Pit (SSBU)

Pit (, Pit) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially revealed on June 12th, 2018 alongside fellow Kid Icarus fighters and, and the rest of the returning roster. Pit is classified as Fighter #28.

Antony Del Rio and reprise their roles as Pit's voice actors in the English and Japanese versions of Ultimate via recycled voice clips from Super Smash Bros. 4 along with some new voice clips. However, Del Rio remains uncredited for his role as in SSB4, most likely because of him still being a union-based voice actor.

Pit, alongside his Echo Fighter Dark Pit, are ranked 52nd out of 82 on the current tier list, placing them in the B- tier. This is a slight drop for them compared to their 32nd out of 54 placement in SSB4 and is Pit's worst placement in the series.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Pit must then be defeated on Skyworld (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Pit being the 4th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in her unlock tree, being the 3rd character unlocked after.
 * Have Pit join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Pit is a middleweight who has above-average walking and dashing speeds, a fast initial dash, very high traction (being tied with his Echo Fighter for the 2nd highest behind ), average air acceleration and falling speed, and below-average air speed and gravity. Pit's jump and double jump are both low, although this flaw is largely offset by his 3 double jumps. These attributes render Pit's overall mobility as average, yet make him adept at adapting to most situations.

As a beginner-friendly character, Pit has a low learning curve, yet is quite rewarding when played wisely. His ease of use is probably best exemplified by his fast frame data; aside from six moves (forward tilt, forward smash, and forward/back/up/down aerials), the rest of Pit's standard moveset has less than 10 frames of startup lag. Much like his attributes, Pit's moveset is balanced, so much so that it seemingly has no glaring strengths or weaknesses. When coupled with his great neutral game, Pit's edgeguarding potential, punishment ability, and conversions are all balanced compared to the rest of the cast. Pit's ground game overall possesses a decent level of utility. Neutral attack, down tilt and down smash are decent spacing options, thanks to their quick start-up and moderate ending lag in proportion to their range, with down tilt also serving as a useful combo starter unlike in SSB4 in addition to making Pit pseudo-crawl.

Neutral attack's first two hits can jab lock, while dash attack can punish landings and whiffed attacks very effectively, and down smash's back hit is a moderately strong semi-spike. Up tilt and especially up smash are useful anti-air moves, with the former being viable for setting up juggles even at higher percentages, while the latter also boasts enough power to score KOs. Lastly, forward smash is Pit's strongest KOing option, and it has among the fastest startup of any forward smash in the game.

Pit possesses a respectable grab game. Forward throw can combo into dash attack at low percentages or KO at high percentages while near the edge, while down throw can be used to combo into up smash or any of his aerials. Back throw can combo into a dash attack at low percentages as well and can be used to setup edgeguards at higher percentages. Finally, up throw is Pit's most damaging, yet least useful throw, since its only utility is to occasionally set up juggles or pressure.

Pit's air game is also useful, thanks to his aerial attacks' ability to all autocancel in a short hop and their particular strengths. Neutral aerial has the lowest amount of startup lag out of his entire moveset, a long duration, and an excellent autocancel window. Altogether, these traits make it a decent out of shield option, decent for edgeguarding and approaching, and similarly to 's neutral aerial, it is also useful for pressure and combos. Forward and up aerials are reliable followups from down throw, the latter more so at mid to high percentages; in addition, the former is useful for approaching and edgeguarding, whereas the latter is excellent for juggling. Back aerial is Pit's strongest aerial attack when sweetspotted, making it ideal for spacing as well as for outright KOing. Lastly, down aerial has the lowest ending lag of Pit's aerials, and is useful for edgeguarding thanks to it being a meteor smash during its first frame, and its fairly large range also makes it decent for approaching; the inability to tech grounded meteor smashes in Ultimate also enables down aerial to serve as a combo starter at higher percents that can combo into an up smash for a reliable KO combo. It's also fast for a meteor smash, coming out on frame 10. Pit's aerial attacks also have low landing lag.

