Roy (SSBU)


 * ''For information on the playable Koopaling, see Bowser Jr. (SSBU).

Roy (, Roy) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018 and is an unlockable fighter akin to his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Roy is classified as Fighter #25.

This is the first time in the Super Smash Bros. series where Roy is not voiced in Japanese in all regions. In international releases, Roy is voiced in English by, who reprises his role from . 's portrayal of Roy from Super Smash Bros. 4 was repurposed for the Japanese version.

Roy is ranked 8th out of 82 on the tier list, placing him in the S tier. This is a massive improvement from his mid-tier placement in SSB4, where he was ranked 41st out of 54, and is his best placement in the series. He is one of the veterans with the largest improvement in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate, along with. Roy has fast air and dash speeds which, combined with great frame data in his aerials and tilts, gives him a strong combo game and several mix-up options. The new mechanics in Ultimate also benefit Roy by making it easier for him to hit his sweetspot at the hilt and thus making it easier for him to take stocks at a relatively early percentage. Finally, Roy possesses a strong set of specials such as Double-Edge Dance, which has been improved from the previous game to be overall faster and stronger.

However, Roy also has several weaknesses. Roy's fast falling speed makes it easy for him to be comboed, and he has little options that allow him to escape. His recovery is also weak compared to other characters, as Blazer covers little vertical distance, making it possible for Roy to die early due to a gimp. Finally, Roy's raw strength relies on him getting the sweetspot at the hilt, which means he either has to get dangerously close to his opponent to hit it or deal minimal knockback and damage if the sourspot hits.

Overall, Roy is considered to be one of the best swordfighters in the game, and this has been reflected by his above-average representation in the metagame, which is spearheaded by players such as, , and.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Roy must then be defeated on Castle Siege (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Roy being the 29th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the 6th character unlocked after.
 * Have Roy join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Roy is a middleweight swordsman, although his main attributes deviate heavily from other fellow middleweights. He boasts very fast dashing, air, and falling speeds, but has an only slightly above-average walking speed, as well as fairly low air acceleration and jumps. Roy has an attribute unique to him that other swordfighters do not have: his inverse tipper. Contrary to specifically, his Binding Blade does the most damage if attacking near the sword's hilt, although it does weak damage and knockback when otherwise tippered. While this gives Roy effectively bigger sweetspots than those who rely on a tipper to deal maximum damage, it weakens his spacing abilities despite being a swordfighter.

Roy's greatest strength is his KO potential, which is very high when compared to other middleweights, and can even be comparable to the power of some of the harder-hitting heavyweights on the roster, such as and. In conjunction with his overall fast frame data for a swordfighter, he can inflict large amounts of damage in a short amount of time. Neutral attack can catch aggressive approaches due to its speed and deceptively large hitbox, and can efficiently set up into his more powerful normal attacks. His forward tilt, up tilt, and forward smash are all very fast startup-wise, with each being among the strongest attacks of their kind; notably, forward smash can KO under 50% with rage near the edge, even if uncharged. His up smash is an effective anti-air attack due to its quick startup, along with his sword arm gaining intangibility throughout its rather long duration.

Roy's KO potential also extends to his great air game, with quick, powerful and damaging aerials; his neutral aerial is a useful combo starter, especially when using the first hit by itself on landing, which allows him to add extra damage to his combos and even open up KO setups at high percentages. His forward aerial autocancels in a short hop and is overall very quick, allowing him to even perform a wall of pain. At high percentages, it also boasts KO potential. Back aerial has the rare and deceptive quality of turning Roy around, as well as being rather quick despite its power, KOing at around 130% from center-stage. Up aerial is Roy's fastest aerial startup-wise, and is a reliable juggling move due to its large hitbox and average knockback, and can even KO by itself at high percentages. Lastly, down aerial is a strong meteor smash when sweetspotted and boasts decent KO potential when sweetspotted on-stage.

