Young Link (SSBU)

Young Link in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearance	in Melee
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Triforce Slash
Tier	B+ (42)

Young Link (こどもリンク, Young Link) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially confirmed as playable alongside his former successor Toon Link and the rest of the returning roster on June 12th, 2018. Although the changes made to Link were not enough to change Young Link's status as a clone, he is not classified as an Echo Fighter. As such, Young Link is classified as Fighter #22.

Fujiko Takimoto reprises her role as Young Link in Ultimate; as in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the voice clips originate from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, with most of the ones used in Melee returning alongside new ones sourced from these games.

Young Link is ranked 42nd out of 82 on the tier list, placing him in the lower half of the B+ tier. This is an improvement from his mid-tier placement in Melee, where he was ranked 17th out of 26. Young Link possesses great frame data and combo ability. The low knockback on his attacks allows him to rack up damage quickly and his disjointed range provides him safety from getting too close to his opponent. His projectiles also benefit his combo game, most notably his Fire Arrow, which has low startup lag and sends his opponents upwards. Young Link also possesses kill confirms at high percentages thanks to the first hit of his forward aerial.

Young Link is not without his shortcomings, however. Young Link has low range for a swordfighter, which forces him to get up close to deal effective damage, a flaw further worsened by him being a lightweight. His recovery is very punishable due to its predictable arcs. He also struggles to get KOs at high percents if he isn't able to get kill confirms, with his safest moves having very little KO power.

Overall, Young Link is often seen as a capable character; he is typically considered one of the better Links, and fared very well in the competitive environment thanks to strong results from players such as Toast, Kobe, and Supahsemmie, especially during the early and pandemic metagame. His representation and results have mellowed out after the creation of the first tier list, although he has had brief success in the post-pandemic era.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Young Link being the 8th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Link or any character in his unlock tree, being the 6th character unlocked after Snake.
• Have Young Link join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Young Link must then be defeated on Great Bay. In World of Light, he is fought on the Ω form of Temple.

Attributes

Young Link is a lightweight character (weighing the same as Greninja and Isabelle), and is the lightest of the three Links, being 3 units lighter than Toon Link. Compared to his alternate timeline counterparts, he tends to be in the middle in regard to mobility, including his running speed, air speed, acceleration, and jump height. He has the highest fall speed and initial dash of the Links, though his fast fall speed is slower than the original Link's thanks to Link's unusual fast fall speed boost. In terms of the rest of the cast, Young Link has an average running speed, high initial dash speed, low air speed and acceleration, high falling speed, and slightly above-average jump height. Finally, his gravity is average and tied with Link's. Overall, Young Link has middling mobility, with most of his quick movement potential coming from his high initial dash and fall speed.

Young Link's moveset is regarded as one of the best and most reliable in the entire game. While even the best characters in the game usually have one or two moves in their moveset regarded as unusually weak or situational, every one of Young Link's moves is strong and flexible, with a mix of versatile ranged combat and robust boxing.

Young Link uses the Kokiri Sword, the starting weapon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, granting him disjointed range and giving him the ability to space out his opponents, as well as making his sword attacks risky to trade with unless the opponent has disjointed range of their own. Unlike many sword users, however, this is coupled with outstanding frame data. Although the Link archetype has been synonymous with laggy frame data up until Ultimate, Young Link has some of the best frame data in the game, with many of his moves being infamous for how quickly they come out and how little cooldown they have. As a result, many moves of his are extremely safe on shield, such as his down tilt, neutral air, forward air, back air, and even his Boomerang. Additionally, the speed of his moveset makes it reliable for one of Young Link’s most notable aspects: his combo game.

While the Link archetype has never been known for combos, Young Link subverts this by providing one of the most complex and varied combo games out of the entire cast. His up tilt and especially down tilt are well designed to start combos, knocking the opponents up into the air with weak knockback to set up for his aerials, while his jab can transition into a rapid jab for respectable damage, create mixups through his surprisingly fast jab cancels, or be used to jab lock opponents and set up combos with down tilt or finish stocks with an up special or forward smash. However, his aerials are truly what give him the outstanding combo and boxing game he has. Most of Young Link's aerials are capable of both starting combos as well as continuing them, making their usage very flexible and wide, as well as dealing significant damage.

