Meta Knight (PM)

Meta Knight in Project M and Project+
Universe	Kirby
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Meta Knight (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Concept Art, Dark Meta Knight, Galacta Knight (Project+), Samurai Meta Knight (Project+)

Meta Knight is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M and Project+. He was first confirmed as returning Brawl veteran for the mod in his own surprise reveal trailer on July 16th, 2013, a day before the release of Project M: Demo 2.6.

Meta Knight is currently ranked 1st out of 41 on the current official Project M tier list, placing him in the S tier. This is the same as his placement in Brawl, where he was notably ranked 1st out of 38, albeit not in a dominating fashion like his Brawl counterpart. However, Meta Knight is ranked 2nd out of 42 characters in the official Project+ tier list, a marginal drop from his Brawl and PM iterations.

Attributes

Meta Knight has an unusual character blend of character archetypes. He is a small character and is the fourth lightest character. He boasts multiple double jumps, but unlike most other characters that share this trait, his mobility overall fast; he has an above average walking speed, the fourth fastest run speed, the sixth fastest falling speed, though his gravity, air speed, and air acceleration are relatively average. He is also tied for the fastest jump squat, giving him a quick, albeit short, wavedash, and also boasts the ability to glide from his up special Shuttle Loop. These traits give Meta Knight above-average mobility compared to most characters of his size and weight.

One of Meta Knight most positive strengths is his overall frame data; most of his moves have little start-up and ending lag, notably his down tilt dash attack, and up aerial. Though his overall reach is average, his sword Galaxia, gives him a useful disjointed range, especially relative to his size, as he is the only small character who wields a sword. Additionally, all of his sword-based attacks possess transcendent priority (the sole exception being his dash attack, his only non-sword attack that is not a throw, and which also has the unique ability to clank with both ground and aerial moves[1]). These factors make him difficult to punish, and in turn allow him to pressure his opponents.

His speed also gives him a versatile moveset and combo game. His down tilt can either be used to start combos up close, or be used for spacing or edge-guarding from a distance, thanks to its long reach. Up smash is quick and effective at setting up juggles into itself or his aerials, and can also be used as an effective approach option when used out of a DACUS. neutral aerial has fast start-up, decent reach, high power, and a long duration, allowing it to be used as an out of shield option, an effective edge-guarding move, or a decent combo move. His forward aerial can be used as effective wall of pain move, especially on characters with poor horizontal recoveries such as Roy. His up aerial has quick start-up, and low knockback, giving it very potent combo potential, notably on stages with low ceilings, where it can combo into itself multiple times, and finish with Mach Tornado, Shuttle Loop, or Dimensional Cape for early KOs.

His grab game is also notably effective, despite his average grab range. His forward throw is very quick, making it difficult for the opponent to react to, and gives it potent follow-ups from low to mid percentages thanks to his fast jump squat and run speed. His back throw is good for setting up edgeguards and sending opponents off-stage, and can KO lighter characters at very high percentages. Up throw, previously his most situational throw in Brawl, deals high damage and set-ups effectively into his aerials, and most notably, into a Shuttle Loop or Dimensional Cape for a guaranteed KO confirm at mid to higher percentages and depending on the opponents' DI and stage positioning. His down throw can follow-up into a variety of moves at low percents, has tech-chasing capabilities, and can even chain grab certain characters at low percentages.

Meta Knight also has good KOing options for his weight class. His forward smash has high knockback for a character his size, and has low ending lag, making it relatively difficult to punish despite is slow start-up. His down smash has low start-up and respectable KO power and range, allowing it to be used as a quick grounded KO option. Finally, his back aerial and down aerial have very high knockback and reach for their speed; down aerial also semi-spikes opponents, making it almost guaranteed to gimp characters with poor recoveries, even at low percents.

Finally, Meta Knight's recovery is often considered to be among the best in the game, due to the amount of recovery options he has relative to the cast, as his midair jumps and special moves allow him to cover long distances off-stage. Mach Tornado can be used from nearly any point off-stage, being Meta Knight's longest recovery option from diagonally below the stage. Drill Rush is his quickest recovery move horizontally, and the final hit sends opponents upwards, which can punish careless edge-guarders who wait near the edge anticipating Meta Knight's return into one of his effective juggling combos. Shuttle Loop covers the longest horizontal distance due to it transitioning into a Glide, and is also useful for vertical recovery, as if Meta Knight reverses the move at a certain point, he will instantly land back on the stage. Finally, Dimensional Cape is the most unpredictable of his recovery moves, as Meta Knight is invisible during the move, it can punish opponents with the attack proportion of the move, which has very high knockback, and can even be executed earlier by flicking the C-Stick.

