Samus (SSB4)

Samus in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Metroid
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Zero Laser
Tier	D (36-37)

Samus (サムス, Samus) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Her return to the series was confirmed in the E3 2013 trailers on June 11th, 2013, while she was also among the first wave of amiibo figures that are compatible with SSB4. However, unlike in Brawl, Samus is no longer capable of transitioning into Zero Suit Samus mid-match, as she is now a standalone character.

Samus is ranked 36th/37th out of 54 on the tier list (tied with Robin), placing her at the bottom of D tier and middle of mid tier. This is a moderate improvement over her bottom-tier placement in Brawl, where she was ranked 32nd out of 38. Samus possesses multiple projectiles: Her Charge Shot, Missile and Bomb, all of which grant her strong zoning potential alongside her Grapple Beam. Charge Shot also functions as a fearsome KOing option and a strong punishing option in many situations due to its high damage output and excellent knockback, while her Bomb and Grapple Beam can aid her recovery, and she has an above average damage output as well. Samus also possesses a great air game: her neutral aerial and sweetspotted back aerial are among the strongest of their type, while her forward and up aerials deal impressive damage and have good follow-up potential, allowing for powerful and highly damaging combos when she finds or sets up an opening, which is further supplemented by set-ups in the form of her dash attack, up tilt, down aerial, down throw and Grapple Beam.

However, Samus' moveset forces her to be reliant on defensive spacing to keep opponents at bay. Except for her down tilt, all of her moves are generally less effective at point-blank range, while they also render her prone to trading hits with opponents even at mid-range. When combined with her floatiness and average mobility, these traits can make it difficult for Samus to escape from juggling and other problematic situations.

While Samus has noticeably improved since Brawl, largely due to game updates, most of her fellow veterans have also improved at varying degrees. This has resulted in her overall representation being poor (which is compounded by her very high learning curve), although she has attained a dedicated playerbase nevertheless. Thanks to the likes of professionals such as IcyMist, ESAM, KayJay, Afro Smash and Jonny Westside, Samus' results have continuously improved over time, most notably with IcyMist's 9th place finish at Royal Flush, Afro Smash's strong results in the United Kingdom, KayJay's 13th place finish at Smashdown World and ESAM's 1st place at Combo Breaker 2017. As a result, Samus' placement has notably risen with each iteration of the tier list, and many players label her as a solid character with the potential to rise even further.

Attributes

Samus is unique among her fellow heavyweights. While she is tied with Bowser Jr. as the sixth heaviest character in the game, she is an unusually floaty character with slightly below average walking and dashing speeds, average air speed, above average air acceleration, high jump height and slow falling speed. These attributes grant her an easier time chasing aerial opponents and forcing air dodges, yet also cause her to be juggled rather easily. When combined with her few reliable landing options and slow falling speed, opponents will also have more time to punish Samus as she attempts to return to the stage. In addition, many of her moves artificially extend her hurtboxes, leading to trades, an opponent grabbing her invisible hurtboxes, and, in some cases, getting punished after landing a move despite her being visually out of range of the opponent's counterattack. Furthermore, some of the hitboxes on her moves, most notably up smash, forward smash, and up aerial, have the issue of failing to connect properly or even completely whiffing.

Samus' moveset is defensive, as she uses her projectiles to space, rack up damage from a distance, and pressure shields. Charge Shot is her most consistent KOing option out of her special moves, courtesy of its increased speed and power. Missile is mostly used for spacing, due to neither its Homing nor Super variants being extremely inefficient at KOing, while Bomb grants Samus various mix-ups and can aid her recovery. However, Missile and Bomb also possess valuable utility, in that they can guarantee a shield break when used in conjunction with a sufficiently charged Charge Shot or a sweetspotted back aerial. Lastly, Screw Attack is a decent out of shield option, a KOing option near the upper blast line, and a viable combo finisher from aerial combo strings. Combined with rage, it can KO ludicrously early.