His neutral aerial, perhaps his best aerial, is a simple sex kick. Its late hit in particular is extremely good for combos, being able to both start and continue them well into high percentages, and being able to be followed up with a majority of Young Link's moveset. It can also lead to tech chase situations at high percentages when the move causes opponents to go into a tumble. Meanwhile, the clean hit is very reliable at warding off opponents, prevents other combo-oriented characters from overwhelming Young Link with combos of their own, has enough power to kill at high percentages, and provides him with a fast, safe, and reliable out of shield option. Overall, the sheer utility of this move has caused it to gain a reputation as one of the best aerials in the game.

Young Link's forward and back aerials are both designed similarly. Both are combo attacks that consist of a first weak hit that stuns the enemy in place for a second launching hit. However, these are both meant to be used in different ways. His back aerial is much more geared towards combos as it comes out fast, has very little lag, and deals minimal knockback, making it easy to follow up with another back aerial or another move. His forward aerial is instead a combo finisher as it comes out slower and recovers slower than his back air in exchange for having much more power and knockback, providing significant KO power. Notably, canceling either of these moves by landing after the first hit allows Young Link to combo into almost any move in his kit, depending on the situation.

The up aerial is a thrust above Young Link that comes out very fast for how strong it is and lingers a while, making it useful for covering the space above him. It can be used to juggle opponents, as its large disjoint makes it hard to challenge. Additionally, his up aerial is a powerful KO move and can be comboed into quite flexibly. His down aerial, while not being a combo tool except in relatively rare situations, serves as a reliable landing option or jump callout due to its lingering, disjointed hitbox and considerable power even on the late hit.

Young Link's special moves grant him many more options to work with. Like his normals, they tend to be fast, flexible, and safe. Fire Arrow fires a flaming arrow in front of Young Link. It is incredibly fast and quick-recovering, and even an uncharged arrow travels a respectable distance, making it a very persistent poking tool when zoning. The arrow itself also deals low upwards knockback with high hitstun, making them reliable combo starters, provided Young Link is close enough to his opponent or can catch the upward knockback with another projectile (including another arrow). Fire Arrow can also be charged, allowing it to fly further and do more damage than a noncharged arrow, which can be useful for catching landings, mixing up timings against certain reflectors, or pressuring far-away targets. However, this charge cannot be stored, unlike moves such as Charge Shot.

Boomerang is slower than Fire Arrow, but comes with the perks of more damage, lasting much longer, being able to be thrown at different angles, and returning to Young Link after travelling a certain distance, meaning that the opponent must remain aware of the Boomerang’s location even after it has passed them. Boomerang is best used as a lingering trap to grant Young Link stage control and for challenging people above or below you with its many angles. Interestingly, a point blank Boomerang is actually safe on shield against most of the cast, something uncharacteristic of a projectile.

Bomb, Young Link's third and final projectile, is perhaps his most complex and flexible. When used, Bomb functions as a held item, allowing Young Link to throw it forward, backward, up, and down, in addition to Z-dropping it, which may be used to pressure people below him or drop it and have it lie on the ground until it explodes. Bomb grants Young Link numerous trapping opportunities, such as being able to use dropped Bombs to cover platforms or ledge get-up options, as well as setting up for combos if the Bomb hits an opponent.

This diverse projectile kit allows Young Link to play as a zoner, much like regular Link does. However, while most zoners' weaknesses are their poor frame data and inability to get opponents off of them, Young Link is more than capable of fighting up close and actually likes it when his opponents get close to him, as it allows him to take advantage of his combo game. Speaking of combos, his last special move, Spin Attack, serves as a surprisingly effective combo starter on the ground, where it knocks opponents up into the air with weak knockback and has little endlag. Starting frame 9 and hitting on both sides, it provides a powerful out-of-shield option with great damage reward. In the air, it is instead a combo finisher or hard read, reliably KOing opponents at (or beyond) the ledge.