However, Meta Knight also has notable flaws. His main flaw, similar to the space animals, is his frailty; his light weight combined with his very high falling speed makes it so that he is easy to KO horizontally. Though his high falling speed gives him a decent vertical endurance for his weight, when combined with the unusual shape of his hurtbox and his lack of a reliable combo breaker, it also makes him vulnerable to many combos and chain grabs despite his light weight; combined with the harsher environment of Project M, this makes approaching risky when he is at high percentages, and thus, having to wait for an opportunity to punish. Despite Meta Knight having potentially the best recovery in the game, it is limited when his options are missing, due to losing all of his midair jumps if hit out of his special moves forcing him to make careful use of his recovery options. Despite his long overall horizontal recovery distance, when combined with his aforementioned high falling speed loss of his double jumps if hit out of his special moves, his vertical recovery is relatively poor for a character with multiple double jumps in comparison, as Mach Torando's long duration makes it slow to recovery vertically and easy to punish, Dimensional Cape covering a short vertical distance, Shuttle Loop being unable to sweetspot ledges from below, forcing it to be reversed onto stage and undergoing a lengthy 30 frames of landing lag, and Drill Rush covering next to no vertical distance at all unless done directly below the ledge. Additionally, they all leave Meta Knight helpless, so accuracy in using them is crucial. These aforementioned traits also makes him vulnerable to meteor smashes and spikes, even if he were to meteor cancel.

Outside of edge-guarding, Meta Knight can also have difficulty KOing despite his good options, as many of them either have difficulty hitting due to slow start-up and/or poor reach, or are prone to stale-move negation. His relatively lower damage and knockback moves also make him vulnerable to crouch cancelling for a wider percentage range than most, forcing him to play either defensively or rely on grabs for openings at lower percentages or if he is at a high percentage. His disjointed range, although good for his size, is still short in comparison to other sword-wielding characters, making it necessary to rely on his mobility and attack speed to capitalize on openings. His lack of a projectile and transcendent priority on all of his sword-based attacks also makes him susceptible to camping strategies against characters with a strong projectile game, such as Link or Wolf.

Finally, if Meta Knight is down a stock, he has difficulty getting the lead back due to his aforementioned frailty, and the fact that many of his high-damaging or KO combos are difficult to master, as many of them are based on reading or reacting to the opponent's directional influence, making learning them crucial for success. His two most effective combo finishers, Shuttle Loop and Dimensional Cape, are also highly punishable if they miss, difficult to use without a read or set-up, and are frequently staled.

Overall, Meta Knight stands as a "high-risk, high-reward" character. His high learning curve means he must be able to perform his combos consistently, and because he is effectively a glass cannon, he also has to make careful decisions of his every action. Despite Meta Knight's notable weaknesses, his quick movement and attack speed, strong recovery, and formidable combo game, are enough to make a threat to the rest of the cast. Because of this, Meta Knight is viewed by the Project M community as a viable character (placing 5th on the Project M 3.02 preliminary tier list and 11th on the finalized one). Though his tournament presence had gone down after the significant changes he received in the transition to version 3.5, it did not significantly impact his viability when compared to other characters such as Zelda and Mewtwo, as his current 1st place ranking shows, courtesy of the buffs he received in versions 3.6b and 3.6.

Changes from Brawl to PM

Meta Knight was universally considered to be the best character in Brawl due to many reasons such as his amazing frame data, aerial game, large amount of disjointed attacks with transcendent priority, his un-contestable recovery/edgeguarding and his insanely oppressive specials (mainly Mach Tornado and Shuttle Loop). These factors resulted in Meta Knight heavily dominating Brawl's metagame with numerous players seeing him as broken. As a result, Meta Knight has received both buffs and nerfs from the transition from Brawl to Project M, but was moderately nerfed overall.