In addition, Samus has a strong air game. All of Samus' aerials have no more than 20 frames of landing lag, and her back aerial is one of her best moves, courtesy of its power, damage output, speed, and range. Her down aerial can be a powerful meteor smash, forward aerial is a good pressuring tool due to its long duration, and up aerial is an excellent combo option. Lastly, her neutral aerial is a viable KOing option as of update 1.1.5. When coupled with her high jumps, Samus' air game is also potent while she is off-stage, as she can recover from nearly anywhere on the stage, stay in position for longer periods of time due to her floatiness, or bait the opponent by stalling in the air and punishing edge-guard attempts.

Samus' grab game is also somewhat useful, as her Grapple Beam has impressive range, doubles as a tether recovery, and has very little landing lag. Down throw is very useful for starting combos that deal respectable damage and can be used with her neutral, forward, and up aerials at varying percentages. Many of her combos can rack up more than 30%, and when using platforms to her advantage, or string together multiple times and then be finished with Screw Attack, leading to a KO or dealing 40%-50% at the very least. Lastly, her pummel is tied with Lucario's as the fastest in the game, although it is also the least damaging one.

However, Samus is not without drawbacks. While her grab range is the longest in the game, the ending lag on all of Samus' grabs makes her very easy to punish if whiffed, and none of her throws can reliably KO on their own. Samus' ground game is mediocre overall, as her smash attacks are punishable, with only her forward smash being a fairly reliable KOing option due to its quick start-up lag. Her neutral attack is very mediocre, which is noticeably exemplified in its inability to connect at high percentages and thus limits Samus' anti-pressuring ability. Her tilts can combo, KO, and have decent range, but suffer from her unique hurtbox issue. Due to this and her average dashing speed, most Samus players will often find themselves in the air, where her strengths lie.

Samus also has some issues with her recovery. Her grab aerial has very long range, her jumps are among the highest in the game, Screw Attack is fast and hard to punish, and Bomb jumping provides indefinite horizontal recovery, but they are all offset by Screw Attack's merely average distance, Bomb's high ending lag in the air and Samus' only average air speed and reliance on her grab aerial to grab ledges from a distance. Altogether, this results in her recovery being linear and predictable.

Regarding custom moves, Samus benefits from a few of them. Apex Screw Attack has slightly more start-up lag, and the recovery it provides is slightly worse, but it deals more damage and outstanding knockback, to the point of KOing most middleweights at 75% from the stage and as low as 50% near the upper blast line. Screw Rush, while making her vertical recovery worse, grants more horizontal distance, deals more damage, and KOs earlier than Screw Attack, depending on where it is used on-stage, making it more useful for damage racking. Relentless Missile, while traveling slower, has more accurate tracking as a homing missile while dealing less damage. Turbo Missile travels a greater distance and is much faster than both Missile and Relentless Missile, but at the cost of dealing less damage overall.

Dense Charge Shot is dependent on the matchup and the player's playstyle. As one of the strongest projectiles in the game, it takes a bit longer to charge and has much less speed and range. However, it gives Samus multiple set-ups due to the length of time the Charge Shot stays in the air, and with the increased damage, it can force shield breaks and KO much more easily. Slip Bomb, while dealing less damage, has the useful property of tripping grounded opponents and meteor smashing airborne opponents, making it useful as a setup for a grab or a punish and an edge-guarding option to spike the opponent. Mega Bomb can be used to stall opponents, since Samus can stay next to the Mega Bomb itself while waiting until it explodes, allowing Samus to either retreat, launch Missiles, charge her Charge Shot, or force an approach. Melee Charge Shot has a shorter charge time than both Charge Shot and Dense Charge Shot at the cost of limited range, while also having considerably more hitstun and shieldstun with the inclusion of extra pushback after its use, making it extremely safe if shielded or even whiffed.