Young Link's grab game may be the best of the Links and provides him with additional options. Unlike Link, Young Link still retains use of the Hookshot for his grab, giving him a very long, disjointed grab range in exchange for his grab being laggier than unarmed grabs and thus requiring a more spacing-dependent grappling style, either grabbing at range or using turnaround grabs to create space. Additionally, the Hookshot itself can be used as a grab aerial attack. It has the longest range of any of his aerials, and can confirm into a variety of follow-ups, including his neutral air or up smash for KOs at higher percents. This grab aerial attack also provides him with a tether recovery, which is often much safer than his Spin Attack. His forward throw is one of the strongest forward throws in the game, KOing middleweights at the ledge of Final Destination around 130% depending on their directional influence. Some Young Link players will enjoy trying to forward-throw their opponents very quickly before they've had a chance to DI. Young Link's grabs also have solid combo potential, as his up and down throws both provide combos at low to mid percents. His back throw is the least useful of his throws, but it can set up for an edge guard.

However, while he has some very potent strengths, Young Link has some notable weaknesses. His range, while disjointed, is significantly lacking when compared to other sword users. As a result, despite having a sword, Young Link is beaten out in range by nearly every other swordfighter in the game, causing his mid-range game to be rather poor, as his attacks are too short-ranged to hit, but his projectiles leave him wide open to attack. Unlike other sword characters, he still needs to get up close and personal if he wants to use any attacks other than his projectiles, which leads into his second issue of his mobility.

While Young Link's mobility is average overall, this average mobility can tend to clash with his combo-oriented moveset. This can lead to situations where Young Link is simply too slow to continue a combo he has started. While Fire Arrows can help alleviate this by being used to "hold" opponents in hitstun while Young Link gets over to continue the combo, it is not ideal or even possible in all situations. His low air speed can also limit his ability to approach or escape, making him dependent on his projectiles for setting the terms of engagement.

Additionally, Young Link's recovery, while much better than in Melee, can be exploitable. His Spin Attack, while having good reach, travels on a predictable arc and only hits to his sides, allowing him to be edgeguarded by characters who can hit his head or be blocked by characters with counters such as Lucina. Young Link has a variety of options to deepen his recovery potential thanks to his tether recovery and many projectiles he can throw at the stage to cover himself, but in bad situations may be forced to use his up special in a way that's very vulnerable or predictable.

Young Link's KO potential can also be a mixed bag. His up smash gives him excellent kill potential out of shield, but it is risky if it misses. While he has many safe moves that kill, such as his neutral air, forward air, and forward tilt, they may kill quite late, often requiring the opponent to be past 150%. Young Link is very dependent on his melee hits to kill, challenging him to contend with his sometimes-awkward approach game and short reach. As usual, this can be mitigated with projectiles, which provide combos even at very high percents and give Young Link an opening with which to approach. Stale moves can also present challenges--moves like his nair and fair may have been heavily involved in combos and neutral, meaning they may be missing their full power when used for a KO. These factors, when combined with a large number of combos and setups to learn, cause Young Link to have a rather high learning curve, especially at top-level play.

In summary, Young Link, despite featuring a very similar moveset to his alternate timeline counterparts, has a unique design and playstyle unlike anybody else in the game. He is regarded as having one of the best combo games and above average zoning tools, giving him the ability to play both hyper-defensively and hyper-aggressively and switch between the two playstyles on the fly to throw opponents off.

Differences from Link

The parent Link has received a significant overhaul to his design, both aesthetically and playstyle-wise, to be based on his appearance in Breath of the Wild. As Young Link hails from Ocarina of Time, his moveset is much closer to his adult self's appearances in Melee and the original Super Smash Bros., effectively serving as the classic Link archetype for this game. He retains moves and characteristics from Melee that the Hero of the Wild lacks (most notably a flurry attack and Hookshot), yet he has also inherited a myriad of changes derived from the Hero of Twilight's moveset as seen in Brawl and in Super Smash Bros. 4. While these changes further de-clone Young Link from Link, he remains a full clone instead of a semi-clone due to his large number of shared attacks (compared to Toon Link, who has roughly as many unique attacks as not). Of note is that, except for his neutral infinite, every move that Young Link does not share with Link is instead shared with Toon Link.