Meta Knight had some of his overwhelming advantages weakened in the transition from Brawl to Project M. Some of his attacks now have slower start-up lag, and higher ending and landing lag, with his down aerial being a good example in all these aspects. His overall range has been shortened, which makes his spacing ability and overall neutral game significantly worse, leaving him more vulnerable to camping and zoning, especially with his lack of a projectile, and thus forces him to adopt a more aggressive playstyle. With his faster falling speed and the removal hitstun cancelling, Meta Knight can no longer momentum cancel and is more vulnerable to combos, worsening his already poor endurance, though conversely, this also improves his own combo potential against the rest of the cast.

His aerial game, recovery and edgeguarding have all taken a hit. Meta Knight now only has 4 jumps instead of 6 and his gliding has seen a huge nerf. Meta Knight can now only access gliding via Shuttle Loop and he can only glide for a maximum of 80 frames. In addition, he gains much less height when gliding up. As for his aerials, his up and down aerials have seen a huge decrease in their speed making them far less oppressive. His notorious Mach Tornado and Shuttle Loop have also been significantly downgraded. Mach Tornado gained transcendent priority, meaning it now loses to every hitbox in the game rather than nullifying a majority of moves, and the move also has a shorter duration and travels slower. As well as the aforementioned nerfs to Meta Knight's gliding, grounded Shuttle Loop is weaker and has lost its invincibility while the aerial version no longer sweetspots ledges, suffers from extreme landing lag if he lands with it during its start-up and the sweetspot is harder to land and has lost its edgeguarding potential.

Despite these nerfs, Meta Knight has received some buffs that continue make him a threat to the rest of the cast (albeit to a lesser extent). His already impressive run speed was significantly increased further and his previously awful air speed was similarly greatly increased, now being average. The reintroduction of wavedashing also gives him additional movement options, and it as well as the ability to act out of a run by crouching also improves his grounded attack options, while the changes to jumps carrying more horizontal momentum like in Melee, improving his grounded-to-aerial approach.

With the removal of hitstun cancelling and the updated gameplay physics, Meta Knight can perform true combos more reliably, especially with his down tilt, which has become his most reliable combo starter. His up aerial also remains a strong combo option due to these changes despite its speed nerfs, and he has gained additional effective combo starters largely as a result of the updated physics, namely up smash and up throw, previously among two of his most situational moves.

Many of Meta Knight's moves have increased KO power such as his forward smash, back and down aerials (the former of which now only consists of a single hit making it more reliable), and Dimensional Cape, the latter of which was revamped significantly, with the attack proportion now being able to attack much sooner and act as an effective combo finisher. The reintroduction of L-canceling and increased shieldstun have also made some of his aerials safer than ever on shield despite their increased landing lag, as well as improving their follow-up potentials.

Overall, despite his sizeable nerfs, Meta Knight remains one of the most dominant characters and he was even ranked 1st on the latest Project M tier list. Despite this, he is nowhere near as dominant as in Brawl with the rest of the cast having a better chance facing off against him and his strong tournament results/representation are much less prevalent.

Aesthetics

• Sword SFX changed to sound louder, making some of his attacks sound stronger.
• Meta Knight now instantly vocalizes when using down taunt.
• "Now, my power is without rival" replaces Brawl's "Victory...is my destiny" in the third win animation.
• If Meta Knight is hit enough times when he is shielding, his cape will occasionally disappear. However, it returns once Meta Knight drops shield..

