Villager (SSBU)

Villager (, Murabito) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Villager is classified as Fighter #45, the first fighter number of the Super Smash Bros. 4 veterans.

Villager is ranked 69th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the C- tier. This is a significant drop from his 25th out of 54 placement in SSB4.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: With the exception of the third method, Villager must be defeated on Smashville. In World of Light, he is fought on.
 * Play Vs. matches, with Villager being the 6th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or anyone in its unlock tree, being the 1st character unlocked.
 * Have Villager join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Villager is a middleweight (weighing the same as, , , and ) with low gravity, slow falling speed, and somewhat below average air speed and air acceleration. Villager is among the most unorthodox characters on the roster with several unique moves, including multiple standard attacks that are actually projectiles, similar to.

Villager possesses a strong camping game. His forward and backward aerials are long-ranged slingshot attacks which, in combination with Lloid Rocket, are great for harassing opponents from a distance. Opposing projectiles can either be Pocketed or blocked by a tree; Pocket can also be used to "steal" character-generated items such as 's Gyro, preventing them from being used as long as Villager keeps them and thus further weakening the opponent's ability to compete with him at range. One caveat, though, is that Villager is a character of below-average mobility; in particular, he has the fourth slowest dashing speed in the game, so once the opponent closes the gap it can be difficult for Villager to create space again. Despite this, Villager possesses a reliable sex kick in his neutral aerial that has very quick startup at frame 3, giving him a relatively easy time knocking away an enemy if they approach to point blank range.

Should camping not be desirable, Villager's projectiles can also serve as good approach tools. In particular, launching Lloid Rocket and then running behind it is a strategy that limits the opponent's options and provides a chance to punish their reaction. Using his forward and back aerials in a short hop is also a good approach option, as they are reasonably safe disjointed attacks with little lag.

Despite being a middleweight character, Villager possesses a surprisingly flexible recovery thanks to. This move allows him to fly a great distance at a respectable speed, and is surprisingly difficult to gimp; although the balloons can be popped to render Villager helpless, hitting Villager himself will allow him to simply use the move again. Lloid Rocket further bolsters Villager's recovery, as launching it stalls his descent while threatening edgeguarders. Alternatively, Villager can ride Lloid back to the stage, although this is punishable and can be reflected.

Villager is also a very potent edgeguarder, with a wealth of options to threaten recovering foes. His forward smash allows him to drop a bowling ball from the ledge; this is a powerful attack that can be difficult for an opponent to avoid provided that they are recovering low. If the opponent's recovery is slow enough or a tree is set up beforehand, Timber can also be used from the ledge for an even more devastating attack, or to reduce an opponent's options should they grab the ledge. Alternatively, Villager can jump offstage and pursue with an aerial attack; his down aerial is a powerful meteor smash should it produce three turnips, while a clean hit from his slingshot has enough knockback to be deadly near the blast line, and is generally the best choice against an opponent recovering high. Many of his aerials are sex kicks as well which, when combined with his extremely long-ranged recovery, allows him to gimp opponents fairly easily.

However, Villager's ability to set up edgeguards in the first place is hampered by his slow grab. Although his net has relatively long range, it has exceptionally high ending lag that makes it very punishable. As such, attempting to throw an opponent offstage is a risky prospect, and Villager's ability to shield-grab is quite limited, although he does have other good out of shield options, such as his neutral aerial and up smash.

Outside of edgeguarding, Villager has multiple powerful KO moves, but none of them are easy to land from a neutral situation. His forward smash, while powerful, is a laggy and short-ranged attack when used onstage. Up smash is a potent KO option, but is very punishable as well and is susceptible to opponents falling out of the move entirely due to its multihit nature. Lloid Rocket has relatively high KO power when ridden, but is very slow and easy to punish. Timber's axe requires a tree to be present and has considerable ending lag, while using the tree itself is slow and requires Villager to stand in one place. Villager's up aerial is a strong juggling move and can score KOs off the upper blast line, but is somewhat luck-based and can be reasonably difficult to land. Pocketing and throwing back a sufficiently strong projectile makes for a deadly attack, generally enough to KO at mid percentages and instantly shatter full shields, but this is matchup-dependent and will not be easily allowed by a smart opponent. Overall, if the opponent maintains control of center stage, Villager can have trouble finding KO opportunities.

Overall, Villager is a somewhat polarizing glass cannon character. Villager excels at keeping opponents away with projectiles to allow enough time to set up traps. Villager does particularly well offstage, where he can easily edgeguard and gimp most of the cast while being able to easily recover from nearly any distance. Due to his array of projectiles and Pocket, Villager also has great counterplay to zoners. However, Villager does not have much in terms of close-range encounters and can be easily overwhelmed by many rushdown characters.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Villager has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate; he received relatively few direct changes, resulting in his core playstyle remaining relatively unchanged with an easier learning curve. However, while objectively buffed, the indirect changes to Ultimate's engine have pronounced his nerfs more while noticeably toning down his playstyle's efficacy. Overall, Villager has been significantly nerfed in the transition.

Villager's camping abilities have been considerably improved. Pocket not only now stores projectiles and items indefinitely, but also has less ending lag after pocketing them, and Villager can now pocket items with a grab. Lloid Rocket has notably increased knockback at low percentages, allowing Villager to win the neutral game easier. The universal reduction on landing lag benefits all of Villager's aerials, and down aerial now has a sweetspot that always meteor smashes, instead of doing it if he uses three turnips; these changes further improve his dominant air game. Villager's ground and grab games have seen a few improvements as well. Neutral attack now a rapid jab and a finisher, significantly improving its safety and damage racking ability; down tilt's sourspot is stronger; his dash attack is much faster; his up smash connects better and is more powerful; and down smash has increased range and is more reliable for burying and harder to escape from. Villager's grabs are much faster and can pocket items, while his throws have both better edge guarding potential (forward and back throws) and combo potential (down throw).

