Mii Brawler (SSBU)

The Mii Brawler (, Mii Hand-to-Hand Fighting Type) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They were confirmed as a playable character on June 12th, 2018 along with the other types, the Swordfighter, and the Gunner. Mii Brawler is classified as Fighter #51.

As with the other Mii Fighter types, the Mii Brawler has 12 voice options, provided by Yūji Kishi, Takashi Ōhara, Ryōtarō Okiayu, Michihiko Hagi, Hideo Ishikawa, Kiyoyuki Yanada, Umeka Shōji, Ayumi Fujimura, Makiko Ōmoto, Minami Takayama, and Kimiko Saitō.

The Mii Brawler is currently ranked 37th out of 82 on the Ultimate tier list in the A- tier, making them the highest-ranking Mii Fighter in the game. This is a significant improvement from their Super Smash Bros. 4 iteration, where they were ranked 55th out of 57 on that game's third tier list before ultimately going unranked on the fourth, one major factor to this abismal placing in Super Smash Bros. 4 was the ban on the mii's custom moves. Mii Brawler retains their fast frame data, punishing combo game, and strong kill confirms from Smash 4. They boast quick and powerful out-of-shield options, far-reaching burst options, and reliable recovery options. Additionally, the ability to switch special moves allows them to change their tools to match their opponent, picking between stronger neutral tools or more powerful KO options.

However, not all of their weaknesses can be mitigated by specials. Mii Brawler has exceptionally poor range, even compared to other close-range fighters like or, requiring them to fully commit to their approaches. Their fast fallspeed and gravity hurts their edgeguard potential and leaves them prone to powerful combos, this is however somewhat mitigated with certain special like feint jump, not unlike.

Overall, Mii Brawler is widely considered a capable fighter with tools to deal with any situation. While his representation has remained below average, it has been slowly improving thanks to secondary usage from top level players in matchups they typically detest, such as, , and.

Attributes
Being the "up close and personal" Mii Fighter, the Brawler now possesses a good walking/dashing speed (tied with Toon Link and Mewtwo for walk speed and the 25th fastest dash speed) and the ability to wall jump in exchange for now being a middleweight fighter (sharing the same weight as, , and ) with a fast falling speed, an above-average air speed, and an average air acceleration. As a Mii Fighter, his specials are determinant on the player's choice. Like the other two Mii Fighters, they have access to 12 different specials: Shot Put, Flashing Mach Punch, and Exploding Side Kick (Neutral Special), Onslaught, Burning Dropkick, and Suplex (Side Special), Soaring Axe Kick, Helicopter Kick, and Thrust Uppercut (Up Special), and Head-On Assault, Feint Jump, and Counter Throw (Down Special).

As with other Mii Fighters, one of the strengths of the Mii Brawler is his diverse set of special moves. Many of his specials help rack up damage, improve their recovery, or possess fantastic KO power. Shot Put is a fantastic tool for edgeguarding due to its arc and strong knockback. Moves such as Burning Dropkick and Feint Jump both aid the Brawler's recovery, providing decent horizontal distance. Suplex serves as a potent mindgame special, as well as an excellent way of racking up damage, dealing about 20% for each successful Suplex landed, even when stale.

Accompanying his varying specials, the Mii Brawler is a fairly nimble fighter with great combo potential. His walking and dashing speed is above average and many of his normals have relatively low start-up and ending lag. All of their tilts and aerials (with the exception of down aerial) come out fairly quickly and are safe on shield when properly spaced or timed. Up tilt can lead to airdodge chases at very low percentages and chain into itself at low-mid percentages while down tilt can combo into forward aerial and neutral aerial at low percentages and other aerials/special moves at higher percentages. Neutral aerial is an excellent sex kick that boasts a wide range of utility due to its speed and extremely low landing lag, making it a very useful tool for edgeguarding, initiating, continuing, and breaking combos, and approaching. Forward tilt serves as a decent spacing tool due to it no longer having a sour spot and its ability to be angled while his down throw is a very good combo initiator, capable of comboing into a variety of moves. Dash attack comes out very quick and stays active for a long time while covering a large distance, making it extremely effective for whiff punishing or catching landing opponents. Additionally, Mii Brawler has a plethora of moves that have high KO potential. Forward smash deals extremely high knockback and can kill at low-mid percentages, and additionally be confirmed out of a landing neutral air at mid percentages. The initial hit of up smash is a potent finisher that has very low start-up. Many of his specials can secure early KOs as well, especially Thrust Uppercut and Helicopter Kick. Exploding Side Kick is as strong as Falcon Punch and is safe on shield, Head-On Assault, Suplex and Soaring Axe Kick can perform sacrificial KOs at low percentages (the first of which also breaking shields), and Counter Throw is among the strongest counters in the game.

