Editing Zelda (SSBU)

Zelda is a tall, floaty [[weight|lightweight]] character (weighing the same as [[Sora]]) with overall slow mobility. While she has an above-average [[air speed]], [[initial dash]] and [[traction]], her jumps and [[air acceleration]] are below average, and she has the 22nd slowest [[walk|walking speed]], the 16th slowest [[falling speed]], the 10th lowest [[gravity]], and is tied with {{SSBU|Byleth}} for the 9th slowest [[run|running speed]] in the game. Zelda possesses the largest array of [[transcendent]] moves in the game; her attacks are mostly based on magic, being short-ranged attacks with varying but overall modest degrees of disjoint. They also boast generally quick startup; all her normal attacks activate before frame 10, except for [[forward tilt]], [[up aerial]], [[down aerial]], and [[forward smash]]. Despite her low weight, many of her attacks have impressive [[KO]] potential and damage output, giving her power comparable to that of heavyweights. Due to these factors, Zelda can be generalized as a zoner glass cannon.

Zelda's ground game is notably safer than her aerial game due to generally being less committal and more consistent. She has decent close-quarters combat, namely in her [[down tilt]], a short-ranged low-profiling poke, and [[up tilt]], a large all-around anti-air; both are quick to execute combo starters with long-lasting hitboxes. They often work in tandem with [[dash attack]], which is her most important burst and punish option with excellent speed and large hitboxes. More situational is her [[neutral attack]], which is her fastest move at frame 4; it can transition into a [[rapid jab]] for simple damage, or sometimes combo at high percents on its own, but is short-ranged, inconsistent at comboing and unsafe on shield. [[Forward tilt]] is the biggest outlier, being much slower with narrow hitboxes and a strong but low-priority tipper; it can be used to space (especially on shield) at a longer range.

Though known for her broad power, Zelda's smash attacks are one of the few areas where she falls average in strength, although they are all still respectable finishers. Her [[forward smash]] has a good horizontal disjoint with multiple hits; it is a decent option for catching ledge getups, and due to its rather low ending lag it can be hard to punish on shield, especially if spaced and/or charged. [[Up smash]] is similarly a powerful multi-hit; though laggier and having poor horizontal range, it has a fast startup (frame 9) that can punish poorly spaced moves on shield, and has a very long duration of 23 active frames, making it effective for catching getups and landings. [[Down smash]] is a simple leg sweep with average power, being one of her few non-magic attacks, but compensates by being very fast at frame 5; hitting on both sides, the foot sweetspots [[semi-spike]] at a nasty launch angle that can easily set up edgeguards.

Zelda possesses among the most powerful sets of [[aerial]]s in the game; uniquely, a majority of them are highly polarized with high risk and high reward, limiting their usage in neutral and forcing her to play carefully in the air. Her [[forward aerial|forward]] and [[back aerial]]s, known as her Lightning Kicks, are by far most polarized moves. Both have fast startup at frame 6 with an incredibly strong sweetspot at her toe, making them effective punishes and deadly out of shield options. However, the sweetspot is tiny and only active for one frame. Additionally, they have high ending lag; the sourspots are also pitifully weak, even being punishable on hit at most percents. This makes them very risky. [[Down aerial]] is a vaguely similar move with a powerful single-frame clean hit on her leg, but a very weak late hit. Although slow to come out and weaker than her Lightning Kicks, the clean hit is much larger, the late hit lingers for longer and all hits meteor smash, making it useful for gimping. The clean hit has great utility in punishes, as hitting it on grounded opponents will can start a combo at nearly any percent for massive damage or a KO confirm.

[[Up aerial]] is Zelda's only truly consistent aerial, as it consists of a single strong, large and lingering hitbox. A vertically disjointed explosion with excellent power. While having relatively low landing lag, it has significant startup and ending lag and only covers the range above her, limiting its usage. [[Neutral aerial]] stands out as her only aerial to not have outstanding power or a notable sweetspot. Instead, as a multi-hit with many active frames hitting on both sides, it serves as her least committal, most versatile aerial. It can auto-cancel in a short hop, which with good execution can most reliably convert into an up tilt or dash attack at lower percents; it can also combo into dash attack when fast-falled, and a single hit can pop grounded opponents up into a variety of confirms at virtually any percent, making it a versatile combo starter. Despite being her most important all-around aerial, it lacks an autolink angle, instead having a rather convoluted set of six hitboxes that cause the move to be inconsistent and the launch direction to be volatile.  

Overall, Zelda's aerials on their own can be awkward for spacing, air-to-air combat, and starting combos, instead functioning more strongly in conjunction with and as follow-ups to other moves. One of the moves that most boosts the potency of her aerials is her down special, [[Phantom Slash]], her most important tool. It's a unique projectile with a hurtbox that she builds piece-by-piece, with its properties becoming increasingly strong by the charge, and she can have it attack before it is complete. The earliest stages are limited to zoning and body-blocking, but by the final stage, it has outstanding HP, speed, power and range. After it is complete, Zelda will also be able to move freely, while the Phantom will attack automatically after about a second if it is not manually released, granting Zelda much flexibility during this window. Phantom Slash forms the basis of Zelda's kit and is designed to compensate for Zelda's lackluster neutral, with its speed, power and mixup potential allowing her to control space, cover options, pressure, zone and trap. Its main weakness is that it cannot be charge-canceled, requiring Zelda to commit to either an early release or waiting until she is actionable. In addition, if she enters hitstun at any point before releasing the Phantom, it falls apart.