Overall, Samus is a character that performs best when using her projectiles and grab aerial for spacing to set up combos and either finish off pressured opponents off-stage, or KO them outright with Charge Shot. Unlike the majority of veterans, Samus' optimal playstyle is highly unorthodox; as she falls short regarding zoning-exclusive or melee-exclusive offense, success with Samus requires careful, calculated use of her various tools to keep momentum in her favor, much like in her home series. As such, she is like Shulk in that she is a character that is hard to master, but greatly rewards patient and calculated play.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Samus has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Brawl to SSB4, but while she was initially nerfed despite already being a low tier character, she received significant buffs via game updates resulting in her ultimately being buffed overall due to her buffs fixing one of her main issues in Brawl combined with the game's mechanics greatly benefiting her overall. Samus has gained several new KOing options, the most notable of which is Charge Shot, which has drastically increased speed and knockback. The other noteworthy options include her forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, and Screw Attack, improving one of her main weaknesses in the previous game. Forward smash now has a powerful sweetspot in the form of a fiery blast at the tip of her Arm Cannon. Neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial, up smash, and Screw Attack have each had their knockback improved, most notably on neutral aerial (and only to the last hit in Screw Attack's case). Additionally, forward aerial, up smash, and Screw Attack's multiple hits now connect better due to alterations to those moves, along with the weakening of SDI to further ensure that opponents cannot escape their respective last hits.

Aside from her new KOing options, Samus benefits from the general changes between Brawl and SSB4. With the changes to hitstun canceling and DI, Samus' combo game has been improved. Some of her attacks (most notably her dash attack) have been altered to give them much greater follow-up potential, and she can combo attacks into each other far more easily, with multiple combo starters and combo-oriented moves, including dash attack, up tilt, forward aerial, up aerial, and down aerial. Her Missiles have been improved as well, with more active frames and having less startup and ending lag for all variants except for the aerial version of the Homing Missile. Samus also greatly benefits from the introduction of rage as it not only further supplements her improved KO power, but it also allows her to KO with her grounded Screw Attack at insanely early percents, and her high weight and solid recovery allow her to build up rage. The changes to shields, shield damage, and shieldstun also benefit her, as she can use her Charge Shot, Super Missile, and Bomb in tandem with other moves to easily break shields.

Samus' falling speed and gravity have noticeably increased. This makes it much easier for Samus to land; however, it also hinders her aerial output as she can no longer perform two aerials in a short hop, autocancel forward aerial in a short hop, and it makes her more susceptible to combos.

However, Samus also received a few nerfs. The most significant nerf is the fact that she is no longer connected to Zero Suit Samus. As such, she can no longer utilize her Zero Suit counterpart's far superior mobility and moveset to alleviate her own. As for Samus' more direct nerfs, some of Samus' moves her nerfed frame data with her landing lag in particular being significantly increased. While this is a common nerf across the cast, it harmed Samus more than most other returning veterans, as Samus went from having the lowest average landing lag in the game to having fairly mediocre landing lag on her aerials, with down aerial and forward aerial seeing the largest increase in their landing lag. This is especially an issue with forward aerial, as it can no longer auto-cancel in a short hop due to her previously mentioned higher gravity and faster falling speed. While her KO potential has improved, some of Samus' previous KO moves, such as her down tilt and down smash, have lost their previous KO potential. Missile is harder to camp with due to its no longer auto-canceling on landing, and she can only use two Homing Missiles and one Super Missile at a time, though her projectiles overall are still powerful and useful in their own right. Additionally, Samus' overall damage output is lower (though it is higher relative to the cast), and despite her improved combo potential, some of her moves have reduced follow-up potential, with two notable examples being her landing forward aerial and down aerial. One move which notably got nerfed, however, was her grab aerial. While it has increased tether range and it benefits from the changes to ledges, it has increased landing lag, deals less damage, and has altered knockback, hindering its spacing and follow-up potential.

