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 * This article is about Squirtle's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For other uses, see Squirtle.  Also, for information about Squirtle in regards to Pokémon Trainer, see Pokémon Trainer (SSBU), Ivysaur (SSBU), and Charizard (SSBU). Squirtle's ledge attack is the slowest in the game.

Squirtle (, Slow ledge attack) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. It is part of 's rotation along with and. Along with the Pokémon Trainer, Squirtle is classified as Fighter #33. He is known for having the slowest ledge attack in the game.

, Rikako Aikawa, Virginie Demians, and Klaus Münster reprise their roles as Squirtle from Super Smash Bros. Brawl in English, Japanese, French, and German respectively, all with new voice clips. Said voice clips also appear in Squirtle's ledge attack, which is the slowest in the game.

Attributes
Squirtle is the smallest and lightest out of the 's Pokémon, with it being tied with for the 3rd-lightest character in the game. It possesses the slowest ledge attack in the game with a whopping 27 frames of startup. Squirtle will automatically be the first Pokémon on-screen if Pokémon Trainer is selected, though this can be manually changed by pressing the Y button on the character select screen. In relation to Pokémon change, the order is Squirtle--. If Charizard is KOd, Squirtle will always appear on the next revival platform. In addition to its long startup, Squirtle's ledge attack also has among the shortest reaches for a ledge attack in the game, and has mediocre damage output.

Squirtle's small size makes it a hard target to hit, but also gives its attacks (with the exception of its smash attacks) poor range, including his ledge attack, the slowest in the game. Squirtle has decent mobility overall, with average dashing and air speeds, a fast walking speed, very high air acceleration (the eighth highest), high gravity and high jump height, but a below-average falling speed and low traction, as well as a slow ledge attack. Squirtle also has the ability to crawl, because that totally makes up for it. Oh yeah, and he can wall cling.

One of Squirtle's strengths is its excellent frame data, except for his ledge attack, which is the slowest in the game at frame 28. Starting with its normal ground moves, the first hit of its neutral attack comes out on frame 2; making it useful as a "get off me" option. Forward tilt is one of its most useful tools; the move's low end lag makes it safe on shields, can lead into grabs at lower percentages, and can set up jab locks or tech chases at higher percentages. Up tilt can combo into itself and set up aerial combos. Down tilt, while slower compared to its other moves (coming out at frame 8), is still much faster than his ledge attack. Finally, its dash attack can be used to set up some combos at low to mid percentages due to its low lag and Squirtle's aforementioned frame data.

Squirtle's smash attacks are generally much slower compared to its other moves, as is its ledge attack, although at least his smash attacks have good range and power. The start-up for forward smash is high but the end lag is low, has high knockback (being the strongest of its three smash attacks), and can be used to finish off a jab lock combo. Its up smash comes out slightly faster than forward smash, hits on both sides simultaneously, and covers a decent area above it. Finally, its down smash is its fastest smash attack and has good range overall, making it effective as an out of shield option.

Squirtle possesses a strong aerial game. As one of the only few characters in Ultimate for which all five aerials can be auto-canceled in a short hop, Squirtle has multiple options while in the air. Since ledge attacks cannot be used in the air, Squirtle is unhindered by his slow ledge attack in this regard. Neutral aerial has very fast startup for a neutral aerial at 4 frames while it can also KO at very high percentages near edges, making it an effective for disrupting combos. Forward and back aerials are good for combos, with the former being good for wall of pain combos, while the latter can set up dragdown combos. Due to Squirtle's above average jump height, up aerial is a very effective juggling tool, while the move has among the lowest landing lag of any aerial attack, at 6 frames, a stark contrast to its slow ledge attack. Its down aerial is a good landing option that can set up combos at low percentages. In essence his aerials have very good frame data, which makes it even more of a shame that his ledge attack is so slow.

Squirtle also has a very effective grab game. Despite its below average grab length and unimpressive damage outputs on its throws, they all have utility. Its forward throw is very effective for edgeguarding and is strong enough to KO at around 160% with no rage. Back throw is a strong KO throw, being one of the strongest in Ultimate, while its up and down throws are potent combo starters. Its ledge attack, despite being relatively weak and short ranged, is by far the slowest in the game.

