Bayonetta (SSBU)

Bayonetta in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Bayonetta
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Infernal Climax
Tier	A (22)

Bayonetta (ベヨネッタ, Bayonetta) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, making her return from the previous game. She is the second fighter from Sega after Sonic. She was confirmed alongside the rest of the returning roster on June 12th, 2018 during E3 2018. Bayonetta is classified as Fighter #63, the last fighter number of the Super Smash Bros. 4 veterans and returning veterans overall.

Hellena Taylor and Atsuko Tanaka's portrayals of Bayonetta from Smash 4 were repurposed for the English and Japanese versions of Ultimate respectively. Ultimate is the last game where Hellena Taylor voices Bayonetta in English, as Jennifer Hale is her current English voice actress in Bayonetta 3.

Bayonetta is currently ranked 22nd out of 82 characters on the current tier list, placing her close to the top of the A tier. This is a considerable drop from her placement in Smash 4, where she was considered to be the best character in the game. Bayonetta's main strength is her unique, powerful combo game. Her special attacks, Witch Twist and After Burner Kick, allow her to reliably combo and inflict heavy damage on opponents, sometimes dragging them into the top or side blast zones and leading to an early KO. Bayonetta can also rack up damage rather quickly, as all of her tilt attacks confirm into multiple follow-ups at early percentages. Furthermore, Bayonetta possesses a plethora of defensive options, the most effective being Witch Time and Bat Within. A successful activation of Witch Time at low percents can open an opportunity for a combo, while an activation at high percents can often confirm into a KO. Bat Within acts as a frame 1 air dodge, allowing her to escape semi-true combos, juggles, and even kill confirms, while in turn allowing her to reverse disadvantage and punish her opponent. Finally, Bayonetta has an oppressive off-stage game thanks to her flexible aerial game, while Witch Twist and After Burner Kick give her a long, flexible, and mostly safe recovery.

However, Bayonetta has several weaknesses that hold her back, the most notable being her raw kill power. She tends to have a harder time KOing at higher percents, as her best KO options, back air, down air, jab, and her smash attacks, are difficult to land or combo into at high percents. This is compounded by her light weight and tall frame, which means opponents could KO her first if she is unable to take their stock. In addition, Bayonetta's frame data when on the ground is quite slow, with almost all of her attacks coming out on frame 7 or later, and most of them also have high ending lag and deal minimal shield damage, making them unsafe on shield. As such, her ground game is rather poor, which in turn affects her combo game, as she often relies on Heel Slide, up tilt, or down tilt in order to start combos. Finally, her combos have their own drawbacks: not only are they susceptible to SDI, but the more special moves she uses during an aerial combo, the more landing lag she receives, potentially lasting for up to 50 frames, making them very punishable if whiffed.

Overall, Bayonetta is a combo-oriented character that can effectively put pressure on her opponents, rack up damage quickly, and KO at early percents; however, she tends to struggle at higher percents due to her poor approach and limited KO options outside of her combos. Early results from Bayonetta were lackluster, leading to a negative initial perception; however, numerous buffs from balance patches helped improve her viability over time, particularly in the post-online metagame, and she has since garnered a sizeable playerbase and a plethora of strong results from players such as Bloom4Eva, Lima, and TamaPDaifuku.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Bayonetta being the 43rd character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the 2nd character unlocked after Sonic.
• Have Bayonetta join the player's party in World of Light.

Bayonetta must then be defeated on the Umbra Clock Tower (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

Bayonetta is a tall yet light character. She has a below average walking speed and air speed, average traction and dashing speed (with a decently fast initial dash), very fast air acceleration and fall speed, high gravity, and very high jumps—she has the 8th highest air jump, is tied with Sheik for the 7th highest ground jump, and tied with Zero Suit Samus for the 2nd highest short hop. These attributes give her somewhat poor endurance (especially vertically) and average mobility, but they also grant her a considerable degree of agility in the air when combined with her movement-based aerial special moves.

Bayonetta's biggest strengths are her strong aerial combo game—with her tilt attacks, forward aerial, up aerial, neutral aerial, and special moves being capable of starting or extending combos—and her excellent recovery, which allows her to reach the stage from the bottom blast zone while being difficult to edgeguard due to her recovery's flexibility. Her damage output per hit is somewhat low, but her extensive combo game makes up for this, as her combos can quickly and easily rack up damage.