Overall, Samus has been buffed overall from Brawl despite receiving a fair share of nerfs. She has been slightly re-balanced, having a worse defensive game due to her higher landing lag, altered Missile and grab aerial, but now wielding a slightly improved close-range game, with her damage racking ability and combo game having been vastly improved. Most importantly, she has noticeably improved KOing potential, enabling her to score KOs much more easily. While a few of her moves now require slightly more precision, such as her forward smash, neutral aerial, and Missile, they compensate for this by being more rewarding. The changes to the game's mechanics also greatly benefit her overall as they make her multi-hit moves more reliable, give her access to her greater combo potential, and further supplement her already improved KO potential. As such, she has a relatively high learning curve, but can be quite viable and versatile when mastered, similarly to Shulk. Dedicated players like IcyMist, ESAM, and Afro Smash have managed to bring her some degree of tournament success and continue to develop her metagame.

Aesthetics

• Samus' design is now based on her appearance in Metroid: Other M. Her updated design also incorporates numerous black vents within the Varia Suit's helmet, shoulder pads, torso, and legs, while the suit's visor and accents are now emerald green, rather than lime green.
• Missile and Bomb have been very slightly updated with general graphical enhancements. The bomb is now red, rather than reddish orange.
• Dash's animation has changed. Samus now dashes like she does in Other M, rather than how she does in Metroid: Zero Mission, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.

