Chrom (SSBU)

Chrom in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Fire Emblem
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Awakening Aether
Tier	C- (65)

“	Chrom Joins the battle!!!	”
—Introduction tagline

Chrom (クロム, Chrom) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was announced as a newcomer alongside Simon, Richter, Dark Samus, and King K. Rool in the Nintendo Direct on August 8th, 2018. Chrom is Roy's Echo Fighter, thus being classified as Fighter #25^ε, though his lack of sweetspots makes him parallel Roy the same way Lucina parallels Marth. In addition to his role as a playable character, Chrom remains a part of Robin's Final Smash, Pair Up.

Matthew Mercer and Tomokazu Sugita, who voiced Chrom in the English and Japanese versions of Fire Emblem Awakening respectively, reprise their roles in the international and Japanese versions of Ultimate with newly recorded voice clips. Both voice actors initially revealed their roles on their Twitter accounts.

Chrom is ranked 65th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the middle of the C- tier, significantly lower than his base fighter Roy, who is currently ranked 20th out of 82 at the top of the A tier. As with Roy, Chrom is blessed with an effective set of tools which work well with Ultimate's more aggressive pace: his combination of strong mobility and falling speed, quick frame data for a swordsman, good hitboxes on his attacks, and overall high damage-to-frame data ratio (courtesy of the weighted average of Roy's sweetspots and sourspots being rather high) grant him a powerful advantage state once the opportunity presents itself. Chrom also possesses one of the best neutral attacks in the game that has a myriad of uses (including being able to hit some opponents hanging from ledge) and a strong set of special attacks, including a unique up special in Soaring Slash, which is an effective damage dealer, decent out of shield option, and is infamous for its powerful meteor smash, allowing it to KO ledge-hanging opponents at 0% or function as a powerful sacrificial KO.

However, despite his strengths, the drastic difference in tier placement compared to Roy is due to Chrom's infamously poor recovery. Soaring Slash is Chrom's only recovery move and acts like Aether, offering very little horizontal distance compared to Roy's Blazer; it also lacks protection outside of its high super armor frames on startup, and cannot snap the ledge till Chrom begins falling. This makes it incredibly easy to gimp Chrom, as an opponent can simply bat him away with any attack (including holding down certain neutral attacks) or counterattack his recovery. As a result, he has one of the worst recoveries in the game despite his high air speed, making him highly dependable on recovery mixups and his air dodge; this also translates to him having a very poor disadvantage state, especially offstage. Finally, his balanced blade sacrifices the stronger, polarized sweetspots of Roy's sword, meaning he often has to win more neutral exchanges to compensate for the lack of stronger punishes, while his KO ability is still weaker than Roy's, most notably with Double-Edge Dance.

Initially, Chrom was highly regarded and considered one of the best swordfighters in the game, with high representation across all levels during the first year of Ultimate thanks to players such as Mr.R and Rivers. However, after several nerfs to Soaring Slash and the community learning the matchup, his overall representation dropped significantly due to the playerbase taking advantage of his fragile offstage presence. This has resulted in Chrom struggling to make the same impact as he did in the early metagame, though he continues to find some success from players such as Lancelot and Lax.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Chrom being the 59th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Yoshi or any character in his unlock tree, being the 7th character unlocked after Ridley.
• Have Chrom join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Chrom must then be defeated on Arena Ferox. In World of Light, he is fought on the Ω form of Castle Siege.