She has several unique attributes, such as her Bullet Arts, which allows her to shoot from the guns on her hands and heels by keeping the attack button pressed down after most of her attacks. Because they are programmed as disjointed hitboxes, they are not classified as projectiles and thus cannot be reflected, making them a solid pressuring and peppering tool. She also possesses a special fighter ability in Bat Within, which activates if struck during the earliest frames of her dodges or in the latest frames of her down special; this causes her to morph into a flock of bats, receive half damage without taking any knockback, and move in the direction inputted to initiate the dodge (she remains in place for spot dodges, and moves downward for air dodges). Because the ability can activate on frame 1 of her air dodge, Bayonetta effectively possesses the fastest combo-breaking defensive option out of the entire roster, allowing her to evade combos that would otherwise be unavoidable for nearly all others in the cast. Her up special has a large hitbox above and around her, is one of few in the game that don't cause helplessness upon use, can be used a second time following a double jump, and can be used to cancel her double jump and preserve it, granting her a vertical recovery that surpasses many other fighters; combined with her side special, Bayonetta has arguably the best recovery in the game and is nearly impossible to contest when returning to stage. Additionally, she can also wall cling and wall jump, giving her more movement options on certain stages.

Bayonetta's ground game is lackluster and reliant on her tilt attacks to help set up intricate combos. Her jab is slow, but the final hit of the rapid jab can KO at high percentages. Her dash attack has considerable startup for an attack of its kind (15 frames), but moves very quickly once initiated and can also serve as a situational KO move. Both her up tilt and her down tilt have small hitboxes, but they are very good combo tools: up tilt is useful for getting her opponents into the air and also combos from her Heel Slide or into her Witch Twist, up aerial, or back aerial depending on the percentage, with up tilt into back air being a semi-reliable kill confirm while her down tilt is a good out-of-shield option and has similar combo potential. Her forward tilt is her least useful tilt as it lacks follow-up options beyond very low percents, but it can provide mix-up options on shield depending on whether one, two, or all three hits of the move and optional Bullet Arts timing stalls are used.

Bayonetta's smash attacks allow her to summon Madama Butterfly's limbs. They each have good knockback and range, but they also have low priority and noticeable lag, meaning that attempting to use one (even in Witch Time) can cause them to clash with other grounded moves and lead her to get punished, although Madama Butterfly's limbs have transcendent priority against aerial attacks. Her forward smash is her earliest KO option and one of her only attacks that can reliably kill before 100%, though it has a blind spot directly in front of Bayonetta. Her up smash covers the area directly in front of her and can KO from the upper blast line. Her down smash covers the same range as her up smash and is mainly useful for meteor smashing her opponents from the ledge, though it can also kill from the upper blast line at higher percentages.

Bayonetta's air game is potent as a result of her high jumps, flexible movement options, extremely quick aerial attacks that generally provide generous coverage, and ability to fight off-stage while confidently being able to return due to her superb recovery. Her neutral aerial has great range (especially when extended with Bullet Arts, which covers a huge area around her), can lead to combos into forward aerial and After Burner Kick, and can be a KO option off-stage or at very high percentages. Back aerial is one of her strongest KO options because of its sweetspot and is a good combo finisher, though it is one of the slower back aerials in the game (coming out at frame 11). Her forward aerial can edgeguard and, like her forward tilt, forms a three-hit combo of its own if pressed repeatedly; it can also be used as a combo starter or extender. Her up aerial is extremely fast, hits high above her in a circular arc, and serves as a useful juggling tool, though it has very low knockback. Her down aerial is a stall-then-fall move, which is a risky landing option due to its high ending lag, though it has a strong landing hit, which can be a useful KO option; the hitbox on the heel of her leg also possesses a moderately strong spiking hitbox, allowing for surprise KOs off the bottom blast line if used properly.

