Meta Knight (SSBU)/Neutral special

Update History
 

Hitboxes

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Timing
The attack can be extended by mashing the special move button, which also affects the duration of the clean hit. The timings shown are for the shortest and longest possible durations.

!rowspan=2|Shortest

!rowspan=2|Longest

Parameters
To determine the duration of the attack portion, the move encodes a value known as rotation speed, which is affected by several intricate factors. Rotation speed starts at 130 when initiated, and decays by 2 every following frame (frame 13 onward), with the attack portion stopping if the value drops to 60 or lower. Mashing the special move button increases rotation speed by 7 per input, though it still cannot exceed 130, and there are several limits to the inputs; a delay of at least 5 frames between them, a maximum of 20 inputs total, and a window of 60 frames (effectively frames 13-72 of the move) for inputs to be accepted. Furthermore, after the input window ends (frame 73 onward), the rotation speed's decay is increased to 3 per frame. This ensures that mashing can only extend the attack's duration for a certain amount of time.

The attack's hitbox timings also take the rotation speed into account. The late hit is actually coded to occur on frame 1550 of the attack portion (1100 prior to version 8.0.0), but for each real frame, the move advances an amount of frames equal to the current rotation speed. For example, with the initial speed of 130, the move advances from frame 12 to frame 142 within two real frames of its initiation, or from frame 1 to 131 of the attack portion specifically. This is why mashing to increase the rotation speed shortens the clean hit's duration instead of extending it.