Sheik (SSB4)

Sheik in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Light Arrow
Tier	A (4)

“	Sheik Appears on the Scene!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Sheik (シーク, Sheik) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Her return to the series was announced during a Super Smash Bros. Direct on April 8th, 2014. Jun Mizusawa reprises her role as Sheik's voice actor, albeit via recycled voice clips from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She is now completely separated from Zelda, no longer being able to transform mid-match.

Sheik is ranked 4th out of 54 on the tier list, placing her at the top of the A tier. This is a significant improvement over her mid-tier placement in Brawl, where she was ranked 25th out of 38, making this her best placement to date. While not as dominant as Meta Knight in Brawl, the sheer effectiveness of Sheik's moveset saw her almost universally perceived as the best character in the early metagame of SSB4. Sheik's extremely fast frame data grants her an excellent neutral game and a potent combo game, which are supplemented by Needle Storm and her improved grab game, respectively. Her KO potential has also improved: up aerial now consists of multiple hits and concludes with a very strong hit, while her new down special move, Bouncing Fish, deals respectable damage and has high knockback scaling. Lastly, the combination of Sheik's much faster air speed, Bouncing Fish's horizontal travel distance, and the removal of edge-hogging have greatly improved her recovery.

Although she has outstanding strengths, Sheik nevertheless has noticeable weaknesses. Her overall low damage output offsets the very high knockback scaling of her smash attacks and up aerial, which results in her KO potential being unimpressive at best. When coupled with her lack of KO set-ups at high percentages, Sheik is forced to rely on hard reads to properly score a KO. While rage helps alleviate her KO potential, it also hampers her combo game. By extension, Sheik is unable to utilize rage more often than not, owing to her above average height and very light weight collectively rendering her endurance as unimpressive. Lastly, nerfs from game updates have further hindered her by decreasing her already light weight, worsening her forward aerial and grab game's combo potentials, and weakening up aerial and Bouncing Fish's KO potentials.

While Sheik's flaws and nerfs from game patches have resulted in her losing her status as the highest ranked character in SSB4, she is still widely considered to be a very viable character in competitive play. She was the most used character across Smash 4's competitive lifespan, piloted by Smashers such as ZeRo, Mr.R, and VoiD, and retained solid representation into the game's final years, with major victories coming from the aformentioned VoiD and Eim.

Attributes

Sheik is a character that, as a ninja of sorts, fits the "hit-and-run" character archetype. One of Sheik's greatest strengths is her overall mobility, being among the best in the game both grounded and aerial, boasting the fifth fastest walking speed, eighth fastest running speed, above average traction, high air speed and air acceleration, and the tenth fastest falling speed. She also has high gravity, which makes her mobility better, but leaves her more vulnerable to vertical knockback. However, she is also the eleventh lightest character; when coupled with her gravity and tall height, these traits collectively make her very susceptible to combos. Her crouch is also very low, making her difficult to hit when doing so. Sheik can also wall cling and crawl.

Aside from her excellent mobility, another of Sheik's greatest strengths is her nearly unrivaled frame data. Her moves have generally negligible amounts of startup and ending lag, making her extremely difficult to punish properly, and this is supplemented by the good range of her moveset. She also has an excellent projectile in Needle Storm, with the needles being fast and long-ranged (covering about half of Final Destination), possessing transcendent priority, and causing hitstun. Coupled with her range, her needles give her a strong camping ability. Overall, her mobility, projectile game, range, and frame data all combined form her greatest strength: her outstanding neutral game. She can play both defensively, by pressuring and zoning from afar without much trouble, or aggressively, with her fast attack speed giving her an unpredictable approach. Sheik can poke and pressure her opponents with her aerials and tilts, all of which are safe options. If they choose to drop their shield, they are wide open to these attacks. At the same time, holding one's shield presents her with an opportunity to grab and use her throw set-ups.

Sheik's excellent frame data, combined with the low power of many of her moves, gives her among the best combo abilities in the game. Her throws can easily lead into other attacks, with her forward and down throws being particularly effective at starting combos, as they can set up long chains of forward aerials, with her up aerial and Bouncing Fish being useful combo finishers. Her combos are not limited to her air game; all of her tilts can start and extend combos since they send opponents into the air, and can confirm into aerials; her forward tilt, particularly, can chain into itself at lower percentages, and has reliable follow-ups all the way into KO percents as well. Her down tilt, while not chaining into itself as effectively, has even lower power, giving her access to KO confirms as well. She also boasts an effective jab cancel that leads into her tilts. With proper spacing and timing, she can even perform pseudo-chain grabs.

