Villager (SSBU)

Villager in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Animal Crossing
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Dream Home
Tier	D- (79)

Villager (むらびと, Murabito) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Villager is now unlockable, instead of being available from the start in SSB4. Villager is classified as Fighter #45, the first fighter number of the non-Echo Fighter Super Smash Bros. 4 veterans.

Villager is ranked 79th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him at the end of the D- tier. This is a huge drop from his ranking in SSB4, where he was ranked 25th out of 54, and 24 spots lower than Isabelle, his own semi-clone. Villager possesses a strong camping game courtesy of his multiple projectiles, aerials, and Timber, alongside a great recovery with Balloon Trip and Lloid Rocket. Combined, these traits allow him to pursue enemies far offstage or space out of arm's reach, while also giving him the rare ability to pressure offstage enemies while onstage (such as dropping a dash attack/forward smash projectile near ledge). His Pocket serves as a deterrent against projectiles and gives him a strong advantage against opposing campers, especially those with a projectile limit (such as Link and his Remote Bomb), while Lloid Rocket and Timber can limit the opponent's options and provides a chance to punish their reaction.

However, Villager suffers from notable flaws. He is held back by a slow grab and poor mobility, giving him poor defensive measures and allowing speedy fighters such as Sonic to potentially shut down his attempts at camping. Furthermore, Villager struggles heavily against characters with a reflector despite his access to Pocket, since most of his projectiles are characterized with high power (like forward smash and Timber), which allow careful opponents to turn misplaced projectiles into a potential KO. Finally, Ultimate's faster pace and overall abundance of fast, disjointed fighters have indirectly nerfed Villager's gameplan, as it is difficult for him to mount an offensive, while making his KO moves difficult to land in neutral.

As a result of these factors, Villager is one of the more obscure characters in competitive play, especially in the later years of the metagame. Nevertheless, he has seen some success and respectable results from players such as JAVI ON EARTH and kept.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play Vs. matches, with Villager being the 6th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Pikachu or anyone in its unlock tree, being the 1st character unlocked.
• Have Villager join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Villager must be defeated on Smashville. In World of Light, he is fought on Final Destination.

Attributes

Villager is a small middleweight (weighing the same as Lucario, Wolf, Mythra, Ice Climbers, and Steve) who is an overall floaty character of below-average mobility. Although he has an average jumping height, Villager sports a slow falling speed (the 12th slowest, tied with Luigi), and below-average air speed, air acceleration and gravity. Comparatively, Villager has a below-average walking speed and the 7th-slowest dashing speed (although his initial dash is decent). However, his traction is tied with Isabelle, Ness and Mr. Game & Watch for the 5th-highest in the game. Due to these attributes, once the opponent closes the gap, it is difficult for Villager to create space again, although his powerful camping game compensates for that to a degree.

Villager is among the most unorthodox characters on the roster with several unique moves, including multiple standard attacks that are actually projectiles, similar to Mega Man. Villager possesses a strong camping game. His forward and back aerials are long-range slingshot attacks that, when combined with Lloid Rocket, are great for harassing opponents from a distance. Opposing projectiles can either be Pocketed or blocked by a tree; Pocket can also be useful for "stealing" character-generated items, such as R.O.B.'s Gyro, preventing them from being useable as long as Villager retains them and thus further weakening the opponent's ability to compete with him at range. Despite his rather poor mobility, Villager possesses a reliable sex kick in his neutral aerial with very quick startup at frame 3, making it relatively easy for him to restrain opponents when attempting to approach to point-blank range.

Should camping not be desirable, Villager's projectiles can also serve as good approaching tools. In particular, launching Lloid Rocket and then running behind it is a strategy that limits the opponent's options and provides a chance to punish their reaction. Using his forward and back aerials in a short hop is also a good approaching option, as they are reasonably safe disjointed attacks with little lag.

Despite being a middleweight, Villager possesses a surprisingly flexible recovery thanks to Balloon Trip. This move allows him to fly a great distance at a respectable speed, and is surprisingly difficult to gimp. However, the balloons can be popped to render Villager helpless; hitting Villager himself will allow him to perform the move again. Lloid Rocket further bolsters Villager's recovery, as launching it stalls his descent while threatening edgeguarders. Alternatively, Villager can ride Lloid back to the stage, although this is punishable and can be reflected.