Finally, when it comes to Squirtle's special moves, its neutral special, Water Gun functions similarly to 's down special, being a move that pushes away opponents without making them flinch. The longer the move is charged, the higher the push back, making it much more useful that its ledge attack. Its side special, Withdraw, has Squirtle retreat in its shell and move across the stage at high speeds. It is immune to damage while using this move, which can be used as an approaching tool. Finally, its up special, Waterfall, is a multi-hitting move that covers a decent distance, and is useful for ending combos.

However, Squirtle does have some weaknesses. Squirtle's overall damage output is poor, and in addition to possessing the slowest ledge attack in the game, Squirtle lacks any fast KO options, especially since some of its previous KO options (such as forward aerial and down throw) were weakened, while neutral, forward and back aerials need edgeguarding to KO, up aerial can only do so near the upper blast line and along with forward throw, they require rage to KO on their own, so Squirtle can sometimes depend on edgeguarding to score KOs. Squirtle also lacks reliable KO combos as well, making it very difficult for it to close out stocks on its own. Squirtle's light weight and bad ledge attack also make its endurance very poor, and it is no longer resistant to fire attacks due to the removal of type effectiveness, further hindering Squirtle's endurance in certain matchups. As previously mentioned, Squirtle has poor range throughout its attacks (especially ledge attack), and it lacks a damaging projectile, making it very easy for Squirtle to be out-spaced by characters with superior range and ledge attacks.

Squirtle's offstage game is also poor. While all of its aerial attacks can autocancel in a short hop, they are all very weak (barring neutral aerial) and do not KO reliably on their own, and lack range compared to other aerials. This flaw is further pronounced with the changes to meteor canceling due to Squirtle's very light weight and slow ledge attack, while it lacks a meteor smash of any kind unlike Ivysaur and Charizard. Finally, while Withdraw works well as a recovery option, 50/50 option and mindgame tool, it has a unique flaw: it does not make up for Squirtle's bad ledge attack, which means it can only do so much for the character.

There's a lot of information to take in here, but none of it really matters. The key takeaway is that its ledge attack sucks. Below is a graph illustrating how slow Squirtle's ledge attack is, in comparison to the rest of the cast. It shows the range of startup times that appear in the game, and their frequency, highlighting Squirtle as a clear outlier.



Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
To understand why Squirtle's ledge attack is so slow, we have to go back in time to its debut game, Brawl. In Brawl, ledge attacks had a very wide range of startups. Squirtle's was still on the slower end in this game, but it was by no means the worst. For example, fellow Brawl fighter Wario had a frame 31 ledge attack, even slower than Squirtle's. Its ledge attack wasn't an outlier in those days. However, things changed when Smash 4 rolled around. In that game, among other universal changes, ledge attacks were universally homogenized. This meant huge nerfs for characters like Donkey Kong, who previously had a frame 9 ledge attack, but it also meant buffs for characters like Wario, whose ledge attack was sped up to come out on frame 18, ironically on the faster end of the new range of edge attack startups. Indeed in Smash 4, while ledge attack speeds still varied, there were no longer any major outliers.

However, not every character in Brawl made the cut in Smash 4, and among those cut from the roster was Squirtle. This devastated Pokémon Trainer fans and Squirtle fans alike. Fortunately, Squirtle was re-introduced in Ultimate, but since it never went through the Smash 4 transitional stage, the developers had to change it quite a lot to make it fit in. They actually made a very large number of changes to it, which are detailed below, but one move that was relatively unchanged was Squirtle's ledge attack. Having skipped over the Smash team's homogenization phase, Squirtle's ledge attack, which must have been deemed of low importance, did not raise any major red flags, and so its frame data was left unchanged. Unfortunately, this meant it now had the slowest startup of any ledge attack in the game, and it wasn't even close.