She has very useful special moves that are essential for her uniquely air-based combo and pressure game. Her neutral special Bullet Climax fires projectiles at a slightly upward angle and is useful for KOing higher-percentage opponents at the left and right blast lines when fully charged. Both variations of her side special, Heel Slide and After Burner Kick are reliable combo starters, while the latter is also a good combo extender and horizontal recovery option. After Burner Kick can be used either to ascend slightly or descend steeply, depending on the input used. Her up special Witch Twist is her best out-of-shield option and is a great tool for starting and extending combos and dragging the opponent to the upper blast line. Though it gains little vertical distance in isolation, it can be performed twice with Bayonetta's double jump, and she can also jump cancel her second jump to grant her extra vertical distance, giving her outstanding vertical and horizontal recovery potential. Her down special counter Witch Time has a short duration and high ending lag, but it slows down time for a brief period if it activates. If Bayonetta gets hit in a specific time frame when dodging or in the later frames of Witch Time, she will activate her Bat Within. This turns her into bats and moves her to a (usually) more favorable stage position, and she will take half of the attack's damage output and no knockback.

Bayonetta's aerial prowess, set of special moves, and fighter abilities grant her a strong disadvantage state, as she can avoid pressure by using her dizzyingly fast air acceleration to weave back and forth, use her very high double jump to escape fighters who can't chase her, punish approaches with After Burner Kick or Witch Twist, create strong reversals with Witch Time, or dodge otherwise fatal attacks with Bat Within. Her very fast aerial attacks complement her ability to keep opponents guessing where she will travel and whether she will pick an offensive or defensive option.

Her grab-and-throw game has some utility, though to a lesser extent than the rest of her moveset. While up throw and down throw lack true follow-up potential outside of reads and mix-ups, the latter serves as a KO option at very high percentages. Additionally, while forward throw and back throw are purely positional throws, the former is her strongest kill throw, though its kill potential can easily be mitigated with proper DI.

However, to counterbalance her many unique strengths, Bayonetta also has very noticeable weaknesses. Most notably, while she can quickly rack up damage with her combos, she has very few reliable KO options until around 150%, with her only real kill options before this being her smash attacks, back air, down air, and jab. Even then, these options are relatively mediocre; her smash attacks are slow, often get cancelled out by other moves and have spots with no hitboxes, causing them to potentially whiff in certain scenarios; her back air has slow start-up and a relatively small sweetspot hitbox, making it rather precise and awkward to land; her down air is a laggy move that only KOs if it hits the opponent with certain hitboxes or while they're grounded, making it fairly situational; and her jab has very high start-up and ending lag, making it an incredibly risky kill option and very easy to punish if shielded. Even at percentages higher than 150%, her KO options are unreliable, extremely punishable if whiffed, or only KO at very high percentages, for example, her forward throw and dash attack. Thus, to mitigate her raw kill potential, Bayonetta players need to earn stocks through successful edgeguards using her fearsome air game, or more situationally, through the use of hard reads using Witch Time.

Furthermore, Bayonetta has very poor frame data on the ground, with all of her standard grounded moves coming out at frame 7 or slower while also being unsafe on shield due to their high ending lag and minimal shield damage. This makes Bayonetta's approach among the worst in the entire cast, effectively forcing her to play a very defensive, bait-and-punish style, which the opponent can counter by simply shielding or not approaching her. In addition, the fact that Bayonetta is a tall character with a fast fall speed and light weight means she is more easily comboed and more susceptible to being KO'd—especially when stuffed out by sufficiently strong anti-airs. Though Bat Within can somewhat alleviate the former problem, the issues compound to give her poor survivability.

Her passive abilities also have issues. While Bat Within has utility in the context of on-stage disadvantage, it is essentially a worse spot dodge on the ground, as Bayonetta will still take half of the dodged attack's damage if it is triggered. In the air, Bat Within has other problems: the fact that it only sends her downward when triggered in the air means that it can cause self-destructs while she is off-stage, and to balance the fact that Bat Within is so fast, the distance Bayonetta covers when using a directional air dodge is minimal.