Villager is also a very potent edgeguarder, with a wealth of options to threaten recovering opponents. His forward smash, one of the strongest in Ultimate, allows him to drop a bowling ball from the ledge; this is a powerful attack that can be difficult for an opponent to avoid, provided that they are recovering low. If the opponent's recovery is slow enough or a tree is set up beforehand, Timber can also be performed from the ledge for an even more devastating attack, or to reduce an opponent's options should they grab the ledge. Alternatively, Villager can jump offstage and pursue with an aerial attack; his down aerial is a powerful meteor smash should it produce three turnips, while a clean hit from his slingshot has enough knockback to be deadly near the blast line, and is generally the best choice against an opponent recovering high. Several of his aerials are sex kicks as well, which, when combined with his extremely long-ranged recovery, allows him to gimp opponents fairly easily.

However, Villager suffers from notable flaws. Villager's ability to set up edgeguards in the first place is impaired by his slow grab. Although his net has a relatively long range, it has exceptionally high ending lag, which makes it very punishable. As such, attempting to throw an opponent offstage is a risky prospect, and Villager's ability to shield grab is quite limited. However, he does have other good out of shield options, such as his neutral aerial and up smash. In addition, Villager's poor mobility also allows speed demons, such as Fox and Sonic, to not only easily outrun him, but also immediately catch up to him and shut down Villager's camping game. Furthermore, Villager also especially struggles against characters with a reflector, as since most of his projectiles are characterized with high power (like his forward smash and Timber), characters with reflectors can reflect the projectile and turn the tides by dealing a potentially deadly blow from Villager's reflected projectile that can often lead into an early KO, even at lower precents. A notable example is Mr. Game & Watch: if Villager successfully cuts off Timber, Mr. Game & Watch can use Oil Panic and send the tree flying back to Villager with extreme knockback. By extension, Oil Panic can also reflect Villager's powerful forward smash, which is also a projectile, and can prove deadly when Villager is near the ledge, especially at higher percentages with rage.

Outside of edgeguarding, Villager has multiple powerful KO moves, but none of them are easy to land from a neutral situation. His forward smash, while powerful, is a laggy and short-ranged attack when performed onstage. Up smash is a potent KO option, but is very punishable as well, and is susceptible to opponents falling out of the move entirely due to its multi-hitting nature. His dash attack is quick and can be a good mix-up, and it has pretty decent range, which can also benefit his edgeguarding. Lloid Rocket has relatively high KO power when ridden, but is sluggish and easy to punish. Timber's axe requires a tree to be present and has considerable ending lag, while using the tree itself is slow and requires Villager to stand in one place. Villager's up aerial is a strong juggling move and can score KOs off the upper blast line, but is somewhat luck-based and can be reasonably difficult to land. Pocketing and throwing back a sufficiently strong projectile makes for a deadly attack, generally enough to KO at medium percentages and instantly shatter full shields, but this is matchup-dependent and will not be easily allowed by a professional opponent. Overall, if the opponent maintains control of center stage, Villager can have trouble finding KO opportunities, especially at lower than medium percentages.

Overall, Villager is a somewhat polarizing glass-cannon camper who excels when his game plan is in place but struggles when the opponent holds the advantage. Villager excels at restraining opponents with projectiles to allow enough time to set up traps. Villager especially performs well offstage, where he can easily edgeguard and gimp most of the cast while being able to recover from nearly any distance easily. Due to his array of projectiles and Pocket, Villager also has great counterplay to zoners. However, Villager does not fare better in terms of close-range encounters and can be easily overwhelmed by several rushdowners courtesy of his lackluster approach.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Villager has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate; he received relatively few direct changes, resulting in his core playstyle remaining relatively unchanged with an easier learning curve. However, while objectively buffed, the indirect changes to Ultimate's engine have pronounced his nerfs more while noticeably toning down his playstyle's efficacy. Because of this, Villager has been significantly nerfed overall in the transition.

