two effective options: his grab game, as well as the Yo-yo glitch. Ness' throws all have excellent utility; his forward throw has extremely high base knockback, making it ideal for starting edgeguards. His down throw is a decent combo starter, having potential to lead into his DJC'd aerials. His up throw is a decent chain grab and can be used in conjunction with PK Thunder to rack up damage or play mindgames. Finally, his back throw is the 2nd strongest throw in the game, making it a deadly KOing option. As for the Yo-yo glitch, Ness is the only character to have access to this technique. It is initiated through his up smash, and can be used to attack or grab with near limitless range, or attach certain single-hitbox attacks to Ness's body, including PK Thunder 2. This can significantly increase Ness' range and options when performed properly.

One of Ness' greatest flaws, however, is his significant range problems. All of his attacks (especially his tilts) have little range or small hitboxes, making hitting an opponent very difficult. Although wavedashing can help out this problem somewhat, Ness' ground based options have too little utility overall to be consistently applicable. When combined with his somewhat slow movement, Ness has significant trouble approaching opponents. Thus, his dash attack is considered to be his only reliable ground approach option, due to its decent range unlike most of his other attacks. Also, Ness's grab has the second shortest range in all of the game (only second to Pikachu), thus making it difficult for him to take advantage of his versatile throws, while his dash grab is extremely laggy and barely improves its range. Finally, against opponents with particularly good spacing games, most notoriously Marth, Ness can be easily overwhelmed in his attempts to approach opponents in the air despite the power of his DJC. Ness also, as a side note, can rely heavily on stage control, and as such can benefit from rolling in towards the stage when cornered, despite this option often being quite punishable when expected.

Even when attempting to approach his opponents, Ness suffers from noticeable KOing problems, largely due to his poor power and range. He possesses a terrible set of smash attacks in the game: his up and down smashes are by far the weakest of their kind and his forward smash relies on a sweetspot at the tip of the bat to KO effectively. Outside of his smash attacks, most of his strongest finishers suffer from poor range (his back, up and down aerials, along with his back throw), long start-up and ending lag (his down aerial), low base knockback (up aerial and back throw), having small, unreliable sweetspots (his aforementioned forward smash), or simply being unsafe and situational (PK Flash and PK Thunder 2).

Ness' special moveset also has some problems: it is rather situational overall. PK Flash boasts extreme power when fully charged and is great for punishing poorly positioned opponents offstage, but it is limited to edgeguarding, due to it being very slow and difficult to land. PK Fire can trap opponents and leave them open for follow-ups, and can even gimp fast-fallers. However, it has short reach for a projectile and is very easy to SDI out of, making it easy to punish. PK Thunder is Ness' most useful special move; it is unique for controlling a thunder ball which can be moved in any direction, allowing for mindgames, offstage gimps, and even a powerful KOing option in PK Thunder 2. However it has one critical flaw: the player loses control of Ness during the move, leaving him open to extremely powerful attacks if he can't hit the opponent quick enough. Finally, PSI Magnet can heal Ness and put him in a better position defensively, but it is rather slow and completely dependent on the opposing character, as it only absorbs energy-based projectiles, which many characters lack.

Outside of his poor approach, Ness also suffers from a catastrophic recovery. Ness's recovery has its merits; he has one of the higher swooping double jumps in the game, and his midair jump has unusual properties in its trajectory; PK Thunder 2 also grants a rather long distance, with a moderately large sweetspot and a long period of invincibility frames. The move is also very risky to block due to possessing KO power that reliably KOs at 90%. Despite these benefits, however, Ness's recovery is still cited as arguably the worst in the game, in spite of its decent length, due to possessing many notable flaws. If Ness uses an aerial to fend off edgeguarders, his double jump is cancelled and can prevent him from recovering. PK Thunder's projectile instantly disappears upon hitting opponents with the ball, and this is very easily abusable by edgeguarders, further worsened by PK Thunder 2's slow startup. In the process of having to start PK Thunder 2, characters with good recoveries (such as Jigglypuff or Samus) can merely jump into the projectile and take minor knockback and damage, immediately sending Ness into a state of helplessness (though this can be a risky strategy). Projectiles such as Link's Boomerangs and the Ice Climbers' Ice Shot can easily disrupt the projectile as well, and in these cases, damage is not even inflicted to the opponent. PK Thunder 2 also suffers from a number of problems. Notably, it is difficult to angle correctly, and it can easily curve under lips of stages, most notably on Battlefield. Its linear nature can also make it easy to read and edgeguard for many characters, despite the invincibility frames found within it, and attacks like Mario's Cape or Link's Spin Attack can easily intercept the attack as Ness charges to the stage. Finally, PK Thunder 2 has significant ending lag, and if Ness recovers directly onto the stage after using it, opponents can easily capitalize on this ending lag by landing a powerful hit on Ness that he often cannot hope to evade. However, with all these things considered, Ness still has a small, dedicated fan base who is passionately committed to him, despite his flaws.