All aspects of Sheik's moveset are solid overall. A small number of her aerial moves possess great versatility; her forward aerial, in particular, has little startup, decent ending lag, auto-cancels in a short hop fast fall, and has slightly disjointed range, making it an all-purpose move: it can be used to approach, pressure, combo, and set up edge-guards. Sheik's neutral aerial is her fastest one, allowing her to break out of combos and finish or extend hers, notably into Bouncing Fish. Her up aerial is her strongest one of her aerial moveset, and also sends opponents into a great angle for juggling, both of which give it good utility at both KOing and finishing combos. Her back aerial is her second strongest one, though due to its low damage output, it is overall best suited for edge-guarding and ending a combo. It also has the longest range of Sheik's aerials, and when fast-falled and sweetspotted (at the foot), it is even safer on shield than her forward aerial.

Outside of her Needle Storm, Sheik's special moveset also possesses good utility: her up special, Vanish, grants her invincibility and invisibility, making it hard for the opponent to predict where she will appear. It also has a hitbox on disappearance that is decently strong, and another one and a windbox when she reappears, making it nigh-impossible to punish. Meanwhile, her down special, Bouncing Fish, is famous for being her primary KO move, being similar to Flip Jump on some regards: it deals good damage with high knockback scaling, has KO confirms on it from her neutral aerial (both clean and late), forward aerial and aerial Needle Storm, and is safe on shield if it hits. Both Vanish and Bouncing Fish also conform to Sheik's last strength in her recovery, as they make it versatile and extendable, both of them, and can be used in tandem with each other, and they are difficult and risky to intercept, as they both deal high knockback enough to interrupt an edge-guard. Combined with her wall jump, this makes Sheik hard to edge-guard or gimp, without disabling her midair jump, and enables her to reverse edge-guard effectively.

However, despite having immense strengths, Sheik still has notable flaws. The most notable of them is her frailty: despite her recovery being amazing, in a similar vein to Fox, her on-stage endurance is fairly weak, succumbing to strong enough blows, whereas her above-average height, high falling speed and gravity make her easy to combo. This is further compounded by her poor damage output overall: despite her serious damage racking ability, she requires very long strings of attacks to deal the same amount of damage that super-heavyweight characters such as Bowser and Donkey Kong can inflict in noticeably fewer hits. While the low damage and power on her moves grant her an awesome combo game, Sheik also struggles to secure her opponent's stock. She has a few moves with high knockback, but she has difficulty landing them; her up smash has a powerful first hit on her arms as she raises them, but it is hard to land outside of a read or confirm, and is hampered by its much weaker second hit as she lowers her arms. Her forward and down smashes are among the weakest smash attacks of their kind, and they have punishable ending lag as well. In the air, she is limited to using her up aerial or Bouncing Fish to KO, and even then, they must be relatively close to the blast lines for maximum effectiveness, since her other aerial attacks do not KO until 200% or more, and are otherwise only useful for edge-guarding and gimping characters with particularly weak or linear recoveries. Furthermore, her overall below-average grab game has no throws that can KO reliably, and her aforementioned forward and down throws have too much knockback for truly reliable KO set-ups. With all of this working against her, it is not uncommon for her opponents to survive in excess of 150%. Lastly, the introduction to rage hinders Sheik: without rage, she often has trouble KOing, though as her rage increases, her combo game is slowly hindered, which, when combined with her poor damage output, can make bringing an opponent to KO percentages difficult. Besides, this also brings opponents to a high level of rage to KO Sheik herself with a strong enough move.

Other weaknesses include a few moves that have very low utility, despite Sheik's moveset versatility. These include her down aerial, which is the slowest of her aerial moveset, has the highest landing lag, and is a stall-then-fall, which gives it the lowest utility of Sheik's aerial moveset despite it meteor smashing on contact. Her smash attacks are difficult to land overall and, outside of her up smash's sweet spot, have little KO power. Lastly, Burst Grenade has a slow explosion, renders Sheik helpless if performed while airborne, and has only situational usage on edge-guarding predictable recoveries (such as Little Mac) and extending the damage of a hard punish.