Attributes

• Samus walks very slightly faster (1.05 → 1.0615).
• Samus dashes slightly faster (1.445 → 1.504).
• Samus's air speed is faster (0.987 → 1.03).
• Samus's falling speed is much faster (1.07 → 1.3). This greatly improves her ground-to-air transitioning, but makes her more susceptible to combos.
  • Her fast-falling speed is drastically faster (1.498 → 2.08). This significantly improves her aerial mobility and makes her substantially less vulnerable to juggling.
• Samus' gravity is higher (0.058 → 0.077). When combined with her faster falling speed, this allows her to land significantly more safely, but further increases her susceptibility to combos.
• Jump is higher.
• Rolls have less ending lag (FAF 45 → 40).
• Air dodge has less startup (frame 4 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 33).
• Air dodge has a shorter duration (frames 4-29 → 3-27).
• Spot dodge has a shorter duration (frames 2-20 → 2-17) and more ending lag (FAF 26 → 27).
• Samus is no longer connected to Zero Suit Samus via Final Smash, taunt, or menu input usage, with the latter becoming her own separate character. This removes Samus' ability to switch into her Zero Suit counterpart mid-match to adapt to different matchups, utilizing Zero Suit Samus' far superior mobility and frame data.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's second hit has a longer duration (frames 4-6 → 6-9), deals slightly more damage (7% → 8%) and has increased vertical range.
  • Neutral attack's first hit has less range, having smaller hitboxes (4.3u/4.3u/4.3u → 4u/4u/3u) and a reduced Y (12.8 → 12) and Z position (15.2/10.4/4.4 → 12.2/6.2/0/2). It also has increased base knockback (5 → 8) and decreased hitstun. This allows opponents to shield the second hit at a wider percent range or even be launched out of range for the second hit to land, hindering its utility. The second hit also has more startup lag (frame 4 → 6), further compounding this.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has adjusted hitbox properties. Its non-angled variant has received two sweetspots covering the lower leg and foot that deal more damage and received sourspots on her upper leg and body that deal the same damage as in Brawl (7%/8% → 7%/8%/9%/10%). Additionally, its upward and downward angles have each received a sweetspot on her foot that deals 1% more damage (10% → 11%). Lastly, the sweetspot's base knockback has been tripled (10 → 30). This significantly improves its KO potential.
  • Forward tilt's upward and downward angles have received sourspots covering her upper leg and body (10% → 8%/9%/10%) with the weaker sourspots dealing less knockback on all angles (10 (base), 100 scaling) → 20/70). It also has slightly increased startup (frame 7 → 8) and ending lag (FAF 32 → 34).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has slightly increased range.
  • Down tilt deals 2% less damage (14% → 12%) and has decreased knockback scaling (60 → 48), hindering its KO potential to the point it cannot KO middleweights until around 200%.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has received an early hitbox that deals 7%. It also has adjusted hitbox timings and a longer duration (frames 8-10 (clean)/11-16 (late) → 8-9 (early)/10-13 (clean)/14-18 (late)), decreased ending lag (FAF 38 → 34) and altered knockback (30/20 (base), 80 (scaling) → 80/60). When coupled with the changes to hitstun canceling, these changes significantly improve its combo potential, now being her best combo starter.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has received a sweetspot and a sourspot. The sweetspot is the fiery explosion from the Arm Cannon and deals more damage (14%/13%/12% → 15%/14%/13.5%), and its base knockback has been doubled (20 → 40), while the sourspot also deals more knockback (20 (base), 100 (scaling) → 16/112), making it stronger despite its lower damage. Forward smash also has much greater reach because of the sweetspot, restoring its utility from Melee.
  • Forward smash has increased ending lag (FAF 44 → 49) and the sourspot deals less damage (14%/13%/12% → 13%/12%/11%).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash deals less damage (4% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4), 6% (hit 5), 23% (total) → 3% (hits 1-4), 6% (hit 5), 18% (total)).
  • Hits 1-4 have a shorter duration (3 frames → 2).
  • Up smash's linking hits connect better as they have a reduced SDI multiplier (1.2x → 0.8x) and the last hit has increased knockback scaling (120 → 150), improving its KO potential.
  • Up smash charges one frame sooner (between 10-11 → 9-10).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash deals less damage (15% (front)/14% (back) → 10%/12%) and has decreased knockback (90 (base), 50 (scaling) → 70/46 (front), 80/40 → 70/48 (back)), hindering its KO potential. Both hits also have shorter hitbox durations (frames 9-11 (front)/17-19 (back) → 9-10/17-18).
  • Down smash has decreased ending lag (FAF 52 → 45) and it is now a semi-spike (70° (front), 120° (back) → 31° (both)), granting it edge-guarding potential.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials' have increased landing lag (9 frames → 16 (neutral), 9 frames → 25 (forward), 12 frames → 18 (back) 9 frames → 12 (up), 9 frames → 20 (down)).
• Samus' faster falling speed and higher gravity prevent her from performing two neutral, back, or up aerials in a short hop.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Samus has a new neutral aerial: a spinning roundhouse kick which represents the aerial version of the Counter Attack from Metroid: Other M. Compared to the previous neutral aerial, it deals more damage (9%/6% → 10%/9%/8%) and significantly more knockback (10 (base), 80 (scaling) → 40/100), making it significantly better at KOing and one of the strongest neutral aerials of the game. It also has a back hit that comes out on frame 16, which has a sweetspot that deals 1% less damage compared to the front hit with the same knockback values, making it reliable for KOing too, and a sourspot that deals 8% with much less knockback. Lastly, it launches at a lower angle (361° → 32°), making it better at edgeguarding.
  • Neutral aerial has more startup lag with a much shorter duration (frames 5-24 → 8-11/16-24) and less range in front of Samus. Its altered angle and knockback also mean that it no longer locks opponents, removing one of Samus' most reliable locking tools.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less startup lag (frame 7 → 6), its 2nd, 3rd and 4th hits launch at the auto-link angle and the first four hits have a reduced SDI multiplier (1x → 0.8x) making them connect more reliably and its last hit has increased knockback scaling (100 → 140), improving its edgeguarding potential.
  • Forward aerial's first hit now has set knockback (20 (base) → 15 (set)). This allows it to connect more reliably with the later hits but significantly hinders its follow-up potential when combined with forward aerial's much higher landing lag.
  • Forward aerial's first four hits deal less damage (4% (hit 1)/3% (hits 2-4) → 3%/1.6%).
  • Forward aerial has increased ending lag (FAF 56 → 60) and less range having smaller hitboxes (4.3u/4.7u/7.5u → 4u/6u (hits 1-4), 5u/5u/8u → 5.5u/7.2u (hit 5) and a reduced x position (4/71573.79 → 2/9).
  • Due to Samus's faster falling speed and higher gravity, forward aerial can no longer autocancel in a short hop. Combined with its much higher landing lag, this makes it much worse for approaching.

• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's sourspot deals 2% more damage (10% → 12%) and both hits have higher knockback scaling (95/90 (sourspots), 88 (clean) → 98 (both)), making it among the strongest back aerials in the game, improving its KO potential. It also received a late hit on frames 11-14 that deals 9% and less knockback, which enables it to be used in a Wall of Pain, improving its utility. Back aerial also has slightly reduced ending lag (FAF 40 → 39).
  • Back aerial auto-cancels later (frame 32 → 42), although it can still autocancel in a short hop.
  • The sourspot hitbox on Samus's lower leg has been removed. However, because of its small size and having the lowest priority, this change is largely inconsequential.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial's hits connect better due to the weakening of SDI, and its last hit has increased knockback scaling (120 → 160), granting it KO potential near the upper blast line. It also has juggling potential now due to launching vertically instead of horizontally (361° → 70°).
  • Up aerial has significantly less edgeguarding potential due to its angle being changed.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial now has an early hit with less startup lag (frame 18 → 17), increased base knockback (2 → 25), and it launches opponents horizontally (270° → 361°), significantly improving its spacing and KO potential on stage. The clean hit also has increased base knockback (2 → 25), which, when combined with the removal of meteor canceling, improves its edgeguarding potential. It also now has a late hit, which functions similarly to the early hit and lengthens down aerial's duration (frames 18-22 → 17-23).
  • Down aerial deals less damage (15% → 10% (early)/14% (clean)/11% (late)) and the meteor hitbox has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 18-22 → 19-21) and has decreased knockback scaling (100 → 85) which hinders its KO potential when combined with its lower damage despite its higher base knockback. Down aerial is also much worse as a landing option and a combo tool due to its much higher landing lag combined with the attack's alterations.
• Grab aerial:
  • Grab aerial deals less damage (4% (early)/7% (clean) → 1%/3.5%) and the sourspot has decreased base knockback (60 → 30) while the sweetspot's knockback was not fully compensated (60 (base), 60 (scaling) → 30/100) hindering the sweetspot's edgeguarding potential. It also has 8 frames of landing lag, rather than auto-canceling. Altogether, these changes greatly hinder Grab Aerial's spacing and follow-up potential.
  • Grab aerial has increased range as a tether recovery. It also received two additional hitboxes.

Throws/other attacks

• All grabs have less startup (frame 17 → 16 (standing/dash), frame 19 → 17 (pivot)) and ending lag (FAF 94 (standing)/74 (dash)/96 (pivot) → 69/67/83).
• All grabs' durations are 5 frames shorter.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals more damage (1% → 1.2%).
  • Pummel has an altered animation, which gives the hitbox more range in front of Samus. This prevents the move from whiffing against certain characters, especially during their hitstun animations.
  • Pummel now launches bystanders horizontally (80° → 361°).
    • This makes the pummel safer against bystanders, especially against floatier characters.
    • However, this also hinders its ability to chain into itself.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw's hitboxes have a longer duration (1 frame → 2). This means that all five hits will now connect against the entire cast, rather than certain hits whiffing against some lightweights.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw releases opponents slightly later (frame 19 → 20). When combined with the changes to hitstun canceling and the weakening of DI, this significantly improves down throw's follow-up potential.
• The back hit of front floor attack and edge attack no longer have set knockback (90 (set), 100 (scaling) → 80 (base)/50 (floor), 90/20 (edge)).
• Floor attacks:
  • Front floor attack and the back hit of back floor attack deal 1% more damage (6% → 7%).
  • The front hit of the back floor attack deals less damage (8% → 7%).
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals consistent damage compared to the previous fast edge attack (6%/8% → 7%).
  • Edge attack has less intangibility (frames 1-23 → 1-22).