Villager's camping abilities have been considerably improved. Pocket not only now stores projectiles and items indefinitely, but also has less ending lag after pocketing them, and Villager can now pocket items with a grab. Lloid Rocket has notably increased knockback at low percentages, allowing Villager to win the neutral game easier. The universal reduction on landing lag benefits all of Villager's aerials, and down aerial now has a sweetspot that always meteor smashes, instead of only doing so if he uses three turnips; these changes further improve his dominant air game. Villager's ground and grab games have seen a few improvements as well. Neutral attack now a rapid jab and a finisher, significantly improving its safety and damage racking ability; up tilt makes Villager's head and arm intangible until the hitboxes cease; down tilt's sourspot is stronger; his dash attack is much faster; his up smash connects better and is more powerful; and down smash has increased range and is more reliable for burying and harder to escape from. Villager's grabs are much faster and can pocket items, while his throws have both better edge guarding potential (forward and back throws) and combo potential (down throw).

Some of the universal changes to gameplay benefit Villager; aside from lower landing lag on his aerials, his previously mediocre mobility has been improved, with faster ground and air speeds and a universal 3-frame jumpsquat improving his combo potential, notably with his throws. The changes made to air dodging also noticeably benefit Villager, as he can more easily punish opponents after a mistake, giving his aerial attacks further utility and notably improving their edge-guarding ability. He can use one to recover easily because of his floatiness.

Villager also received some notable direct nerfs, though. Most of Villager's ground attacks also have more ending lag and/or less range. At the same time, the raw power throughout his standard moveset has been toned down, notably on his forward smash and all tilt attacks; notably, up tilt is no longer among the strongest of its kind. Down aerial also had its startup increased, making it harder for Villager to combat juggling. His previously heavily disjointed pivot grab has much less range, counterbalancing some of the benefits his grab game has received. The changes to neutral attack remove its ability to reliably jab cancel and remove his KO confirms from SSB4, most infamously to Timber's axe. While Villager's recovery remains incredibly long-distance, it has been nerfed nonetheless, as the helium for Balloon Trip now takes longer to recharge, which allows opponents to edgeguard Villager much more easily. Villager is also noticeably lighter, which further hurts his survivability.

The most significant nerfs to Villager come from the indirect changes to gameplay mechanics, arguably harming him more than any other character. The universal increase in mobility is likely his biggest nerf; Villager's floaty physics and camping-focused playstyle, whose core is essentially unchanged from SSB4, fare worse with the universally faster mobility, which prioritizes faster-paced, more aggressive gameplay, making it easier for many characters to get past Villager's zoning tools with less issue. In comparison, Villager's own faster mobility doesn't properly compensate for this. Aside from this, Villager's moveset's lower raw power is exacerbated by the weakening of rage, and combined with his lower weight, he is less capable of making use of it as effectively, forcing Villager to rely much more on edge-guarding to take a stock. Alongside nerfs to Balloon Trip, edge-guarding being more prominent again further hurts Villager's survivability. All of these changes combined have now made several characters capable of either overcoming or overwhelming Villager, further reducing the effectiveness of his strong camping game despite being greatly buffed.

