Ivysaur (SSBU)


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

Ivysaur (, Fushigisou) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Along with the Pokémon Trainer, Ivysaur is classified as Fighter #34.

Justin Anselmi, Inuko Inuyama, Jean-Marc Delhausse and Achim Barrenstein, its respective English, Japanese, French and German voice actors from Pokémon the Series: XY, reprise their roles in the game, the former two replacing Craig Blair and late Tomoko Kawakami from Brawl.

How to unlock
Unlocked as part of alongside  and.

Attributes
Ivysaur is one of the characters made playable from Pokémon Trainer, alongside the likes of Squirtle and Charizard. It is a middleweight fighter, having a below average dash and gravity, an average jump height, and high traction. While will automatically be the first Pokémon on-screen if Pokémon Trainer is selected, pressing the Y button on the character select screen will toggle Ivysaur as first. In relation to Pokémon change, the order is always Ivysaur--Squirtle. If Squirtle is KO'd, Ivysaur will always appear on the next revival platform.

One of Ivysaur's biggest strengths is its range, as its vine-based attacks (neutral attack, up tilt, down tilt, down smash, forward aerial, back aerial, and Vine Whip) all have very generous range that allow Ivysaur to keep foes at a distance with relative ease. Among said attacks, they all either synergize as get-off-me options (down tilt/down smash), mix-up options (up tilt/neutral aerial) or niche KO moves (forward aerial and Vine Whip), which grant Ivysaur a decently effective ranged toolkit. Altogether, this mix gives Ivysaur among the most effective range in the game, made more effective by said moves all having at most 15 frames of startup.

Another strength that Ivysaur has is its strong air game. Every aerial Ivysaur has is either a powerful KO move or a potent combo tool and serves as the basis of its powerful advantage state. While its back aerial is among the weakest of aerial attacks in the game, its aforementioned range allows it to keep foes at a distance. Its weak nature allows it to combo into itself at low percentages and at higher percentages can lead into Vine Whip in certain situations. Its neutral aerial has use as a combo extender due to its looping hits using the autolink angle, although its low power makes it easy to intercept. Its up and down aerials are notorious for their KO power and large hitboxes, while its forward aerial, despite its slow startup, is a reliable combo starter into Vine Whip due to its diagonal knockback. Additionally, none of its aerial attacks have more than 17 frames of landing lag, making them good for air-to-ground approaches.

Ivysaur's grab game is also useful. While all of its grabs are active on frame 13, they are among the longest-reaching in Ultimate and are decently fast overall, which further adds to Ivysaur's already strong range. To boot, all of its throws deal at least 7% damage. While its forward throw is ironically unsuitable for both combos and KOs due to its high base knockback and low knockback growth, its back throw is a good KO option at the edge, and its up throw is a decent low-percentage combo tool. However, of particular note is its down throw: despite its low damage, its has strong combo potential until around 100%, while its knockback scaling also makes it the strongest down throw in the game, allowing it to KO in situations where back throw cannot.

Finally, Ivysaur has a useful array of special moves. Bullet Seed is a fast, multi-hitting attack that hits foes directly above Ivysaur with decent damage, allowing it to work well as an anti-air. Razor Leaf is a projectile that despite its slow startup, lingers for a short time and has low knockback, allowing it to be used effectively for stage control and combo setups. Lastly, Vine Whip is Ivysaur's primary recovery move and a strong KO option when sweetspotted, and like other tethers in Ultimate, has a very long range. Notably, it can hit below the ledge and its animation is very fast, leading to tricky mix-ups for unsuspecting opponents.

However, Ivysaur is held back by various flaws. Perhaps Ivysaur's most prominent issue is its ground game: while its tilt attacks have strong range, they are also equally lacking in power. Down tilt serves as a quick "get-off-me" option, and is his fastest grounded option at frame 4. Up tilt hits directly above Ivysaur and can lead into up air at certain percentages, though it does not have a scoop hitbox, leading to it being a niche move at best. While its smash attacks possess high power, they are generally predictable due to slow startup. Its up smash is among the strongest in the game, but it has very slow startup at 26 frames, while its horizontal range renders it hard to approach with against grounded opponents. Down smash suffers from the opposite problem: while decently fast, it fails to KO until very high percentages, a fact made worse by its sourspots. Arguably its most useful smash attack is forward smash, which when timed correctly can cover all ledge options and is generally safe on shield at full range. Its dash attack is a good burst option, but also suffers from low knockback scaling and cannot KO reliably. Finally, due to said problems, Ivysaur is very susceptible to stale-move negation, meaning it will almost constantly rely on its ranged attacks, all of which deal low damage.