Roy is also extremely effective at shield pressure and mix-ups. Many of his aerials and his down tilt are safe on shield against shield grabs, allowing him to pressure the opponent's shield until they choose an option to escape, which Roy can then punish. Roy's neutral attack is useful thanks to its KO confirms into his forward, back and up aerials, as well as its ability to pressure shields and to catch the enemy coming out of shield. Roy's neutral aerial is also very effective as a cross-up attack on characters who lack out of shield options that hit behind them. Up aerial can also function as a combo starter and is safe on shield, and leads into different follow-ups dependent on whether the sweetspot or the sourspot connects. Roy can also simply grab opponents for shielding against him; he has simple but efficient throw combos such as down throw into neutral aerial or up aerial depending on percent. Roy even possesses some shield break set-ups if the opponent is not careful, rewarding Roy with a Flare Blade punish.

Roy's special moveset maintains his sheer speed and KO power; Flare Blade is known for being one of the strongest single-hitting attacks in the game, with the capability to one-hit KO any fighter in the game when fully charged. Combined with its ability to be reversed and its extremely high knockback, it adds up to be a very potent edge-guarding and ledge trapping tool, and has deceptively low ending lag despite its power to avoid punishment. As a result, Roy is one of few characters who can reliably close out stocks on any shield breaks regardless of the opponents damage. Double-Edge Dance is a quick and efficient damage-racking series of high-speed sword slashes, along with being a reliable finisher at higher percentages if sweetspotted; it is fast enough for each hit to connect reliably and catch spot dodges. His main recovery move, Blazer, is an excellent out of shield option, due to gaining super armor on startup and having decent knockback growth when grounded. Lastly, his Counter has a short window of active frames compared to other counterattacks, but it makes up for being one of the strongest counters in the game thanks to its 1.35× damage multiplier.

Despite Roy's numerous strengths, he has noticeable weaknesses. His biggest flaw stems from his own inverse tipper attribute; by relying on close-quarters attacks to deal damage, it gives him below-average effective reach compared to other swordfighters due to the Binding Blade's tip dealing weak knockback and damage. Thus, Roy cannot rely on a spacing playstyle in spite of his status as a swordsman, since his sourspotted attacks are less reliable as combo starters. This forces him to get dangerously close to the opponent in order for his attacks to properly start combos and deal more damage. This is further worsened by many of his attacks having high ending lag, which makes Roy very punishable if his attacks are simply thrown out without caution. In all, he cannot perform optimally when spacing with the tip of his sword, but cannot afford to make mistakes when at close range without running the risk of massive punishment.

Lastly, Roy's offstage endurance is very poor. His fast falling speed makes him fairly susceptible to combos, and as none of his moves are generally reliable enough to consistently break combos, many characters with reliable combo moves can rack up large amounts of damage and easily force him off-stage. To add to this issue, Roy's only recovery move, Blazer, is fairly ineffective despite his impressive mobility: although it offers good protection, can be angled, and covers a decent amount of horizontal distance, it covers little vertical distance, does not sweetspot edges until the latter half of its duration, lacks the grounded version's super armor, and is predictable, leaving him prone to gimping, especially against characters with a reliable gimping projectile or counter. When coupled with his fast falling speed, he is highly susceptible to meteor smashes, and even a sufficiently strong semi-spike can launch him too far away to recover. Multi-hit moves that trade with Blazer's hitboxes can also semi spike Roy and gimp him. This causes him to have one of the worst recoveries in the game and arguably across the whole series.

Overall, Roy is an unconventional swordsman who falls under the bait-and-punish and rushdown archetypes. The objective of his playstyle is to overwhelm his enemy by closing the distance between them quickly, then to deal large amounts of damage with fast attacks without leaving Roy himself open to punishment while remaining in close-range.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Roy was infamous for being the a lower-ranked character in previous appearances, with his debut appearance in Melee being particularly egregious. Even in SSB4, he still retained a committal approach and unsafe aerials (especially compared to other fellow swordfighters), and his inverse tipper attribute hindering his spacing abilities, which collectively resulted in both his lower mid tier placement and being ranked as the lowest ranked DLC fighter. Likely owing to this, Roy has been heavily buffed overall in his transition to Ultimate, and is the only DLC fighter from SSB4 to remain mostly buffed in that transition.