Attributes

• Meta Knight has a faster walk acceleration (0.1 → 0.13).
• Meta Knight's already fast run speed has been significantly increased (1.847 → 2.1), now being tied with Knuckles for the 4th fastest run in the game.
• Meta Knight's air speed is significantly faster (0.752 → 1).
• Meta Knight's falls drastically faster (1.39 → 2.45) especially when compared to the rest of the Brawl cast, going from tied for the 19th fastest out of 39 characters to the 6th fastest out of 41. It improves his vertical mobility and SHFFL, in addition to him taking less vertical knockback, but worsens his recovery and makes him more susceptible to combos and chaingrabs, despite his small size and low weight.
• Meta Knight's fast falling speed is drastically faster (1.946 → 2.85), going from tied for the 19th fastest out of 39 characters to the 15th out of 41. This makes him less susceptible to juggling.
• Meta's Knight's gravity is higher (0.0956 → 0.11).
• Meta Knight's jump-squat is one frame faster (frame 4 → 3).
• Meta Knight's short hop and full hops are higher (jump force: 1.68 (short hop), 2.4 (full hop) → 1.77/2.7, jump height: 28.93747301 (full hop) → 33.14).
• Meta Knight's ledge jump and wall jumps are lower (jump force: 2.9 (ledge jump)/2 (wall jump) → 2.84/1.84).
• Number of mid-air jumps reduced (5 → 3), noticeably worsening his recovery, and hindering the followup potential of his aerials into each other, as well as noticeably hindering his ability to air camp, combined with his higher gravity and falling speed.
  • The distance of his jumps have been slightly compensated (×0 (X multiplier)/×0 (Y multiplier) → ×0.5/×1).
• Meta Knight has much more traction (0.055 → 0.09), making it easier for him to punish out of shield.
• Meta Knight swims faster (0.08 → 0.115).
• Meta Knight no longer suffers a 32 frame meteor cancel delay, now being standardized to 15 frames, significantly improving his survivability against meteor smashes.
• Meta Knight's feet hurtboxes are now ungrabbable, making it harder to grab him.
• Forward roll has less start-up lag with a longer duration (frames 5-12 → 4-19).
• Forward roll has a frame speed multiplier of ×0.72415 as its intangibility starts, increasing its ending lag (FAF 24 → 32), and removing its status as the fastest roll.
• Back roll has a longer duration (frames 4-12 → 4-19) and less ending lag (FAF 33 → 32).
• Meta Knight has a new air dodge animation similar to Kirby's.
• Air dodge has more start-up lag with a shorter duration (frames 3-29 → 4-19).
• Spot dodge has a shorter duration (frames 2-20 → 2-18) and more ending lag (FAF 26 → 28).
• Meta Knight now vocalizes during his spot dodge and air dodge.
• Meta Knight's glide toss covers less distance.
• The removal of hitstun cancelling both helps and hinders Meta Knight. It improves his KO and combo potential, but makes him much more susceptible to combos because of his higher gravity and faster falling speed. It also prevents him from performing momentum cancelling, hindering his horizontal endurance. Nevertheless, it benefits him overall as it allows him to have a more consistent combo game despite his frame data nerfs.
• The changes to jumps carrying more horizontal momentum like in Melee significantly benefits Meta Knight arguably moreso than any other Brawl newcomer besides Squirtle and Sonic, due to his significantly increased run and air speeds and higher jumps being able to make greater use out of it, noticeably improving his grounded-to-aerial approach horizontally.
• The reintroduction of wavedashing gives Meta Knight an additional movement option on the ground (though his increased traction makes his wavedash length relatively short).
• The reintroduction of crouch cancelling has adversely affected Meta Knight arguably moreso than any other Brawl newcomer, due to his relatively low damage and knockback moves being vulnerable against it for a marginally wide percentage range, while Meta Knight himself does not gain a significant benefit from being able to crouch cancelling compared to other Brawl newcomers due to his light weight.
• Glide's landing carries more horizontal momentum, making it significantly easier to and more effective at edge cancelling,
• Along with Pit and Charizard, Meta Knight can no longer glide with the jump button, though unlike these characters, who received a new special move that allows them to glide, Meta Knight only possesses his Shuttle Loop glide, which means he can no longer glide twice, significantly shortening his recovery.
