Joker (SSBU)/Up special

This article or section may require competitive expertise.
You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Overview[edit]

Joker's up special has two variants depending on whether Arsène is active.

Without Arsène, Joker's up special is Grappling Hook, in which Joker fires a grappling hook into the air at a slight angle. In the air, this move acts as a tether recovery, boasting a large ledge grab range. Grappling Hook also grants Joker a small vertical boost once per airtime, aiding with his recovery. Grappling Hook's tether has good vertical range, but comparatively low horizontal range, making Joker susceptible to gimps if he is hit out of a double jump far out from the stage. Like with other tether recoveries in the game, it also loses its ability to grab the ledge after tethering to it three times, provided Joker is unable to safely make it back on stage during any recovery attempts. In the air, the hook flies far upward with a hitbox, giving it good range; however, it is fairly precise to hit due to the hitbox being small, with no ability to angle the move. Furthermore, the knockback scaling is very low with a strongly diagonal launch angle, only having KO potential when extremely close to the top blast zone. It is largely limited to finishing vertical combos in cases where the opponent is too far to follow up with an up aerial.

On the ground, the hitbox is instead a grabbox that can catch both opponents and items. Compared to the aerial hitbox, it has a wider hitbox with a longer duration. Upon the throw's success, Joker has enough frame advantage to reliably combo into a forward aerial or up aerial until around 110%. Grappling Hook has a few ways to confirm it, with the last hit of up aerial while Joker is close to the ground being the only "true" one; this can be set up with a fast fall up aerial out of down throw with precise timing. Outside of this, up tilt has situational use as a frame trap with this at lower percentages. Grappling Hook's combo-starting opportunities are extremely powerful if it connects, opening up numerous openings for drag down up aerial combos thereafter, thereby making it a crucial portion of Joker's combo game. Limitations to the grabbox are that it will not work if the opponent is already in hitstun, limiting its use to starting combos against characters with frame 1 escape options, rather than extending them. The grabbox can also be blocked with either a shield or a reflector.

With Arsène, Joker's up special is Wings of Rebellion, where Joker flies upward using Arsène's wings. It travels a long distance, but has no hitbox and incurs helplessness, making it strictly a recovery tool. It is functionally similar to Power of Flight, but with better startup intangibility (frames 1-25 on the ground, frames 3-25 in the air) at the cost of having a narrower flight angle range. It is generally considered a worse recovery than Grappling Hook due to its lack of hitbox as well as being susceptible to two-frames, especially to lingering moves like Banjo & Kazooie's down tilt. This can be mitigated by mixing up the flight angles, or using Wings of Rebellion closer to the ledge, where Joker's intangibility will transition into his ledge grab animation, making him harder to hit.

Hitboxes[edit]

Grounded Grappling Hook[edit]

ID	Radius	Bone	Offset
Early
0	3.0	throw	1.5	1.5 to -15.0	0.7 to -6.4
1	5.5	throw	1.5	1.5	0.7
2	5.5	throw	1.5	1.5	0.7
Late
1	5.5	throw	1.5	1.5	0.7
2	5.5	throw	1.5	1.5	0.7

Throw[edit]

Kind	ID	Damage	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	H×	Effect	Type	Sound
Throw
Throw	0	11.0%		Forward	75	40	0	0.0×			None

Aerial Grappling Hook[edit]

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Sound	Hit bits	Hit part
Early
0	0	0	5.0%	1.0	Standard	76	56	0	2.7	throw	1.5	2.0	2.0	1.2×	1.0×	0%	Slash	All	All
1	0	0	5.0%	1.0	Standard	76	56	0	2.7	top	1.5	22.0 to 38.0	3.2 to 10.6	1.2×	1.0×	0%	Slash	All	All
Late
0	0	0	5.0%	1.0	Standard	76	56	0	2.7	throw	1.5	2.0	2.0	1.2×	1.0×	0%	Slash	All	All