Changes from Super Smash Bros.

Ness is now considered to be a low tier in Smash 64, owing to his poor range, mobility, and most notably his poor recovery. However, he was initially considered to be top tier in the game's early meta, due to the strength of his double jump cancel, which gave him a powerful combo game, as well as giving him excellent shield pressuring potential. He has notably had one of the biggest drops in tier in a single Smash title throughout the entire series in Smash 64. Likely as a result of this, Ness received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition from Smash 64 to Melee, but ultimately, he was nerfed overall.

Ness received a number of helpful buffs; his range was increased as a whole to help alleviate one of his main flaws from the previous game. This can most notably be seen with his altered dash attack and forward aerial, which have now become disjointed, multi-hitting moves. The former has become a decent combo starter and an edgeguarding tool, while the latter in particular has now become a solid spacing move, with good combo potential (something he was rather lacking in, in the previous game).

Ness' mobility has been drastically improved, possessing a much faster dashing speed and air speed, making it much easier for him to approach, run away and chase opponents. Ness also benefits from the introduction of air dodging for two reasons; it gives him a much needed additional recovery option and it gives him access to wavedashing. Ness overall has a solid wavedash, due to his average traction and short jumpsquat, giving him a useful movement option. Ness overall has a better recovery outside of PK Thunder, due to his aforementioned increased air speed and ability to air dodge, meaning that Ness does not have to rely on PK Thunder to recover as much.

Ness is also significantly heavier, which considerably improves his endurance, along with his higher falling speed, though these factors also make him more vulnerable to combos. Ness has also gained a useful up throw and down throw, with both throws being decent combo starters. Lastly, Ness now has access to the Yo-yo glitch, if he charges his up smash and releases it at the right time. When performed correctly, Ness has access to much greater range, as well as having hitboxes attached to him and new mindgames, giving him a unique and unpredictable option.

However, Ness has received a much greater quantity of nerfs, which along with universal changes, have drastically crippled him overall. Ness' damage output has been reduced which has also hindered the KO potential of many of his moves. Some moves such as up aerial, forward smash and back throw simply KO later than in the previous game, while moves such as up smash, down smash, forward aerial and forward throw are now either practically useless moves for KOing, or much worse at it. This naturally hinders Ness' damage racking capabilities as well as his ability to close out stocks, and as a result of these changes, Ness' ability to KO opponents has gone from being disproportionately high to rather low.

Ness' aerial game has also been considerably toned down, both due to nerfs to his key aerials in the previous game, as well as various universal changes. All of Ness' aerials have increased landing lag and (with the exception of neutral aerial) worse auto-cancel windows. Due to the weakening of L-canceling, these changes do impact Ness, hindering his aerial combo game when combined with the reduction of hitstun and the introduction of DI, as well as making his aerials easier to punish. Ness is also one of the characters who was the most affected by the changes to shields. With shields having more HP, taking less damage from attacks, and with shieldstun being significantly lower; this combined with the aforementioned weakening of L-canceling has greatly hindered Ness' shield pressuring potential with his DJC, completely removing his ability to perform shield break combos. Ness' own out of shield options are also worse, due to his longer jumpsquat, slower grab and his slower down aerial.

