Ice Climbers (SSBU)/Down smash

Hitbox visualization showing Popo's down smash.

Hitbox visualization showing Nana's down smash.

Overview[edit]

Each of the duo stands back to back, winding up for a brief moment to swipe their mallet across the ground. It is both the fastest and farthest-reaching of their smash attacks, if only by a small margin. While it boasts impressive knockback, it's usually an inferior KO option compared to their other smashes, suffering from a launch angle that sends opponents toward the upper corners of the stage, the farthest one can go without losing a stock. If positioned just right, or against a large enough fighter, both Popo and Nana can end up hitting the opponent, causing severe damage.

Despite clipping the ledge and technically being more active, it's often foregone as a two-framing option in favor of forward tilt or down tilt due to its higher ending lag and the aforementioned launch angle.

As a smash attack, it's got no intended use for starting, extending, or finishing combos. But the duo can stretch its usage a fair amount with the help of desyncing. When landing a grab while desynced, the partner can be made to buffer a smash attack as the leader throws the opponent, greatly enhancing their damage and launch power. Combining a down throw with a down smash turns the otherwise combo-oriented throw into a kill move. A desynced down smash also hosts some combo potential at low to mid percentages if only one climber uses the move, allowing the other to jump up and hit the opponent again. It also has a very situational use in a certain zero-to-death combo.

Unlike most of their moves, losing a partner robs down smash of coverage rather than strength, unable to hit on both sides and being relegated to a sidegrade to their forward smash that trades killpower for speed and range. When looking for a kill, Ice Climbers players sometimes set up a spot-dodge-down-smash scenario, baiting an out-of-shield option with one of their very safe aerials and using down smash as a quick punishment. This can also be done with a single climber, as some of their aerials are really safe even without the extra shieldstun provided by their partner.

Overall, the Ice Climbers' down smash is an above-average, but sometimes outclassed move as a pair, and still a competent attack even when used alone.

Update History[edit]

9.0.0

Down smash has more base knockback (45 → 50).

13.0.1

Down smash has higher knockback scaling (100 → 105 (Popo), 120 → 126 (Nana)).

Hitboxes[edit]

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Sound	Hit bits	Hit part
Leader
0	0	0	13.0%	0	Forward	50	105	0	3.0	havel	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%	Punch	All	All
1	0	0	13.0%	0	Forward	50	105	0	3.0	havel	0.0	3.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%	Punch	All	All
2	0	0	13.0%	0	Forward	50	105	0	4.5	havel	0.0	7.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%	Punch	All	All
Partner
0	0	0	9.75%	0	Forward	50	126	0	3.0	havel	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%	Punch	All	All
1	0	0	9.75%	0	Forward	50	126	0	3.0	havel	0.0	3.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%	Punch	All	All
2	0	0	9.75%	0	Forward	50	126	0	4.5	havel	0.0	7.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%	Punch	All	All