Pit's special moves are fairly versatile as well, reinforcing his ease of use. He has a great projectile in Palutena Bow which can be charged and easily maneuvered makes it very useful for camping, edgeguarding, winning projectile wars against characters such as, and even mindgames. Upperdash Arm functions very similarly to Raptor Boost: it propels Pit forward and, upon making contact with something, results in him throwing an uppercut that has a decent damage output and very high base knockback, and can KO at high percentages. Upperdash Arm also has utility outside of offense; it grants super armor, can reflect projectiles, and can function as a horizontal recovery option. However, it is very punishable because of its dash's noticeable startup lag and extreme amount of ending lag, especially when it misses. Upperdash Arm's deflection property is also fairly inconsequential, since it reflects projectiles at an upward diagonal angle instead of directly back at the opponent. Power of Flight covers an impressive amount of distance, and be angled to propel Pit either vertically, diagonally, or almost horizontally; it also grants Pit brief intangibility on startup as well. Lastly, Guardian Orbitars protect Pit on his left and right sides with energy shields that reflect projectiles. They are also capable of pushing opponents back, which makes them capable of edgeguarding. However, the Orbitars are not indestructible: should they end up being destroyed, they cannot be used again for 10 seconds. In addition, their high amount of ending lag makes them highly risky when used on the ground or when landing.

Despite his strengths, Pit does have some weaknesses. Like any all-around character, most characters are able to outperform him in various areas: as examples, himself has a significantly more versatile combo game,  has better mobility,  and  are better at camping,  has much greater range, and  has much stronger attacks. Pit's KO potential, however, is his most noticeable weakness, despite being buffed in the transition to Ultimate. Despite possessing a serviceable amount of KOing options, only his forward smash and up smash are consistently effective, and even these are highly unsafe on shield due to their high ending lag. In comparison, his other KOing options are only effective when sweetspotted (forward tilt and back aerial), or above 130% (dash attack, down aerial, down smash, forward throw and Upperdash Arm). This, in turn, is further compounded by his lack of guaranteed KO setups outside of sweetspotted down aerial into up smash or forward smash.

Although rage somewhat alleviates Pit's KO potential, his average endurance means that he cannot utilize it as consistently or effectively as heavier characters can. As a result, Pit will typically spend a comparatively longer time racking up damage before attempting to score a KO, and will often give the opponent high amounts of rage in the process.

Although all of Pit's aerials autocancel in a short hop, only his forward and back aerials autocancel during a short hop buffered fast fall. This means that Pit players will often need to manually delay their fast fall perfectly in order to use his aerials effectively.

Pit's slow air speed, average falling speed and low gravity make him somewhat floaty and he noticeably struggles to both land and contest other aerial opponents due to neutral air and forward air's small looping hitboxes, with the former being only capable of hitting opponents very close to him, and the latter's first two hits don't fully cover the blade as it spins, and they are both poor defensively due to their lack of range. In the end, Pit's aerials are helpful in his advantage state and supplement his grounded neutral game, but are much less useful when he is disadvantaged. To make this issue even worse, he has only one aerial which comes out before frame 10, which is his frame 4 neutral aerial, while his back, up, and down aerials come out on frame 10, and his forward aerial at frame 11, being the slowest startup of his entire moveset. Due to his aerials being unable to properly cover him, and his floaty nature, Pit is vulnerable to pressure, as he lacks reliable ways to escape pressure or to defend himself from juggles. While his down aerial is overall fast, especially for a meteor smash, and has good range, he cannot be overly reliant on that to get out of disadvantage, and Palutena Bow, while versatile, needs a long time to be used effectively. This gives Pit a poor disadvantage state overall.

Although long-distanced, Pit's recovery is linear and predictable, and Power of Flight also does not provide Pit with protective hitboxes around him either while its intangibility period is very brief, which can leave him vulnerable to sufficiently strong meteor smashes. Additionally, while Upperdash Arm can aid Pit's horizontal recovery, it has an extreme amount of ending lag when performed in the air, making it extremely risky when improperly used as a recovery option.

