Ike (SSBU)

Ike in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Great Aether
Tier	D- (76)

Ike (アイク, Ike) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Like all veterans, he was officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Ike is classified as Fighter #32. Greg Chun voices Ike in the English version, reprising his role from Fire Emblem Heroes and succeeding Jason Adkins, who voiced him in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4. Michihiko Hagi reprises his role in the Japanese version via new voice clips.

Ike is currently ranked 76th out of 82 on the tier list, placing him in the middle of the D- tier. This is a noticeable drop from his tier placement in SSB4, where he was ranked 39th out of 54, and is his worst tier placement yet in the series. Ike's best assets lie in his overall power and range, having some of the strongest moves in the game. His neutral aerial is an infamously effective combo tool thanks to its low landing lag and base knockback, making it an effective option for spacing and initiating combos, including into KO confirms. Additionally, Ike has a promising combo game, as he is able to use his down tilt, neutral aerial, down throw and, to a lesser extent, his up throw to confirm into combos at various percentages. Courtesy of Ike's relatively high power, his combos translate into giving him effective 50/50 KO combos for a heavyweight.

However, Ike also has some polarizing weaknesses, most notably his poor disadvantage state. Due to his tall height, heavy weight, slow mobility, and sluggish frame data, Ike is especially susceptible to combo-oriented and/or speedy fighters. His most effective tools are hampered by poor hitboxes or low speed: some examples include his back aerial, which starts too high to hit most standing characters despite its speed, and his neutral aerial, which has a slow hitbox that starts above Ike and renders it very predictable. He is also vulnerable to perfect shielding due to his overall slow aerial attacks and general reliance on aerials, giving him trouble with landing. Finally, Ike suffers from a predictable recovery: both his recovery moves have fixed travel trajectories (either fully horizontal with Quick Draw or fully vertical with Aether), making him reliant on conserving his double jump and rendering him weak to reasonably strong semi-spikes while recovering.

Ike originally achieved very promising results during the early metagame of Ultimate, and was usually considered one of the best swordfighters during that time, courtesy of players such as MkLeo and Ryuga. However, his representation notably declined due to his weaknesses becoming exploitable as time went on, and with his best players either dropping him or becoming inactive. Despite currently having below-average representation, Ike has nevertheless maintained some tournament success in the current metagame, thanks to dedicated mains such as Tora and PsyKoD.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Ike being the 14th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the 4th character unlocked after Little Mac.
• Have Ike join the player's party in World of Light.

Ike must then be defeated on Coliseum (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

Ike is a tall heavyweight swordsman, being tied with Wario, Ridley, Simon, and Richter as the 13th heaviest fighter in Ultimate. Fittingly for a heavyweight, Ike's endurance is respectable at the cost of generally poor mobility: while he has above-average air speed, traction, falling speed, fast falling speed, and gravity, Ike sports the 14th slowest walking speed, the 15th slowest dashing speed, a below-average initial dash, low jumps, and the 8th lowest air acceleration.

Ike's power is a staple of his character; in addition to his moveset having some of the strongest attacks in the game, rage further supplements his fearsome KO potential. Additionally, Ike possesses great, disjointed reach throughout his moveset. His forward smash deals among the highest damage and knockback out of any smash attack, with the clean hit being able to KO most opponents at a mere 75% at the center of Final Destination. It is also useful for mindgames and shield breaks due to its excellent reach (the early hit can hit opponents above and behind him).

Ike's up smash hits in a wide, semi-circular arc that covers him. Like his forward smash, it also deals decent damage and knockback, albeit it is generally weaker. However, it is useful for punishing rolls and landings. Ike's Down smash is his fastest smash attack, initially hitting on frame 13, while boasting high damage and knockback overall. The move hits from the front and the back of him (the back hit starts on frame 32), with the clean back hit sporting considerably more power than the front. Other notable attacks that possess great damage and knockback include his forward tilt, up tilt, dash attack, back aerial, up aerial, and down aerial.