Overall, Villager's game plan is largely the same as in SSB4 as a result of receiving fewer direct changes than most of the cast. Still, the significantly changed environment has effectively crippled his defensive playstyle, forcing Villager to shift to a more offensive one that's far less effective, further complicated by his worse survivability and lower raw power. Despite receiving buffs from game updates, they do not properly compensate for the gameplay changes, making his kit less effective. Egregiously, most veterans have received various buffs to varying degrees, with melee-based characters benefitting more from the increased mobility and projectile-based veteran characters receiving buffs that address some of their issues against opposing camping, allowing them to overcome Villager. All in all, Villager fares much worse in Ultimate than in SSB4, being one of the most nerfed characters in the transition.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetic used in Ultimate, Villager's model features a more subdued color scheme. His facial features appear less realistic and "faded"; the shadow of his hair has been adjusted, and his skin tone is slightly darker. Additionally, his clothing features subtle detailing. These changes are also expressed in all of Villager's costumes.
• Villager's seventh and eighth alternate costumes now have a dark skin tone.
• Villager always faces the screen regardless of which direction he turns, causing all of his animations to be mirrored while altering some.
• Villager's dash animation has been altered.
• Clothing such as Villager's shorts have more movement while fighting.
• Villager now blinks during the clapping animation on the results screen.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Villager's jumpsquat animation only takes three frames to complete (down from 5).
• Villager is lighter (97 → 92), weighing the same as Ice Climbers. This worsens his survivability.
• Villager dashes faster (1.27 → 1.397).
• Villager's initial dash is faster (1.5 → 1.815).
• Villager's traction has been increased (0.06 → 0.131).
• Villager's spot dodge has slightly less ending lag (FAF 28 → 26).
  • Spot dodge has a slightly shorter duration (frames 3-18 → 3-17).
• Forward roll has slightly reduced ending lag (FAF 31 → 30).
  • Forward roll has a shorter duration (frames 4-17 → 4-15).
• Backward roll has slightly more startup (frame 4 → 5) and ending lag (FAF 31 → 35).
  • Backward roll has a shorter duration (frames 4-17 → 5-16).
• Neutral air dodge's intangibility lasts for two more frames (frames 3-28 → 3-30).
  • Neutral air dodge has significantly increased ending lag (FAF 34 → 58).
  • Neutral air dodge has less landing lag (22 frames → 10).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Villager's jab is a neutral infinite and has a finisher, a straight jab. This significantly improves it damage racking ability and makes it safer.
  • Neutral attack has received several changes to connect more reliably:
    • Both hits have higher hitstun modifiers (2 → 7 (hit 1), 2/0 → 2/11 (hit 2)).
    • The first hit has larger hitboxes (2.5u/2.5u/2.5u → 2.5u/3u/3u/3u), with an additional hitbox that launches opponents towards Villager like the previous farthest hitbox. Both of these hitboxes cover different spots in the Z-axis (X offset: 0u → -1.5u—1.5u), making them less likely to miss opponents during certain animations.
    • The first hit uses extended hitboxes, with the closest one stretching horizontally (Z offset: 6.5u → 6.5u—7.5u) and the rest stretching vertically (Y offset: 5.5u → 5.5u—4.5u), improving its range.
    • The second hit has received an additional hitbox, which shares its vertical and horizontal placement with the previous farthest hitbox, but covers a different spot in the Z-axis (X offset: 0u → -1u—1u). Both hitboxes also have less base knockback (15 → 10) and have been stretched vertically (Y offset: 5.5u → 5.5u—4u).
  • The jab to axe kill confirm Villager had in Smash 4 is no longer possible due to the new finisher, removing their jab cancel mixups.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has noticeably less startup (frame 13 → 9) and much less ending lag (FAF 55 → 45).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt deals much less knockback scaling, but much more base knockback (30 base/90 scaling → 80/50). This makes it safer on hit at low percents, but significantly hinders its KO potential at higher percents.
  • Forward tilt launches at a higher angle (361° → 45°), further reducing its KO potential.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt's animation has been altered; Villager swings the stick back and forth rather than in a circular motion.
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 50 → 48).
  • The move grants intangibility on Villager's head and arm during frames 7-25, giving it better anti-air utility.
  • The first hit has a reduced hit lag multiplier (1x → 0.8x), making it harder to escape from.
  • The first hit's aerial-only hitbox has gained a hitstun modifier of 2, allowing it to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • It has significantly smaller hitboxes (4u/6u/6u → 3.8u/4u/4u (hit 1), 6u/4u → 5u/4u (hit 2)).
  • It has its damage values reversed (6% → 5% (hit 1), 5% → 6% (hit 2)).
    • However, its damage wasn't compensated enough for its lower knockback scaling (160 → 140), dealing less knockback overall.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt's sourspot deals more damage (8% → 10%) and more knockback (40 base/90 scaling → 50/95), improving its KO potential.
  • It has a slightly longer duration (frames 9-10 → 9-11).
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 35 → 38).
  • The sweetspot deals less damage (13% → 12%), albeit with knockback compensated (40 base/90 scaling → 50/95).
  • The sweetspot launches at a lower angle (80° → 75°), slightly hindering its KO potential.
  • It has a small patch of dirt underneath the weed before Villager pulls it from the ground.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash's bowling ball lingers for a moment after landing on the ground.
  • It has less knockback scaling (100 → 95).
  • Its damage multiplier for fully charging is lower (1.4x → 1.2x).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash deals more damage (1% → 1.5% (hits 2-5), 4% → 4.6% (hit 6); total: 11% → 13.6%) and the final hit has more knockback scaling (205 → 220), noticebly improving its KO potential.
  • The multihits have had their large hitbox replaced with four smaller ones (7u → 2.8/2.8u/2.8u/2.8u), increasing their range.
  • The first hit and final hit have smaller hitboxes (6u/6u → 4u/6u (hit 1), 10u → 9u (final)).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has more range (Z offset: 10u/9u → 13u/12u (hit 1), -10u/-9u → -13u/-12u (hit 2)).
  • It has more base knockback (0 → 30), increasing the duration of its bury effect.
  • It is unable to jab lock, removing Villager’s infinite combo.
  • It has slightly more ending lag (FAF 48 → 50), although this is compensated by the higher knockback if it connects.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag: (14 frames → 8 (neutral), 23 → 14 (forward/back), 15 → 12 (up/down)).
• Forward aerial/Back aerial
  • Forward and back aerial's pellets arc downwards.
  • Forward and back aerial have smaller initial auto-cancel windows (1-7/1-9 frames → 1-2), and back aerial auto-cancels later (frame 25 → 30).
  • All hitboxes of forward and back aerial's pellets have negative shield damage, dealing half the usual damage to shields.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial deals more base knockback (30 → 40).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has a hitbox on the clean hit that will always meteor smash, regardless of how many turnips are used, greatly increasing its reliability and edgeguarding potential.
  • It has a larger initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-7 → 1-10).
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 46 → 43).
  • Down aerial has more startup lag (frame 8 → 11), no longer being one of the fastest meteor smashes in the game.