• The duration of the glide is no longer infinite, now being capped at 80 frames, and the duration does not refresh unless Meta Knight lands on the ground.
• Gliding gains much less height when angled up (80º → 45º), making Meta Knight unable to recover from certain positions that he could before with gliding.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's animation has been slightly altered to resemble its animation in Smash 4.
  • Neutral attack has less ending lag (FAF 39 → 37).
  • Neutral attack can no longer be held, now having a set duration.
  • Each hit has a longer duration (frame 7, 11, 15, 20, 24 → 7-8, 11-12, 15-16, 20-21, 24-25).
  • The 2% hitboxes on the third hit now take priority over the 1% hitbox.
  • The multi-hits have altered angles (361° (all hits) 95°/60° (hit 1)/120° (hits 2-4)) and more base knockback (8 → 25), allowing them to connect better, due to the universally increased fall speeds, and making them much safer on hit.
    • However, this removes its ability to jab reset opponents.
  • The multihits have smaller hitboxes (5u → 4.099983u).
  • The multihits have altered placements (Y offset: 4.8u/4.8u → 5u/4.512u/4.512u (hit 1), 6u/11u → 4.512u/4.512u (hit 2), 5.6u/5.6u/5.6u → 5.264u/5.264u/5.264u (hit 3), 6.4u/10.4u → 6.016u/9.776u (hit 4), Z offset: 6u/14.8u → 6.25u/-5.64u/-12.972u (hit 1), 7.2u/14.8u → 5.64u/12.972u (hit 2), 0u/-3.6u/-9.2u → 0u/-3.384u/-7.708u (hit 3), 7.2u/13.6u → 6.768u/11.844u (hit 4)):
    • The first hit has an additional third hitbox that deals 1% in front of Meta Knight.
    • The first hit's extended hitboxes start behind Meta Knight rather than in front of him.
  • The final hit deals more damage (2% → 3%) and knockback (13 (base), 60 (scaling) → 40/100), making it much safer on hit.
  • The final hit has larger hitboxes (4u/4u/4u → 6u/7.5u/6u), and altered placements (Y offset: 5u/5u/5u → 7u/8u/7u, Z offset 14u/9u/4u → -5u/3u/7u), improving its range overall and better supplementing the multihits.
    • Altogether, the changes to the knockback, angles, and hitbox sizes improve neutral attack's reliability and utility.
• Forward tilt:
  • Meta Knight steps farther forward during each hit, especially during the third hit. While this somewhat increases their reach, it is offset by each hit having smaller hitboxes overall, reducing the safety and spacing of each hit.
  • Each hit has a longer duration (frame 3 (hit 1)/2 (hit 2)/2 (hit 3) → 3-4/2-3/3-4).
  • The first two hits have altered knockback values (14/8 (base), 88 (scaling) → 0/100). This makes them less safe on hit at lower percentages, while not substantially making them connect better at higher percentages due to their increased knockback scaling and smaller hitboxes.
    • However, the new knockback improves the first hit's jab resetting potential.
  • The first two hits have altered angles (361°/60°/80° → 70°/70°/70°).
  • The first two hits transition later (frame 5 (hit 1)/4 (hit 2) → 9/8). This makes performing all three hits in quick succession much slower and harder, combined with the removal of buffering, hindering the move's mixup potential and safety.
  • The first two hits have smaller hitboxes (4u/5u/5u → 3.28u/4.25u/4.5u) and altered placements (Y offset: 6.4u (all) → 6.016u, Z offset: 5u/11u/18u → 2.82u/9.4u/15u (hit 1), 5u/12u/19u → 3.76u/10.34u/17u (hit 2)), reducing their range overall.
  • Due to the removal of buffering, Meta Knight no longer automatically performs the second hit if the first hit was buffered.
  • The third hit has more startup lag (frame 2 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 34 → 35).
  • The third hit has larger hitboxes (5u/5u/6u/6u → 6u/6u/6u), however, they have been moved inwards (z offset: 12u/11u/5u/19u → 6u/4u/12.25u), and its innermost hitbox has been removed, significantly reducing its horizontal range overall.
  • The third hits hitboxes are placed higher overall (Y offset: 15u/3.2u/7.2u/8u → 16u/7u/10u). This improves the move's upward range, but reduces its downward range, hindering its ability to hit opponents on the ledge.
    • Altogether, these changes make forward tilt more consistent but connect less reliably overall, combined with reintroducing the ability to DI moves that don't send opponents into tumble and the strengthening of crouch cancelling, and make it a less reliable neutral tool with its decreased range.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has less ending lag (FAF 35 → 28), improving its juggling potential, combined with the removal of hitstun cancelling and the increase to all characters' gravity and falling speeds.