Ike also has a unique special moveset. His neutral special, Eruption, is chargeable, grants super armor when released with half charge or higher, deals very high damage and knockback, and has an excellent vertical reach and the most horizontal range out of his entire kit, all of which make it a fearsome edgeguarding tool. His side special, Quick Draw, is also chargeable and propels him forward, making it a good mix-up in his neutral game as it helps his recovery, mobility, and approach. His up special, Aether, covers decent vertical distance for a recovery move, but minimal horizontal distance. However, the descending hitbox is an incredibly powerful meteor smash that has the potential to KO opponents at 0% when they are offstage, making it quite dangerous to intercept Ike in some circumstances. This move also has solid knockback, which players can use on Out of Shield options and can KO around 100% as of update 8.0.0. His down special, Counter, is among the strongest of their kind in the game, having a 1.2× damage multiplier and dealing excellent knockback. It is also relatively useful for protecting against edge-guarding and disrupting some recoveries.

Ike's combo potential is also respectable, with his neutral aerial being his best combo starter. Not only does it cover a large area around him to protect him from many attacks, but it also deals fairly low knockback and has little landing lag, which allows it to combo into itself or other moves at various percentages. His neutral aerial can also combo into his back aerial or up aerial for semi-reliable KO confirms at moderately high percentages. At low percentages, it can combo into grabs. Additionally, Ike can start combos with his down throw at low percentages, leading to moves such as his up tilt, up aerial, or Aether. Finally, his down tilt has low knockback scaling and launches at a mostly vertical angle, making it a consistent, reliable combo starter at most percentages, and has reliable KO confirms into his aerials at high percentages.

Despite his strengths, Ike is not without his fair share of flaws. As mentioned earlier, he possesses slow movement speed (especially on the ground), which causes him to struggle against quick, agile characters. He also has some of the worst frame data in the game, with severe ending lag in most of his attacks and only his neutral attack (frames 4, 3, and 5 for each respective hit), down tilt, and back aerial (both frame 7) coming out faster than frame 10. His back aerial is also his only aerial attack that can autocancel in a short hop. His aforementioned counter is one of his most punishable options due to being arguably the slowest in the game, with a sluggish startup of 9 frames and considerable ending lag (on both the whiff and counterattack). Consequently, characters with superior attack speed can easily overwhelm and punish him, especially if his attacks whiff.

Most of Ike's out-of-shield options are slow and committal, granting him a mediocre out-of-shield game. Furthermore, several of his landing options (like neutral aerial) are predictable and/or have short-lasting hitboxes. While his attributes (particularly his heavy weight) grant him long endurance, they also make him easy to combo and juggle. Finally, all his aerials have such high ending lag that he is unable to interrupt any of them without landing, even from a double jump; should Ike use any of them to ward off pressure, he is locked in said aerial's animation and can only drift in midair, making attacking in disadvantage suboptimal. Overall, Ike's disadvantage state is terrible due to his unimpressive landing options, and he has very few options to protect himself from pressure and juggling.

Ike also possesses two linear and predictable recovery moves, Quick Draw and Aether, ultimately making him vulnerable to gimps and low semi-spikes offstage. Quick Draw travels a strictly horizontal distance, and Aether leaves him vulnerable to many attacks when ascending, especially counters and projectiles. These weaknesses grant him a poor approach against many characters, which is exacerbated by his lack of projectiles, not allowing him to camp or force approaches from opponents.

Overall, Ike must utilize his excellent punish game and spacing tools to overwhelm opponents, where he can rack up large amounts of damage with little warning, though players must be cautious of his susceptibility to combos and his lack of recovery.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Ike has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. Although his direct buffs result in him being objectively buffed due to retaining his key strengths and being able to press the advantage more efficiently, he possesses fewer opportunities to take advantage of his strengths due to the universal changes to the engine rendering him slower relative to the cast. As a result, Ike was nerfed overall.