All in all, Pit's strengths outweigh his weaknesses. His moveset consists of many moves with long range (his grounded moves and back aerial), long durations (neutral/forward/up aerials and forward tilt), low ending lag (autocanceled neutral/forward aerials, down smash and Palutena Bow) or quick movement (dash attack, dash grab and Upperdash Arm). This combination of traits, along with his good grounded mobility, allows Pit to reliably keep opponents in a disadvantage state, either stuck trying to land or getting off the edge.

In the end, he can cover enough options and retain advantage long enough to rack up good amounts of damage. However, he suffers from unimpressive KO potential similarly to lightweights, yet lacks the extended combo options and safe pressuring options that they typically possess for damage-racking.

Despite being a very balanced character, players often tend to overlook Pit in favor of other characters that possess much more outstanding strengths than he does. This has also been reflected in his tournament representation, which is minimal outside of Japan, much like in SSB4. However, Pit has nevertheless managed to achieve an adequate level of success in the competitive scene, although not as much as in SSB4: in particular has done well with Pit, with him placing 3rd at Umebura SP. Pit has also received results from others like.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Pit has been buffed overall in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. Almost all aspects of Pit's moveset have been improved overall, and he generally benefits from the changes to gameplay mechanics.

Among Pit's largest buffs are to his KOing ability and a significantly improved aerial game. Previously plagued with mediocre KO power due to his lack of safe KO options (especially in comparison to the rest of the cast) in SSB4, his dash attack, front hit of down smash, back aerial, down aerial, and Upperdash Arm have all had their knockback increased to the point of KOing reliably at high percentages, while his neutral and forward aerials are much better for edgeguarding due to their slightly higher knockback; particularly, the latter has had some of its lost KO potential restored from Brawl. This is complemented by Pit's already existing KO options, as well as his generally more effective damage racking ability due to his higher damage output and larger amount of combo starters.

His aerial game is drastically more useful as a result of the universally decreased landing lag, which puts his overall landing lag more in-line with the rest of the cast, gives him newfound set-up potential due to most of them being multi-hit based, and makes them safer to use against shields (complemented further by out of shield options being weakened); the latter point means his already respectable neutral game has been strengthened as a result. His aerials themselves have also been buffed to varying degrees; his neutral, forward and up aerials deal more damage, with the former also connecting slightly more reliably and the latter now KOing reliably, and his down aerial has a larger meteor smash hitbox.

Pit has also received some useful buffs to his ground game, as his up tilt and down tilt have received less ending lag and more favorable angles that turn them into more reliable combo starters, and his neutral attack's infinite —previously unreliable due to its poor linking— is much more effective for racking up damage due to the several tweaks it has received. Moreover, his special move kit has increased utility, with both Palutena Bow and Guardian Orbitars being sped up, improving his camping ability; Upperdash's Arm receiving an aforementioned increase in KO power; and Power of Flight now being able to grab edges from behind, making it a much more useful recovery move.

Finally, and apart from the reduced landing lag, Pit largely benefits from many of the universal changes to Ultimate. The changes to air dodges significantly improve his edgeguarding game, which is further bolstered by his improved aerial game and more reliable projectile, while not hampering as much due to his multiple jumps and long-distanced recovery move. The faster mobility, along with the ability to use any attack out of a run also give him many more options in the neutral game, thanks to his more varied amount of combo starters. Altogether, Pit's buffs and the changes to the engine ultimately grant him a much stronger and reliable offensive game, which was a previously large weakness from SSB4.

However, Pit has received a few, though minor, nerfs. The universal nerfs to grabs hinder Pit, as all of his grabs now have increased ending lag in addition to his dash grab and pivot grab's start-up lag being standardized. Combined with the universal nerfing of shields, this makes Pit's grab game less effective than it was in SSB4, although it is still above average. Some of Pit's attacks have received minor nerfs as well; his up tilt has less range, Guardian Orbitars have less HP and shrink the more time they're held out, and Power of Flight now halts immediately at the end of the move's duration, slightly worsening Pit's recovery. Pit also carries some of the same weaknesses his previous incarnation suffered from: hitbox inconsistencies, trouble at landing in general due to being floaty, vulnerable recovery, and KOing issues despite the buffs made to his moveset's power.