Special moves

• Charge Shot:
  • Charge Shot now uses a charge formula to increase its power and size rather than a stage system consisting of separate hitbox data for each charge. This means that the move is constantly becoming larger and more powerful every frame rather than only after every 16 frames.
  • Charge Shot has larger hitboxes (1.44u (uncharged)/6u (fully charged) → 1.9u/8u).
  • Charge Shot's projectile travels faster (1.5 (uncharged)/2.65 (fully charged) → 1.8/3.2).
  • Fully charged Charge Shot has increased knockback scaling (56 → 62), improving its KO potential.
  • Fully charged Charge Shot has a lower hitlag multiplier (1x → 0.7x).
    • This gives the opponent less time to DI or SDI the move.
    • However, as the move is a projectile, this gives Samus less time to follow up after the opponent is no longer in hitlag, both on hit and on shield.
  • Charge Shot has more ending lag, especially when fully charged (FAF 44 → 54 (uncharged)/61 (fully charged)).
    • This particularly hurts the fully charged version, as when combined with its lower hitlag, this prevents Samus from being able to follow up out of it at lower percents, as well as making the move much more punishable on shield (with the move no longer being completely safe on shield).
• Missile:
  • Missiles have less startup lag (frame 23 (Homing/Super ground)/25 (Super aerial) → 18/21), longer durations (frames 23-121 (Homing)/23-84 (Super) → 18-118/21-84), and decreased ending lag on the ground (FAF 60 (both) → 57 (Homing)/59 (Super)).
  • Super Missile also has increased base knockback (40 → 50), slightly improving its KO potential.
  • Samus can only have two Homing Missiles and one Super Missile onscreen at the same time. If she attempts to shoot another one while one is already on-screen, she will perform the firing animation, but no Missile will be fired.
  • Aerial Homing Missile has more startup (frame 16 → 18) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 57).
  • Homing Missile targets less reliably and both missiles cover less distance.
  • Missile no longer auto-cancels on landing, hindering its utility.
• Screw Attack:
  • Screw Attack travels more vertical distance, improving its recovery potential, and its last hit has drastically increased knockback scaling (175 (grounded), 160 (aerial) → 240 (both)), granting it KO potential. All of the ground version's multi-hits also now have extremely high set knockback, which, when combined with the inclusion of rage, can allow Screw Attack to kill at obscenely low percents if Samus has a high amount of rage.
• Bomb:
  • Bomb has less ending lag (FAF 47 → 45). Additionally, aerial bombs can be used faster. When coupled with her faster air speed, these changes improve its horizontal recovery potential.
  • Aerial Bomb delays Samus' descent for a slightly shorter amount of time and Bomb grants slightly less height, hindering its vertical recovery potential. Additionally, Bombs have more startup lag (frame 53 → 63) and the explosion is now absorbable.
• Zero Laser:
  • Zero Laser deals less damage overall.
  • Zero Laser has less startup lag and more range.
  • Zero Laser's animation has slightly changed. The beam now starts thin before expanding, rather than starting wide before thinning. It also produces slightly more prominent visual effects around the Arm Cannon's tip.
  • Zero Laser no longer turns Samus into Zero Suit Samus.

Update history

Samus has been heavily buffed via game updates. She received plenty of significant buffs during game updates, along with two minor nerfs that were either negligible or even fixed outright in later updates, causing her to fare much better after the updates.

In terms of direct changes, Samus started receiving relevant minor buffs in update 1.0.8. Said update saw her up smash buffed so that its hits can connect together better than before, while her grabs' ending lag was reduced, making them slightly safer. Update 1.1.1 bought about more minor buffs; Screw Attack was changed to help its hits connect together better. Her neutral and forward aerials were also slightly buffed, with neutral aerial having its hitbox sizes and timings improved, while forward aerial had its damage output increased and landing lag decreased.

In terms of indirect changes, the changes to shield mechanics brought about by updates 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 are a mixed bag for Samus. The new mechanics gave Samus a number of new Charge Shot combos that allow her to break shields, of which she previously only had one such combo. However, these same changes also make most of her close-ranged attacks more difficult to land out of shield, while the only other moves that have been improved are her down tilt, her forward smash's sweetspot, up smash, and forward aerial, which are already difficult to land (or in up smash's case, requires the opponent to be above on a platform).