Ike benefits from some of the universal gameplay changes. The changes to air dodge mechanics significantly benefit Ike's edgeguarding and juggling game. His aerial mobility has been improved to help with the new faster pace of Ultimate, sharing the universal buffs of a 3-frame jumpsquat and faster air speed; the former point alleviates one of Ike's weaker points, while the latter point goes well with his aerials' significantly reduced landing lag, making them much more reliable for landing, comboing and pressuring.

In terms of direct changes to his aerial game, Ike has received a new up aerial with greatly increased horizontal and vertical range, improving his powerful juggling capabilities. His neutral aerial has faster startup, lower landing lag, and a more reliable disjoint, making it an even better approach option and combo starter, to the point the back hit now has semi-reliable KO confirms on his back and up aerials. Thanks to his faster jumpsquat, Ike can combo with his down tilt and down throw at low percentages more reliably; the former also has less knockback, giving Ike KO setups at high percentages against some characters. Eruption can now generate a maximum of three flame pillars if fully charged, improving its already powerful ledge-trapping potential. Finally, the already high power on a few of his moves has been further increased, such as his neutral attack (which had its lost KO power from Brawl completely restored), forward tilt, forward and down smashes, and the landing hit of Aether, which is notably able to function as a powerful KO move for the first time.

However, Ike's nerfs were also noticeable. His forward aerial, a staple of his neutral game in Brawl and SSB4, has seen the heaviest nerfs, as its hitboxes were repositioned which creates a small blind spot below Ike, it no longer autocancels in a short hop, and it has significantly decreased knockback; this makes it worse for approaching and removes a lot of its previously great KO potential despite its much better launch angle. Aether is much easier to edgeguard, as his sword now moves along the stage's perimeters instead of passing through the stage, which reduces its protection at the ledge. His Counter is much laggier, whether or not it hits, making it one of the slowest in the game and much worse for use in disadvantage. While several of his attacks now have increased power, some of his other moves have been reduced, most notably with his up tilt. His grab range was also nerfed, making it much less reliable for punishing.

Despite receiving benefits, many of the engine's changes also hinder Ike. The most notable is the universally faster mobility; his dashing speed was almost unchanged, making him much less mobile relative to the rest of the cast despite his improved air speed and streamlined jumpsquat. The universal increase to grabs' ending lag further hinders Ike's own grabs due to their shorter range. Both points have caused Ike's approach to be much more limited. The nerfs to rage prove detrimental to Ike, since he can't take as much advantage of it at higher percentages due to his high weight. Lastly, the size reduction of most stages' ledges, combined with Aether's higher vulnerability and Quick Draw receiving no changes to its recovery potential, means Ike's recovery is much more exploitable, increasing his vulnerability to edge-guarding just as much as the changes benefit his own.

Overall, Ike's changes and improvements have given him new ways to gain the advantage and also grant him a deadlier punish game, with less overall difficulty in KOing due to his enhanced overall moveset and combo ability. However, his mobility remains slow (especially when compared to most other characters), his approach options have become more polarized, and his worsened grabs force him more to use his range to punish opponents, which proves unreliable due to the faster pace; in bulk, these changes give him a harder time at keeping up with the rest of the cast. Ike has also received various changes in game updates that toned down his most oppressive moves (most notably his neutral aerial's combo ability at high percentages) in exchange for increased power, which further worsened his approach; this is coupled with various returning veterans receiving buffs both on release and through game updates, as well as the introduction of DLC characters, some of which Ike struggles against. As a result, while his nerfs aren't as significant relative to the rest of the cast, Ike performs worse in Ultimate than in SSB4.