Overall, Pit's moveset has been strengthened as a whole, now boasting an offensive game more comparable to other characters while keeping his defensive game relatively intact, and the universal changes allow him with far more opportunities to take the upper hand. However, he still lacks noteworthy attributes (outside of his edgeguarding ability), which isn't helped by many veterans either being buffed to varying degrees and/or benefitting from the universal changes. That said, Pit has received buffs from game updates that have helped fix some inconsistencies or giving him new options, letting him moderately keep up with the rest of the cast. Altogether, Pit fares much better than he did in SSB4, but has not improved significantly relative to the cast, leading him to remain in a similar position as he was in SSB4.

Update history
Pit received a mix of buffs, nerfs and glitch fixes via game updates, but was buffed overall. Update 2.0.0 ensured that Lightning Chariot would launch crouching opponents akin to a standing opponent, a buff that was shared with Giga Bowser Punch. Although update 3.0.0 decreased Palutena Bow's shield damage output as part of a near-universal nerf to projectiles, update 3.1.0 buffed up smash by making its hits connect together more reliably.

Update 4.0.0 improved Pit's frame data in a few ways. Down smash's front hit became slightly more reliable for KOing, courtesy of its sweetspot's knockback values being increased. Back aerial's lowered landing lag made its sweetspot safer and improved its sourspot's combo potential when SHFF'd. Down aerial's higher base knockback improved its edgeguarding potential. Lastly, neutral attack's first hit and up tilt both became slightly faster via minor lag decreases.

While update 7.0.0 enlarged Pit's shield as part of a near-universal buff, update 8.0.0 improved his moveset in a few noticeable ways. Down tilt launches at a higher angle and deals less knockback, both of which improve its combo potential to the point that it can be followed with aerials even up to high percentages. Up aerial became a much more useful juggling option, thanks to its lowered start-up and ending lag, higher launching angle, and its last hit's much higher knockback. Altogether, these changes also grant Pit new combos that were virtually impossible to perform before the update, such as down tilt into up aerial as a KO confirm. In addition, Pit's KO potential was improved slightly: up smash's final hit gained more knockback, while down smash's first hit had its angle lowered. Lastly, Guardian Orbitars have less ending lag, which makes them safer and less situational.

Overall, Pit fares better than he did at the launch of Ultimate, thanks to his buffs alleviating his mediocre KO potential, improving his already respectable combo and edgeguarding potential, and slightly improving his defense.

 

 

 3.0.1

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Pit's hitboxes, see here.
 * Pit can perform 3 double jumps.

On-screen appearance

 * Slowly descends onto the stage while surrounded by rays of sparkling light that shine down from the sky.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Separates the Palutena Bow and crouches down, then twirls its blades before standing up, crossing them over his head and saying "Come on!" (, Let's battle!).
 * Side taunt: Separates the Palutena Bow and then flourishes its blades before striking a pose while saying "That all you got?" (, Not just yet!) It is similar to Pit's animation during the end of 's first cutscene in The Subspace Emissary.
 * Down taunt: Spreads out his arms and wings, during which a few feathers are loosed from his wings. This is the only taunt that does not split his Bow into blades if it was in bow form beforehand.
 * Smash Taunt: Activates Palutena's Guidance. Kneels down before contacting Palutena, Viridi, Dark Pit (when fighting against him, or the ) and even Alucard (when fighting against ). Pit then receives information on one of his opponents; this applies to every character in the game, including himself, and additional conversations for the Koopalings and the male . Aside from, all downloadable characters share a generic "placeholder" conversation. Palutena's Guidance can only be used on Palutena's Temple, and is performed by rapidly pressing the button which activates Pit's down taunt. Pit will hold a pose for a few seconds prior to the conversation starting. Paluena's Guidance can only be done once per match, and if Pit gets hit while holding his pose before the conversation starts, it will be canceled. If Pit is KOed, the conversation will end. Lastly, if there is more than one opponent on-screen when the conversation begins, one of the opponents will be randomly chosen to be discussed.

