Sephiroth (SSBU)/Down aerial

Overview
Sephiroth performs his iconic Hell's Gate move, being a stall-then-fall down aerial where he uses both hands to thrust Masamune downwards while falling at a high speed. Being a stabbing move, the sweet spot is situated around the tip of the blade but is only active during its initial frames, transitioning to dealing consistent damage across the entire blade after its spiking hitbox deactivates. Boasts impressive vertical range, being able to hit opponents who are below the ledge, or even below platforms on certain stages. This allows it to be used as a very consistent 2-frame punish move that can be safely performed on stage, made even more dangerous by the powerful meteor smash effect on the move's sweet spot. Additionally, Hell's Gate has a landing hitbox, visually indicated by small fissures forming beneath him. Masamune also briefly gets a hitbox upon landing, which can hit opponents beneath Sephiroth, however this hitbox lacks a meteor effect and is fairly weak knockback wise.

Due to the placement of its hitboxes, it is easier to land if Sephiroth has his back to the opponent. As such, a common set up for 2-framing recoveries is to roll to turn your back to ledge, and then perform Hell's Gate out of a short hop to allow time for the sweetspot to be active.

Down aerial

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Landing

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Attack
The move resets Sephiroth's horizontal momentum and first sets his vertical speed to 1 on frames 1-18, then sets it to -4.2 from frame 19 onward. Manual horizontal movement is also disabled during frames 1-46.



Trivia

 * The ID 0 and 1 hitboxes for the down aerial's clean hit are coded as extended hitboxes despite not actually extending, which prevents them from interpolating.
 * Despite the down aerial's late hit possessing three hitboxes, all of them cover the exact same space and hit the same targets, making the distinction between them pointless. This is also the case with the clean landing hit's ID 1 and 2 hitboxes.