Sheik benefits a good amount from her custom moves. Penetrating Needles only shoots three needles instead of six and has less range, but it deals extra shield damage, granting her a new pressuring option. Gravity Grenade loses the suction effect, but the grenade can be thrown much farther and pulls enemies towards Sheik, allowing multiple follow-up opportunities. Pisces, while having a much shallower flip, removing her forward throw combo, gains more horizontal distance, is faster, has little lag if the follow-up attack is not executed, and is significantly stronger, being able to KO 59% earlier than the default Bouncing Fish. Her other custom moves, like Paralyzing Needle and Abyss, are slightly riskier, yet more rewarding than Needle Storm and Vanish.

All in all, Sheik's strengths outweigh her weaknesses to the point that she has some of the highest tournament representation of any character in SSB4. By extension, her playerbase includes the likes of Mr. R, VoiD, and Vinnie, who are considered to be among the best players in the world. However, Sheik's nerfs from version 1.1.5 have slightly affected her standings and representation compared to other characters.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Sheik has been buffed significantly in the transition from Brawl to SSB4. The partial reversion to some of her attacks and the outright updating of others have restored many of her options that she lost in Brawl, while changes to gameplay mechanics also greatly benefit her restored strengths. For example, Sheik's grab game has regained much of its utility because of synchronization between such changes: her grabs and back throw have less ending lag, which grants the latter combo potential, whereas her forward and down throws greatly benefit from both their altered angles and the changes to hitstun canceling. The removal of chain grabbing also heavily benefits her, as she was previously extremely vulnerable to them.

Sheik's special moveset has also largely improved: Needle Storm has increased knockback and travels faster (although the move has seen various nerfs as well); Vanish's reappearance is safer thanks to it receiving a hitbox alongside its windbox; and her new special moves, Burst Grenade and Bouncing Fish, provide greater utility than Chain and Transform respectively. Sheik also benefits greatly from the changes to pivoting, which improves her grounded mobility, allows her to extend combos with her tilt attacks, and improves Needle Storm's mindgame potential. Although Sheik's KO potential is not as potent as it was in Melee, it has nevertheless improved, thanks to the increased knockback scaling on her smash attacks and up aerial, as well as the additions of Bouncing Fish, the changes to DI, the removal of momentum canceling and the introduction of the rage mechanic.

In addition to her moveset, Sheik's mobility has also improved, as her walking, dashing, and most significantly her air speeds are much faster. While her dash speed saw a fairly standard increase in speed, which most returning veterans received, her air speed saw a much higher increase, going from being fairly poor to being very high. It is especially useful in two ways: it now enables her aerial combo game to flow much more fluidly, which is especially evident with her forward aerial's altered properties, and it significantly improves her recovery alongside Bouncing Fish's horizontal travel distance, and the removal of edge-hogging.

However, Sheik also received a few nerfs, some of which are due to gameplay changes. The removal of DACUS significantly weakens her up smash's versatility, while her up smash itself is slower and weaker. Sheik's forward tilt was also considerably nerfed, as it was her most oppressive move in Brawl. Although it is still a very useful combo starter, its combo potential was nevertheless worsened due to its increased knockback and ending lag. On top of this, her already below-average damage output has lowered even further, which forces players to rely on combos to rack up damage before attempting to score a KO. While most characters had their damage output nerfed, Sheik's was reduced even more than most returning veterans. Her overall frame data is also slightly worse, although it remains among the best in the game.

Despite rage alleviating Sheik's KO potential, it also offsets her combo game at medium to high percentages, and her unimpressive endurance means that she cannot utilize it as consistently or effectively as other characters, while they can easily use rage to kill her even earlier. Combined with the fact that she does not have a powerful ladder combo, kill confirm at low percents, or a move with extremely high set knockback, this makes her one of the characters who benefit the least from rage. Lastly, game updates have nerfed Sheik in certain ways, with update 1.1.5 most notably removing many of her 50/50 KO mix-ups.

Despite these noticeable flaws, Sheik's buffs significantly outweigh her nerfs, and the new mechanics help her much more than they hinder her, since they either alleviate or outright remove the main flaws she had in the previous game, while further increasing her strengths. Because of this, she was regarded by many as the best character in the game, especially after Diddy Kong was nerfed significantly more than her in updates 1.0.6 and 1.0.8. Despite her former dominance, update 1.1.4 added Bayonetta and 1.1.5 nerfed Sheik significantly. As a result, Sheik's results dropped, and she is no longer considered to be the best character in the game, although she is still widely regarded as a top-tier character.