Aesthetics

• Young Link wears the Kokiri Tunic by default, whereas Link wears the Champion's Tunic and Hylian Trousers by default.
  • Unlike Young Link, Link's alternate costumes include model modifications via the Wild Set and its respective variations.
• Young Link wields the Kokiri Sword and Deku Shield, whereas Link wields the Master Sword and Hylian Shield.
  • Unlike Link, who holds his sword and shield in his right and left hands to reflect Breath of the Wild, Young Link holds his sword and shield in his left and right hands to reflect most Zelda titles, including Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
• Young Link's on-screen appearance, taunts, idle poses, and two of his victory poses are different from Link's.

Attributes

• Young Link is shorter than Link. While this does make him harder to hit, it also results in him having less reach in his attacks. Young Link's shield is also smaller than Link's (radius: 10.9 → 10), overall covering him better vertically due to his shorter stature, but worse horizontally.
• Young Link will sometimes hold his Deku Shield to the side during his walking and idle animations. This makes it less reliable for blocking projectiles.
• Young Link's Kokiri Sword has less of a disjointed range advantage on his attacks than Link, which gives him inferior range when combined with his shorter height.
• Young Link deals less knockback for most of his attacks. Overall, this weakens his KO potential in comparison to Link, but it also grants Young Link access to new combos when combined with his faster frame data.
• Young Link can wall jump, aiding his recovery and ledge play options on stages with walls.
• Young Link walks faster than Link (1.247 → 1.26).
• Young Link dashes faster than Link (1.534 → 1.749).
  • Young Link's initial dash speed is faster than Link's (1.98 → 2.09).
  • Young Link's dash acceleration is lower than Link's (0.17567 → 0.1342).
• Young Link's traction is slightly lower than Link's (0.113 → 0.105), making it slightly harder for Young Link to punish out of shield.
• Young Link's air friction is slightly lower (0.0038 → 0.00375).
• Young Link's air speed is faster than Link's (0.924 → 0.966).
• Young Link's base air acceleration is higher than Link's (0.01 → 0.02), giving him a higher total air acceleration (0.05 → 0.06).
• Young Link falls faster (1.6 → 1.8) than Link. However, his fast falling speed is slower (3.04 → 2.88).
  • The difference between Young Link's falling speed and fast falling speed is much lower than Link's (increase: 90% → 60%), which makes it more predictable when landing and gives him fewer options in the air.
• Young Link jumps higher than Link (27.8 → 33.66 (jump), 13.38 → 16.26 (short hop), 29 → 33.66 (double jump)).
• Young Link is significantly lighter than Link (104 → 88). This makes Young Link significantly easier to KO than Link.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Young Link's neutral attack can be followed by a neutral infinite and a finisher, unlike Link's.
  • The first hit has much less startup lag (frame 7 → 4).
  • The first hit has a lower hitlag multiplier (1.6× → 1.5×).
  • The second hit has more startup lag (frame 5 → 6).
  • The first and second hits have much less ending lag (FAF 25 → 18 (hit 1), 25 → 17 (hit 2)).
  • The third hit uses Link's previous animation: a thrust instead of an upward slash.
  • The third hit has more ending lag (FAF 35 → 36).
  • All hits deal less damage (3% → 2% (hit 1), 3% → 1.5% (hit 2), 4% → 3.5% (hit 3), 10% → 7% (total)).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has noticeably less startup lag (frame 15 → 10).
  • It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 15-19 → 10-12), which also causes it to have one more frame of ending lag despite the shorter total duration (FAF 40 → 34).
  • It deals less damage (13% → 12% (base)/11% (tip)) and knockback (55 base/82 scaling → 30/85 (blade), 25/85 (body)), making it considerably weaker than Link's.
• Up tilt:
  • Young Link's up tilt uses Link's previous animation, where it starts from the front rather than the back.
  • It has more startup lag (frame 8 → 9).
  • It has a longer duration (frames 8-12 → 9-14) and less ending lag (FAF 36 → 32).
  • It deals less damage (11% → 8%) with knockback not fully compensated (30 base/103/111/105/104 scaling → 20 base/130/128/126 scaling), making it weaker than Link's.
    • However, this improves its combo potential when combined with its lower ending lag.
  • The sword hit launches at a consistent angle (95°/85° → 85°).
  • The body hit launches at a lower angle (85° → 75°).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has less startup (frame 10 → 8) and ending lag (FAF 31 → 26), as well as less knockback (90 base/30 scaling → 80/25), making it better for combos.
  • Although it does not reach as far as Link's, it uses three larger, non-extended hitboxes rather than a single small, extended hitbox (2u → 3.4u/3.4u/3.0u). This gives it more vertical range.
  • It does not deal consistent damage (9% → 10%/9%/7%).
• Dash attack:
  • Young Link has a different dash attack: instead of performing the Jump Attack from Ocarina of Time, he performs a lunging downwards slash.
  • It has much less startup (frame 20 → 8) and ending lag (FAF 57 → 35), making it much safer.
  • It deals less damage (14% (tip)/13% (blade)/12% (body) → 11% (base)/10% (tip)) and knockback (70 base/85 scaling (tip), 85/85 (blade), 85/77 (body) → 70/70) and the tip of the Kokiri Sword is a sourspot, making it considerably weaker than Link's.
• Forward smash:
  • The first hit of Young Link's forward smash cannot fire a Sword Beam at 0%.
  • The first hit has less startup (frame 17 → 15) and ending lag (FAF 51 → 48) and has a wider continuability window (frame 23-36 → 21-39 (13 frames → 18)).
  • The first hit always deals lower damage (7% (base)/14% (tip) → 6%) and knockback (45 base/12 scaling (base), 30/100 (tip) → 35/40 base/15 scaling). This removes the tip hitbox's KO potential, but allows it to connect into the second hit more consistently.
  • The first hit launches at a lower angle than Link's base hit (69°/60° → 60°/50°).
  • The second hit has more startup lag (frame 10 → 11).
  • The second hit has much less ending lag (FAF 61 → 50).
  • The second hit deals less damage (13% (blade)/12% (body) → 12% (base)/10% (tip)) and knockback (85 base/89 scaling → 43/115).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has noticeably less ending lag (FAF 78 → 70).
  • The first two hits have a slightly shorter duration (10-15 → 10-14 (hit 1), 25-30 → 25-29 (hit 2)).
  • The first and third hits deal less damage (4% → 3% (hit 1), 11%/10%/9% → 8%/7% (hit 3)) and the knockback in the third hit is not fully compensated (60 base/96 scaling → 75/108), hindering its KO potential.
  • The third hit launches at a consistent angle (80°/90° → 100°).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has less startup (frame 12 → 9) and ending lag (FAF 55 → 50).
  • Both hits deal less damage (17%/16%/14% → 13%/10% (hit 1), 12%/11%/10% → 10%/9% (hit 2)) and knockback (40 base/88 scaling → 30/90 (hit 1), 80/63 → 25 base/90/70 scaling (hit 2)).
  • The first hit launches at a much lower angle (78° → 30°).