In addition to his normals, All of Mii Brawler's throws except for back throw serve a purpose past positioning. Down throw is Brawler's strongest throw in most situations, as it confirms into almost any aerial until high percentages, at which point it can be used to confirm into Helicopter Kick or Thrust Uppercut. At extremely high percents (190%+) It will begin to KO opponents off the top of stages with lower ceiling blastzones. Forward throw also serves as a kill throw, capable of killing opponents at high yet reasonable percents near ledge, where they may be expecting another kill move like back aerial or up smash, adding to Mii Brawler's corner pressure. Lastly, while up throw does not kill or combo, it does the most damage of any of Mii Brawler's throws at 11% (13.8% in 1v1s), making it a useful tool for simultaneously dealing a large amount of damage and setting the opponent up for juggling.

Additionally, Mii Brawler has a plethora of excellent defensive tools. Neutral aerial serves as a quick out of shield option with its 6-frame start-up, factoring in the initial jump squat frames. Up Smash hits on frame 8 and has Mii Brawler's legs intangible for the first half of its active frames making it a great anti-air option. Finally, All of Mii Brawler's Up Specials also serve as great out of shield options with Soaring Axe Kick having excellent range to punish disjointed attacks and retreating aerials, Helicopter Kick coming out as fast as Up Smash while being reversable, and Thrust Uppercut being Mii Brawler's fastest OOS option at frame 3, allowing it act both as a punish to some of the game's safest moves and a pre-emptive anti-air against landing aerials and jumping opponents.

In terms of recovery, Mii Brawler has some good options. Soaring Axe Kick has great height but suffers horizontally. Burning Dropkick, Helicopter Kick and Feint Jump provide better horizontal recovery. Feint Jump, much like ' Flip Jump, is a good tool that can both mix up and extend Mii Brawler's otherwise lackluster recovery as well as aid in escaping juggles thanks to its frame 2 invincibility, a frame faster than their airdodge. It can also be used to cancel one's momentum in order to survive at slightly higher percents. However, if Mii Brawler is hit out of Feint Jump, they will be unable to use it again until they grab a ledge or land on stage. Burning Dropkick can be used multiple times and its decent travel distance can be further improved by B-reversing it in the air. Helicopter Kick travels at a low angle, giving it excellent horizontal recovery potential but weak height. Thrust Uppercut is a fast recovery option but is perhaps the most restrictive up special Mii Brawler has for recovery.

However, Mii Brawler does not come without their own flaws. In exchange for their decent mobility and speed, their fixed middleweight status doesn't grant them high survivability. This is further exacerbated by his fast falling speed and susceptibility to combos. Furthermore, the Mii Brawler lacks tools to force approaches and has to make hard commitments with moves such as neutral air or dash attack when approaching due to a lack of safe options.

Another issue with the Mii Brawler is a lack of reliable KO confirms at high percents. At those percentages, many of Mii Brawler's combo setups stop confirming. Many of his KO options are flawed, being extremely laggy (Such as Forward Smash and Onslaught) or having poor range (Down Smash and Up Smash). What few confirming moves Mii Brawler does have at these percents in landing up aerial or neutral aerial can cause Mii Brawler to become predictable. Because of this, they must rely on back aerial, out-of-shield options, hard reads and tech-chasing to secure stocks without assistance from confirms.