Aesthetics

• Sheik's design is now a combination of her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and her concept artwork for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Her lean musculature and slightly larger eyes are from Ocarina of Time, whereas her attire is from Twilight Princess. The aesthetic used in SSB4 has also resulted in Sheik's color scheme being significantly more vibrant, and her hair being of a much higher visual quality than in Brawl.
• Sheik has received four new alternate costumes, one of which is based on her appearance in Ocarina of Time.
• Sheik is slightly more expressive. She now glares during some attacks, and appears alarmed while teetering.
• Sheik has a new idle animation. However, she reverts to her idle animation from Brawl while holding a small item and briefly when transitioning to her idle animation after using a move.
• Sheik has a new victory pose. She now performs her forward tilt and then immediately performs her down smash. It replaces her contemplative victory pose.
• Due to the removal of Transform, Sheik's on-screen appearance has altered visual and sound effects; it now emits a whirl of smoke, rather than a magical sparkle and the Transform sound effect.
• Due to the removal of Chain, Sheik's side taunt's visual effects have changed. Sheik now brandishes the tripwire she uses for her new side special, Burst Grenade.
• Sheik's previously unused damage yells from Brawl's Sound Test are now heard when taking high knockback.

Attributes

• Sheik is lighter (85 → 81), hindering her endurance. While this would also make Sheik less susceptible to combos, her faster falling speed, higher gravity, and the changes to hitstun canceling collectively result in her being more susceptible to combos.
• The removal of chain grabbing significantly improves Sheik's endurance.
• Sheik walks faster (1.3 → 1.4).
• Sheik dashes faster (1.92 → 2.016).
• Sheik's air speed is much faster (0.846 → 1.1), even relative to returning veterans, going from the 10th slowest out of 39 characters to now being tied for the 14th fastest out of 58 characters.
• Sheik's air friction is lower (0.021 → 0.015). This makes her travel further from an aerial grab release, making her less susceptible to follow-ups, but making her take longer to halt her momentum in the air.
• Sheik falls faster (1.58 → 1.75). This improves her vertical endurance, but makes her more susceptible to combos.
• Sheik's gravity is higher (0.1409 → 0.15). This slightly improves her aerial mobility but slightly hinders her endurance, makes her more susceptible to combos, and reduces the height of her jumps.
• Sheik's full hop is higher.
• Item throw is weaker (0.896 → 0.866).
• Sheik's rolls (FAF 32 → 28), air dodge (FAF 50 → 31) and spot dodge (FAF 26 → 25) all have less ending lag. Air dodge also has less startup lag (frame 4 → 2).
• Sheik's rolls (frames 4-19 → 4-15), air dodge (frames 4-29 → 2-25), and spot dodge (frames 2-20 → 2-15) all have a shorter duration.
• Due to the limitations of the Nintendo 3DS' processing power, Sheik is no longer connected to Zelda via Transform or character selection screen input.
  • As transformations took a long time in Brawl, this meant Sheik got a much more reliable down special, which also functions as an attack.
  • However, she can no longer access Zelda's significantly better KO potential and vertical recovery to alleviate her own. It also means she can no longer transform to reset stale move negation.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's first hit deals 1% less damage (3% → 2%) and the hitbox on Sheik's left shoulder on both the first and second hit has been removed.
  • Neutral attack's second hit has decreased startup (frame 3 → 2). Neutral infinite is also significantly more difficult to escape from due to the weakening of SDI, despite its SDI multiplier being increased (0.7× → 1×), and it has received a proper finisher, a palm thrust.
  • Neutral infinite deals less damage (2% (near)/1% (far) → 0.8%/0.6%).
• The changes to hitstun canceling and DI improve the combo potential of all of Sheik's tilts into other moves once they cause tumble.
• Forward tilt:
  • The weakening of SDI combined with its higher knockback allows forward tilt to combo into itself more reliably at low percents, despite its SDI multiplier being increased (0.5× → 1×).
  • Forward tilt deals less damage (5% → 4%), has different angles (90°/108° → 84°/86°/78°) and higher knockback scaling (100 → 158/165). It also has increased ending lag (FAF 22 → 25) and a shorter hitbox duration (frames 5-10 → 5-8). Combined with stale-move negation not reducing knockback as much as in Brawl, these changes prevent it from comboing repeatedly into itself starting at medium percents, drastically hindering its damage-racking potential and removing its ability to set up into KO moves.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt's first hit has different angles (75°/30°/350° → 0°/330°/75°), which, along with the weakening of SDI, allows it to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • Up tilt has a shorter duration (frames 5-10 (hit 1)/19-24 (hit 2) → 5-8/19-23), smaller hitboxes (5.5u/4u/7u → 4.5u/3.5u/5.5u (hit 1), 5u/6.5u → 4u/5u (hit 2)) and deals less damage (6% (hit 1)/7% (hit 2) → 5%/6%), without full compensation on the second hit's knockback scaling (122 → 125).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 5-8 → 5-6), smaller hitboxes (3.5u/3.8u/5u → 3.2u/3.5u/4.2u) and deals less damage (8% → 5%) with its knockback was compensated (35 (base)/80 (scaling) → 37/110).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack deals less damage (7% (clean)/5% (late) → 6.5%/4.5%), although its clean hit's knockback was compensated (50 (base)/100 (scaling) → 70/90). Its late hit also has a shorter duration (frames 7-11 → 7-8).
  • Dash attack's clean hit has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.3×). This makes it slightly safer on shield, but easier to DI.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has smaller hitboxes (4.5u/4u/5u → 3.2u/3u/4u (hit 1), 6u/4.5u → 4u/3.5u (hit 2)). Its second hit also has a shorter duration (frames 26-28 → 26-27) and deals less damage (9% → 8%).
  • Forward smash's first hit has different angles (24°/361°/60° → 26°/45°/80°) with lower set knockback (69/50 → 62/47), which, along with the weakening of SDI, allows it to connect more reliably into the second hit. Additionally, the second hit has increased knockback (50 (base)/100 (scaling) → 60/109), improving its KO potential despite its lower damage.
  • Forward smash now uses a stab effect, instead of a normal effect.
  • Forward smash now consists of one hit instead of two when using a battering item.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's first hit has larger hitboxes (5.5u → 6u), allowing it to hit tall characters such as Rosalina more easily on the ground.
  • Up smash deals less damage (17% (hit 1)/12% (hit 2) → 15%/11%) with only its first hit's knockback scaling slightly (but not fully) compensated (82 → 86), hindering its KO potential. Its second hit also has increased startup with a shorter duration (frames 13-15 → 14-15), and she can no longer connect both hits of up smash. Lastly, the removal of DACUS significantly hinders up smash's approach potential.
  • Up smash's first hit has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.3×). This makes it safer on shield, but easier to DI.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's hitbox timings have been altered (frames 4-8 (hit 1)/15-18 (hit 2)/21-23 (hit 3) → 11-12 (hit 1)/18-19 (hit 2)), increasing its startup dramatically (no longer being one of the fastest down smash in the game) and causing it to deal one less hit. It also deals less damage (13% (hit 1)/10% (hits 2-3) → 3% (hit 1)/6% (hit 2)), has increased ending lag (FAF 49 → 55), smaller hitboxes (4.8u/5.31u → 4u (hit 1)/4.5u (hit 2)), and no longer grants intangibility on Sheik's legs during its first hit frame. Altogether, these changes significantly hinder its safety.
  • Down smash's first hit has gained set knockback (35 (base)/0 (set)/80 (scaling) → 0/35/100) and a different angle (40° → 140°) that enable it to connect at any percent into the second hit, which has higher knockback scaling (80 → 165), making it stronger than the first hit in Brawl.
  • Down smash's second hit has a different angle (50° → 48°).

