Plasma Whip


 * Not to be confused with Plasma Wisp or Plasma Wire.

Plasma Whip (, Plasma Whip) is Zero Suit Samus's side special move.

Overview
Zero Suit Samus shoots the Plasma Whip forward a long distance, with small knockback and damage throughout its length except for a very large sweetspot at the tip. There is a sizable blind spot in the middle of the Plasma Whip where the opponent is not hit, although this was fixed in later games. The body of the whip can knock the enemy into the tip, which has large knockback (at least as large as Samus' forward smash, but with longer range) and is considered her best KO move outside of her forward and back aerials. It does 19% damage (if the opponent is close to Zero Suit Samus because it's pushed to the tip, doing two hits), but just 16% if only the tip hits. In Super Smash Bros. 4, Plasma Whip has been nerfed. Plasma Whip has higher ending lag, a significantly smaller sweetspot, and is much weaker, dealing less damage and knockback, and it no longer KOs at high percentages outside of edgeguarding and stage spikes. It is, however, a more useful horizontal recovery tool due to snapping the ledge much sooner. However, the move's power was restored in Ultimate, making it a reliable ranged KO tool once again. It has also gained a new effect where it launches opponents directly above Zero Suit Samus if the player holds the special button down, putting the opponent in a position for potential follow ups.

The move is a little laggy after extending, but comes out at about the speed of a smash attack. In the air, it can be used as a tether recovery; it differs from her other recovery move, (Plasma Wire/ Boost Kick), in that it has longer horizontal range, but much less vertical range, giving Zero Suit Samus several options for recovering, depending on whether she is level with or below the ledge.

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


 * 1) Plasma Whip: Default.
 * 2) Plasma Dash: A small dash forward with Samus' gun, striking multiple times. Cannot tether recover.
 * 3) Whip Lash: Ensnares an opponent and draws them in. Does not connect if Samus is too close to the opponent.

Origin
Both the Plasma Whip and the Plasma Wire are unique to Smash, and have no presence in any Metroid game but it could be a reference to the Grapple Beam which Samus uses in her Power Suit.

Trivia

 * Through hacking Brawl, unique item grabbing and throwing animations have been found for Plasma Whip. This suggests that the move was, at one point, also designed to have the ability to grab items from afar and fling them towards opponents. Judging from the animations, it also suggested that Zero Suit Samus could steal opponents' held items by using Plasma Whip against them.