Ganondorf (SSBB)

Ganondorf in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in Melee in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Beast Ganon
Tier	F (38)

Ganondorf (ガノンドロフ, Ganondorf) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The Legend of Zelda series director Eiji Aonuma first hinted that Ganondorf would return from Super Smash Bros. Melee when he stated that he sent his design from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, along with those of Link and Sheik, to Masahiro Sakurai. He was ultimately confirmed on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! on March 18, 2008. Most of Ganondorf's voice clips were taken from Twilight Princess and were performed by Hironori Miyata, while his Wii Remote selection sound is from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and was performed by Takashi Nagasako; it previously appeared in Melee's Sound Test.

Ganondorf is ranked dead last on the Brawl tier list, ranking 38th out of 38. This is a significant drop from his position on the Melee tier list, where he ranked 14th out of 26, and is tied with his later iteration from Ultimate as his worst placement in the series even though his Ultimate iteration is considered far more viable. Ganondorf's moveset contains powerful attacks, with Warlock Punch and Wizard's Foot being made much stronger, and his edgeguarding options also compliment this, allowing him to take stocks at low percentages. He also benefits from great endurance due to his high weight and strong momentum cancelling capabilities. Arguably the biggest buff given to Ganondorf is his new side special, Flame Choke, which allows him to set up a tech-chase and potentially a zero-to-death combo.

Ganondorf, however, is completely crippled by deliberate nerfs and his lack of synergy with Brawl's engine. The introduction of hitstun and momentum cancelling severely weakened his combo game and killpower, and his aerials no longer have a way to negate their high landing lag due to the removal of L-canceling. His attack potential is further weakened by hindering oversights, poor reach for a character his size, or inconveniently placed hitboxes, with his grab range being the shortest of any fighter in any Smash game, and his throws no longer being able to chain grab. Ganondorf's overall mobility and frame data are also among the worst in the game, with even King Dedede being able to surpass him in this regard, and unlike King Dedede, Ganondorf lacks a projectile, making it easy for him to get camped. Even Ganondorf's tech-chase strategy is reliant on hard reads, as every time he lands a Flame Choke on an opponent, he has to correctly predict one of the four actions they can take to successfully land another Flame Choke on them. Finally, Ganondorf's otherwise respectable endurance is offset by his poor recovery and defensive options; Aerial Wizard's Foot no longer restores his already abysmal double jump, Flame Choke covers unimpressive horizontal distance and is easily predictable, Dark Dive has so little hitstun that opponents can hit Ganondorf right after the move connects, his unusually small shield makes him vulnerable to getting shield stabbed and grabbed, the latter of which can lead to zero-to-death chain grabs due to his high weight, and his only viable out of shield option is too risky to discourage opposing shield pressure.

Overall, a myriad of detrimental attributes combined with horrendous chemistry with the meta ensures that Ganondorf has losing matchups against the entire cast, minuscule representation (albeit less so than other bottom tiers), and abysmal tournament results, with the vast majority of his very few notable wins by Fonz, Vermanubis, and DLA only being taken with the help of far superior secondaries. However, the Japanese tier list views Ganondorf somewhat more favorably, ranking him 31st (out of 36). Nevertheless, many players still consider Brawl's Ganondorf to be not only the worst fighter in the game, but even the worst in the entire series.

How to unlock

Players can unlock Ganondorf by doing one of the methods listed below. With the exception of the third method, Ganondorf must then be defeated on Final Destination.

• Play 200 VS. matches to completion. If Ganondorf is skipped for fighters with higher VS. match quotas, he will not be accessible until those other fighters are unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode on hard difficulty or higher with Link or Zelda. If the player fails to defeat Ganondorf, they can re-fight him by doing this exact method again. If this method is used and Sonic's Classic Mode condition is met, then he must be unlocked before Ganondorf can be fought.
• Have Ganondorf join the player's party in The Subspace Emissary by collecting Link's and Zelda's trophies in Subspace (Part II) and clearing the level.