Roy's most significant improvements are indirect, as he benefits noticeably from the changes to the universal gameplay mechanics in Ultimate. The improved flexibility of dash canceling and the decreased landing lag on his aerials greatly improve his combo game, aerial offense, rushdown potential, and make his KO power consistent. Complementing this, the universal mobility increase benefits Roy's core strategy of closing the distance on his opponents and landing hits with the hilt of his sword, as well as helping counterbalance his vulnerability to camping. These changes almost fully alleviate the need to approach at dangerously close ranges in order to deal optimal damage and knockback, which was his main flaw that had plagued him in previous games and was not present in his other fellow swordfighters.

Some of Roy's useful buffs are also direct. Moves like his dash attack, forward tilt, forward, back and up aerials, and Double-Edge Dance, have increased power, significantly increasing his options at higher percentages and further toning down his trouble at KOing. Furthermore, KO confirms with his neutral attack and the first hit of neutral aerial or a sourspotted up aerial have become much more consistent and reliable. A small amount of his moves have also had their hitbox placements improved, which is notable in his forward smash and Double-Edge Dance, the former of which can now hit opponents in the lower platforms of. Double-Edge Dance has also been sped up greatly, making its hits link into each other much more consistently. His air game in general has directly improved, as forward aerial now auto-cancels in a short hop and has knockback and angle adjustments that make it better for both combos and KOs; neutral, back and up aerials are stronger (the lattermost of which can now KO reliably), and down aerial has larger sweetspots. These changes, compounded with his lower landing lag all-around, makes Roy's air game one of the most versatile and fearsome of any character.

However, Roy is not without a few nerfs, some of which are significant. His forward throw has lost its combo potential altogether, and down throw has less followups due to its increased knockback. Blazer now needs to travel half its maximum distance before it can sweetspot ledges and also deals less knockback, reducing its use as a KO option. Moreover, while these nerfs are comparatively few, Roy still has some of his flaws from past games, such as mediocre offstage survivability, a vulnerability to combos, and an ineffective spacing game.

Overall, Roy's core playstyle remains fundamentally the same as it was in SSB4, but the changes made to the game's engine and his substantial buffs now make him less polarizing and allows him to comfortably play aggressively up close, while retaining his raw power, range, and speed mostly intact. Because of this, he is considered to be much more viable than he was in any of his previous playable appearances, and is widely seen as one of the best swordfighters in the game and a very powerful character in competitive play.

Update history
Roy was buffed slightly via the game updates. Down aerial auto-cancels 3 frames earlier thanks to update 2.0.0. Update 3.0.0 made the multiple hits for Blazer connect more reliably, and gave dash grab more range. Roy's approach and defense also indirectly benefit from the universal nerf of projectiles. Update 3.1.0 and 7.0.0 both buffed Roy's up smash: the former improved the consistency of the multi-hits and the latter gave the move a -100% trip chance, making it so opponents no longer trip out of the move before the final hit can land.

Overall, Roy fares mildly better than he did at the launch of Ultimate.

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Roy's hitboxes, see here.
 * For simplicity if, for example, Roy's blade does 6% while the tip does 4%, and the attack has no other hitboxes, it is written as 6%/4%.

On-screen appearance

 * Warps onto the stage using warp magic while crouching, with the Binding Blade stuck in the ground when he appears. He then pulls it out with a flourish before assuming his idle stance.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Triumphantly holds the Binding Blade overhead. Resembles his overworld sprite in The Binding Blade.
 * Side taunt: Winds back before striking a pose while holding the Binding Blade in a reverse grip while saying "I won't lose!" (, "I won't lose!")
 * Down taunt: Kneels and twirls the Binding Blade behind himself, hollering as he does so.

Idle poses

 * Pumps his fist while smiling.
 * Rubs the edge of the Binding Blade's blade.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Swipes his sword once over his shoulder, then swipes it down and behind him while facing left, saying "Now, the true battle begins..." ("", The true fight is after this.). Afterwards, the camera zooms in on his face, focusing on his eyes.
 * Up: Spins the Binding Blade one and a half times and then sheaths it in a pose similar to his artwork from previous games, saying "That was a fierce battle." ("", It was a difficult fight.).
 * Right: Flourishes his sword and poses with it by his side, saying "Failure is not an option!" ("", For those whom I must protect, I will not lose!) before the camera dramatically zooms in on Roy's face.