Update history
Squirtle only received one change throughout Ultimate's game updates; a near-universal buff to shield sizes. Due to this, he was the least affected Pokémon Trainer Pokémon by a large margin. This unfortunately means that Squirtle's ledge attack never received any buffs in its lifetime, and remains the slowest ledge attack in the game.

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Squirtle's hitboxes, see here.
 * Squirtle can crawl, wall cling, and wall jump.

On-screen appearance

 * Pokémon Trainer releases Squirtle from its Poké Ball while saying "Go!" or "Squirtle!"

Taunts

 * Up Taunt: Backflips once, then raises its arms up and says "Squirt!"
 * Side Taunt: Angrily spins around on its tail. It then goes into what may appear to be a dizzy state, but really it's lamenting its slow ledge attack.
 * Down Taunt: Retreats into its shell, then spins around once.

Idle poses

 * Hops twice excitedly.
 * Leans forward and waggles its arms in front of itself. Scientists believe this is Squirtle's way of trying to appeal to the devs to buff its ledge attack. Alas, it's not very effective...

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses
During Squirtle's victory poses, the Pokémon Trainer says randomly either "You all did great!" (male)/"Everyone did great!" (female) or "Good job, Squirtle!" , while the female Trainer can say "We did it, Squirtle!" . Neither trainer makes fun of Squirtle for its slow ledge attack, as that would be cruel.
 * Left: Jumps and spins around on its shell in a breakdance move, and then lands and poses.
 * Up: Spits water quickly in three directions, does a backflip, then poses with its arm in the air.
 * Right: Pokémon Trainer holds Squirtle in his arms, then kneels down and puts it on the ground, and rubs its chin and head.

: The Future Champion
Pokémon Trainer's route refers to the player's goal of becoming the in the Pokémon games. Like in 's route, the opponents are all Pokémon and all rounds are on Pokémon stages. Each round will start with the Pokémon chosen on the character select screen regardless of which one was active at the end of the previous round. It is not recommended to use Squirtle's ledge attack, as it is the slowest in the game, and among the shortest reaching.

Note: Items are disabled in every round.

Completing Classic Mode as Pokémon Trainer has  accompanying the credits that roll every time the player finishes a Classic route, with the selected Pokémon playable during the credits minigame rather than the actual Trainer.

Role in World of Light
The male was among the fighters that were summoned to fight against the army of Master Hands, and he brought his three Pokémon with him, including Squirtle.

Squirtle was sent out by Pokémon Trainer, along with and, shortly before Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Under Pokémon Trainer's command, Squirtle used Water Gun in an attempt to fight the beams of light, but this attempt failed. Pokémon Trainer, Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard were all vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the other fighters, excluding. Perhaps if Squirtle's ledge attack had been faster, it would have avoided this terrible fate.

Pokémon Trainer can be found at the southeast near the maze that resembles Pac-Maze. Defeating him allows access to all three Pokémon.

Spirit
Squirtle's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, in spite of its slow ledge attack but only after Pokémon Trainer has been unlocked. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 500 coins. Unlocking Pokémon Trainer 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. It therefore has no effect on the speed of its ledge attack.

Trivia

 * Squirtle possesses the slowest ledge attack in the game, at frame 28.
 * Despite being a Water-type Pokémon with swimming capabilities in the Pokémon series, Squirtle can drown in water like every other character. The same is also true for.
 * Squirtle and are the only characters not to have an announcer voice clip by Xander Mobus.
 * In World of Light, Squirtle is one of the few fighters who is not affiliated with Dharkon in any way, as all of its encounters as itself or as a puppet fighter are all in association with Galeem. Ivysaur,, , , , , , , and all share this distinction as well.
 * Squirtle possesses the slowest ledge attack in the game, at frame 28.
 * Squirtle is the one of the few characters in the entire roster to have different facial expressions when attempting different types of grabs, being its standing and dash grabs (a happy expression) vs. its pivot grab (an angry expression).
 * Others include and  (standing vs. dash vs. pivot).
 * However, Squirtle's differing expressions occur during the grab attempt, where the others' expressions are after their grabs are whiffed.
 * Squirtle possesses the slowest ledge attack in the game, at frame 28.