Bayonetta is subject to several other weaknesses: unlike most other fighters, her smash attacks can only be held for 60 frames instead of 120 (Mega Man, Ness, Olimar, and Villager also share this weakness); her Witch Time becomes less effective with consecutive uses, even when it isn't triggered by an attack; and Bayonetta's combos themselves, while arguably her strongest asset, are still ineffective against good SDI. Additionally, Bayonetta suffers from having potentially the highest amount of landing lag among the entire cast, as her landing lag increases based on how many specials she has used in the air. As a result, she can be immobile upon landing for up to 50 frames. Although she does have ways to get around this—for example, using Witch Time or Bullet Climax to cancel her landing lag, landing with an aerial to force the opponent away, or retreating to a ledge—these are ultimately situational, and a whiffed combo can lead to a big punish.

Overall, Bayonetta is seen as a character with a high skill cap because of her extensive and complex combo game, her high-risk playstyle, and her unique abilities and techniques. She is a flexible, air-based, combo-oriented character who is good at quickly racking up damage and applying pressure to opponents, but her lack of reliable KO options means she can struggle in securing the stock (an issue which is exacerbated by her being prone to combos and kill setups herself).

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Bayonetta was unanimously considered to be the best character in SSB4 due to her many extreme advantages, including her ability to KO opponents at virtually any percentage with successful ladder combos, the best disadvantage-breaking move in the game with Witch Time, great KO potential outside of her ladder combos thanks to Witch Time and her smash attacks, and an excellent recovery. Even after having received significant nerfs in game updates, her advantages remained intact, causing players to label her as "broken", and many matches involving her became controversial. This included the Ultimate tournament Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018, where top professional player MkLeo pulled off two ladder KOs in front of Masahiro Sakurai using Bayonetta. Due to these factors, Bayonetta was initially drastically nerfed in her transition to Ultimate, though game updates provided her with substantial buffs to compensate, and the shifts to the metagame have proven beneficial for her to some degree. Despite this, Bayonetta has still been noticeably nerfed overall from her SSB4 iteration.

Bayonetta's already poor frame data, her main weakness in SSB4, has been made even slower in Ultimate. Her most reliable combo starters have been weakened, with her up tilt, down tilt, and forward aerial all having more ending lag; the latter was affected the most significantly, with the first hit no longer allowing for any follow-ups other than the second and third hits of the move. Witch Twist has more startup and covers less vertical distance, reducing its effectiveness as a combo starter, out of shield option, follow-up from other moves, and recovery option. Adding to this, all of Bayonetta's special moves have received nerfs that make them more risky and punishable: Bullet Climax's charge takes longer to cancel and can no longer be held indefinitely, Heel Slide and After Burner Kick's followup hits can no longer be used if they hit a shield, Witch Twist takes much longer to grab ledges, and Witch Time slows down opponents for much shorter amounts of time except at very high percentages, alongside having noticeably more startup and ending lag; the lattermost move's changes, in particular, have made Witch Time go from the uncontested best counter in SSB4 to being much more in-line with the rest of the cast in Ultimate.

Her KO ability has been weakened as well. Neutral, up and down aerials deal lower knockback (most significantly the former two, which no longer KO under 200% onstage), her back aerial has less range and a smaller hitbox (most notably the sweetspot), and her smash attacks only get half as much of an increase in power when charged. This is exacerbated by Witch Time's decreased slowdown duration and lower knockback multiplier on smash attacks, hindering its ability to lead into safe KOs, and due to the severe nerfs to her up aerial, she can no longer KO with ladder combos unless they are initiated very close to the top blast line, and even then very high percents are often needed to reliably earn a KO. As a result, Bayonetta now has a significantly more defined main weakness, which is her poor KO ability and reliance on her combos due to her lack of reliable KO options outside of her jab, back air, down air, and smash attacks. Her moveset's lower power is also pronounced further by the reduced damage some of her moves deal, which slightly hinders her combo game even more. Conversely, her own survivability has been worsened, as her already low weight has been reduced, and her recovery is less effective due to Witch Twist's shorter distance, slower ledge grab, and smaller hitboxes.