Attributes

As the Echo Fighter of Roy, Chrom's moveset and animations are primarily based on those of Roy. His attributes are identical as well, with excellent yet polarized overall mobility (very fast dashing, air, and falling speeds, alongside a very effective dash dance, but a slightly above-average walking speed, slow air acceleration and a low midair jump) and good frame data for a weapon user. As a result, Chrom shares an almost similar game plan: he is mainly a rushdown character who aims to overwhelm his enemy by closing the distance quickly with fast movement. However, Chrom's primary difference is his sword's lack of a sweetspot and sourspot, making him more oriented towards spacing out his opponents at the cost of having lower damage output and knockback up close, compared to Roy (who focuses more on getting up close to his opponent for very hard hits). Chrom also notably lacks any of Roy's distinctive flame effects and reverse-gripped animations, and his forward tilt moves him slightly forward. Finally, Chrom's up special is completely different compared to Roy's, as Soaring Slash functions much like Aether compared to Blazer, and is more effective at racking up damage than KOing while onstage; it can even act as a niche sacrificial KO at extremely low percents out of a forward aerial, and otherwise acts as a deterrent for edge-guarding that Roy lacks. However, this is only effective if Chrom has a stock lead since he is usually KOed first.

Since Chrom's lack of a sweetspot makes his unique attribute similar to his daughter Lucina (who acts as the non-sweetspot/sourspot equivalent of Marth), Chrom's benefits are also somewhat identical to hers: they both share the trait of having the weighted average of their original fighter's damage numbers. As a result, they have more consistent combos, edgeguarding, and KO potential than their base characters, and their attacks are significantly safer on shield and on hit than Marth and Roy's sourspots, at the cost of losing out on stronger sweetspots that can end stocks early. However, as Roy's sweetspots and sourspots are extremely polarized in power, Chrom's damage and knockback averages are higher than average, giving him an overall powerful offense. Additionally, he arguably benefits more from his balanced blade than Lucina does, since Roy's weaknesses are his reliance on getting extremely close and extremely ineffective sourspots; as a result, Chrom suffers less from Roy's main flaws, allowing him to both space and fight up close very effectively. In terms of general capabilities compared to Lucina directly, Chrom possesses faster overall speed and stronger grounded attacks, in exchange for lower jump height, faster falling speed, and weaker aerials. This makes him more capable than Lucina while on or moving along the ground, but drastically less versatile in the air and especially off-stage (mirroring the differences between Roy and Marth, respectively).

Despite his array of strengths, Chrom also has very polarized weaknesses. While Chrom's retention of Roy's high air speed grants him decent survivability with his second jump, his overall recovery and off-stage endurance is notoriously weak, even when compared to Roy, as Soaring Slash grants almost no horizontal distance and only snaps to ledge once he begins the downward slash, making it susceptible to counterattacks and sufficiently long hitboxes. This, combined with Chrom's low jump height and fast falling speed, results in him having one of the worst recoveries in the game, and also one of the most easily affected by semi-spikes and gimps. His poor recovery is only somewhat remedied by his aforementioned high air speed and the presence of his air dodge, which, combined with his second jump, allows him to return to the stage surprisingly frequently without the need for Soaring Slash. Despite this, Chrom's air dodge remains unsafe even though he relies on it more than other characters for survival. Additionally, he shares similar flaws with Roy: his excellent mobility is offset by a complete lack of projectile-denying tools, making him vulnerable to camping from a handful of characters, and his fast falling speed and low air acceleration makes him vulnerable to combos and juggles (though he has some good tools for escaping such combos, such as neutral aerial and falling up aerial).

Overall, it is fair to describe Chrom as an amalgam of previous Fire Emblem characters, taking bits and pieces from not just Roy, but also Lucina and Marth by extension, Ike, and Corrin to a much lesser extent. Chrom is a very accessible and effective character and provides for a completely different playstyle from Roy despite their shared attributes and moves. He aims to strike a balance between aggression and patience, as he has the mobility, range, and damage necessary to switch between game plans on the fly. However, his very weak recovery mandates that players avoid being thrown off-stage and maintain stage control at all times, as not only is he vulnerable to getting edgeguarded and gimped, but he can also sometimes end up in a spot where he is unable to recover at all.