Ness' down aerial in particular has seen rather drastic nerfs. Previously, it was an extremely fast and powerful meteor smash, which was a good combo starter as well as an excellent combo ender, edgeguarding tool and shield pressuring tool. In Melee, the move has about 5x as much startup lag and 3x as much ending lag and the move no longer auto-cancels while its hitboxes are out, it now has decently high landing lag (although it still has one of the most lenient auto-cancel windows in the game). Being a meteor smash, it also suffers from the addition of meteor cancelling, making it significantly easier to survive against, despite its much higher base knockback. When combined with the aforementioned changes to shields and L-canceling, this removes most of its KO potential and completely removes its use in shield break combos and DJC combos in general, significantly hurting its damage racking ability.

Despite already being an exploitable recovery move, PK Thunder has been made much worse. PK Thunder itself travels faster, but has received angling issues due to this change, and Ness can no longer auto-snap the ledge while using it, making it completely useless to use at the ledge, if Ness does not hit himself. PK Thunder 2 travels a much shorter distance and has increased ending lag, making it even easier to exploit than it already was. PK Thunder 2 is also much weaker as a KO move and has received a weaker late hit, reducing its utility outside of recovering. This makes Ness' recovery arguably the worst in the game.

Lastly, Ness' weaknesses from the previous game were not properly addressed. While the range in some of his attacks has increased, his range is still among the absolute shortest in the game, and his mobility is still mediocre, even though its not quite as poor as it previous was. As a result, Ness still has a difficult time approaching opponents and winning the neutral game, as he can still easily be outspaced. His recovery also is, as previously mentioned, now among the absolute worst, as while he has better aerial mobility and he can airdodge to avoid having to use PK Thunder, PK Thunder retains all of the issues it had in the previous game, and has even become a considerably worse move, as well as recovery option altogether.

Overall, Ness still retains the weaknesses he had in the previous game, while the strengths he had were either toned down or removed. As a result of these changes, Ness, as it turns out, is one of the most nerfed characters and he remains one of the worst characters in the game.

Aesthetics

• Ness has a slightly larger head and rotund body. The straps on his backpack have small holes in them. His baseball cap has a white button on the top and stitchings which reveal separate panels. The indigo on his clothing has become blue. He also an indigo hue in his eyes.
• Ness's grounded jump is no longer psychokinetic.
• Ness has new voice samples.
• Ness now faces the screen if he uses his taunt while facing left. It also has a new voice clip.
• Ness now consistently smiles instead of only doing it during his taunt and victory poses.

Attributes

• Ness walks faster (0.7467 (22.4) → 0.84), no longer being the slowest.
• Ness dashes significantly faster (1.067 (32) → 1.4), no longer being the slowest.
  • However, Ness' initial dash is drastically slower (2.267 (68) → 1.3) and covers less distance.
• Ness' traction is slightly lower (0.0667 (2) → 0.06). Compared with the returning veterans, however, his traction is significantly lower, making it harder for him to punish out of shield, but giving him a respectable wavedash.
• Ness' jumpsquat is longer (3 frames → 4).
• Ness' air speed has been unchanged (0.933 (28) → 0.93). Compared with the returning veterans, however, his air speed is faster, going from the 2nd (JPN/NA) / 4th (AUS) / 3rd (EUR) slowest out of 12 characters to the 11th fastest out of 26.
• Ness' air acceleration is much lower (0.1067 (3.2) → 0.06).
• Ness jumps slightly lower (40.15 (1204.5) → 35.98).
  • Compared with the returning veterans, however, he jumps significantly higher, going from the 3rd lowest out of 12 characters to the 5th highest out of 26.
  • Ness' short hop is drastically lower (23.5367 (706.1) → 13.26), improves his ability to hit opponents low on the ground with short hop aerials, as well as his ability to quickly land and continue aerial pressure, but also hinders his ability to auto-cancel his aerials.
• Ness' fast-falling speed is significantly slower (2.95 (88.5) → 2.2). The difference between his falling speed and fast falling speed is much lower (increase: 60.5% → 20.2%), which makes it more predictable when landing and gives him fewer options in the air.
• Ness is drastically heavier (81.818181 (1.1) → 94) which significantly improves his endurance.
  • However, this also makes him much more vulnerable to combos and makes him susceptible to Fox's waveshine combos.
• The introduction of air dodging benefits Ness as it gives him a much needed additional recovery option as well as an additional movement option in the form of wavedashing.