Bayonetta's special recovery frames have also been significantly extended. While previously varied configurations of her special moves gave Bayonetta determinate amounts of landing lag regardless of how they were performed, the landing lag suffered by each combination is more varied and, in most cases, increased. Furthermore, Bayonetta's infamous ability to cancel higher amounts of landing lag with her down aerial was also removed, and landing with the move can instead cause, on most combinations, to further increase the landing lag she receives from performing certain combinations (interestingly enough, her ability to bypass landing lag with Witch Time remains, though this is largely irrelevant due to the move's increased duration). As a result of these changes (along with the universally lower landing lag across the roster), Bayonetta now suffers the highest amount of landing lag among the entire cast, and this also increases her vulnerability if opponents can fall out of her combos, allowing them to land a harder punish option on her more easily.

Despite this, Bayonetta has also received a few noteworthy buffs. All of her dodges have been sped up relative to the rest of the cast, no longer being among the slowest in the game, while still having the ability to trigger Bat Within during their startup. Downwards After Burner Kick is now a reliable combo starter once again due to it launching grounded opponents at a higher, more suitable angle for follow-ups, and Witch Twist is harder to SDI out of due to the lower hitlag on each hit. Witch Time can slow down opponents from much farther distances upon a successful counterattack, has a longer counter window, and changes a projectile's ownership to her. Although grabs have been overall nerfed across the cast, all of Bayonetta's grabs have slightly increased range, which, combined with her throws not losing their utility, improves her grab game despite their higher ending lag. Her neutral attack combo's finisher and dash attack both have increased knockback, the former now being one of the strongest neutral attacks in the game, and the strongest among lightweights, and the latter has more range and reduced ending lag, improving the move as a burst or KO option. Bayonetta's most inconsistent moves have also been notably improved; both hits of her up tilt will always connect reliably due to the first hit using set knockback, her smash attacks now have transcendent priority on aerial opponents, most notably addressing the low priority of the moves, Witch Twist has a lower SDI multiplier, and her Witch Time has higher slowdown scaling, noticeably increasing its slowdown duration at high percentages when the move is stale.

The universal changes to gameplay mechanics are a mixed bag for Bayonetta overall. The ability to dash cancel into any move improves her grounded game, though this is somewhat counterbalanced by their rather slow startup and her notable grounded moves losing some of their combo utility. The streamlined jumpsquats and reductions to landing lag are mostly detrimental to her; they slightly benefit Bayonetta's combo game as long as her aerials are not extended with Bullet Arts, but unlike most other characters, Bayonetta suffers higher landing lag when she lands with aerials that are extended with Bullet Arts. This, combined with other characters gaining either safer aerials, improved combo routes from them, or lower landing lag, has allowed them to more easily keep up with Bayonetta. On the other hand, the changes to air dodge mechanics have benefitted her overall; although Bayonetta has the third shortest distance of any directional air dodge (tied with Steve), she still benefits from their reintroduction regardless since her special moves don't cause helplessness when used in the air, and it allows her to slightly extend her recovery provided she is not able to reach the edge on time, plus the increased lag on all kinds of air dodges and their limit to once per airtime (unless hitstun is sustained) has further improved her edgeguarding ability, despite her worse aerial game.

Overall, Bayonetta's biggest strengths from SSB4 that were deemed "overpowered" have all been severely toned down or even removed altogether, as her combos require slightly more precision to pull off, have less KO potential, and leave her more vulnerable, and Witch Time is a less powerful option to place the opponent at a disadvantage. She is also plagued with further defined weaknesses, possessing much more significant KOing issues, a worse disadvantage state and overall survivability (both from her weaker recovery and endurance) and a slightly slower moveset. Although some of her moves have received various improvements and/or quality of life changes, none of her buffs can properly compensate for the comparatively much larger impact her abundance of nerfs has brought about. The universal changes pronounce both the good and bad aspects of her attributes, but much like her direct buffs, they fail to address her severe direct nerfs. However, she still retains several of her main strengths from the previous game, most notably her strong combo game and edgeguarding ability. Bayonetta also received many buffs through game updates, which improved on her most underwhelming aspects or alleviated the severity of her nerfs. These changes now give Bayonetta a higher learning curve, and render her far less powerful than she was in SSB4; however, optimizations to her metagame and the retention of her strengths have allowed Bayonetta to remain an effective character.

