Guardian Orbitars

The Guardian Orbitars (, Satellite Guardians) are Pit and Dark Pit's down special move in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Overview
The user summons two orbitars that generate shields on either side of him for a second and a half. They reflect projectiles (with a 1.5× damage multiplier) while active, similar to 's in Brawl, and push away opponents at the beginning. The Orbitars also behave as shields that can protect the user from attacks, in addition to pushing opponents away upon doing so, though they can be bypassed by grabs.

The Guardian Orbitars have 18 HP in Smash 4, and 15 HP in Ultimate, which is shared between both orbitars, and is used up when blocking attacks. Unlike regular shields, they do not lose HP when simply held out, instead forcing the user to put them away if held for longer than a certain period (80 frames in Smash 4, and 100 frames in Ultimate); in Ultimate, they also gradually shrink in size as they are held, though they immediately start back at their maximum size when summoned again. If the orbitars lose all their HP, they break and cannot be used for 10 seconds; attempting to use them before this period will have the user perform the summoning animation to no effect. Otherwise, the orbitars recover HP at a rate of 0.07 per frame when not in use (4.2 HP per second), so if close to breaking, it takes at most 258 frames (4.3 seconds) for them to fully regenerate in Smash 4, and 215 frames (3.583 seconds) in Ultimate.

The Orbitars have a sizable amount of ending lag, whether they are voluntarily dropped or allowed to expire, which can leave the user open for half of a second. However, if they are broken first by powerful enough attacks, their ending lag is sharply decreased. This event allows swift counterattacking (such as punishing a smash attack or Warlock Punch).

Because attacking the orbitars pushes opponents away, this move can be used as an edgeguard technique against a fighter with an attacking recovery such as, usually gimping them with the small push effect.

As a cosmetic difference, Pit announces "Stay back!" or chuckles upon activating his Orbitars, or in Japanese: "Hah!", "" (Defend/Protect!) or "" (Got ya!); the very latter Japanese quote is taken from his original Japanese quote for his Mirror Shield. Meanwhile, Dark Pit announces "No way!" or grunts upon doing the same. However, his Japanese quotes are the exact same as Pit's, only in a deeper and more serious tone.

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Guardian Orbitars: Default.
 * 2) Impact Orbitars: Can damage and knockback foes, but loses the ability to reflect projectiles and shield attacks. Gives Pit or Dark Pit super armor upon activating the move.
 * 3) Amplifying Orbitars: Boosts the power of reflected projectiles, but the Orbitars are more fragile.

Origin
are one of the weapon classes in Kid Icarus: Uprising. Weapons in this class can fire two shots at once and have high homing, though they're not as effective in melee combat. Guardian Orbitars specialize in defense, and can project shields with charged shots.

Trivia

 * The Orbitars's placement is inverted between the grounded and aerial versions of this move. This is most likely done to account for the animation difference between them.