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has less startup lag (frame 7 → 4).
  • It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 7-31 → 4-27), which also causes it to have one frame more ending lag despite the shorter total duration (FAF 39 → 36).
  • It autocancels earlier (frame 36 → 32). Unlike Link's, it can autocancel in a short hop.
  • The clean hit deals consistent damage (11%/9% → 10%) and has different knockback values (22 base/100 scaling → 20/108).
  • The late hit deals less damage (6% → 5%).
    • However, it has less base knockback (15 → 10), improving its combo potential when combined with its reduced damage.
  • The late hit lacks Link's notoriously large lingering hitboxes, with 2 of the 3 hitboxes being shrunk considerably (4.5u → 3u). Combined with Young Link's shorter, wider legs, this reduces the move's disjointedness considerably.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial's first hit has less startup lag (frame 16 → 14).
  • It has much less ending lag (FAF 52 → 41), improving its combo potential at lower percents.
  • It has noticeably less landing lag (11 frames → 6).
  • It autocancels earlier (frame 53 → 41), matching its interruptibility. Unlike Link's, it can autocancel in a full hop.
  • Both hits deal less damage (8% → 6% (hit 1), 10% → 8%/7% (hit 2)) and the knockback in the second hit is not fully compensated (43 base/120 scaling → 45/125), hindering its KO potential.
    • However, this further improves its combo potential when combined with its lower ending lag.
  • The second hit launches at a slightly higher angle (44° → 48°).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's second hit has more startup lag (frame 15 → 18).
  • Back aerial's first hit's aerial hitboxes deal less set knockback (36 → 20). Combined with Young Link's faster falling speed and the greater delay between the hits, this makes the move connect less consistently.
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 30).
  • The second hit has different knockback values (45 base/98 scaling → 40/102).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial uses its animation from Melee, making it more closely resemble its appearance in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
  • Up aerial has noticeably less startup lag with a longer active duration (frames 11-40 → 5-49), making it safer to use and decreasing its ending lag compared to the hitbox.
    • However, this also causes it to autocancel later (frame 43 → 56), increasing its ending lag before it can autocancel. Unlike Link's, it cannot autocancel in a full hop.
  • It has a shorter initial autocancel window (frames 1-10 → 1-4).
  • The clean hit deals less knockback (23 base/93 scaling → 25/82).
  • The late hit deals less damage (13% → 12%) with knockback not fully compensated (18 base/88 scaling → 25/82), hindering its KO potential.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has less startup lag with a longer active duration (frames 14-64 → 13-64).
    • However, the clean hit has a shorter active duration (frames 14-19 → 13-15).
  • It has less landing lag (19 frames → 17).
  • It has a larger initial autocancel window (frames 1-9 → 1-12).
  • It deals more knockback scaling (80/78 → 83) and launches at a higher angle (270°/60° → 70°), improving its KO potential near the vertical blastzone.
    • However, it does not have a meteor smash hitbox.
  • The bounce-off hit deals less damage (11% → 9%) with knockback fully compensated (50 base/80 scaling → 40/100).