Differences from Roy

Much like with Lucina and Marth, Chrom and Roy are overall functionally very similar to each other, and as mentioned above, the main difference between the latter two is similar to that of the former two; Chrom's attacks lack Roy's inverse tipper sweetspots, instead dealing consistent damage across the entire blade. Since Roy's tipper hitboxes are weak sourspots in direct contrast to Marth's tippers being powerful sweetspots, this gives Chrom the ability to more effectively space with his sword and makes him more consistent on-stage; on the contrary, however, it does not allow him to secure stocks quite as early as Roy can. Regardless, though, Chrom can still net some fairly early KOs, due to his kill power still being overall above-average. Additionally, Chrom has altered animations for his neutral attack, forward tilt and up tilt where he holds his sword properly instead of holding it in a reverse grip, which affect the hitbox placements of those moves; and his up smash, down aerial and special moves do not use the flame effect either.

Unlike Lucina, whose only other major difference from Marth is that her up tilt has a timing-based sweetspot, Chrom's additional differences are much more pronounced. His up special is entirely different, being a move called Soaring Slash which resembles Ike's Aether, which makes Chrom's recovery much less safe than Roy's, but also allows him to perform a sacrificial KO. His forward tilt moves him forward slightly, giving it more range; it is also noticeably more effective overall (especially considering his lack of tipper sourspots), and even possesses the ability to hit opponents hanging on the edge. Chrom's up smash also has less hitlag compared to Roy's, which can make it harder for opponents to properly DI or SDI. His neutral aerial uses weight-independent knockback on its first hit (like with Marth and Lucina) rather than on its second hit. Chrom's Counter deals less knockback against weaker attacks, but more knockback against stronger attacks. Lastly, his Final Smash, Awakening Aether, is completely different from Roy's, being closer in function to Marth and Lucina's Critical Hit instead. There are also a few other minor differences mentioned below (in the "Misc." section), but they are much more situational compared to the others.

Because Chrom's lack of Roy's sweetspots and flame-based attacks spreads across his entire moveset, and his up special makes his off-stage presence much less safe for both Chrom and his opponent(s), Chrom is generally considered to be one of the most unique Echo Fighters, alongside Ken and Lucina. As such, these three characters are ranked separately from their base fighters on tier lists, and are allowed to be used with their base fighters in Squad Strike competitive tournaments.

Aesthetics

• As with all other Echo Fighters, Chrom has different taunts and victory poses.
• Chrom has a different No Contest animation.
• Chrom has a different idle stance and altered idle poses, with his left arm lifted, his sword pointed downward, and noticeably less bouncing. However, this does not apply when holding a light item.
  • Chrom has an additional animation for transitioning into his idle stance, which is used for all animations aside from his periodical idle poses. This is a trait shared with Dark Samus and Mythra.
• Chrom's sword trails are blue and white, and do not fade out, making them identical to Lucina's.
• Chrom has an additional voice clip for taking light knockback, an alternate KO voice clip, a voice clip when performing a tech, a voice clip for waking up from sleep, and one for emerging from underwater.
• As of the 3.0.0 update, Chrom has a distinct victory theme from Roy, shared with Lucina and Robin based on "Id (Purpose)" from Fire Emblem Awakening. However, in earlier versions, Chrom and Roy shared the same victory theme.

Attributes

• Unlike Roy, none of Chrom's attacks have a flame effect, with all of them (except for Flare Blade) instead having a slash or stab effect.
  • Partly as a result of this, Chrom's up smash, down aerial, and neutral special have wind vortex visual effects.
• Chrom's Sealed Falchion lacks a sweetspot and sourspot compared to Roy's Binding Blade. As a result, it always deals consistent damage and knockback throughout, like Lucina's Parallel Falchion.
  • Chrom has more effective reach than Roy, as Roy cannot take advantage of his long reach due to his weak and largely ineffective sourspots.
  • Chrom's moves are more effective for combos than Roy's sweetspots due to their lower damage and knockback.
  • This makes Chrom's edgeguarding, damage racking, and KOing abilities more consistent.
  • Chrom cannot secure KOs as early as Roy can, and his potential maximum damage output per hit is worse.
  • Chrom lacks the combos and KO setups that Roy's sourspots grant.
• Unlike Roy, Chrom does not hold his sword in a backward grip for his neutral attack, forward tilt, and up tilt. This particularly improves the hitbox placements of the former two moves.