Overall, the Mii Brawler is a jack-of-all-trades amalgamation of all hand-to-hand based fighters. The ability to mix and match several different special moves adds a unique layer of versatility by allowing several different playstyles and gameplans for the same basic fighter, making Mii Brawler among the most unpredictable to fight against. Additionally, a Mii Brawler experienced in several movesets will be able to update his moveset to better combat his opponent, such as using Helicopter Kick for heavier opponents or Soaring Axe Kick versus characters with disjoints. However, all of the customizable special moves have a flaw to prevent them from being overpowered and/or are an inferior version of a similar move other fighters possess, such as Feint Jump to Flip Jump or Head-On Assault to Bowser Bomb. The character's very good frame data, above-average mobility, and a variety of moves that can combo, juggle, and secure KOs are held back by his poor range and limited off-stage presence due to his fast fall speed. While his strengths do overshadow his weaknesses, many players have considered the Mii Brawler to be generally inferior to characters who have a similar fighting archetype such as and.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
The Mii Brawler has been the most extensively modified of the Mii Fighters. With its height and weight now being fixed, the Mii Brawler now has set attributes, now being a middleweight fast faller with high mobility and effective close combat abilities, making their playstyle along the lines of other combo-oriented "footsies" fighters like or. The Brawler is also the Mii whose custom moves have been the most extensively modified. As a result of their moveset overhaul, the Mii Brawler has received a large mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate; while they initially believed to have not been buffed enough to raise their tier standing during the initial release, game updates would provide substantial buffs for the Brawler, and the changes to game mechanics have been mostly positive for them. Overall, the Mii Brawler was noticeably buffed in the transition to Ultimate.

In terms of move changes, aside from some animation changes that set their moves apart from other characters, the Brawler's standard moveset has been noticeably improved. Their moves' functionality has not been altered significantly, with quality-of-life changes like forward tilt losing its sourspot, forward aerial being faster, and moves such as their smash attacks and back aerial getting moderate to high increases in knockback. Similarly to the other Mii Fighters, the Brawler's default special moves have been buffed significantly, with them being the largest recipient of buffs: Shot Put has less endlag and sends at a lower angle that makes it more useful, Onslaught has increased KO potential overall, Soaring Axe Kick covers slightly more distance and the descending part now has to be manually inputted, and Head-On Assault can now KO and deals increased shield damage. These changes give them a larger abundance of powerful moveset choices, fixing one of the Brawler's former weaknesses and allowing the Brawler to function just as effectively without altered custom moves.

In addition, the Brawler is the Mii Fighter to have the biggest access to entirely new special moves, as each directional input (neutral, side, up, down) has a new special move that replaces another: Ultimate Uppercut was replaced by Flashing Mach Punch, a powerful multi-hit move that renders the Brawler invincible should the move connect; Headache Maker was replaced by Suplex, a damaging command grab; Piston Punch was replaced by Thrust Uppercut, a variant with more recovery potential and combo ability but less KO power; and Foot Flurry was replaced by Counter Throw, a unique counterattack with short counter frames, but low cooldown and a retaliating hit in the form of a command grab. Each of these moves now give the Brawler a new option to handle several different situations.

The Brawler also benefits significantly from some of the universal changes to the gameplay mechanics. The universally increased mobility has notably improved the Brawler's grounded mobility as it grants them a more respectable initial dash, as well as their ground-to-air and air-to-ground mobility due to their faster falling speed and gravity. The ability to perform any grounded attack out of a run and the universally lower landing lag also alleviate their notoriously poor grounded approach. These three changes have collectively improved the Brawler's neutral game, which was a major weakness they had in SSB4. The changes to air dodges also allow the Brawler to catch opponents with more ease and potentially juggle them for a longer time, which is further compounded by the Brawler's improved mobility.

However, the Mii Brawler has also received some noteworthy nerfs. The Brawler's set attributes are a double-edged sword, as their lower weight, slower air speed, and higher falling speed and gravity makes them easier to combo and KO and renders their aerial mobility more polarized, while also removing their neutral and forward aerial's ability to autocancel from a short hop. Additionally, some of the Brawler's best moves have been nerfed: down throw's higher knockback scaling limits followups after mid percents despite the Brawler's streamlined jumpsquat, vastly reducing the KO power of their combo strings, save for Thrust Uppercut. The Brawler's best followup options from down throw also have weaker KO potential, since Helicopter Kick has lowered knockback and Thrust Uppercut's knockback is lower compared to Piston Punch. As a result, the Brawler must now use their tilts and aerial attacks in order to combo.

Despite Soaring Axe Kick's vastly improved utility and distance, some of the Brawler's other recovery choices have been nerfed in distance, making the Brawler's recovery less reliable than before: Onslaught travels a reduced distance if performed in the air, Burning Dropkick now has a fixed distance and cannot be charged (which also reduces its utility) and Feint Jump travels at a more downward angle, which when combined with the Brawler's increased fall speed and gravity gives the move less distance. The changes to the Brawler's special moves have also removed two of the Brawler's approach options, as the loss of Ultimate Uppercut removes a super armor option in exchange for invincibility when Flashing Mach Punch connects, and the loss of Foot Flurry removes one of their only approaching attacks in exchange for a counterattack in Counter Throw (though due to the Brawler's improved mobility, the loss of these two moves is overall alleviated).