Attributes

Ganondorf is a heavy, fast-falling, very slow character (the slowest to be exact) with sub-par range and strong attacks. Though only in their sweetspots, his attacks deal above-average knockback; however, this can also serve as a problem since it prevents him from comboing at medium damage percentages or higher. His side special grants him armor (only helpful in team battles or Free-for-alls) while he is holding the opponent, and it leaves opponents vulnerable for a bit of time if used on the ground, leaving them open for another quick attack being a true set up like down tilt (on most characters), his jab, or several characters getting hit by dash attack and side tilt for KOs, and even his up aerial on platforms. In the air, Ganondorf's side special can cause a Ganoncide, although it is situational because even when it is impossible to escape from it or control the trajectory, landing it is very hard work, and the results in a last-stock situation are unpredictable. Ganondorf's moves are arguably the least affected by Smash DI because he has the lowest number of multi-hitting moves (his down smash and his neutral aerial are his only moves considered to be a multi-hitting move; however, his neutral aerial's second hit will rarely connect at higher percentages), effectively rendering escape and punishment of his attacks ineffective, although his attacks are a lot easier to shield or dodge. Ganondorf's dash attack provides him with a quick speed boost, and the move is a hard hitter as well and can also KO, but it is easily punished if shielded. Ganondorf's aerials are also very strong, and all have high knockback and strong edgeguarding potential. His up aerial is a very useful semi-spike that can gimp opponents due to its high hitstun, and his down aerial is an extremely strong and reliable meteor smash that can surprisingly auto-cancel in a short hop in addition to being the strongest in the game (sometimes able to KO even at 0%, depending on how far away the opponent is from the lower blast line). Ganondorf's powerful up smash, despite its slow startup, has very low ending lag and a deceptive hitbox, making it one of Ganondorf's best moves. Ganondorf's advanced superjump glitch, the Flight of Ganon, is very situational, but, if done right, he travels far higher in the air than any of his aerial options, allowing him to escape pressure, and the maneuver allows him to set up an aerial reverse Warlock Punch, his strongest move.

However, Ganondorf's high power and heavy weight are counter-balanced with a slew of flaws. Ganondorf is the tallest fighter in the game, a problem shared with other heavyweights. His horizontal standing grab range is the shortest in the game (though his pivot grab has good range, but slower start-up). Because of his poor grab range, slow moves, and short distanced rolls, his out of shield options are some of the least effective in the game (though his grab can sometimes still shield grab depending on the range of the opponent's attack and the shieldstun of it, despite its range), forcing him to rely on powershielding; because of how much he relies on his shield that hasn't the size of characters like Snake without being able to punish the opponent, this makes him easy to shield poke with multi-hit moves. Ganondorf also has difficulty jumping out of shield due to his slow jumpsquat (7 frames). Ganondorf has poor air speed, and a very small second jump (though it auto-sweetspots ledges, allowing him to plank). Ganondorf's mobility is also very poor, with his poor air speed and ground speed; because of this, characters with a good projectile can easily break his approach and force him to jump and still get very little distance. He also lacks a projectile while also lacking easy ways to deal with them, and he does not have an easy way of dealing with camping either. Ganondorf's overall ground attack speed is among the slowest in the game, along with Ike (but three of Ganondorf's aerial attacks are only laggy if he lands while attacking; Ganondorf's fastest ground attack is his short-ranged grab, which has 7 frames of startup). Two of Ganondorf's moves, his Volcano Kick up tilt and Warlock Punch neutral special, are extremely slow and highly situational. His forward aerial, while otherwise a decently powerful move with solid range, is affected by a coding error, preventing it from auto-canceling even out of a double jump and giving it noticeably more ending lag than the rest of his aerials.