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Clean neutral aerial deals less damage (13% (sweetspot)/10% (sourspot) → 8%/7%) with only a moderate increase to its base knockback (0 → 20). This improves its combo potential, but drastically hinders its KO and edge-guarding potentials. Late neutral aerial also has increased base knockback (0 → 20), improving its edgeguarding potential but hindering its follow-up potential.
  • Late neutral aerial has smaller hitboxes (4u/3.2u/3u/2.5u → 3.4u/2.7u/1.5u).
  • Neutral aerial has a longer animation (48 frames → 61), increasing the move's ending lag (FAF 49 → 50) and increasing the amount of time Sheik cannot grab a ledge after using the move.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 12 → 11) and has more range due to now having two hitboxes.
  • Forward aerial deals less damage (9% → 4.3% (body)/5% (arm)) with its knockback compensated (0 (base), 108 (scaling) → 40/132) and now has a sourspot that takes priority over the sweetspot. Due to its angle being altered (30° → 50°), it is also no longer a semi-spike. These changes significantly improve its combo potential, but slightly hinder its edge-guarding and KO potential.
  • Forward aerial now also has a slash effect, instead of a normal effect.
  • Forward aerial has a shorter duration (frames 5-8 → 5-7) and slightly smaller hitboxes (5.3u → 5u).
  • Forward aerial's animation has slightly changed: Sheik now lunges farther inward. This new animation is much longer (33 frames → 86), which slightly increases the move's ending lag (FAF 34 → 35) and greatly increases the amount of time Sheik cannot grab a ledge after using the move.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial deals less damage (12% (clean sweetspot)/11% (clean sourspot)/6% (late) → 8%/7%/5%) without full compensation on knockback (clean: 0/0/5/14 (base) → 30, late: 0/0/4/8 (base)/100 (scaling) → 10/101), significantly hindering its KO and edge-guarding potential. Additionally, it has increased landing lag (10 → 12 frames), and its late hit has a shorter duration (frames 7-17 → 7-14).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial is now a multi-hit move that possesses a loop hit with the autolink angle, instead of a clean hit and late hit, giving it a longer duration (frames 4-6 (clean)/7-15 (late) → 4-15 (loop)/23-24 (last hit)). Its last hit also launches at a higher angle (70° (clean)/60° (late) → 80°) and has higher base knockback (15/10 → 50). This improves its juggling potential, as well as its KO potential near the upper blast line, and allows it to drag opponents down to the ground with its loop hit for additional set-ups.
  • Up aerial has a longer animation (44 frames → 53), increased ending lag (FAF 40 → 44), and auto-cancels later (frame 30 → 47), making it unable to auto-cancel in a short hop. It also deals less damage (11% (clean)/6% (late) → 1% (hits 1-3)/4% (hit 4)), hindering its KO potential when used far from the top blast line, despite its last hit's higher knockback scaling (100 → 135).
  • Up aerial has higher hitlag multipliers (1× → 1.3× (loop)/2× (last hit)), making it safer on shield, but easier to DI. It also has slash and stab effects, instead of a normal effect.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has increased landing lag (26 → 30 frames) and deals less damage (10% → 8%). Additionally, it can no longer be used for momentum canceling.
  • Down aerial now possesses a clean hit and late hit (frames 15-33 → 15-18 (clean)/19-33 (late)), with the former being a meteor smash (70° → 280°), granting it edge-guarding potential. It also has larger hitboxes (5.5u → 5.9u (clean)/5.8u (late)), as well as higher knockback scaling (80 → 90 (clean)/105 (late)), improving its KO potential despite its lower damage. Lastly, it has received a landing hitbox that deals 2% and can be comboed into from the clean hit, allowing it to still deal the same damage as in Brawl if used on-stage.
  • Due to Sheik's faster falling speed/gravity, down aerial descends significantly faster. This allows it to hit opponents below her faster, but significantly hinders its safety while off-stage.
  • Down aerial now has a stab effect, instead of a normal effect.

Throws/other attacks

• Standing and dash grabs have decreased ending lag (FAF 30 → 28 (standing), FAF 40 → 35 (dash)).
• Dash and pivot grabs have increased startup (frame 7 → 8 (dash), frame 8 → 9 (pivot)).
• The changes to aerial grab releases hinder Sheik overall as while it makes her less susceptible to edgeguards (especially when combined with her lower air friction), she also no longer has any guaranteed followups out of a grab release especially with the removal of her DACUS.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals slightly more damage (3% → 3.1%).
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw launches at a higher angle (70° → 72°).
  • The changes to hitstun canceling significantly improve forward throw's combo potentials up to high percents, despite having higher knockback scaling (65 → 79).
• Down throw:
  • Down throw's angle has been altered (80° → 77°).
  • The changes to hitstun canceling significantly improve down throw's combo potentials up to high percents, giving it combo potential at low to mid percents despite having higher knockback scaling (75 → 90).
• Floor attack:
  • Floor attacks deal more damage (6% → 7%) and shield damage (1 → 8) per hit, with minimally compensated knockback scaling (50 → 48).
  • Floor attacks have less ending lag (FAF 50 → 46) and forward floor attack has less startup lag (frame 17 → 14).
  • Floor attacks' angles have been altered (361° → 48°).
  • Front floor attack, has less intangibility (frames 1-26 → 1-23), a shorter duration (frames 17-19 → 14-15 (front), 24-26 → 22-23 (back) and smaller hitboxes.
  • Back floor attack has less intangibility (frames 1-23 → 1-22), smaller hitboxes, and the second hit has a shorter duration (frames 21-23 → 21-22).
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack no longer has set knockback (0 (base)/90 (set)/100 (scaling) → 90/0/20). It also has less startup lag (frame 25 → 21) and a bigger hitbox.
  • Edge attack's angle has been altered (361° → 45°).
  • Edge attack deals less damage (8% → 7%), has less intangibility (frames 1-23 → 1-18), and a shorter duration (frames 25-34 → 21-23).