Aesthetics

• Ike's appearance as a Ranger in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - the basis of his appearance in Brawl - is once again his default costume. His appearance as a Hero in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, which was his default design in SSB4, is now an alternate costume, and five of his previous costumes have been distributed among the two appearances. Additionally, Ike has a new costume inspired by his father, Greil. They replace his "ordinary soldier" and Chrom-inspired costumes, with the latter coincided with Chrom's inclusion as a playable fighter.
  • Palutena's Guidance conversation for Ike has been changed to accommodate for his Path of Radiance costume.
• As with all veterans returning from SSB4, both of Ike's models feature a more subdued color scheme, and his clothing on both designs now features simple detailing. Additionally, both models have been updated:
  • For his Path of Radiance model from Brawl, the inside of his cape is now light pink instead of yellow, and his boots are now colored brown instead of orange. His facial features are slightly different, with Ike's face being less narrow, and now having slightly smaller and rounder eyes, making them closer to his appearance in Path of Radiance. Most notably, his hair has a simpler, tamer appearance, flatter overall and now mostly flowing downwards. While this makes it look less like how it appears in PoR's pre-rendered cutscenes, it closely resembles Yusuke Kozaki’s depictions of Ike.
  • For his Radiant Dawn model from SSB4, his skin tone is noticeably more tanned, and his facial features have been notably modified; his face is narrower, and his eyes are sharper and closer together, and his hair is slightly more voluminous and spiked. In addition, Ike's neck is longer, his collar has been made smaller and is now flared, and his cape hangs lower from the front, giving a better overall view of his face. His pauldron now juts outwards and no longer moves with his left arm, and his arm bandaging is less visible. Finally, Ike's muscles are more pronounced.
• Ike's voice changes slightly depending on the costume. In the Japanese version, Ike's voice is deeper and more masculine in his Radiant Dawn costume. In the English version, Ike sounds more energetic and aggressive in his Path of Radiance costume, and more severe and composed in his Radiant Dawn costume.
• Ike has a new idle animation, which is more similar to his idle stance in Path of Radiance: he faces more towards the screen, and his left arm is no longer suspended, while clenching his left fist.
• Ike no longer does a backflip during his backward jumping animation.
• Ike's clapping animation now differs slightly depending on which outfit he is using. Path of Radiance Ike has a new clapping animation, whereas Radiant Dawn Ike reuses the previous animation from Brawl and SSB4.
  • Additionally, Ragnell is no longer present in the "No Contest" screen.
• Ike has new quotes during his victory animations and has different quotes depending on which outfit is used.
  • On the first one where he swings Ragnell twice, Path of Radiance Ike says, "Your skills were... remarkable," (あんたの戦い、見事だった, Your combat was excellent.) and Radiant Dawn Ike says, "Don't stand in my way." (どうして俺の前に立った, Why do you stand before me?).
  • On the second one where he plants Ragnell into the ground, Path of Radiance Ike says, "I submit to no one," (誰にも、譲る気はない, I cannot yield to anyone.) and Radiant Dawn Ike says, "I must move forward." (俺は前に進む, I move forward.).
  • His previous victory quotes from Brawl and Smash 4 are now used on the third one where he performs Aether, Path of Radiance Ike says, "You'll get no sympathy from me," (極めれば…誰にも負けはしない, To the end... I will not lose to anyone.) and Radiant Dawn Ike says, "I fight for my friends." (俺には守るべき物が在る, I have things I must protect.).