Although his weight and good momentum canceling allow Ganondorf to potentially live up to very high percents, his slow, predictable, and easily gimped recovery compromises this, being among the worst in the game. His main recovery move, Dark Dive, not only gains little distance, but it can be hit out of from above by certain characters where he lacks hitboxes (e.g. Falco, at around 90% damage, can meteor smash Ganondorf out of his up special with his down aerial). It can poorly stage spike edgehoggers, but Dark Dive is easily teched, and in fact the uppercut at the end is stronger than the primary attack (which does not KO until 300%, and is substantially weaker than in other Smash games). Because of these reasons, Ganondorf's up special is one of the worst in the game and is practical only when used offensively if the opponent is at a low percent or is one of the few who cannot punish it. Although his overall damage input and KO power allows to compensate for his terrible recovery somewhat, it still lacks sufficient utility, as opponents can act as soon as they are let go, while Ganondorf must wait for a while before attacking, giving enemies the chance to attack Ganondorf as soon as he lets go. He, like Captain Falcon and Wolf, has a fast falling speed and a heavy weight that can backfire by making him vulnerable to chain grabs from the Ice Climbers and King Dedede. Also, certain characters can avoid much of Ganondorf's moveset by simply crouching (jab, f-tilt, non-down angled forward smash, down smash, auto-canceled short hop down aerial, Warlock Punch, grounded Wizard's Foot, and even standing grab and dash grab).

Additionally, despite him having some useful combo starters at low percentages (including his down throw, Flame Choke and auto-canceled down aerial), Ganondorf is otherwise virtually unable to combo past low-mid percents. Ganondorf cannot pursue his opponents with most of his other moves both in the air and on the ground due to his low air speed, his abysmal overall mobility, his sluggish jumpsquat, the high knockback of most of his attacks, and the ability to more easily act out of hitstun in Brawl than in any other Smash game, which makes him nearly incapable of consistently and efficiently racking up damage above mid percents. As mentioned earlier, he does have some decent combo starters in his short hop auto-canceled down aerial and his Flame Choke. However, both moves are flawed in the same way: they have long start-up lag and are, as such, extremely predictable and avoidable. Furthermore, his Flame Choke has high ending lag if he whiffs it, and requires proper reads for him to effectively tech-chase and combo his opponent repeatedly with it, while his auto-canceled down aerial stops leading into any of his other moves above mid percentages.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee

Ganondorf's overall moveset has received an overhaul from Melee. While he still shares some moves from Captain Falcon, he has received different animations and moves that now make him a semi-clone rather than a full clone.

Despite being a low-mid tier in Melee while also receiving some good buffs, Ganondorf was heavily nerfed from Melee, being one of the most nerfed characters in the transition alongside Jigglypuff. His already slow mobility has been weakened, and some of his moves have less reach (despite his tall stature), leaving him very easily out-maneuvered and vulnerable from all sides. His comboing and KOing ability also have been severely crippled: his grabs can no longer chain throw nor set up effectively as before; and his great power has been toned down to being only slightly above-average, due to his moves either being drastically weakened to the point where they cannot K.O. even at 200% or have received extremely large sourspots that cannot KO reliably, most notably his forward aerial, the crux of his metagame in Melee. Finally, his already poor recovery was significantly weakened to be among the worst, with his main recovery move (Dark Dive) being completely unsafe on hit.

On the other hand, he did receive a few notable buffs. His air speed is much faster (although still among the slowest), his forward tilt now semi-spikes and is effective against enemies with weak recoveries, his up and down tilts have significantly improved range, and he now has the highest damaging forward throw in the game. Warlock Punch and aerial Wizard's Foot are much stronger, and Dark Dive now has a hitbox at the move's climax that provides decent protection against edgeguarders, along with being able to grab ledge-hangers. Arguably the biggest buff he received is a new side special, Flame Choke, which gives Ganondorf a combo starter and tech-chasing move. However, none of these are significant enough to counterbalance the nerfs he had received, while most of these moves were also nerfed as well.