Ground attacks

• Chrom has a set voice clip for all three of his smash attacks.
• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack has more horizontal range due to an altered animation where Chrom holds his sword in a regular grip, as opposed to a reversed one.
  • Neutral attack is a more effective combo starter, due to the move's tipper hitbox having the same launch angle and knockback as the rest of the move, combined with the move's lower damage and knockback compared to Roy's sweetspotted version.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt moves him slightly forward, unlike Roy's variant. Its altered animation also causes him to hit lower, enabling him to more reliably hit shorter or crouching opponents, and grants him the ability to hit ledge-hanging opponents with the move. Altogether, these changes improve its range and effectiveness considerably.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has an altered animation where Chrom holds his sword in a regular grip.
  • Due to Chrom dealing consistent damage across his entire sword, up tilt is more effective overall, especially from the front.
• Forward smash:
  • Due to its lack of a sweetspot and middlespot, forward smash's hitbox is much more favorable due to it covering a very large area, with the earliest vertical hitbox having enough coverage to hit half a character length above Chrom's head. This makes it significantly more effective for catching jumps and ending combos.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has drastically less hitlag, making it harder to DI and SDI correctly while also making it more difficult for bystanders to punish Chrom for successfully landing the move.
  • Up smash has a different vibration effect to match its wind vortex visual effect.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Chrom's neutral aerial uses weight-independent knockback on the first hit like Marth and Lucina's, rather than on the second hit like Roy's. As a result, the first hit connects with the second more reliably, but is less effective for comboing into other moves, while the second deals more knockback to lighter opponents, but less to heavier ones.
• Forward aerial:
  • Chrom's forward aerial launches at the Sakurai angle, unlike Roy's, which launches at 42 degrees.

Special moves

• Flare Blade:
  • Flare Blade uses the normal effect. Additionally, it is aesthetically different; instead of charging up with flames for a fiery explosion, Chrom's sword charges with a wind vortex before it unleashes a powerful shockwave. Additionally, as the move is charged, the Sealed Falchion's blade slowly sparkles from the blade's base to the tip, indicating its charge level, while dust and debris kick up around Chrom. This effect makes the move resemble Marth's Shield Breaker and Roy's Flare Blade in Melee.
  • Chrom uses only one voice clip upon releasing Flare Blade once sufficiently charged, similarly to how Marth and Lucina vocalize when performing Shield Breaker, instead of using multiple voice clips depending on charge level.
• Soaring Slash:
  • Chrom has a unique up special, Soaring Slash, which resembles Ike's Aether. Unlike Aether, where Ike throws his sword first, Soaring Slash has Chrom launch his opponent upward with his sword by performing a fast upward slash, resembling a move Chrom performs in the "Two Falchions" cutscene of Fire Emblem Awakening and a move he can perform in Fire Emblem Warriors. Like Aether, Soaring Slash grants Chrom super armor before he leaps upward.
  • Soaring Slash offers more vertical distance than Blazer.
  • Soaring Slash offers almost no horizontal distance compared to Blazer. It also does not snap to the ledge until Chrom begins descending. As a result, Chrom's recovery and off-stage survivability are even worse, as his recovery distance is low and very easily interrupted.
  • Compared to Roy's Blazer, Chrom's Soaring Slash does not have intangibility on frame 9, and its super armor does not start until frame 10 (compared to Blazer's super armor starting on frame 4).
    • However, Chrom's super armor lasts significantly longer (6 frames → 20) and can be performed in midair.
  • Soaring Slash does more damage if all hits connect (grounded: 16.8%, aerial: 13.5% → all: 21%). It does not get significantly weaker either if used in the air. Additionally, Chrom can also perform a sacrificial KO with the move against offstage opponents as well.
    • Soaring Slash KOs on-stage opponents later than grounded Blazer if all hits connect, but KOs them much sooner than aerial Blazer.
  • The first hit of Soaring Slash has significantly more horizontal range than that of Blazer, making it a more effective out of shield option when combined with its increased damage output, despite its slightly slower startup.
  • Soaring Slash's first hit comes out one frame slower than Blazer's (frame 9 → 10).
• Counter:
  • Chrom has different quotes for a successful Counter, and only has two compared to Roy's three. He may either say "Not today!" or "No way!"
    • Additionally, Chrom speaks the moment he blocks an attack rather than before the counterattack.
  • When countering a sufficiently strong attack, Chrom's Counter uses the same sound effect used by Ike's Counter against sufficiently strong attacks, instead of using the critical hit sound effect from the Fire Emblem series.
  • The sinus rhythm effect is blue like Marth's and Lucina's instead of red.
  • Chrom's Counter has different knockback values (60 (base)/90 (scaling) → 45/100). Overall, it deals less knockback when countering weaker attacks and more knockback when countering stronger attacks.
• Awakening Aether:
  • Chrom has a unique Final Smash called Awakening Aether, inspired by Aether's portrayal in Fire Emblem Awakening.
  • Awakening Aether has increased knockback compared to Roy's Critical Hit, allowing it to KO opponents sooner in comparison.
  • Awakening Aether has much more effective range due to Chrom dashing forward instead of remaining in place.