Attributes

• Like all characters, Ike's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 7).
• Ike runs slightly faster (1.5 → 1.507), the lowest increase out of anyone who had their run speed changed.
  • Ike's initial dash is faster (1.5 → 1.815).
• Ike walks slightly faster (0.869 → 0.912).
• Ike's air speed is slightly faster (1.08 → 1.134).
• Ike's traction is significantly higher (0.044 → 0.112), improving his punish game out of shield.
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 33 → 31).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-18 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-18 → 5-16), and more ending lag (FAF 33 → 36).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 27).
• Spot dodge grants less intangibility (frames 3-18 → 3-17).
• Air dodge has more startup (frame 3 → 4) and significantly more ending lag (FAF 34 → 50).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-28 → 4-31).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first hit transitions into the second hit faster (frame 10 → 9), which transitions into the third hit faster (frame 11 → 9), allowing them to connect better.
  • The first two hits have altered angles (65° (hit 1)/65°/80° (hit 2) → 361°/180° (both) and knockback (0 base/50 set/100 scaling → (35/25)/0/(15/12) (hit 1)/0/(40/25/50)/(80/100) → (35/30)/0/(25/15) (hit 2)) to keep opponents close to Ike, akin to other neutral attacks. While this removes their already minimal jab canceling potential, this more prominently allows them to connect better and jab lock.
  • The third hit deals more damage (5% → 7%) without compensation on its knockback values, restoring its KO potential from Brawl.
  • The first two hits deal less damage (3% → 2.5%).
  • The first two hits have smaller hitboxes (3.5u → 2u/2.3u (hit 1)/3.5u/3.5u/4.5u → 3.2u/3.2u/3.5u (hit 2)) which do not extend as far (z offsets: 13/6 → 12/6.2 (hit 1)/17.5 → 12 (hit 2)), reducing their range.
  • The third hit has more ending lag (FAF 39 → 41).
• Forward tilt:
  • The move has faster startup (frame 13 → 12).
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 44 → 42).
  • It deals more damage (12.5% → 13.5%) without compensation on knockback, improving its KO potential.
• Up tilt:
  • The move has drastically less ending lag (FAF 48 → 40), which combined with Ike's faster jumpsquat grants the late hit combo potential.
  • The clean hit lasts longer compared to the late hit (frames 11-13/14-21 (clean/late) → 11-16/17-21).
  • The hitbox is smaller and has been repositioned (Y offset: 1-13 → 2.8-13.5), making it less extended and moving it further up the blade. This reduces its horizontal range.
  • The move deals less damage (14% → 12% (clean), 10% → 8% (late)) without compensation on knockback. This hinders the clean hit's KO potential.
• Down tilt:
  • The move has increased combo potential due to Ike's faster jumpsquat.
  • It has less knockback scaling (70 → 55), allowing it to combo at a much wider percent range.
  • Its hitboxes are smaller (3.8u/3.8u/3.8u/3u → 3.4u/3.4u/3.4u/3u) and have been repositioned, reducing both its vertical and horizontal range.
• Dash attack:
  • The move has less ending lag (FAF 52 → 48).
  • The move's hitboxes are larger (6.3u/4u → 7u/5u) and have been repositioned, and it has an extra hitbox. This improves the move's range, and makes it easier to land the sweetspot, since the new hitbox is a sweetspot.
  • The changes to jostle mechanics allow dash attack to hit opponents close to Ike more easily.
  • It has increased shieldstun (1x → 1.2x), improving its safety on shield.
  • It has more knockback scaling (78 → 88 (clean), 100 → 110 (late)).
• Forward smash:
  • The move's sweetspot deals more base knockback (40 base/86 scaling → 49/85), improving its KO potential despite its slightly decreased knockback scaling.
• Down smash:
  • Both hits deal more damage (14% → 16% (hit 1), 17% → 19% (hit 2, clean), 8% → 9% (hit 2, late)) without compensation on knockback, improving the move's KO potential.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (14 frames → 8 (neutral), 18 frames → 14 (forward), 19 frames → 11 (back), 15 frames → 9 (up), 23 frames → 14 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • The move has faster startup (frame 12 → 10).