Some of the changes to gameplay mechanics adversely affect the Brawler as well. The removal of perfect pivoting removes a useful microspacing tactic, while the changes to air dodges, while improving the Brawler's juggling and edgeguarding ability, also makes them easier to edgeguard. Of note is that the Brawler still retains some of their former weaknesses from SSB4 despite them being toned down, such as a polarized neutral game due to their poor range and only passable projectile, trouble at landing their powerful KO options, and a vulnerable recovery.

In the end, the changes to the Mii Brawler's moveset have improved their moveset overall and allow more of their special moves to shine due to their new utility, allowing the Brawler to more reliably adapt to a combo-based hit-and-run playstyle, though at the cost of weaker down throw combos and their strongest special moves being put in-line with the rest. Game updates have also provided the Brawler with some notable buffs, toning down some of the nerfs they received in the base game and significantly improving their options in the neutral game. As a result, the Brawler has vastly improved from their appearance in SSB4, and they are widely considered to be the most effective out of the three Miis.

Update history
The Mii Brawler has been significantly buffed from game updates. Update 2.0.0 improved the Brawler's offense by improving their neutral infinite, increasing the damage of up aerial and some special moves, extending up smash's sweetspot duration, and granting neutral and back aerials less landing lag. The landing lag decreases now make back aerial safer on shield, while giving late neutral aerial more followups, some into KO moves. Flashing Mach Punch's increased damage is more rewarding on hit, Exploding Side Kick's reduced ending lag makes it harder to punish, Onslaught's increased speed makes it easier to connect, Soaring Axe Kick is safer, Feint Jump's kick has more knockback, and Head-On Assault deals more shield damage, making it possible to break damaged shields with its landing hit and shockwave.

Patch 3.1.0 gave a mixed bag of changes, with their neutral attack and Flashing Mach Punch connecting more consistently. The Brawler's notoriously high falling and fast falling speeds were also reverted back to their SSB4 values, making them less susceptible to combos and juggles while also allowing forward aerial to autocancel out of a short hop. However, their airdodge and footstool animations were made laggier.

Patch 4.0.0 significantly improved the utility of what was commonly considered their two worst custom moves: Flashing Mach Punch was once again buffed by decreasing its startup and has more invulnerability if it connects, while also increasing the final hit's knockback, while Thrust Uppercut's final hit has more knockback, allowing it to actually KO at reasonable percents. However, the Brawler's infamously fast falling speed from earlier iterations has returned, resulting in the Brawler once again being easier to combo, forward aerial losing its ability to auto-cancel in a short hop, and the Mii Brawler's recovery being worse, but making them harder to juggle in return, as well make their airdodge and footstool animations less laggy.

Patch 5.0.0 gave a nerf to Counter Throw, making the move no longer grab opponents who are invincible/intangible except for 's Wonderwing, due to its peculiar properties against grabs, while patch 6.0.0 reduced the horizontal range of its counterattack grabbox.

Patch 7.0.0 now increased Suplex's grab range, make it easier to grab opponents.

Patch 12.0.0 provided Mii Brawler with some substantial buffs to a few special moves. Flashing Mach Punch now has more range in front, Onslaught deals 4.5% more damage overall, and Head-On Assault deals more shield damage and knockback, now being capable of instantly breaking full shields if all three hits connect.

As a result, the Mii Brawler is significantly better than they were during Ultimate's release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Mii Brawler's hitboxes, see here.
 * Mii Brawler can wall jump.

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

On-screen appearance

 * Lands with an explosion, performs two fast alternating punches followed by a spin kick, and makes a pose similar to their side taunt.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Does a backflip, then performs a crane pose upon landing.
 * Side taunt: Moves their fists in front of them in an "X" motion and assumes an altered crane pose, before punching downwards and swinging their open hand outward, performing a knife-hand block stance.
 * Down taunt: Forms a grounded stance, then punches twice towards the screen using alternating arms.