Special moves

• Needle Storm:
  • Needle Storm deals less damage (3% (near)/2% (far) → 1.9%/1.2%). It also takes longer to fully charge (taking 7 windups to fully charge instead of 6), has decreased range as the needles both cover less distance and have smaller hitboxes (2.4u → 1.5u), and Needle Storm has increased ending lag (FAF 41 → 48 (1-5 needles), 54 (6 needles)), hindering its zoning potential. They can also no longer lock opponents due to their altered angle (0° → 60°).
  • Needle Storm has significantly increased knockback (24 (base)/34 (scaling) → 0/180) though it still cannot KO at realistic percentages. They also have an increased hitlag multiplier (0.5x → 0.8x), making them safer on shield but easier to SDI, especially with their altered angle.
  • Needle Storm travels significantly faster. The changes to pivoting also improve its spacing potential.
• Burst Grenade:
  • Sheik has a new side special, Burst Grenade. Sheik throws a grenade attached to a tripwire that can be detonated at will. Unlike Chain, it functions similarly to an item-based projectile, as its grenade will become a non-explosive item if Sheik is grabbed or attacked before she can detonate it.
  • Compared to Chain, Burst Grenade's explosion deals more damage (3% (Chain)/5% (tip) → 12.6%) and has significantly more knockback (3/5/10/35 (base)/20/50 (scaling) → 30 (base)/100 (scaling)), making it capable of KOing. Like Chain, it can block incoming projectiles, although only its grenade can do so. Unlike Chain, it has damaging windboxes that pull opponents in, and it does not have a set range, making it significantly more effective at edge-guarding.
  • Compared to Chain, Burst Grenade cannot be freely maneuvered, making it less effective at zoning. It also cannot be used as a tether recovery, and renders Sheik helpless in the air, making it unusable for recovery. Lastly, it is reflectable and its explosion is absorbable.
  • Burst Grenade launches at a higher angle than Chain (361° → 55°).
  • Due to her chain being removed, the Chain Jacket glitch is no longer possible.
• Vanish:
  • Vanish's disappearing hitbox deals less damage (15% → 12%), although its knockback scaling was compensated (80 → 102). Its explosion is now also absorbable.
  • Vanish's reappearing windbox has received a hitbox that deals 5%, improving its safety.
• Bouncing Fish:
  • Sheik has a new down special, Bouncing Fish. It is a 360° Tengkong Pantui Cepu, a kick used in Nanquan. It deals 12% damage with moderate knockback (26 (base)/90 (scaling)), propels Sheik forward and can bounce off walls for additional height, while granting intangibility on frames 3-4. This allows it to be comboed into from several moves, even at high percents, KO near edges, escape juggling, and extend Sheik's recovery, giving it significantly more utility.
  • The removal of Transform leaves Sheik without an option to adapt to different matchups, as well as an option to reset stale move negation
• Light Arrow:
  • Light Arrow deals less damage (3% (hit 1)/45% (first opponent)/25% (third opponent) → 1%/44%/24%) and has decreased knockback, slightly hindering its KO potential.