Outside Phantom Slash, the rest of her [[special move]]s take inspiration from the spells of the three Golden Goddesses that Link can use in ''Ocarina of Time''. Her neutral special, [[Nayru's Love]], is a [[reflection|reflector]] that doubles as a melee attack; it has a long duration and hits on both sides of her, with full intangibility from frames 4-13 of the move, allowing it to beat out moves, disrupt strings, two-frame and edgeguard. However, the multi-hits can be inconsistent, and it is laggy, making it highly punishable. [[Din's Fire]], her side special, is a slow ball of fire that becomes stronger and faster the farther it travels. While the explosion has a powerful sweetspot, its slow startup and predictable trajectory make it easy to avoid; instead, it is mostly used to gimp opponents with low resources. Her up special, [[Farore's Wind]], is an outstanding offensive teleport. It is difficult to edgeguard and to two-frame due to its intangibility, omnidirectional distance and large, strong hitboxes. Like {{SSBU|Palutena}}'s [[Warp]], she can avoid the move's ending lag by [[edge cancel]]ing, which grants her access to otherwise impossible movement options. It is also a reliable out of shield option, as the first hit is fast and can optionally combo into the powerful reappearance hitbox. It can situationally work as a burst option to punish laggy options or anti-zone from a distance. While having unique uses in their own rights, her specials can be strategically be used with each other for creative setups and KOs.

Zelda has good range for her [[grab]], with her pivot grab being one of the most disjointed in the game. While having notably slow startup, they have great reward in her [[throws]]. [[Forward throw]] is good at setting up edge guarding and ledge traps, while [[back throw|back]] and [[up throw]] are excellent kill throws and among the strongest of their kind. [[Down throw]] is a reliable combo starter into neutral aerial or Lightning Kick at lower percents, and is even a possible third kill throw into the latter at mid percents. All her throws can lead into a set-up Phantom with proper timing for combos or KO confirms, though forward and down throw are the most practical.

Despite her strengths, Zelda has significant weaknesses. Chief among them is her poor mobility, which hampers her ability to approach and move around safely. Her initial dash, for instance, is tied for the second laggiest in the game at 15 frames, which makes her unable to shield and rather vulnerable whenever she wants to move faster than walking. She also has a low ground speed, air acceleration, falling speed and gravity, leaving her with committal jumps, a slow, telegraphed approach and a risky [[neutral game]]. These mobility issues dampen the effectiveness of her moveset; for example, many of her safe-on-shield or finishing moves, like her forward tilt, forward smash, Lightning Kicks and down aerial, require precise timing and spacing that is difficult to position given how slow she is. Her floatiness makes her air-to-ground transition poor and exacerbates the downsides of her already clunky aerials; as her aerials are also laggier than average, she cannot take exploit her long air time in the same way fighters with excellent aerial combat like {{SSBU|Ness}} can. Since she is tall and floaty with no safe landing options or mixups, she is very vulnerable to getting juggled and ledge trapped, contributing to one of the worst disadvantages in the game and compounding her already poor endurance from her light weight.

Other issues include poor range on her normals, limiting their utility. The transcendent priority of most of her moves is a double-edged sword; while improving their offense, they give her an especial weakness against projectiles and disjoints. In particular, aerials by default [[Priority#Aerial_attacks|do not clank]], except with projectiles which they can destroy; however, the entirety of Zelda's neutral and up aerials, as well as the sweetspots of her Lightning Kicks are transcendent, effectively providing none of the benefits but with all the downsides. The few aerial hitboxes that can protect her against projectiles are subpar: her kicks’ sourspots (which only deal 4%-5%), or the single-frame clean hit of down aerial. Zelda also has consistency issues (namely neutral aerial, Nayru's Love and some of the windboxes of Phantom) and extremely weak sourspots, both of which make her punishable on hit relatively often. Her combo game is polarized and often subpar, as many of her moves have too much lag or unfavorable launch angles and knockback values for reliable follow-ups or wide combo windows. Due to this, she partially relies on Phantom to land stray KOs or start or finish combos for damage-racking. All her special moves have exploitable weaknesses, as they are all committal and can be punished hard if not used correctly. With correct timing and spacing around the Phantom's possible attack ranges, opponents can punish Zelda by reading when she will use the move and preemptively closing in. If there is space, the opponent can also retreat to disengage, with Zelda not being able to do much about it except gaining some stage control. Especially against mobile characters, this forces her to play with her risky, short-ranged neutral tools and subpar mobility.

Overall, Zelda's strengths include impressive kill power spread broadly across her moveset, fast and powerful out of shield options, and good stage control and ledge trapping with Phantom setups. Her weaknesses in mobility, range, frame data, consistency and sweetspot issues require her to be precise with how she spaces her attacks and to make the most out of Phantom ledge traps with proper reads and option coverage. She must be creative in her approaches to overcome her mobility issues when she does not have a lead, and in mixing up what she does to get out of disadvantage due to her floaty nature and lack of safe landing options.