Throws and other attacks

• Grab:
  • Villager has a shocked expression when missing a grab.
  • Grab has a unique SFX rather than sharing it with up tilt.
  • Standing grab has slightly less startup lag (frame 15 → 14).
  • All grabs have slightly longer durations (frames 15-16 → 14-16 (standing), 16-17 → 16-18 (dash), 17-18 → 17-19 (pivot)).
  • All grabs have significantly less ending lag (FAF 56 → 44 (standing), 70 → 48 (dash), 66 → 45 (pivot)).
  • Grab can pocket items.
  • Dash grab and especially pivot grab have significantly less range (Z2 offset: 16.9u → 13u (dash), -23.5u → -14.0u (pivot)).
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw releases the opponent later (frame 10 → 15), reducing its end lag by five frames, but giving the opponent more time to DI.
  • Forward throw has more base knockback (102 → 108), improving its ability to get opponents offstage.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw releases the opponent slightly later (frame 10 → 11) with its total duration unchanged, reducing its ending lag.
  • Back throw has much more base knockback but much less knockback scaling (18 base/110 scaling → 46/88), making it safer at lower percents, and leaving its KO percentage right at the ledge largely unchanged, but noticeably weakening its KO potential from further away.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw has increased base knockback, but reduced knockback scaling (105 base/40 scaling → 114/34).
• Down throw:
  • Down throw has more base knockback, but lower knockback scaling (60 base/80 scaling → 78/60). Overall, it loses its combo potential earlier.
  • Down throw releases the opponent later (frame 16 → 18) with its duration unchanged, reducing its ending lag by two frames, further improving its combo potential.