Misc.

• Chrom uses a different animation when trapped within Steve's Minecart, being the same as Lucina.
  • He also jumps up to a slightly lower height when breaking free of the Minecart (initial y velocity: 2.6 → 2.55).
• Despite having the same running animation as Roy, Chrom's Impact Run hitbox is the same as that of Marth and Lucina (Y offset: 4.75u → 6u, Z offset: 6u → 10u).

Update history

Chrom received only a few changes in game updates, but was slightly nerfed overall.

Update 2.0.0 reduced the knockback of Soaring Slash's meteor smash hitbox, making it more likely for Chrom to be KOed first during the descent. Previously, this move was quite infamous for being a fairly reliable sacrificial KO that could be easily confirmed from his aerials, mainly forward aerial and neutral aerial, a series of kill confirms collectively referred to as the "Chrombo"; the consistency of the "Chrombo" made Chrom incredibly proficient at capitalizing on comeback situations. After the update, it is still possible to perform a "Chrombo", but it will only be reliable if Chrom has a stock advantage. It is now also safer to go offstage to edgeguard a Chrom at his last stock, as even being caught by Soaring Slash will not result in Chrom suddenly gaining the advantage, though this is still slightly inconsistent depending on Chrom's height when initiating the move. The same update, however, also buffed his down aerial as well; the move now autocancels earlier, matching its interruptibility.

Update 3.0.0 increased the vertical range of Chrom's dash grab, much like with Marth, Roy, and Lucina, fixing an issue that prevented them from grabbing a shielding R.O.B.

Finally, update 3.1.0 improved his up smash, enabling its linking hits to connect into each other more reliably, a problem that update 7.0.0 once again addressed by removing the rare instances where opponents would trip out of the last hit.

Overall, these changes have not had much of an impact on Chrom's standing relative to the cast.

1.1.0

• The properties of Soaring Slash have been altered.

2.0.0

• Soaring Slash's meteor smash hitbox has reduced knockback (FKB 160 → 150), and Chrom's falling speed is increased 15 frames into the descent (-6 → -7.5). This makes the move more likely to KO Chrom first when used in a sacrificial KO, limiting its ability to secure wins in a last-stock scenario.
  • Additionally, the descent will now sometimes fail to connect into the landing hit when used out of a jump, due to Chrom descending much faster than the opponent.
• Down aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 55 → 52), matching the move's interruptibility.

3.0.0

• Chrom's victory theme was corrected to Id (Purpose), matching Lucina and Robin's themes.
• The grounded-only grabbox of dash grab was made bigger (2.6u → 3.0u) and placed higher (Y offsets: 7.0 → 7.25). This notably prevents it from missing a shielding R.O.B..

3.1.0

• Up smash's hits connect more reliably.
• Chrom's sheath is present during his on-screen appearance.
• Chrom's sword and sheath are present in his clapping animation on the results screen.