Aesthetics

• Ganondorf's design is now based on his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess rather than The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and his sword is now the Sword of the Six Sages. The overall boost in graphics also give his outfit more detail.
  • As a result, Ganondorf is significantly larger and taller, making him even more vulnerable to combos, projectiles, and hits in general. While very few of his attacks have more reach, this size increase fails to properly compensate his moves that had their range reduced.
• Ganondorf's ledge hanging animation is altered, he now hangs onto a ledge with both hands.
• Ganondorf has a new dashing animation where he jogs instead of sprints, and his backward rolls are now sidesteps rather than backflips.
• Ganondorf's up taunt now has him leaning more backward after uncurling. He also now laughs after he spins rather than at the beginning of the taunt.
• Ganondorf's sword-waving victory pose has been replaced by a laugh with crossed arms.
• Ganondorf has a new sleeping animation, now being different from Captain Falcon.
• As on-screen appearances were not present in Melee, Ganondorf now receives one.
• Ganondorf no longer uses his stun voice clip when waking out of sleep status.

Attributes

• Ganondorf dashes considerably slower (1.35 → 1.16), going from 6th lowest out of 26 characters to the 2nd lowest out of 39 characters.
• Ganondorf's air speed is higher (0.78 → 0.846), going from being tied for the 3rd lowest out of 26 characters to tied for 9th lowest out of 39, improving his recovery and ability to chase opponents while airborne.
• Ganondorf's air acceleration is lower (0.06 (maximum) → 0.04) going from being tied for the 5th highest out of 26 characters to the 2nd lowest out of 39.
• Ganondorf's traction is lower (0.07 → 0.068).
  • However, it is significantly higher compared to the cast going from the 14th highest out of 26 characters to the 7th highest out of 39.
• Ganondorf's jumpsquat is longer (6 frames → 7).
• Ganondorf now crouches upright instead of hunching over, increasing his crouching hurtbox.
• As with the returning veterans, Ganondorf's Falling speed is lower (2 → 1.65) although he falls much faster relative to the cast, going from the 10th highest out of 26 characters to tied for 7th highest out of 39.
• Ganondorf's gravity is lower (0.13 → 0.1027), going from being tied for the 3rd highest out of 26 characters to being tied for the 6th highest out of 39.
• The changes to air dodges and the introduction of hitstun canceling both help and hinder Ganondorf. They further limit his already limited combo potential and remove his ability to wavedash but they make him much less vulnerable to followups himself, as well as improving his endurance.
• The removal of L-cancelling hurt Ganondorf far more than any other character aside from Bowser and Link, as when combined with the changes to shieldstun, it greatly hinders the safety of his aerials, which was one of his strongest features previously.
• The removal of directional influence for moves which do not cause tumble greatly hinder Ganondorf as when combined with his high weight/falling speed/gravity and his large size, it makes him highly susceptible to inescapable chain grabs and move chains. Ganondorf himself does not have any moves which notably benefit from the change, significantly hindering him overall.
  • As with several other veterans returning from Melee, the introduction of a much wider variety of chain grabs makes Ganondorf significantly more vulnerable to it than in Melee, hindering his endurance against several characters.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's body hitbox is now a sourspot that deals 3% less damage (8% → 5%).
  • Neutral attack's hand hitbox is now a sweetspot that deals 2% more damage (7% → 9%).
  • Neutral attack now has a hitbox on the arm that deals 7%.
  • Neutral attack has more reach and significantly more knockback (30 (base), 100 (scaling) → (40/30)/105), allowing the sweetspot to KO under 125%-150% near the ledge.
  • Neutral attack has more startup with a shorter duration (frames 3-6 → 8-9) and ending lag (FAF 19 → 34), making it much slower, significantly weakening his close-range game and out of shield capabilities while completely removing its combo potential.
  • Neutral attack now uses Ganondorf's right arm instead of his left.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has increased base knockback (40 → 60) and damage (14% → 15%), now being a reliable KO move that can KO in the 100-125% range. Despite the significant power increase, however, it is still the second most powerful dash attack (this time surpassed by King Dedede's). Additionally, it's late hit deals more base knockback (25 → 45).