Update history

Much like Diddy Kong, Sheik initially started out as a much stronger character in the early metagame, being one of the strongest characters in earlier versions of the game. As a result, Sheik has been nerfed significantly via game updates. Update 1.0.4 immediately gave Sheik some impactful nerfs, with Sheik receiving considerable power reductions to her forward aerial, up aerial and Bouncing Fish. These moves were some of her most effective KO options, as Sheik had numerous ways to combo into them and they could even lead into KO confirms at high enough percents. Naturally, after their power reductions, the moves became more restrictive as KO confirms. Sheik's forward aerial's power reduction also made it a less potent combo tool at lower percents. In addition to Sheik having weaker KO power, Needle Storm received more ending lag on the ground, which not only made it a riskier camping tool, but also removed its ability to lead into combos and KO confirms. Sheik now had to use the move in the air to land a KO confirm with a Bouncing Fish followup, and as Bouncing Fish became weaker, the KO confirm became less potent overall.

The universal changes in 1.0.4 were not particularly beneficial to Sheik. The removal of LSI for moves which launched between 65°-115° considerably hindered Sheik's endurance, making her easier to combo as well as making her easier to KO vertically. While it did improve the consistency of Sheik's vertical launching combo moves (particularly her throws), it did not benefit her combo game as much as numerous other members of the cast, and some of Sheik's main followups out of her vertical launching moves were weakened (mainly her forward and up aerials). Sheik also had very few vertical KO moves which benefitted from the technique, with her up aerial's power reduction being significant enough to make it a weaker KO move, even though it could no longer be LSIed.

Sheik was also hindered by the removal of DACUS, as she previously had one of the most effective DACUSes in the game. While very difficult to perform, Sheik's up smash was strong, and her DACUS covered a large amount of distance and had the potential to be a KO confirm out of moves such as her neutral aerial and Needle Storm. With DACUS being removed, it significantly hindered the approach potential of Sheik's up smash, and it largely removed the combos and KO confirms she could previously perform with a DACUS.

Update 1.0.6 noticeably decreased Sheik's back aerial's damage, considerably reducing the move's KO potential. From updates 1.1.0 - 1.1.4, Sheik only received a few minor nerfs, with her forward aerial receiving a slightly decrease to its power in 1.1.0, and with Sheik herself becoming slightly lighter in 1.1.4.

Update 1.1.5, however, would give Sheik the most impactful nerfs she had received since 1.0.4. Some minor nerfs Sheik received were that she became noticeably lighter, hindering her endurance and her forward aerial received a range reduction. Sheik's Needle Storm received a significant reduction on its range, which considerably toned down its potentially oppressive camping potential, but the most significant nerfs Sheik received were to her forward and down throws. In earlier versions of the game, the throws were both capable of leading into long lasting 50-50es into potential KOs which were very powerful. In 1.1.5, however, both throws received significantly more knockback, which greatly weakened their 50-50 potential at higher percents, making them considerably less scary at higher percents. Sheik could no longer rely on her throws to lead into potential KOs, instead having to rely more on situational KO confirms, edgeuarding and raw KO moves to take stocks.

Overall, Sheik is significantly worse compared to how she was at the release of the game. Sheik is more fragile, being easier to combo and KO; her defensive game is weaker, having a laggier and shorter range projectile; and her damage racking and KO potential have noticeably decreased, making it significantly harder for her to score KOs, especially compared to the rest of the cast. Despite this, Sheik still remained one of the most potent characters in the game. Her incredible mobility and frame data were near untouched, her recovery remained strong, and while her neutral game was weakened, it still remained among the best out of the entire cast. Sheik's nerfs mainly impacted her punish game, but she still had the tools needed in order to win the neutral game and get her punish game going.

Sheik was very likely the best character in the game in early 3DS versions, and while she did have a negative transition to the Wii U version, receiving impactful nerfs combined with not benefitting from the game's universal changes, she still managed to remain a contender for the best character in the game. As time went on, things looked very good for Sheik, with other top tiers (mainly Diddy Kong) receiving more impactful nerfs than her, firmly making Sheik the best character in the game for a period of time, but by version 1.1.4, Bayonetta was added to the game, who ultimately took Sheik off of her pedestal, and 1.1.5 was ultimately the final nail in the coffin for Sheik, giving her some impactful nerfs which firmly took her out of the discussion for the best character in the game. Despite all the nerfs Sheik received, combined with the shift in the metagame, she still remained one of the strongest characters in the game, being considered as a top 5 or even a top 3 character by the later stages of the game's life.

1.0.4

• Forward aerial deals less damage (6.8% (sweetspot)/6% (sourspot) → 5.5%/4.8%), hindering its KO pote