Ground Attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's first hit deals more damage (2% → 3%).
  • Neutral attack transitions sooner into the later hits (frame 10 → 5 (hit 1), frame 8 → 6 (hit 2)).
  • The third hit has increased base knockback (10 → 16).
  • All three hits of neutral attack have more startup lag with the second and third hits also having a shorter duration (frames 2-3 (hit 1)/3-5 (hit 2)/6-11 (hit 3) → 3-4/4-5/7-10).
  • All three hits have more ending lag (FAF 18 (hit 1)/20 (hit 2)/ 25 (frame 3) → 20/21/31).
  • Ness can no longer cancel the first hit into grab.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt deals more damage (9%/10%/11% → 10%/11%/12%) and has increased base knockback (10 → 12).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has less ending lag (FAF 35 → 32).
  • Up tilt's angle has been altered (100° → 96°).
  • Up tilt deals more knockback (80 (base), 40 (scaling) → 42/126).
    • This improves its KO potential (though it still cannot reliably KO).
    • However, this along with the reduction of hitstun and the introduction of DI significantly hinders its combo potential.
  • Up tilt has a much shorter duration (frames 5-19 → 5-9) hindering its use as an anti air and giving it more cooldown.
  • Ness's head has less intangibility (frames 5-19 → 5-6) further hindering up tilt's use as an anti-air.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has less startup lag (frame 4 → 3) and Ness can perform another down tilt sooner (frame 11 → 8).
  • Down tilt deals more knockback (2 (base), 20 (scaling) → 4/50).
    • This make it safer on hit and chain into itself more reliably at lower percents.
    • However, this makes it chain into itself less reliably at higher percents.
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 4-8 → 3-5).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack is now a multi-hitting move where Ness produces three PSI rings in front of him.
  • Dash attack deals slightly more damage if all hits connect (12% (clean)/9% (late) → 5% (hit 1)/4% (hits 2 & 3)/12.28% (total)) and has significantly more range and overall utility.
  • The final hit of dash attack has higher base knockback (16 → 70) and launches opponents vertically (361° → 100°) improving its combo potential but hindering its KO and edgeguarding potential when combined with its lower damage.
  • Dash attack has a shorter duration (frames 8-11 (clean)/12-25 (late) → 8/15/22) and each hit has high base knockback making it extremely difficult to connect properly.
  • Dash attack has more ending lag (FAF 38 → 40).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has increased horizontal range.
  • Forward smash has less startup lag (frame 18 → 16).
  • Forward smash no longer deals consistent damage with the tipper of the bat being the strongest (18% → 18%/20%/22%/24%).
  • Forward smash deals less knockback (70 (base), 65 (scaling) → 50/62) drastically hindering the sourspots' KO potential at high percentages.
  • Forward smash has a shorter duration (frames 18-21 → 16-17), increasing its ending lag.
  • Forward smash's reflector has a shorter duration (frames 16-21 → 16-17).
  • Ness's bat will now clash with projectiles if it hits them, making forward smash much less reliable as a reflector.
  • Forward smash has a reduced reflection multiplier (1.8x → 1.5x) much like its Japanese Smash 64 counterpart.
  • Forward smash's reflector can now only deal up to 50% damage and the reflector will break if Ness reflects a projectile which deals over 50% (much like Fox's).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has less startup lag with a longer duration (frames 13-25 → 12-31).
  • Ness can use up smash to perform the Yo-yo glitch improving its utility.
  • Up smash no longer has a mid hit.
  • The late hit launches opponents at a slightly higher angle compared to the previous mid hit (78° → 80°).
  • Up smash has less range.
  • The clean hit has a shorter duration (frames 13-17 → 12-14).
  • The clean hit no longer launches opponents towards Ness (110° → 70°).
  • Up smash deals significantly less damage (17% → 9% (clean), 15%/13% → 6% (late)). The clean hit's knockback was not fully compensated (20 (base), 100 (scaling) → 80/80) while the late hit deals less knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 60/45) completely removing its KOing capabilities and making it completely useless and unsafe.
  • Up smash has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 49).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has less startup lag (frame 13 → 12).
  • Down smash now launches opponents vertically (361° → 70°).
  • Down smash has less range.
  • Down smash has a much shorter duration (frames 13-52 → 12 (clean), 13-31 (late)) and now has a drastically weaker late hit.
  • Down smash deals drastically less damage (19% → 11%/7%) and its knockback was not fully compensated (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 70/80 (clean), 70/60 (late)) completely removing its KO potential.
  • Down smash has more ending lag (FAF 55 → 59).