Aesthetics

• Bayonetta's appearance is largely the same as it was in SSB4, though her model features a more subdued color scheme. Her hair and clothes feature greater detailing and appear less glossy.
• Bayonetta's alternate costumes have been re-ordered; her original outfit now occupies her even-numbered costumes instead of the second half, similar to Cloud.
• Love is Blue and Scarborough Fair have louder sound effects to distinguish the two.
• While veterans' facial expressions were typically upgraded, Bayonetta seems to lack expressions she possessed in the previous installment, notably in her Screen KO, a wink in one of her victory animations, and during certain moves such as up tilt.
• The excess hair tendrils hanging from her outfits have more individual physics.
• Bayonetta's taunts are sped up.
• When the victory screen shows her name, Bayonetta's glasses glint at the edge. While this was present in her victory poses in Smash 4, it only showed for a brief moment.
• As with all previous downloadable fighters in SSB4, Bayonetta now has a unique Palutena's Guidance conversation.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Bayonetta's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 4).
• Bayonetta is lighter (84 → 81), further hindering her endurance.
• Bayonetta's initial dash speed (1.6 → 1.936) and run speed (1.6 → 1.76) are much faster.
• Bayonetta walks slightly faster (0.9 → 0.945).
• Bayonetta's air speed is faster (0.97 → 1.019).
• Bayonetta's traction is much higher (0.055 → 0.11).
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 38 → 32). Bat Within also activates faster and has a longer duration (frames 3-5 → 2-5).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 6-19 → 6-15).
• Back roll has less ending lag (FAF 38 → 37). Bat Within also has a longer duration (frames 3-5 → 3-6).
• Back roll has more startup and grants less intangibility (frames 6-19 → 7-16).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 30 → 26).
• Spot dodge has more startup and grants less intangibility (frames 5-19 → 6-17). Bat Within also activates slower (frame 1 → 2).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 5-27 → 5-31).
• Air dodge has more ending lag (FAF 37 → 46).
• With the reintroduction of directional air dodges, Bayonetta can take advantage of her special moves not causing helplessness by getting additional distance with a directional air dodge after using them. This slightly improves her recovery.
  • Bat Within cannot have its direction altered, instead always going straight down. If Bayonetta is hit offstage and attempts to recover with a directional air dodge, and Bat Within activates, this could cause her to self-destruct.
• Much like other characters, Bayonetta's wall jump covers significantly less distance, making her more frail while offstage.
• Bullet Arts' range has been significantly reduced on all of her moves.
• Bullet Arts are no longer susceptible to Stun Jacket.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first three hits have altered angles (hit 1: 55°/55°/85° → 361°/180°; hit 2: 48°/68°/82°/70° → 361°; hit 3: 68°/85°/68°/90° → 361°) and knockback (hit 1: 45/30/42 base, 25 scaling → 36/32, 8; hit 2: 45/40/38/40, 25 → 42/38, 8; hit 3: 47/47/28/28, 20 → 40, 8) to keep opponents close to Bayonetta, akin to other neutral attacks, and have gained hitstun modifiers (0 → 8 (hits 1-2), 10 (hit 3)). This allows them to connect better and jab lock.
  • The second and third hits have less startup (frame 9 → 7 (hit 2), 11 → 7 (hit 3)).
  • The rapid jab has a lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.6×) and SDI multiplier (0.6× → 0.4×), and has gained a hitstun modifier of 2 for each hit, making it harder to escape.