Technical changelist 3.1.0

Changed	Before	After
Up smash hit 1	Hitbox ID 0: angle=101˚, SDI=1x Hitbox ID 1: angle=116˚, SDI=1x	ID 0: angle=118˚, SDI=0x ID 1: angle 127˚, SDI=0.5x
Up smash looping hits	SDI=1x, weight not set	SDI=0.3x, weight set

7.0.0

• Up smash has received a -100% trip chance, preventing it from tripping opponents on platforms and missing its last hit due to the trip's intangibility.

Moveset

• Chrom's overall damage output is close to the weighted average of each of the hitboxes of Roy's attacks.

For a gallery of Chrom's hitboxes, see here.

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Slash (リフトスラッシュ, Lift Slash)	6.5%	An upward slash while keeping the Sealed Falchion horizontal. It comes out on frame 5, making it Chrom's fastest ground attack. A great combo starter, due to launching at a rather high angle and having low knockback and ending lag. It can easily start combos into a grab, tilts, aerials, or Double-Edge Dance. Just like Roy's neutral attack, it is effective at comboing into a reverse aerial rush back aerial for a highly potent KO confirm; compared to Roy however, it is easier to land thanks to Chrom's lack of sourspots. Additionally, its altered animation gives it slightly more range than Roy's neutral attack at the height of the slash. Finally, its earliest hitbox starts low enough to hit certain ledge-hanging opponents, which can transition into an punish.
Forward tilt		Sharp Edge (オーバーバッシュ, Over Bash)	10.925%	A downward slash. Powerful for a tilt considering its speed. Unlike Roy's forward tilt, it moves him slightly forward, and its altered animation means that its hitboxes reach much lower, enabling it to hit crouching, prone, or ledge-hanging opponents reliably. It has decent KO power, which is closer to Roy's sweetspot than some of his other moves.
Up tilt		Anti-Air Slash (アンチエアスラッシュ)	10.45%	An overhead arcing slash. A juggling tool that possesses vertical KO power. It has the fastest startup of Chrom's tilts.
Down tilt		Low Stab (ロースラスト), Low Thrust)	9%	A kneeling thrust. Can be used for spacing, approaching and tech-chasing. It has the lowest ending lag of Chrom's tilts, allowing for a safe retreat if spaced on shield.
Dash attack		Raid Down (レイドダウン)	12%	An inward horizontal slash across the ground. Powerful for a dash attack, but has noticeable startup and ending lag, which makes it very unsafe on shield.
Forward smash		Power Slash (パワー スマッシュ, Power Smash)	18%	Rotates his body to perform a lunging, two-handed downward slash. Has high ending lag and a short hitbox duration, but hits hard for its speed. In exchange for losing Roy's extremely powerful sweetspot, Chrom's version also loses Roy's weaker middlespot and sourspot, giving it above-average knockback overall and a very large disjoint; the earliest vertical hitbox has enough coverage to hit half a character length above Chrom's head, which also allows it to hit opponents on Battlefield's lower platforms. Overall, this makes the move significantly more effective, as it functions as a more reliable KO option, and lets it end combos from aerials without losing power. It is based on Roy's regular attack as a Great Lord in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
Up smash		Windmill (ウインドミル)	2%/1% (hit 1), 2% (hits 2-4), 10% (hit 5)	An upward thrust, which surrounds the Sealed Falchion's blade with wind and concludes with a small blue explosion. A good anti-air attack, as Chrom's sword arm is granted intangibility throughout the attack (frames 10-23), though mediocre for ground combat due to it having small horizontal hitboxes. Has enough power to KO at around 110% uncharged. Unlike Roy's version, the move lacks flame properties.
Down smash		Whirlwind (ワールウインド)	12.35% (front hit), 14.25% (back hit)	A kneeling outward slash in front of himself and then behind himself. Chrom's fastest smash attack when it comes to startup, but has the highest ending lag of the three and is weaker. The back hit is stronger than the front hit.
Neutral aerial		Double Slash (ダブルスラッシュ)	4.75% (h