  • Dash attack has more startup lag (frame 7 → 10) with its total duration compensated (FAF 38 → 41). It also has much less range.
• Forward tilt:
  • Ganondorf has a new forward tilt: a front kick. It launches enemies at a semi-spike angle (361° → 22°), making it good against characters with poor recoveries.
  • Forward tilt deals slightly less knockback scaling but slightly more knockback base (20 (base), 100 (scaling) → 30/88), hindering its KO potential but also improving it's edgeguarding potential.
  • It has more startup (frame 9 → 10) and ending lag (FAF 29 → 39), can no longer be angled, and has less reach, making it more difficult to land and a less safe and less useful spacer, as well as reducing its maximum damage output.
  • Ganondorf has a new forward tilt with battering items like the Beam Sword, which is similar to one of his attacks in Twilight Princess.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt's startup animation now produces a vacuum effect and the explosion produced is significantly larger, giving the move drastically better reach and making it overall much easier to land. The hitbox also has a slightly longer duration (81-83 → 81-84).
  • Up tilt now deals rather high shield damage (0 → 20), with the move now draining close to 2/3rds of the opponent’s shield.
  • Up tilt has drastically reduced base knockback (110 → 60), now KO'ing in the 40-50% range. It also now has large, drastically weaker sourspots covering the explosion that deal much less damage (27% → 19%/17%) and KO around the 75-100% range, though it is still the most powerful tilt by far. The introduction of ledge auto-sweetspotting also makes the move less effective as an edgeguarding tool.
  • Up tilt has a slightly altered animation, where Ganondorf holds up his leg while it's charging.
• Down tilt:
  • Ganondorf has a new down tilt: a low front kick. It has slightly more reach, now being slightly disjointed. It is stronger due to the universally decreased falling speeds and the introduction of gravity penalty.
  • Down tilt has slightly more ending lag (FAF 35 → 36) making it more unsafe when shielded and on whiff.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash launches at a lower angle (80°/70°/60° → 45°/40°/35°) and all angles now inflict the same amount of damage as the upwards-angled version from Melee (24%/22%/20% → 24%). It also has a much larger hitboxes (3.6u → 5u), which somewhat compensates for Ganondorf not lunging as far as he did in Melee.
  • Forward smash has reduced base knockback (40 → 30). In addition, the elbow hitbox has reduced knockback scaling (85 (angled up)/83 (non-angled)/80 (angled down) → 75 (all angles)), requiring Ganondorf to be up close to the opponent to connect with the sweetspot.
  • Forward smash has 1 frame more start-up but with 1 frame more duration (frame 20-24 → 21-26), making it no longer hit opponents before he completely thrusts his elbow outward but makes the attack's hitbox linger more, which may surprise Ganondorf's opponents.
• Up smash:
  • Ganondorf has a new up smash: a single upwards kick. Compared to the previous up smash, it has considerably more horizontal reach, now being his best and less situational smash attack despite it's nerfs.
    • However, it also has less vertical reach, hindering his antiair potential.
  • Up smash deals less knockback than the first kick in his Melee up smash (50 (base), 80 (scaling) → 40/70) and has much less damage potential due to the removal of the second kick (39% → 22%) despite it's power is compensated due to the universal decrease of falling speeds. The move additionally has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 43) and a sourspot in front of him that deals less damage (22% → 19%) with slightly less knockback scaling (80 → 75) which can not ko until 110%.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has slightly faster startup (frames 19 → 16).
  • Down smash has slightly more reach.
  • Down smash transitions from the first kick to the second much slower (frame 29 → 36), making it more difficult to link. Along with this, the move has much more ending lag (FAF 46 → 63), making it much less safe to use. The second kick additionally hits at a lower angle (120° → 130°) with much less knockback scaling (110 → 75), now survivable past 150% under standard conditions and overall a much less reliable KO move, going from being the 2nd most powerful down smash in Melee to now being below-average. The first kick also deals 3% less damage (8% → 5%) and sends opponents at a higher angle (160° → 140°/141°), making it easier to DI and harder to lead into the second kick. Additionally, the first kick has a new hitbox closest to Ganondorf that can send opponents away from him (50°), hampering the move when Ganondorf is too close to his opponent.