  • The rapid jab's finisher deals more knockback (70 base/90 scaling → 67/117).
  • All hits deal less damage (1.5% → 1.4% (hits 1-2), 2.7% → 2.2% (hit 3), 0.3% → 0.2% (rapid jab), 1% → 0.5% (finisher, hit 1), 6% → 5% (finisher, hit 2)).
  • The first three hits have more ending lag (FAF 26 → 32 (hit 1), 31 → 32 (hit 2), 34 → 40 (hit 3)).
  • Rapid jab finisher has transcendent priority, preventing it from being canceled out by weak attacks.
  • The rapid jab has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 15×. This allows it to lock opponents into their shields between each hit, and thus pressure them more effectively, but also allows them to cancel shieldstun and punish Bayonetta more easily if they shield 10 hits or more.
• Forward tilt:
  • The third hit has less ending lag (FAF 43 → 40), allowing it to combo into a forward aerial from low to mid percents..
  • The first and second hit have altered angles (hit 1: 60°/45°/75°/80°/45° → 58°/45°/70°/70°/50°, hit 2: 43°/75° → 48°/62°) and knockback (hit 1: 62/50/45/60/56 base, 25/15/25/15/25 scaling → 55/45/50/35/60, 15; hit 2: 60/58 base → 42/46), allowing them to connect more reliably.
  • The first and third hits deal less damage (3.5% → 3% (hit 1), 8.5% → 7% (hit 3)), though with the latter's knockback scaling mostly compensated (60 → 68).
• Up tilt:
  • The first hit's grounded hitbox launches opponents into the second hit rather than away from Bayonetta (68° → 123°), and has altered knockback (80 base/40 scaling → 100/10) allowing it to connect more consistently.
  • The second hit has more startup (11 frames → 13) and more ending lag (FAF 27 → 30), hindering the move's combo potential despite the second hit having decreased base knockback (60 → 55).
    • The second hit has more active hitbox frames (frames 11-12 → frame 13-15).
  • The first hit deals less damage when clean (5% → 1.5%), being less than the late hit's damage.
  • The first hit's aerial hitbox connects worse into the second hit due to its lower angle (110° → 123°), despite having altered knockback (80 base/40 scaling → 90/10).
• Down tilt:
  • The move has more ending lag (FAF 27 → 29), hindering its combo potential.
  • The move deals less damage (6%/7% → 5%/6%). While its knockback scaling was not fully compensated (50 → 55), its combo potential remains worse due to its increased ending lag.
• Dash attack:
  • The move has less ending lag (FAF 47 → 43).
  • It deals more knockback (85 base/55 scaling → 78/71 (clean), 80/65 (late)).
  • It has a larger hitbox (4.2u → 5u (clean), 4.5u (late)).
• Smash attacks:
  • All Wicked Weave hitboxes have been split into ground-only and aerial-only hitboxes, with the latter possessing transcendent priority. This prevents them from getting canceled out by aerial attacks.
  • They have a lower maximum damage multiplier (1.4× → 1.2×).
  • Due to the universally increased hitlag, and shields using a 0.67× hitlag multiplier that isn't propagated to the Wicked Weaves' hitboxes (effectively giving Bayonetta more hitlag relative to the opponent), they are all less safe on shield.
• Forward smash:
  • The move has less startup (frame 19 → 17).
    • However, its total duration was not fully compensated (FAF 68 → 67), giving it one frame more ending lag.
  • It has more base knockback (26 → 34/35) and a longer hitbox duration (frames 17-19 → 17-21).
  • It can be angled, though all angles still have a blindspot directly in front of her.
• Down smash:
  • The move has less startup (frame 20 → 17) and its total duration was reduced (FAF 69 → 66).
  • The second hitbox has a longer duration (frames 25-27 → 22-25).
  • The second hit's meteor smash hitbox has less knockback scaling (90 → 80).