Aerial Attacks

• All aerials have increased landing lag (14 frames → 22 (neutral), 16 frames → 18 (forward), 15 frames → 18 (back), 4/8 frames → 18 (up), 4/8 frames → 28 (down)).
• All aerials except neutral aerial auto-cancel later (frame 27 → 30 (forward), frame 20 → 25 (back), frame 1 → 27 (up), frame 1 → 29 (down)).
• The weakening of L-canceling has hindered Ness's combo game with landing aerials as well as their safety with the increasing landing lag and worse auto-cancel windows on his aerials only further exacerbating this.
  • This combined with the changes to shields has severely harmed Ness's shield pressuring potential; making his aerials much less safe against shield and completely removing his ability to perform shield break combos.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Ness has a new neutral aerial: a spin with his arms outward.
  • Neutral aerial has less ending lag (FAF 40 → 36).
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 40 → 27).
  • Neutral aerial deals less damage (14% → 11% (clean), 11% → 8% (late)) hindering its KO potential.
    • However this combined with Ness's superior aerial mobility improves its combo potential.
  • Neutral aerial has a shorter duration (frames 5-39 → 5-23).
  • Neutral aerial has less range and is less safe due to Ness's head being farther in front than the move's hitboxes.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has been altered: Ness now produces five PSI rings in front of him with the move being a multi hit.
  • Forward aerial has less startup (frame 10 → 8) and ending lag (FAF 42 → 40).
  • Forward aerial deals more damage if all hits connect (12% (clean)/10% (late) → 3%/2% (hits 1-4)/5% (hit 5)/15.74% (total)).
  • Forward aerial has considerably more range.
  • Forward has much better combo potential due to its multi-hit properties as it can now chain into itself or other aerials.
  • Forward aerial is less reliable due to being a multi-hit.
  • The knockback on the final hit was not fully compensated (16 (base), 100 (scaling) → 24/135) hindering forward aerial's KO potential.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has less ending lag (FAF 40 → 36).
  • The sweetspot has increased base knockback (10 → 16).
  • The animation makes it so Ness's body no longer shrinks as much during Back aerial's startup lag and does not extend as far, giving it less range and hindering its safety.
  • The sweetspot has a shorter duration (frames 10-13 → 10-11) with the late hit's duration being compensated (frames 14-19 → 12-19).
  • The sweetspot now has an electric effect, giving it more hitlag (1x → 1.5x) and making it easier to DI.
• Up aerial:
  • Ness's head is no longer intangible while performing up aerial.
  • Up aerial deals less damage (15% → 13%) and its knockback was not fully compensated (10 (base), 110 (scaling) → 13/109).
  • Up aerial has a shorter duration (frames 8-16 → 8-11).
  • Up aerial no longer auto-cancels for its entire duration, now having 18 frames of landing lag (9 if L-cancelled).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has much higher base knockback (10/0 → 90), improving its edgeguarding potential at lower percents.
  • Down aerial has drastically increased start-up lag with a shorter duration (frames 4-20 → 20-28).
  • Down aerial has twice the amount of ending lag (FAF 30 → 60) no longer being possible to perform twice in a short hop or even out of a full height double jump.
  • Down aerial deals 3% less damage (15% → 12%) and has much lower knockback scaling (120 → 70), weakening the meteor smash's power at high percents and removing its KO potential on-stage..
  • Down aerial no longer auto-cancels while the hitbox is out, now having 28 frames of landing lag (14 if L-cancelled).
  • The addition of meteor canceling, when combined with down aerial's new angle (-90° → 280°) allows it to be meteor cancelled.
    • Altogether, these changes drastically worsens the move's utility and reliability, hindering its use in combos and in shield pressure while being much more unreliable as a KO move.