Idle poses

 * Briefly fiddles with his Palutena Bow. Pit will split it into its blades if it is in its bow form.
 * Taps the tips of his buskins on the ground and then impatiently hops in place.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: After landing, he does two alternating inward slashes with his detached blades and says "It's game over for you!" ("", Struck down-!). The finishing pose he does is similar to his Ultimate official artwork, albeit with the blade in his left hand held in a proper grip.
 * Up: Pit jumps up with his fist raised. After landing, he briefly faces away from the screen, and turns back around. He then strikes the V sign and says "Victory!" ("", Peace!). Based on the ending of Kid Icarus: Uprising.
 * Right: Spins his bow in his right hand, then stops with the bow held out in front of him (similar to his Brawl pose) and says "That was easy!" or "What's up now?!" ("", Easy peasy! or "", Mission complete!).

: Fighting for the Goddess!
Pit's opponents reference various enemies that he faces in . Additionally, the order of the stages is a reference to Pit's journey in the original Kid Icarus, in which he has to escape the and traverse the  in order to return to. This theme is further reinforced by each Round playing a song from the series (regardless of what universe the stage originates from). While playing solo, Dark Pit also appears as a CPU ally in Round 6 and the Final Round, in reference to his and Pit's sporadic alliances in Uprising.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Pit has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Pit was among the fighters that were summoned to fight the army of Master Hands.

Pit tried to rally the other fighters to fight the army of Master Hands; he felt confident that the fighters would win the exchange against the Master Hands. Pit was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. He was flying alongside to escape the beams, but after  was vaporized, they lost their Power of Flight and fell victim to the beams as well. They were both placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters, excluding.

He appears in the Temple of Light sub-area at the very end. Defeating him allows access to a bridge that was previously blocked by being engulfed in light, making him one of the few characters who must be unlocked to complete the mode.

He is later seen alongside several other fighters as they make their final stand against Galeem and Dharkon.

Spirits
Pit's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Pit has been unlocked. Unlocking Pit in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, Pit makes an appearance in a few primary spirits.

Trivia

 * Pit's pose in his official artwork resembles his side taunt.
 * When Pit is star KO'd, he shouts, "I never learned how to read!" This is a reference to a line of dialogue he uses in Kid Icarus: Uprising. This makes Pit the first character in the Super Smash Bros. series to speak a full sentence during a star KO. The second is and the third is.
 * However, this is exclusive to the English version of the game; in the Japanese version, he reuses his star KO voice clip from SSB4. On a related note, this also applies to Byleth.
 * Pit is one of four characters that has appeared in all games with Final Smashes to have a different Final Smash in all of them; the other three are Zero Suit Samus, King Dedede, and R.O.B.
 * Pit is the only fighter who was introduced in Brawl to have an Echo Fighter, that being.
 * Pit can be unlocked by clearing Classic Mode as Samus, which may be a reference to the original Metroid and Kid Icarus NES games running on the same engine, and both being produced by Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi.
 * Coincidentally, both characters each have dark doppelgangers playable in Ultimate.
 * Not counting, who is a starter, Pit is the only unlockable character with an Echo Fighter who is always unlocked or encountered before his Echo Fighter, no matter which combination of unlocking methods is used.
 * In World of Light, out of all unlockable characters with Echo Fighters, Pit and must be encountered before entering The Dark Realm, namely that both must be defeated in the Temple of Light; thus, it is possible to encounter, ,  and  before their respective base characters. Although, if the player unlocks  through VS. Matches or  in World of Light, then completes their , it will go to the next fighter in 's unlock tree, thus Simon can be challenged after . This could not be done with Pit and Dark Pit, as all of the characters in Samus' unlock tree that are between Pit and Dark Pit are all encountered after Pit in World of Light. However, he can be unlocked first if the player loses to Pit, then does not unlock Dark Pit via Challenger's Approach.
 * Pausing and zooming the camera around Pit's ears reveals a gap between the top part of his ear and his hair, which is more visible when looking at his left ear. This is shared with Dark Pit.