    • However, the latter change also noticeably reduces the move's KO potential.
  • Up tilt has smaller hitboxes (7u → 5.94u (body: early), 6u (tip)/6u (sweetspot)/10u (body) → 4.92u/4.92u/6.05u (clean), 6u → 4.92u (body: late)) and altered hitbox placements (Y offset: -1u (body)/9u (tip)/4u (sweetspot) → -0.94u (body: early/late)/-1.88 (body: clean)/6.46u/3.76u), noticeably reducing its range overall, especially the body hitbox's clean hit.
  • Up tilt's body hitbox now takes priority over the sweetspot, making the sweetspot much harder to hit due to it having a lower hitbox ID and being placed in between both sourspot hitboxes.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has a frame speed multiplier of x0.25, increasing its start-up lag (frame 3 → 6) and ending lag (FAF 16 → 20).
    • This also hinders its ability to pseudo-crawl.
  • Down tilt deals more consistent damage, and the more damaging inner hitboxes now take priority over the outer hitboxes (4%/5%/6%/7% → 7%/7%/5%/5%).
  • The two innermost hitboxes of the down tilt now launch opponents vertically (361° → 80°) with altered knockback (15/11 (base), 88 (scaling) → 64/60), giving the move more combo potential.
  • The two outermost hitboxes now semi-spike (361° → 37°) and deal more knockback (6 (base)/88 (scaling) → 20/116), improving its gimping and tech chasing potential.
    • However, this reduces its ability to combo into itself and removes its ability to jab reset opponents, combined with the changes to locking.
  • Down tilt has smaller hitboxes overall (3u/4u/3u/4u → 2.5u/3.28u/3.5u/4.1u) and has altered hitbox placements (Y offset: 2u/3u/4u/5u → 1.7u/2.62u/3.66u/4.7u, Z offset: 20u/14.2u/8u/2u → 18.6u/13.408u/7.58u/3.29u), reducing its range overall.
  • Down tilt can no longer trip opponents (30% chance → 0%).
• Dash attack:
  • Meta Knight's foot isn't as enlarged when performing dash attack, reducing his hurtbox.
  • Dash attack has less startup lag, and now has an added late hit, giving it a longer duration (frames 5-11 → 4-14).
    • Dash attack's clean hit has a shorter duration to compensate for the new late hit (frames 5-11 → 4-7 (clean)/8-14 (late)).
    • The new late hit deals less damage (8%/7%/6% → 3%) and base knockback (40 → 20) than the clean hit.
  • Dash attack has a frame speed multiplier of ×0.75 after the hitboxes end, giving it more ending lag (FAF 32 → 38), and making it cover less distance overall.
  • Dash attack has smaller hitboxes (4.2u/4.2u/4.2u → 3.444u/3.444u/3.444u) and the outer hitboxes are placed more inward (Z offset: 2u/4u → 1.88u/3.76u), reducing its range.
• As with almost every other character, Meta Knight no longer has one consistent voice clip for his smash attacks. He also now vocalizes when using down smash.
• Forward smash:
  • Meta Knight steps much farther back during forward smash's startup animation, allowing him to avoid several attacks during it, and making it more effective at baiting and whiff punishing.
  • Forward smash's ending animation has been altered to resemble its animation in Smash 4.
  • Forward smash deals more damage (14% → 16%) and knockback (28 (base), 99 (scaling) → 30/110), significantly improving its KO potential.
  • Forward smash has a frame speed multiplier of ×0.725 after the hitboxes end, increasing its ending lag (FAF 42 → 49).
  • Forward smash has smaller hitboxes (7u/6u/6u/6u → 5.5u/4.92u/4.92u/4.92u), and altered hitbox placements (Y offset: 6.4u/6.4u/9.6u/3.2u → 6.016u/6.016u/9.024u/3.002u, Z offset: 5u/19u/13u/13u → 9u/17.86u/12.22u/12.22u), reducing its range, especially the innermost hitbox.
  • The lowest hitbox now takes priority over the outermost hitbox. However, this has no practical effect since they have the same attack properties.
• Up smash:
  • Meta Knight's DACUS covers much more distance, making it a much better approach and follow-up option.
  • Each hit has a longer duration (frame 8 (hit 1)/12 (hit 2)/17 (hit 3) → 8-9/12-13/17-18).
  • Up smash has less ending lag (FAF 50 → 45).
  • Up smash deals more damage (3% (hit 1)/2% (hit 2)/4% (final hit) → 4%/3%/5%).
  • The third hit has altered knockback (62 (base), 145 (scaling) → 40/185). Combined with the move's lower ending lag, improved DACUS, universally increased gravity and falling speeds, and the removal of hitstun cancelling, this significantly improves its potential as a combo starter, while also keeping its situational KO potential relatively the same due to its higher damage and knockback scaling, despite the aforementioned universally increased gravity and falling speeds.