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Ness has been given an pummel, up throw, and a down throw, improving his grab's utility. Both of these new throws can be used as combo starters.
  • Ness's grabs have more startup lag (frame 6 → 8 (standing), 10 (dash)) and ending lag (FAF 16 → 31 (standing), 41 (dash)).
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw deals less damage (16% → 11%) and while it has increased base knockback (90 → 120), it also has drastically lower knockback scaling (70 → 10). This completely removes its combo potential, as well as not being able to ko until beyond sudden death percents (no longer being the strongest forward throw), but is much more effective and consistent as a edgeguarding tool at low and mid percents, as well as being much safer and lastly, it is now the strongest forward throw at low percents.
  • Forward throw has more ending lag (FAF 45 → 53).
  • Forward throw no longer has a collateral hit which can hit bystanders.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw deals less damage (16% → 11%) and its knockback was not fully compensated (90 (base), 70 (scaling) → 15/130). This significantly hinders it's safety and edgeguarding potential at low and mid percents to the point that it is now the weakest back throw at low percents, but makes it more reliable as combo tool and also a much stronger ko tool at higher percents, now being the strongest back throw in the game.
  • Back throw has more ending lag (FAF 45 → 53).
  • Back throw no longer has a collateral hit which can hit bystanders.

Special Moves

• PK Flash:
  • Ness now has a new neutral special: PK Flash. A chargeable green ball of light that increases in power and moves downward the longer the button is held. Once it reaches full power, it explodes, dealing huge knockback. It grants Ness a new powerful KO and edgeguarding option, although the move is ineffective due to its extremely poor speed and how vulnerable it leaves Ness when he uses it.
• PK Fire:
  • As a result of PK Flash now being Ness's neutral special, PK Fire is now Ness's side special.
  • PK Fire has less ending lag (FAF 72 → 70).
  • PK Fire pillar's duration is slightly longer (frame 98 -> 100).
  • PK Fire pillar's hitboxes are larger and no longer shrink as its lifetime decreases.
  • PK Fire spark is less likely to knock opponents away from the pillar at higher percents.
  • PK Fire spark travels farther.
  • PK Fire spark disappears one frame early if summoned over even ground.
  • PK Fire spark has a smaller hitbox and now relies on the assistance of a hurtbox to activate the fire pillar.
    • Its reliance on the hurtbox makes it possible for attackers to hit the projectile, causing it to undergo 16 frames of hit cooldown; it also doesn't go off if the opponent and the hurtbox do not interact.
    • However, this also means that the PK Fire spark can absorb projectiles with transcendent priority.
  • PK Fire deals less damage (4% (spark)/3% (pillar hits 1-7) → 2% (spark)/3% (pillar hit 1)/2% (pillar hits 2-7)), and it is now considerably easier to SDI out of.
• PK Thunder:
  • PK Thunder has less startup lag (frame 24 → 20).
  • PK Thunder now auto-cancels once Ness enters free fall; drastically reducing its landing lag (42 frames → 4).
  • PK Thunder travels faster and deals 2% more damage (6% → 8%).
  • PK Thunder now has transcendent priority.
  • PK Thunder has a shorter duration (frames 24-182 → 20-138).
  • PK Thunder has more ending lag once it disappears (FAF 46 → 55).
  • Ness will no longer auto-snap the ledge when using PK Thunder near a ledge.
  • Ness will not auto-snap the ledge after PK Thunder despawns until he has performed an aerial somersault.
    • Altogether, these changes make it much riskier to use PK Thunder near the ledge.
  • PK Thunder 2 has a longer duration (frames 1-18 → 1-36).
  • PK Thunder 2 now grants Ness intangibility rather than invincibility.
  • The crowd no longer gasps when Ness hits himself with PK Thunder.
  • PK Thunder 2 travels a much shorter distance.
  • PK Thunder 2 deals less damage when hitting an opponent (30% → 25%) and knockback (40 (base), 84 (scaling) → 60/70) significantly hindering its KO potential.