Aerial attacks

• Due to the landing detection now being reworked so characters land when their feet touch the ground (as opposed to their knees in Melee), Ganondorf's aerials are significantly harder to land on grounded opponents (especially his back aerial and the second kick of his neutral aerial may not even hit a low crouching foe, such as Snake or Mr. Game & Watch), hindering his approach further.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Both hits of neutral aerial have longer hitbox durations (hit 1: 7-8 → 7-13, hit 2: 20-21 → 20-32) with sex kick properties.
  • Neutral aerial has less landing lag (25 frames → 22).
  • Neutral aerial has a longer animation (44 frames → 59), increasing the amount of time Ganondorf cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
  • The second kick of neutral aerial is drastically weaker, dealing less damage (12% → 7%) and base knockback (50 → 25), completely removing its KO potential. The first kick also deals less damage (12% → 11%), though it can still KO under 150%. Due to the longer hitbox durations, the move auto-cancels significantly later (frame 26 → 41), no longer doing so in a short hop.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has much more ending lag (FAF 35 → 55).
  • Forward aerial has more landing lag (25 frames → 32).
  • Forward aerial auto-cancels much later (frames 34 → 55), no longer doing so in a full hop.
  • Forward aerial has a new, longer animation (44 frames → 59) where Ganondorf doesn't lean as forward as he did previously, reducing its range and increasing the amount of time Ganondorf cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
  • The hand hitbox deals slightly more knockback scaling, but less base knockback (60 (base), 80 (scaling) → 48/83), making it slightly weaker overall.
    • However, it's significantly stronger than his back air, as well as being stronger than the PAL version of the move (40 (base), 80 (scaling) → 48/83).
  • The arm hitbox became a sourspot, dealing less damage (17% → 15%) and base knockback (60 → 30), greatly hindering its KO potential.
  • Forward aerial has smaller hitboxes (3.1248u/3.906u/5.0778u → 3.4u/5u) and the hitbox on Ganondorf's hand has been removed, resulting in the middle hitbox being moved further out slightly (1.953 → 2) and being increased in size (3.906 → 5), which still doesn't properly compensate for its nerfed reach, which is no longer slightly disjointed.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has less landing lag (25 frames → 22).
  • Back aerial has larger hitboxes (5.4684u/4.6872u/3.906u → 6.3u/5.5u/4.8u) which are positioned slightly further away from Ganondorf (x offset: 4.6872/3.1248/-0.7812 → 4.8/3.2/-0.8).
  • Back aerial has a shorter duration (frames 10-15 → 10-12).
  • Back aerial has more ending lag (FAF 29 → 36) and a longer animation (35 frames → 45).
  • Back aerial auto-cancels later (frame 19 → 22).
  • Back aerial deals less knockback (30/10 (base), 100 (scaling) → (28/10)/85), significantly hindering its KO potential.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less landing lag (25 frames → 22).
  • Up aerial has larger hitboxes (3.906u/4.6872u → 4.8u/5.76u) which are positioned slightly further away from Ganondorf (x offset: 3.1248/5.859 → y offset: -3.2/-6).
  • Up aerial has more ending lag (FAF 30 → 34) and a longer animation (33 frames → 43).
  • Up aerial auto-cancels later (frame 22 → 25).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial auto-cancels earlier (frames 36 → 32), now doing so in a short hop.
  • Down aerial has larger hitboxes (6.6402u/5.859u/5.4684u → 7u/6u) and they are now static, giving them more consistent range below Ganondorf.
  • Down aerial now has an altered animation: Ganondorf's arms to his side instead of up next to his head, and no longer has him leaning backward. He also no longer flips after the move has ended.
  • Down aerial has more ending lag (FAF 38 → 45) and a longer animation (44 frames → 54).
  • Down aerial has lower base knockback (50 → 30), hindering its KO potential.
  • The body hitbox became a sourspot, dealing much less damage (22% → 17%), making it much weaker.
  • The hitbox on Ganondorf's head has been removed, giving it less range above him.