  • It deals less damage (10% → 7.5% (clean), 7% → 6% (late)), although its knockback growth has been compensated (105 (clean)/100 (late) → 130), with the late hit dealing more knockback than before.
  • The swing has been slightly sped up, reducing the duration of its hitboxes (frames 12-27 → 10-22), but allowing it to hit around Ike faster.
    • The clean hit now lasts shorter compared to the late hit (frames 12-21/22-27 (clean/late) → 10-14/15-22).
  • The late hit has smaller hitboxes (4u → 3u).
  • It auto-cancels earlier (frame 64 → 50), but still requires a double jump to auto-cancel.
  • Its initial auto-cancel window has been shortened (frames 1-5 → 1-2).
  • It has a different animation, with Ike facing more toward the screen and no longer tucking his legs in. His entire body now moves with the sword. The new animation increases its range.
• Forward aerial:
  • The move has faster startup (frame 12 → 11).
  • It now always launches opponents in the direction Ike is facing, even if hit from behind, improving its reliability for edgeguarding.
  • It now sends opponents at a lower angle (361° → 30°), further improving its edgeguarding use.
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 55 → 52).
  • The hitboxes have been moved towards the middle of the blade, reducing the move's range and giving it a larger blindspot.
  • It has altered knockback (30 base/100 scaling → 55/60). This drastically hinders its KO potential, no longer KOing middleweights until around 175% from the center of Final Destination.
  • Its higher base knockback makes it much safer on hit at lower percentages.
  • It auto-cancels later (frame 36 → 42), thus no longer doing so in a short hop. This hinders Ike's already poor approach.
  • It no longer has an initial auto-cancel window.
• Back aerial:
  • The move now has four smaller hitboxes instead of two large hitboxes, which are moved lower and one of them is now extended, significantly reducing its vertical range.
  • The last active frame has a large extended hitbox directly behind Ike, prohibiting issues with the z-axis.
• Up aerial:
  • Ike has a new up aerial: a wide overhead swing starting from the front, similar to the rest of the Fire Emblem cast, but going inwards rather than outwards, and without a backflip.
    • It has significantly increased range and coverage around Ike, especially horizontally, allowing it to juggle opponents much more effectively.
    • It has a significantly shorter hitbox duration (frames 13-29 → 13-18), no longer allowing Ike to put out a lasting hitbox.
• Down aerial:
  • The removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes improves down aerial's combo potential onstage, compounded further by its lower landing lag and Ike's faster jumpsquat.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have more ending lag (FAF 33 → 37 (standing), 41 → 45 (dash), 39 → 40 (pivot)).
  • All grabs have altered animations where Ike doesn't lean forward as much. Their horizontal range has been reduced to reflect this (Z offset: 4u-9.4u → 4u-8.4u (standing), 4u-11.2u → 4u-10u (dash), 4u-15.4u → 4u-14.2u (pivot)).
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals much less damage (3% → 1.6%).
  • It has faster startup (frame 5 → 1), deals more hitlag (5 frames → 15), and has significantly less ending lag (FAF 23 → 7), shortening its duration and increasing the amount of times Ike can pummel the opponent before throwing them or before they break out.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw deals more damage (3% → 3.5% (hit 1), 7% → 7.5% (total)).
• Up throw:
  • Up throw deals more damage (3% → 3.5% (hit 1), 7% → 7.5% (total)).
  • It has faster startup (frame 26 (hit 1), 28 (throw) → 18, 20).
    • However, the move's total duration remains the same, increasing its ending lag. Ike's faster jumpsquat also fails to compensate, thus hindering its combo potential.
  • The collateral hitbox has been moved down (Y offset: 21 → 9). This noticeably reduces the throw's vertical range, but makes it much easier to hit bystanders in front of Ike.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw no longer inflicts 5 frames of hitlag on the opponent upon releasing them, slightly hindering its combo potential despite Ike's faster jumpsquat.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (8% → 10%).