  • The first two hits have a lower SDI multiplier (1× → 0.8×).
  • Up smash has smaller hitboxes overall (5u/6.3u/6.3u/6.3u → 4.099983u/6u/6u/6u (hits 1 & 2), 6.5u/7.5u/7.5u/7.5u → 6.97/6.5u/6.5u/6.5u (hit 3)).
    • However, the hitboxes have altered placements (Y offset: 6u/17u/17u/22u → 5.64u/15.98u/15.98u/20.68u (hit 1), 7u/17u/17u/24u → 6.58u/15.98u/15.98u/22.56u (hit 2), 13u/17u/17u/24u → 14.1u/15.98u.15.98u/22.56u (final hit), Z offset: -0.8u/-11.2u/9.6u/-0.8u → -0.752u/-10.528u/9.024u/-0.752u (all hits)), and Meta Knight hops higher during each slash, somewhat increasing its range overall, especially the final hit's vertical range.
• Down smash:
  • Due to the removal of buffering, down smash can no longer bypass the first frame of its charging animation due to its fast start-up, increasing its potential start-up lag (frame 4 (buffered)/5 (non-buffered) → 5).
  • Down smash has a frame speed modifier of ×0.35 after the front hit's start-up, increasing the back hit's start-up lag (frame 10 → 14) and the move's ending lag (FAF 35 → 45).
  • The front hit deals more damage (11% → 13%).
  • The front hit has less knockback scaling (93 → 80), making it weaker overall despite its increased damage.
  • The back hit has more knockback scaling (90 → 93).
  • Down smash has smaller hitboxes (5.5u/5.2u/4.9u/4.6u (both hits) → 4.51u/4.263967u/4.018u/3.772u) and altered placements (Y offset: 3u (all hitboxes) → 2.82u, Z offset: 6u/11u/15.5u/20u → 6u/10.34u/14.57u/18.8u (front hit), -6u/-11u/-15.5u/-20u → -6u/-10.34u/-14.57u/-18.8u (back hit)), decreasing its range overall.
    • However, the lower hitbox placements allow it to hit opponents on the ledge more easily.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have increased landing lag (15 frames → 17/8 (neutral), 15 frames → 18/9 (forward), 12 frames → 16/8 (back), 12 frames → 15/7 (up), 15 frames → 16/8 (down)) though this is compensated with the introduction of L-canceling.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has a longer animation (48 frames → 56), increasing the amount of time Meta Knight cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
  • Neutral aerial now has an additional late hit, giving it a longer total duration (frames 3-24 → 3-28).
    • Due to this, combined with its longer animation, neutral aerial now ends behind Meta Knight instead of in front of him.
    • The new late hit deals less damage (7%/6%/5% → 4%/4%/4%) and knockback (20 → 10) than what is now the middle hit.
  • Neutral aerial has more ending lag (FAF 32 → 43), preventing it from being performed twice in a short hop.
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels later (frame 25 → 36) no longer doing so immediately after the hitboxes end, and preventing it from auto-canceling in a short hop.
  • The clean hit has a longer duration (frames 3-4 → 3-6).
  • The middle hit (previously the late hit) has a shorter duration (frames 5-24 → 7-15).
  • The middle hit deals more damage (7%/6%/5% → 9%/9%/9%), with its base knockback compensated (20 → 15).
  • Neutral aerial has altered hitbox sizes (4u/4u/8u → 3.5u/3u/7u (clean hit), 3.8u/3.8u/3.8u → 3.5u/5u/3u (middle hit; previous late hit)/3.5u/3u/0u (new late hit)), and hitbox placements (Y offset: 0u/5.2u/7.2u (clean hit), 0u/4u/7.2u (middle and late hits) → 5.5u/10u/7.2u (all hits).
    • This reduces the coverage of the body hitbox during the clean hit.
    • However, the altered hitbox placements improve the coverage of every other hitbox during every other part of the move, increasing its range overall.
  • When the middle and late hits become active, the clean hit's hitboxes are no longer called to be removed. This means that neutral aerial now has a distinct clean hit and a late hit, rather than having two separate hits, preventing both hits from connecting and reducing its maximum damage potential (19% → 12%).
  • The body hitbox during each phase of the move now takes priority over the outermost sword hitbox. However, this has no practical effect since they all have the same attack properties.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial now has a frame speed multiplier of ×0.8 after the third hit ends, giving it a longer animation length (40 frames → 47), and increasing the amount of time Meta Knight cannot grab ledges after performing the move.