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Grabs have slightly less ending lag (FAF 31 (standing)/41 (dash) → 30/40).
  • With the exception of standing grab's near grabbox, grabs have larger grabboxes (3.906u (standing)/3.906u/3.906u/3.906u (dash) → 4.8u (standing)/4.8u/4.8u/4u (dash)), giving them more range despite dash grab's furthest grabbox being positioned closer to Ganondorf (z offset: 9.2807 → 9).
  • Standing grab's furthest grabbox is positioned further away from Ganondorf (z offset: 7.5933 → 8). When combined with its larger size, this gives it more range.
  • Ganondorf's grabs have a new animation where Ganondorf reaches his arm out further. This means that while his grabs have more lateral range, they have less range relative to Ganondorf, with his grabs no longer covering his entire hand. This hinders the safety of his grabs.
  • Standing grab's nearest grabbox is smaller (3.906u → 3u) and both standing and dash grab's nearest grabboxes are positioned further away from Ganondorf (z offset: 2.5311/-2.5311 → 2.6/-2), giving them less range behind Ganondorf.
• Pummel and all of Ganondorf's throw's hitboxes now always launch bystanders in the direction Ganondorf is facing.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel has less startup lag (frame 5 → 4) with its total duration subsequently reduced (FAF 25 → 24).
  • Pummel has a larger hitbox (5.0778u → 6.5u).
  • Pummel now has a static hitbox.
  • Pummel deals less damage (3% → 2%).
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw has an altered animation, where Ganondorf punches his opponent in the gut, instead of punching from the side.
  • Forward throw deals more damage (4% (throw)/8% (total) → 8%/13%) without full compensation on its knockback (45 (base), 105 (scaling) → 60/65) and it launches opponents at a lower angle (45° → 43°).
  • The hitboxes are larger (3.906u/1.963u/1.953u → 5u/2.4u/2.4u).
  • The hitboxes have a shorter duration (frames 11-17 → 11).
  • The hitboxes have a higher SDI multiplier (1x → 2x).
  • Ganondorf releases opponents from forward throw earlier (frame 18 → 12). This makes it harder to DI but increases its ending lag, as its total duration was unchanged.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw deals more damage (4% (throw)/8% (total) → 5%/10%) and it launches opponents at a lower angle (135° → 43°).
  • The hitboxes are larger (3.906u/3.5154u/2.7342u → 4.8u/4.32u/3.36u).
  • The hitboxes have a shorter duration (frames 12-19 → 12).
  • The hitboxes have a higher SDI multiplier (1x → 2x).
  • Ganondorf releases opponents from back throw earlier (frame 20 → 13). This makes it harder to DI but increases its ending lag, as its total duration was unchanged.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw has a new animation where Ganondorf now throws opponents directly above him. This improves its spacing potential but hinders its ability to set up juggles.
  • The hitboxes are larger (3.5154u/3.1248u/2.7342u → 4.32u/3.84u/3.36u).
  • The hitboxes have a much shorter duration (frames 11-28 → 11).
  • The hitboxes have a higher SDI multiplier (1x → 2x).
  • Ganondorf releases opponents from up throw earlier (frame 15 → 12). This makes it harder to DI but increases its ending lag, as its total duration was unchanged.
    • When combined with its altered animation, the universally decreased falling speeds, the introduction of the gravity penalty and the introduction of hitstun canceling, this completely removes its followup and chain grabbing potential.
• Down throw:
  • Ganondorf releases opponents from down throw later (frame 20 → 23). This makes it easier to DI but reduces its ending lag, as its total duration was unchanged.
  • Down throw now sends opponents away from Ganondorf (100° → 65°) and it has higher knockback scaling (36 → 50). When combined with the aforementioned universal changes, this completely removes its chain grabbing potential, as well as and making it much less reliable at setting up followups, greatly hindering its effectiveness despite its decreasing ending lag.
    • However, this also improves its safety (especially when considering the game's universal changes), as well as allowing it to set up edgeguards.