Special moves

• Eruption:
  • The move now produces multiple flaming pillars of decreasing sizes as it charges, producing two pillars when at a high level of charge, and three pillars at maximum charge. This greatly improves its range and edgeguarding potential.
  • Much like in Brawl, Ike vocalizes when unleashing a fully charged Eruption.
  • Fully-charged or high charge levels of Eruption cause Special Zoom when it hits.
• Quick Draw:
  • The move deals more damage (6% (uncharged)/13% (fully charged → 9%/16%).
  • The move has less ending lag both when missed (FAF 57 → 53) and when the attack is triggered (FAF 45 → 35).
  • It has much greater vertical range.
  • Its charge can no longer be held indefinitely, now releasing it after roughly two seconds of being fully charged.
• Aether:
  • The move has faster startup (frame 18 → 15), with faster super armor on the aerial version as well (frame 18 → 15).
  • The grounded version grants much more super armor (frames 18-38 → 5-35), allowing it to tank through opposing attacks more effectively.
  • The move has less landing lag (38 frames → 36).
  • The landing hit launches at a lower angle (60° → 50°) and has nearly double the knockback scaling (80 → 155). This drastically improves the move's KO potential, KOing at around 115% from the center stage if all hits connect, and grants Ike new KO setups.
  • Ragnell can no longer clip through the bottom of stages while using Aether, instead moving along the stages' perimeters, making it less safe against opponents at the ledge.
  • The changes to knockback received during meteor smashes significantly improve Aether's sacrificial KO potential, as Ike is now less likely to be KOed first than his opponent.
• Counter:
  • The move's intangibility is faster (frame 9 → 8).
  • In addition to its full intangibility, it grants intangibility on Ike's head for the entire counter duration.
  • It has a shorter counter duration (frames 8-35 → 8-33).
  • It has more ending lag on both the counter (FAF 59 → 74) and the attack (FAF 35 → 44), making it much riskier to use.
  • It now gives off flaming visuals from Ragnell after Ike performs a successful counterattack.
  • Ike's vocalizations in English during a successful counterattack have been altered. Path of Radiance Ike says "Gotcha!", and Radiant Dawn Ike says "Amateur!"
• Great Aether:
  • The final hit launches at a lower angle (70° → 63°), weakening its KO potential.
  • The sword deals less damage when hitting opponents while flying up for Ike to grab it (10% → 3%), thus reducing the maximum damage of the final smash (60% → 53%).
  • The move is significantly flashier, with a dark blue backdrop alongside flaming visuals. Before the final hit, the victim flashes with blue light, and the landing eruption now appears significantly more cartoony, with fewer smoke effects.

Update history

Ike received a mix of buffs and nerfs via game updates, but was buffed slightly overall. Update 2.0.0 decreased the knockback of Aether's meteor smash hitbox, a nerf that was also applied to Soaring Slash. Despite this, using Aether after edge trumping the opponent or to secure sacrificial KOs remains a viable strategy. After a long absence of changes, Ike received a handful of buffs alongside a single nerf in update 8.0.0. Most notably, his neutral aerial's knockback was increased significantly; while this largely restored its potential as a serviceable, albeit situational, KO option near the upper blast line, this is outweighed by its renowned combo potential being toned down. On a related note, the move's combo potential was further hindered by its sourspot being shrunken.

To compensate for Ike's neutral aerial's worsened combo potential, his down tilt's combo potential was improved thanks to its knockback being lowered. His forward aerial's damage output was restored to its SSB4 level (albeit with minimally compensated knockback) and its ending lag was noticeably decreased, which made it safer and more effective for combos and especially edge-guarding. His dash attack gained higher knockback, which further improved its already respectable KO potential. Lastly, Aether received a few noticeable buffs: its first hit gained transcendent priority (thus enabling it to no longer be canceled by incoming moves), whereas its landing hit gained much higher knockback and a lower launching angle. Altogether, these buffs noticeably improved Aether as an out of shield option, and even made it into a viable KO option.

Lastly, update 13.0.1 buffed Ike in a few ways. Most notably, his neutral attack's final hit had its damage output increased without any knockback compensation. This restored its KO potential from Brawl and, alongside his back aerial, somewhat alleviated Ike's glaring lack of a fast, yet reasonably strong KO option. Aside from this, his up smash's overall knockback was increased, and uncharged Quick Draw became noticeably safer on hit thanks to its increased damage output and knockback.

Overall, Ike fares somewhat better than he did at the launch of Ultimate. Although the nerfs to his neutral aerial were largely noticeable, the various buffs to his other moves have resulted in him becoming a slightly better, more versatile character with a less centralized gameplan.

2.0.0

• Aether's meteor hitbox has reduced knockback (FKB 165 → 150) though it can still KO opponents first.

8.0.0

• Down tilt has less knockback scaling (70 → 55), allowing it to combo at a wider percent range.
• Dash attack has more knockback scaling (78 → 88 (clean), 100 → 110 (late)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • The move has m