Special moves

• Pocket:
  • Pocketed projectiles no longer vanish after 30 seconds and can be kept indefinitely.
  • Pocket throw has more startup lag (frame 5 → 9).
    • This gives the move one less frame ending lag since its duration was not fully compensated (FAF 27 → 30).
  • Similarly to Monado Arts, while Villager has a pocketed item or projectile, the item/projectile will appear in a display above the damage meter, making Pocket easier to use but also allowing opponents to know what item is pocketed.
• Lloid Rocket:
  • Lloid Rocket has slightly less ending lag (FAF 38 → 36).
  • Lloid has a shocked expression when hit.
  • Lloid has increased base knockback, but reduced knockback scaling (30 (base)/100 (scaling) → 65/75), making it safer on hit and increasing its KO potential at center stage, but reducing it near the ledge.
  • Lloid launches at a slightly higher angle (55° → 60°), hindering its edgeguarding potential.
• Balloon Trip:
  • Balloon Trip recharges helium slower, and if the helium is low enough it will only spawn one balloon instead of two, slowing Villager's ascent and making them more susceptible to edgeguarding.
• Timber:
  • The seed planting and watering have less ending lag (FAF 43 → 39 (planting), 54 → 50 (watering)).
  • Planting close to a ledge is much easier.
  • The axe gained additional hitboxes on frame 8 to compensate the axe going away from the playing field.
  • The axe deals more base knockback (30 → 36) and shield damage (6 → 9).
  • The tree bounces once on the ground before disappearing.
  • Just like down tilt, Timber has a patch of dirt underneath the sapling in the move's first stage.
  • The sprinkler water's windbox deals less set knockback (FKB 60 → 25), significantly weakening its utility
  • The axe has increased ending lag when cutting the tree. (FAF 32 → 50)
    • As a consequence of this, Pocket is no longer possible to perform safely if the tree is reflected.
• Dream Home:
  • Dream Home has the house rotate while Tom Nook, Timmy and Tommy build it. Tom Nook also throws furniture into the building more rapidly.
  • Dream Home has a longer pause before the final explosion.

Update history

Villager received a mix of buffs, nerfs and glitch fixes via game updates, but was buffed overall. The universal projectile shield damage nerf in Version 3.0.0 affected Villager more than most other characters due to much of the moveset utilizing projectiles. Version 3.1.0 buffed up smash overall to hit more reliably, but slightly over-corrected to the point of it being unreliable again. This was fixed in Version 4.0.0. Up smash was given increased knockback to combo out of buried opponents more easily, and Version 7.0.0 made the shield larger.

Version 8.0.0 offered a suite of buffs and the removal of the Lloid Jacket. Neutral attack was given multiple buffs to hit more reliably, included higher hitstun multipliers, larger hitboxes and more of them, and more range overall to mitigate missing opponents under certain conditions. Up tilt was granted intangibily and a hitstun modifier to be better at an anti-air. Up smash became more powerful, Up aerial has more knockback, and Down aerial starts faster. Timber was made safer to use, easier to break the opponent's shield, and the Axe was made more powerful. Version 11.0.0 had a minor update to homogenize the crumpling state across the cast.

Overall, whether Villager fares better or worse since launch is debatable. The projectile nerfs negatively affected the keep away aspect of Villager's gameplan, though this was at least partially if not fully compensated with improved trapping capabilities and stuffing out slower opponents.

1.2.0

• Dream Home grants Villager invulnerability after the last hit.
• Created the Slingshot Crash glitch where if Villager or Isabelle Pocket one another's slingshot from a Pocket, the game will crash.

2.0.0

• Slingshot Crash Glitch fixed.

3.0.0

• Forward aerial deals less shield damage (0 → -3.5/-2/-1 (early/mid/late)).
• Back aerial deals less shield damage (0 → -4.5/-2.5/-1.5 (early/mid/late)).
• Lloid Rocket deals less shield damage (0 → -3.5/-2.5 (impact, clean/late), -6 (explosion)).
• The lean glitch performed on sloped stages with Lloid Rocket has been fixed.
• Fixed Lloid Rocket being deployed incorrectly.

3.1.0

• Up smash's hits connect more reliably.
  • This change boosted the firework launcher's base knockback to connect to the explosion more reliably. However, it was increased so much that it can sometimes launch the opponent out of the explosion, making the move miss entirely.

4.0.0

• Up smash's hits connect more reliably, fixing the issue patch 3.1.0 introduced.

5.0.0

• Up smash's first hit has more set knockback (80 → 120), allowing it to launch buried opponents out of the ground into the following hits.