Tier placement and history
When Ultimate released, Roy looked promising in the meta due to the universal decreased landing lag on aerials and ability to use tilts out of a dash, which drastically fixed one of his biggest weaknesses. Along with his excellent mobility and some of the strongest KO power in the game, many professionals believed that Roy could potentially be a top-tier character. However, people also noticed that his Echo Fighter,, despite having less power and a significantly worse recovery than Roy, was more consistent due to his lack of sourspots, making him better at spacing than Roy. Chrom also had a notorious sacrificial KO move from his forward aerial to Soaring Slash. Although the latter was eventually removed, Chrom was still widely agreed to be one of the best characters in the game and was considered to be better than Roy in the early metagame. Despite this, Roy has achieved many noteworthy results thanks to players such as and, and is still thought to be significantly improved from Smash 4, with many players ranking him as a high-tier or even top-tier character.

Roy's reputation would only improve from here on out, especially during and after the end of the online metagame. , a rising star prior to the pandemic, made waves during the online metagame and ultimately placed 1st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5. He maintained this momentum after offline play returned, and consistently placed top 8 at majors. Other Roy players such as Goblin and would also see strong results during this period, leading to an increase in Roy's representation, especially in the United States: Roy had the second-highest character usage by the end of 2021, and continues to be a top 10 character representation-wise in the following year. With Chrom's decline as a result to a shrinking playerbase, many players such as and  consider Roy to be one of the best, if not the best, Fire Emblem characters in the game, and the character is widely accepted to be a top-tier, ranking 8th on the current tier list.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Roy players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Roy players in Japan in the post-pandemic era with a breakout tournament of 25th at and would continue to place highly at other events with a 4th at  and 7th at . Notably took a set over  at  and  at the.
 * - The best Roy player in Europe. Made top 8 at some of the largest European tournaments with 5th at and 7th at both  and . Overseas, he also placed 17th at, one of the largest Japanese tournaments of all-time; also beating  and  at the event. He was previously ranked 12th on the PGRU v3 EU.
 * - The second current best Roy player in the United States and the best one in 2019. He was the highest ranked Roy main during 2019, being 42nd on the Fall 2019 PGRU, making supermajor placements such as 13th at and 17th at  with wins over  and . He has continued to do well at offline tournaments after the pandemic, placing 5th at  and . Ranked 83rd on the UltRank 2022.
 * - Known for his other characters such as, but picked up Roy in post-pandemic tournaments and is the current best Roy player in Japan. He won with solo Roy, as well as  and  as one of his characters. His Roy has wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 34th on the UltRank 2022.
 * - One of the best Roy players in the United States. Started showing prominence in 2022, starting with a notable run of 9th place at with wins over  and  and a 17th place at  with a win over . He was formerly ranked 92nd on the OrionRank 2022.
 * - The best Roy player in the world. Won where he double-eliminated . He has also made runner-up performances at  and  on top of a multitude of top 8s at major tournaments with Roy as his central character. Ranked 13th on the UltRank 2022. He is also considered one of the best online players, placing 1st at  primarily using Roy, which to date is one of the largest online tournaments in Smash Bros. history.
 * - Co-mains Roy with Chrom and is considered one the best Roy players in Japan. Prior to 2022, he was considered the best Roy in the country with major placements such as 5th at, 9th at , and 13th at with , , and  being some of his most notable Roy wins. After 2021, he has been inconsistent with his placements, but can still make decent bracket runs seen with many Sumabatos.

: A Journey of Swords
Roy's opponents consist of entirely sword-fighters, with the exception of the final round.

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

Role in World of Light
Although Roy does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans ) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Roy appears in as one of the last fighters imprisoned by Galeem. He is one of the few obligatory unlocks. Defeating him leads to a fight with and the subsequent reveal of 's location.

Spirit
Roy's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Roy has been unlocked. Unlocking Roy in World of Light allows the player to preview the 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.

As a minion
Conditions in italic are not listed on the Spirit Battle preview screen.