Aerial attacks

• Forward, back and up aerial have less landing lag (14 frames → 12 (forward), 12 → 10 (back), 12 → 8 (up)).
• All aerials except down aerial have more landing lag if their Bullet Arts extensions are used (10 frames → 18 (neutral), 12 → 18 (forward), 12 → 16 (back, up)). This worsens Bayonetta's pressure ability with her neutral and up aerials.
• Neutral aerial:
  • The move deals drastically less knockback (40 base/100 scaling → 65/60 (clean), 40/90 → 65/50 (late)), no longer KOing under 300% from the center of most stages. While this allows it to combo for longer, it most significantly hinders Bayonetta's KO ability at high percents.
  • The Bullet Arts extension deals less damage (4.5% → 3%) and knockback (50 base/100 scaling → 60/85).
• Forward aerial:
  • All hits deal more damage (3% → 4% (hit 1), 2.2% → 3.3% (hit 2), 6% → 7% (hit 3)).
  • All hits have more ending lag (FAF 27 → 38 (hit 1), 32 → 40 (hit 2), 40 → 47 (hit 3)). This prevents the first hit from comboing into After Burner Kick or Witch Twist, or being used repeatedly to drag opponents offstage, significantly weakening its utility.
  • The first hit has noticeably smaller hitboxes (4u/8u → 2.8u/5.8u) and less vertical range (Y offset: 8u/16u/12u → 9.2u/14.8u/12u).
  • The first hit auto-cancels later (frame 28 → 30).
  • The third hit's angle has been altered (44° → 54°). This worsens its KO ability near the horizontal blast lines, but combined with its knockback not being compensated for its increased damage, this allows it to KO more reliably at the end of a ladder combo.
• Back aerial:
  • The move has more ending lag (FAF 30 → 35).
  • Its hitboxes are smaller (6.2u/4.8u → 4.6u/4.2u), with the sweetspot no longer being disjointed and extending over Bayonetta's foot.
• Up aerial:
  • The move deals less damage (9% → 7.5%), its knockback scaling has been reduced (90 → 80), and it launches at a more horizontal angle (75° → 55°). While this allows it to combo into back aerial and After Burner Kick, it hinders its combo potential into most other moves at higher percents, and renders it vulnerable to LSI. These nerfs significantly hinder its KO ability, no longer KOing vertically from a ladder combo until much higher percents, unless it is initiated very close to the top blast line.
  • The Bullet Arts extension deals less damage (4% → 3%).
• Down aerial:
  • The move deals set knockback to grounded opponents (30/80 base/120/50 scaling → 50/90 set/100 scaling) to lead more effectively into the landing hit, allowing it to deal more damage and KO them more effectively.
    • However, this gives the meteor smash hitboxes a random chance to trip opponents of Samus's weight and above, as they do not cause them to tumble, making it unable to lead into the landing hit.
  • It deals less knockback to aerial opponents (80 base/50 scaling → 50/65 (clean), 30/50 (late)), no longer being able to KO off a meteor smash at very low percents, and the landing hit has less knockback scaling (135 → 127), KOing later onstage.
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 48 → 53), making it harder to use offstage without self-destructing.
  • It has more landing lag (28 frames → 30).
  • As aerial footstools are techable, down aerial can no longer be confirmed into from a footstool, further worsening its KO ability.
  • It no longer deals weight-independent knockback, making it weaker against heavier opponents, but stronger against lighter ones.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have more range (Z2 offset: 8.7u → 9.2u (standing), 10.6u → 10.9u (dash), -14.7u → -15.5u (pivot)).
  • All grabs have more ending lag (FAF 31 → 38 (standing), 38 → 46 (dash), 36 → 41 (pivot)).
  • Dash and pivot grab have more startup (frame 9 → 10 (dash), 10 → 11 (pivot)).
  • Bayonetta's hand grabs characters using a form of Umbran magic, as seen via a slightly updated animation where she swings her hand around, which is sparkling with a noticeable Umbran purple.
• Pummel:
  • It deals much less damage (1.6% (hits 1-2) → 0.6% (hit 1), 0.7% (hit 2); 3.2% → 1.3% total).
  • It deals more hitlag per hit (4 frames → 10), but has significantly less startup (frame 7, 14 → 1, 4) and ending lag (FAF 22 → 7). This overall shortens its duration and increases the amount of times Bayonetta can pummel the opponent before throwing them or before they break out.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

• Bullet Climax:
  • The move's bullets have more range.
  • Fully charged bullets deal more knockback (20 base/150 scaling → 15/190).
  • The move has more ending lag (FAF 71 → 76).
  • It needs to be fully charged before it can be charge-canceled.
  • It is unleashed automatically if held for more than 80 frames after its charge starts, preventing it from being held indefinitely.
  • The bullets have received negative shield damage (0 → -0.3 (uncharged), -0.6 (charged)).
• Heel Slide and After Burner Kick have lower hitlag multipliers (Heel Slide: 1.2× → 0.9× (hit 1), 1× (hit 2); After Burner Kick: 2× → 1.4× (up), 1.5× → 1.2× (down)), although this is offset by the universal increase to hitlag, except in battles with more than two players.
• Heel Slide:
  • The second hit comes out faster (frame 54 → 51).
  • Both hits have less ending lag (FAF 78/73 → 67/68).
  • All hits deal less damage (9%/8.5%/8% → 8%/7.5%/7% (hit 1, clean/mid/late), 6% → 5% (hit 2)).