However, update 1.1.5 has granted Samus arguably her most noteworthy buffs. Dash attack now has a hitbox that deals 7% at the beginning of the dash, which prevents it from whiffing and makes its hitbox timing virtually identical to Brawl. Forward tilt has been vastly improved; after being nerfed overall in update 1.0.6, all of its hitboxes now deal 2% more damage, its sourspot deals more knockback (thus making it safer and more rewarding upon landing) and its tech-chase combos have effectively been restored after they had been severely weakened to the point of necessitating its sweetspot for said combos to be performed. Like her forward tilt, her neutral aerial's hitboxes all deal 2% more damage, which naturally increases its knockback and improves its damage racking, KO potential, and shield safety. Although they are still unimpressive, her down smash and grabs had their ending lag decreased, making all of them safer and making her down smash a quick anti-pressure option.

Bomb was also changed slightly, as Samus now gets more momentum out of one in the air. Lastly, Samus' attributes were also changed for the better. Her gravity, falling speed, and air speed were increased, which improve her already great survivability and allows her to land more effectively than before, which has been made even easier thanks to the aforementioned Bomb buff. As a result, Samus has been significantly buffed overall as of update 1.1.5, having become considerably better than she was in Brawl and even better than she was during SSB4's initial release.

1.0.6

• Sweetspotted forward tilt deals 1% more damage: 7%/8% → 8%/9% and its knockback increased, slightly improving its KO potential near the edge.
• Forward tilt deals 1% less damage: 6%/7% → 5%/6% and little to no hitstun due to receiving a sourspot on the middle part of Samus' leg. When coupled with the aforementioned sweetspot buff, forward tilt has lost its ability to lead into Charge Shot tech-chases, hindering its utility.
• Super Missile's speed increased, although it is rather negligible.

1.0.8

• Up smash improved. Its initial hits' hitbox sizes increased by 0.5u, its last hit's hitbox size increased: 7u/3.5u → 7.3u/4u and its last hit's knockback growth increased: 135 → 150.
• Standing and pivot grabs' ending lag decreased: 79 (standing)/92 (pivot) → 75/88.

1.1.1

• Neutral aerial improved. Its late second hit's knockback growth increased: 80 → 98, its hitboxes' sizes increased: 5.5u (hit 1)/3.5u (hit 2 clean)/2.8u (hit 2 late) → 6u/4u/3.3u and its hitboxes' durations increased by 2 frames.
• Neutral aerial's second hit's angle altered: Sakurai angle → 45°.
• Forward aerial's loop hits deal 0.6% more damage: 1% → 1.6%.
• Forward aerial's landing lag decreased: 30 frames → 24.
• Melee Charge Shot improved. It deals more damage: 5% (uncharged)/18% (fully charged) → 6%/20%, its partially charged base knockback increased: 30 → 50 and its fully charged hitbox sizes increased: 8u → 10u.
• Partially charged Melee Charge Shot's hitbox sizes decreased: 4u → 2.5u.
• Fully charged Melee Charge Shot's knockback altered: 65 (base)/35 (growth) → 70/32.
• Melee Charge Shot's recoil distance increased.
• Screw Attack's loop hits' weight-based knockback increased: 150/120 → 178/140.
• Screw Attack's loop hits' angles altered: 100° → 96°.

1.1.5

• Samus' air speed (0.95 → 1.03), falling speed (1.25 → 1.3), fast falling speed (2 → 2.08) and gravity (0.75 → 0.77) increased.
• Dash attack ending lag decreased by four frames (IASA 37 → 33).
• Dash attack has received a new 2 frame hitbox on frame 8 that deals 7%. This makes it no longer whiff at point-blank range.
• All of forward tilt's hitboxes deal 2% more damage (6%/7%/8%/9% → 8%/9%/10%/11%) and the sourspots have more base knockback (10 → 20), overriding the nerf in 1.0.6 and restoring its tech-chasing abilities.
• Down smash ending lag decreased by seven frames (IASA 52 → 45).