Trivia

 * Roy's pose in his official artwork resembles his forward tilt.
 * Interestingly, Roy also performs his forward tilt in his splash art for Super Smash Bros. 4.
 * Roy is the first fighter to be introduced as a clone and later have an Echo Fighter of their own in a later installment.
 * Roy is the only fighter with an Echo Fighter to not be in the same unlock tree as their echo; he is in 's character tree, while his echo,, is in 's unlock tree.
 * Additionally, as a semi-clone of, Roy is the only character whose moveset is derived from him to not appear in Yoshi's unlock tree, as is also located there.  also holds a similar distinction.
 * Despite also wielding a sword,, , , and do not appear in Roy's Classic Mode route.
 * Additionally, Ganon does not appear as the boss in Roy's Classic Mode route despite also holding swords.
 * Like in SSB4, Roy will revert to Marth's idle animation while holding a small throwable item, although now he also transitions to his SSB4 crouching animation.
 * In Roy's character showcase video, he is seen with a new dashing animation, but in the final build of the game, he reuses his dashing animation from SSB4.
 * Roy's English star KO voice clip, much like 's in Melee, is infamous among the game's fanbase for being perceived as blood-curdling and realistic, to the point that his voice actor,, acknowledged this perception on Twitter.
 * Whenever Roy frees a spirit from its puppet fighter after winning a spirit battle on the Spirit Board or fires a small shooting item such as a Ray Gun from the ground, his sheath appears with his sword inside on the left side of his belt. This is possibly a processing oversight when copying Marth's animation into Roy.
 * While this also applies to Marth, Lucina, and, their sheaths won't disappear due to already being visible in battle.
 * This also marks the second time where Roy's sheath is positioned on his side instead of on his back with the first time being his clapping animation from SSB4.
 * Roy is the only male character unlocked in realm in World of Light.
 * Additionally, since Roy is found in The Final Battle, he is the only character with an Echo Fighter based on them who cannot be found in The Light Realm, as, , Marth, , , and can all be found in it, while all Echo Fighters (except ) can be found in The Dark Realm.
 * This also means that Roy is the only character with an Echo Fighter that can be unlocked in World of Light first, with Chrom being found in the Sacred Land sub-world of The Dark Realm.
 * Roy is the only base character in World of Light that has a higher "power level" than his Echo Fighter. Roy has a power level of 12,500, matching the remaining fighters in The Final Battle area, while Chrom's power level is 10,600, being on a similar level as most of the fighters trapped within The Dark Realm.
 * Strangely enough, Roy's neutral aerial uses weight-independent knockback on its second hit, causing it to KO all characters at the same percentage regardless of their weight. This is likely an oversight, as the neutral aerials of Marth and Lucina, as well as Roy's Echo Fighter Chrom, have weight-independent knockback on the first hit instead to link more consistently into the second hit, which deals normal knockback affected by weight.
 * Echo Fighters notwithstanding, Roy is erroneously misplaced on the back of the NTSC physical case of Ultimate, where every character is meant to be displayed in order of their announcement to the series. This also applies to, , , , , , , , and . In Roy's case, he is positioned just before , which makes him the only character with an Echo Fighter to not be placed next to them.
 * On the Sound Test, Roy's voice clips are ordered differently from other non-DLC characters. Normally, blast KO clips are listed after heavy knockback clips, special moves and Final Smash clips are listed in between normal attack clips and edge hanging clip, and the voice lines for victory poses is listed after taunt lines; in Roy's case, these are grouped together after his voice clip while carrying a heavy item in that order.
 * The order of all of Roy's voice clips closely matches the abbreviations of their internal codenames with the only exceptions being the voice clips of his special moves (which go by the order of neutral, up, and down special move instead of down, neutral, and up) and Final Smash (which is placed between his special moves and victory lines instead of between his heavy knockback and stunned voice clips). shares a similar distinction in its section on the Sound Test.
 * In World of Light, Roy is one of the few fighters who is not affiliated with Dharkon in any way, as all of his encounters as himself or as a puppet fighter are all in association with Galeem. Toon Link,, , , , , , , and all share this distinction as well.