Idle poses

 * Quickly performs four fighting stances.
 * Unclenches their fists and hops on the spot, as if poised for battle.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Performs a straight punch, followed by a backhanded punch and a high kick combo, then poses with their leg outstretched.
 * Up: Punches many times in quick succession toward the screen (similar to their neutral jab infinite), then poses with their arm outstretched.
 * Right: Cartwheels into the foreground, does a roundhouse kick, and poses with the same leg outstretched.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Mii Brawler players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Mii Brawler players before dropping the character for . He has been ranked the best player in South Australia with the character and has won two regionals with and, beating  and  at the latter.
 * - One of the best Mii Brawler players in Europe. His 13th place at, where he defeated top European talent such as and , marks Mii Brawler's best performance at a major. He has also placed 5th at  with a notable upset over.
 * - The best Mii Brawler player to solely use the character in the United States. He holds the highest supermajor placement of the character with 17th at . He has not regularly competed offline since early 2020.
 * - The best Mii Brawler player in the world. His win at marks the only time a Mii Brawler has won a regional tournament, beating  and  in his bracket. He has also placed 5th at  where he beat  and  and has performed well at other tournaments alongside a slew of different characters with 7th at  as an example.

Tier placement and history
Early metagame opinions on Mii Brawler were lackluster: many players quickly noticed the severe nerfs to their strongest and infamous abilities from Smash 4, most notably the heavy nerfs to down throw (which could KO opponents at extremely low percents through the use of Helicopter Kick and Piston Punch). In addition, they received nerfs to their core moves (the smaller hitboxes of neutral and back aerials, and the loss of the autolink angle for forward aerial), and suffered from laggy and/or short-ranged moves, a poor approach, an ironic lack of safe KO moves, and a high vulnerability to combos and gimping. Due to this, they were quickly considered them to be the weakest of the three Mii Fighters, as they had the ability to rack up damage very quickly, yet were unable to safely secure stocks.

As time went on, Mii Brawler received several notable buffs to their movesets that gave them a better combo game and KO power. Most notable among this was the buffs to Thrust Uppercut, which gained some notoriety for being able to confirm from some moves, most notably down throw, and KO at early percents on some stages. In addition, the character saw success as a secondary or pocket character, especially from, who has won or came close to winning several events with Mii Brawler, as well as other players who have picked up the character on occasion such as. Although Mii Brawler's solo-main results still remained underwhelming at a national level, it has still seen some success thanks to the efforts of players such as in the early metagame and  in the post-online metagame. Due to all these factors, opinions on Mii Brawler, as well as their representation in the metagame, have risen, particularly in the post-online metagame, and as such they are ranked 37th on the current tier list as a high tier.

Role in World of Light
Although the Mii Brawler doesn't appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, they were vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (excluding ) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

The default Mii Brawler was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. They can be found in the Sacred Land sub-area after completing an optional time puzzle on the Triforce of Wisdom, which is hinted by an Owl Statue located in the Triforce of Power's section left path, by setting the time to 4:40.

Defeating the Mii Brawler automatically adds the default Mii Brawler under the name "Mii" with a default 1111 moveset to the list of Mii Fighters for all modes where Mii Fighters are usable. This Mii cannot be restored if deleted.

Spirit
Mii Brawler's fighter spirit is available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only if the player has a Mii Brawler. Unlocking Mii Brawler in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Unlike most fighters, the spirit for Mii Brawler only uses the official artwork from Ultimate.

In Spirit Battles
Conditions in italic aren't listed on the Spirit Battle preview screen.

Trivia

 * The Brawler is the only type of Mii Fighter to have a non-special move named in one of their tips; namely, their up smash, which is called "Cartwheel Kick".
 * The name is somewhat misleading: an actual "cartwheel kick" is a maneuver used in, while the Mii Brawler's up smash is actually a bicycle kick.
 * Mii Brawler’s pose in the panoramic artwork for Ultimate resembles their neutral aerial.
 * Many of the Mii Brawler's special moves resemble the attacks of a variety of characters from different fighting games, such as Counter Throw's animation resembling Geese Howard's Jōdan'ateminage counter and Flashing Mach Punch resembling Ryo Sakazaki's Zanretsuken. These similarities are taken further in Mii outfit showcases and Spirit battles, where the Brawler is seen using certain special moves as a homage to their outfits.
 * Regardless of whether the costume is purchased or not, Mii Brawler appears in the most spirit battles in DLC spirit boards, with a total of fourteen.
 * The Mii Brawler from Adventure Mode is the only Mii Fighter to be given an official name by Nintendo. According to a tweet by NintendoVS, his name is Chris.

Karateka Mii (SSBU)