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Young Link retains the Hookshot while Link no longer has a tether grab.
    • Because of this, all grabs have much longer range, as well as a longer duration (2 frames → 7).
    • However, all grabs have noticeably more startup (frame 6/9/10 (standing/dash/pivot) → 12/14/15) and ending lag (FAF 35/43/38 → 52/60/55), making them riskier to use at close range, and easier to punish if they miss.
    • This gives Young Link a grab aerial and a tether recovery.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw deals slightly more damage (2.5% → 3% (throw), 5.5% → 6% (total)).
  • It deals drastically more knockback (75 base/85 scaling → 48/184), allowing it to KO under 140% at the edge.
  • It launches at a higher angle (33° → 52°).
• Back throw:
  • Back throw deals slightly more damage (2.5% → 3% (throw), 5.5% → 6% (total)).
  • It deals more knockback (67 base/110 scaling → 45/140), allowing it to KO under 200% at the edge.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw deals less damage (5% → 4% (hit 1), 7% → 6% (total)) and knockback (24 base/230 scaling → 30/210).
• Down throw:
  • It has different knockback values (60 base/125 scaling → 70/115).
  • It launches at a slightly higher angle (83° → 86°).
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack has Young Link swipe his sword in front of himself, unlike Link, who stabs forward.
  • Edge attack has much shorter range.

Special moves

• Fire Arrow:
  • Fire Arrow less startup lag (frame 16 → 14) than Link's Bow and Arrows.
  • Arrows charge faster (60 frames → 50 frames).
  • Arrows are fired at a higher angle (2.5˚ → 4˚).
  • Arrows fly faster when uncharged (speed 2.6 → 2.8), but fly much slower when fully charged (speed 10 → 6.3). The arrows are also floatier (gravity 0.054 → 0.035).
    • Overall, arrows have more range at low charge levels, and less range at high charge levels.
  • The arrows have a shorter lifespan (46 frames → 35).
  • It has significantly less ending lag (FAF 45 → 38).
  • It deals more knockback (10 base/71 scaling → 45/70) and launches upward instead of away (361° → 78°), increasing his combo ability and making the move safer on hit up close.
  • It deals flame damage (hence the name).
  • Unlike Link's, arrows can not be picked up.
• Boomerang:
  • Boomerang deals more damage (8% (clean)/6% (late) → 11%/7%), which increases further if used as a smash special move (9.6% (clean)/7.2% (late) → 13.2%/8.4%).
  • Boomerang can be angled more (max angle change: 26˚ → 33˚).
    • However, the clean hit has a much shorter duration (frames 27-36 → 27-29).