Ivysaur also has a problematic recovery. While its up and down aerials provide different vertical movement options, they are only useful when close to the stage due to their ending lag. Vine Whip has long range as a tether, but only works if Ivysaur is sufficiently close to a ledge, where it is susceptible to stage spikes. Altogether, this makes it infeasible for Ivysaur to recover when above the stage, where any sufficiently strong semi-spike or meteor smash can potentially keep it away from ledges.

Finally, due to a lackluster air speed and falling speed, Ivysaur is highly susceptible to juggle situations and has a poor overall disadvantage state. Although Ivysaur has a plethora of amazing aerials, none of them are particularly effective in disadvantage and without a jump Ivysaur has few options to get back on the ground. Ivysaur has the opportunity to switch to Charizard for better air speed and another jump, but such options are committal and can lead to an even further punish.

Altogether, Ivysaur fills the "zoner" role for Pokemon Trainer's lineup, with its long range, disjointed attacks, and projectile allowing it to excel at keeping opponents out. It is the middle of the three in weight, and is usually used around mid-high percent because of its strong advantage state, combos, and zoning ability.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Ivysaur was previously considered the worst Pokémon in the 's party and one of the worst characters in Brawl (especially if judged as a standalone fighter), due to its large amount of significant weaknesses, namely poor damage outputs on its attacks, notable KO problems due to laggy finishers, bad aerial game, even worse recovery, and one of the worst special movesets in the game. Most likely in an attempt to create a higher balance within the team, Ivysaur has been heavily buffed in the transition to Ultimate, and is by far the most buffed Pokémon in the Pokémon Trainer's party.

Ivysaur's biggest buffs come from the adjustments to the Pokémon Trainer's mechanics alongside universal gameplay changes. The type effectiveness mechanic, which previously gave Ivysaur a disproportionate weakness to the common flame-type attacks throughout the cast, has been removed, while the elimination of stamina allows Ivysaur to stay in the fight without weakening its moves. The universal increase to mobility benefits Ivysaur, significantly improving its air speed. The universally decreased landing lag on aerials fixes its poor aerial approach, and now grants its moves combo potential, which is especially bolstered by the changes to hitstun canceling. However, and most notably, the removal of edgehogging in favor of ledge trumping considerably improves its exploitable recovery, allowing Vine Whip to grab the ledge. This is further helped by the ability to use Pokémon Change in the air, allowing Ivysaur to gain access to 's better recovery in case it's not able to teturn to the stage.

A large part of Ivysaur's moveset has been modified and is significantly more useful overall. The addition of a finisher and the changes to neutral infinites makes its neutral attack more reliable for racking up damage, while down tilt consists of a single hit that semi-spikes. Some of Ivysaur's notoriously weak attacks, such as down smash and back aerial, have had their damage and knockback considerably increased, with down smash gaining a sweetspot that can KO at realistic percents. Tying in with its improved air physics, Ivysaur's aerial game has received several enhancements: it has a new, disjointed neutral aerial that performs much better than its old one, due to its autolink angle and the weakening of SDI from Brawl enabling it to connect much more reliably. Up and down aerials' momentum changes are less extreme, and down aerial has been heavily buffed, as its small meteor smash sweetspot deals more damage and is slightly larger, and its large sourspot now meteor smashes as well, turning the move into a powerful edgeguarding tool.

In addition, Ivysaur's throw game is vastly more useful; it now has a more reliable KO throw in its back throw, alongside reliable combos from up throw and down throw, while it is also one of the characters to be the least affected by the universal nerfs to grabs, as only its pivot grab's lag was increased, and all grabs except its dash grab have more range. Lastly, its entire special moveset has been improved in several ways: Bullet Seed has gained a finisher (though the move remains situational overall), Razor Leaf is noticeably more useful as a projectile due to its previously unreliable trajectory being more consistent and the changes to histun canceling granting it extreme combo potential, and Vine Whip has faster startup, can be angled, and no longer causes helplessness, giving Ivysaur a powerful combo finisher and more opportunities to recover. Altogether, these changes immensely improve Ivysaur's neutral game, damage racking, and zoning abilities, putting them more in line with the rest of the cast.

However, Ivysaur did receive a few notable nerfs. Ivysaur's weight has been decreased, which combined with the removal of momentum canceling hinders its survivability. Although forward tilt connects much more reliably due to the weakening of SDI, it has noticeably more startup, while it retains high ending lag and a lack of KO power. Some of Ivysaur's KO options were toned down as well, such as dash attack, forward smash, forward aerial, and its notorious up aerial and up smash, with the latter no longer being the strongest in the game. Most importantly, however, Bullet Seed has slower startup with no intangibility, and racks up a significantly lower amount of damage due to its shortened duration, greatly reducing its utility despite the new finisher. As a result, Ivysaur is more reliant on racking up damage with its various buffed moves to KO effectively, which is exacerbated by all its aerials except neutral and down aerial launching at upward angles that are ineffective for edgeguarding, often compelling the player to switch to Charizard and utilize its greater KO potential once opponents are at high percents.

All in all, Ivysaur has become a drastically better character since its introduction in Brawl, especially relative to the rest of the cast. While it has been retooled to fit more in line as the zoner the Pokémon Trainer's party, and it has received nerfs in game updates, Ivysaur is now considered to be the most useful Pokémon of the three, with traits like decent weight, disjointed attacks, a conventional projectile, and combos and setups into its most powerful moves, allowing Ivysaur to fill in in the gaps its partners lack, namely Squirtle's lack of power at the cost of attack speed, Charizard's slow moveset in detriment of power, and both Pokemon's melee range in exchange for slower movement speed.

Update history
Ivysaur was the most nerfed out of all three of Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon. Its biggest nerfs were to its infamously potent down aerial: in addition to its sweetspot becoming smaller, its sourspot's already low knockback was decreased even further. Additionally, Razor Leaf is slower and aerial Vine Whip deals less knockback, weakening it as a combo finisher. As a result of these nerfs and simultaneous buffs to Charizard, Pokémon Trainer's playstyle has become significantly less Ivysaur centric, with some even believing that Ivysaur is now the worst Pokémon within the trio rather than the best.

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Ivysaur's hitboxes, see here.
 * Ivysaur can crawl.

Announcer call
Unlike in Brawl, Ivysaur no longer has a unique announcer call. Rather, the announcer will always call.

On-screen appearance

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

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Shakes from side to side, spinning its bud and leaves.
 * Side taunt: Stands on its front legs and walks around while saying "Ivy, Ivy, Ivy." Ivysaur briefly falls over before the taunt ends.
 * Down taunt: Extends its vines into the air and spins around in a dance, while saying "Saur, Ivy, Ivy."

Idle poses

 * Steps from side to side.
 * Looks around, then shakes its body.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses
During Ivysaur's victory poses, the Pokémon Trainer says randomly either "You all did great!" (male)/"Everyone did great!" (female) or "Way to go, Ivysaur!" (, while the female Trainer can say, You did great, Ivysaur!).
 * Left: Runs forward, does a backflip, then strikes a pose.
 * Up: Whips two vines forward, then poses with its vines extended.
 * Right: Pokémon Trainer pets Ivysaur, and it jumps on him, but Pokémon Trainer puts it back down and continues to pet it.

: 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.

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 Ivysaur.

During the opening cutscene, Ivysaur was sent out by Pokémon Trainer, along with and, shortly before Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Under Pokémon Trainer's command, Ivysaur used Solar Beam 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.

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

Spirit
Ivysaur's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Pokémon Trainer has been unlocked. 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. Its fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Ivysaur,, and are the only three playable characters in Ultimate whose up special is solely a tether recovery.
 * With Vine Whip no longer causing it to experience helplessness, Ivysaur is now one of the few fighters in the game that is unable to put itself in a helpless state without touching a red trampoline from Pac-Jump.
 * Ivysaur's Star KO voice clip seems to have an error at the beginning, as it starts with a noticeable pause. This trait is shared with.
 * If Ivysaur is the fighter with the highest score/stock count at the end of a match in a team battle consisting of three or more fighters, it can still be heard despite not being present.
 * Ivysaur and are the only characters not to have an announcer voice clip by Xander Mobus.
 * Whenever Ivysaur performs a ledge jump, it is briefly seen holding onto the ledge with its right foot (left foot when facing left). This is possibly due to being an animation carryover from Brawl.

Ivysaur (SSBU)