Some of the universal changes to gameplay benefit Villager; aside from lower landing lag on his aerials, his previously mediocre mobility has been improved, with faster ground and air speeds and a universal 3-frame jumpsquat improving his combo potential, notably with his throws. The changes made to air dodging also noticeably benefit Villager, as he can more easily punish opponents after a mistake, giving his aerial attacks further utility and notably improving their edge-guarding ability; and he can use one to recover with ease thanks to his floatiness.

Villager also received some notable direct nerfs, though. Most of Villager's ground attacks also have more ending lag and/or less range, while the raw power throughout his standard moveset has been toned down, notably on his forward smash and all tilt attacks; notably, up tilt is no longer among the strongest of its kind. Down aerial also had its startup nearly doubled, making it harder for Villager to combat juggling. His previously heavily disjointed pivot grab has much less range, counterbalancing some of the benefits his grab game has received. The changes to neutral attack remove its ability to reliably jab cancel and removes his KO confirms from SSB4, most infamously to Timber's axe. While Villager's recovery remains incredibly long-distanced, it has been nerfed nonetheless, as the helium for Balloon Trip now takes longer to recharge, which allows opponents to edgeguard Villager much more easily. Villager is also noticeably lighter, which further hurts his survivability.

However, Villager is significantly harmed by the indirect changes to gameplay mechanics, likely more than any other character. Villager's moveset's lower raw power is exacerbated by the weakening of rage and combined with his lower weight, he is less capable of making use of it as effectively, forcing Villager to rely much more on edge-guarding to take a stock. The biggest nerf from gameplay mechanics, however, is the universal increase in mobility. Villager's floaty physics and camping-focused playstyle, whose core is essentially unchanged from SSB4, fare worse with the universal increase in mobility, which prioritizes faster-paced, more aggressive gameplay; this makes it easier for many characters to get past Villager's zoning tools with less issue, while Villager's own faster mobility doesn't properly compensate for this. Alongside with nerfs to Balloon Trip, edge-guarding being more prominent again further hurts Villager's survivability. Combined with the aforementioned nerfs to his raw power and the weakening of rage, several characters are now capable of overcoming (and in some cases, overwhelming) Villager, further reducing the effectiveness of his strong camping game despite being greatly buffed.

Overall, Villager's gameplan is largely the same as in SSB4 as a result of receiving less direct changes than most of the cast; however, the significantly changed environment has effectively crippled his defensive playstyle, forcing Villager to shift to a more offensive playstle that's far less effective. Despite receiving buffs by game updates, they do not properly compensate for the gameplay changes making his kit less effective. Egregiously, most veterans have received various buffs to varying degrees, with melee-based characters benefitting more from the increased mobility and projectile-based veteran characters receiving buffs that address some of their issues against opposing camping. Lastly, Ultimate has introduced newcomers such as, and  that have zoning abilities that are just as strong, alongside greater range, outclassing Villager in competitive play. All in all, despite his buffs, Villager fares drastically worse in Ultimate than in SSB4 by sole virtue of gameplay changes.

Update history
Villager received a mix of buffs, nerfs and glitch fixes via game updates, but was buffed overall. The universal projectile shield damage nerf in Version 3.0.0 affected Villager more than most other characters do to much of the moveset utilizing projectiles. Version 3.1.0 buffed down smash overall to hit more reliably, but slightly over-corrected to the point of it being unreliable again. This was fixed in Version 4.0.0. Up smash was given increased knockback to combo out of buried opponents more easily, and Version 7.0.0 made the shield larger.

Version 8.0.0 offered a suite of buffs and the removal of the Lloid Jacket. Neutral attack was given multiple buffs to hit more reliably, included higher hitstun multipliers, larger hitboxes and more of them, and more range overall to mitigate missing opponents under certain conditions. Up tilt was granted intangibily and a hitstun modifier to be better at an anti-air. Up smash became more powerful, Up aerial has more knockback, and Down aerial starts faster. Timber was made safer to use, easier to break the opponent's shield, and the Axe was made more powerful. Version 11.0.0 had a minor update to homogenize the crumpling state across the cast.

Overall, whether Villager fares better or worse since launch is debatable. The projectile nerfs negatively affected the keep away aspect of Villager's gameplan, though this was at least partially if not fully compensated with improved trapping capabilities and stuffing out slower opponents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

On-screen appearance

 * The Villager comes out of their house cheering before it shrinks into a puff of smoke.

Taunts

 * Up Taunt: Faces the screen and cheers twice.
 * Side Taunt: Performs a shortened version of the Shrunk Funk Shuffle.
 * Down Taunt: Bends down and scrapes the ground with a stick.

Idle poses

 * Puts their hand on their face while tapping their foot. This is the animation used when they access their inventory in the Animal Crossing games.
 * Scratches the side of their head.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Catches a with their net and shows it off.
 * Up: Digs up a and shows it off.
 * Right: Does a Dance Spin then poses in their SSB4 artwork pose.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Villager players (SSBU)
 * - The best Villager player in the United States. Placed 5th at, 9th at , 13th at both and , and 17th at  with wins over players such as , , and.
 * - The best Villager player in the world. Placed 4th at, 7th at , 9th at both and , and 13th at  with wins over players such as , , and.

Tier placement and history
In the early metagame, players noted that the changes to game mechanics, which increases the pace of the game and encourages more aggressive gameplay over camping, harmed Villager's campy playstyle by making one of his biggest strengths less effective. As such, opinions on Villager have been low for most of Ultimate's lifespan. Although the character has seen solid runs from players such as and, their results are often hindered by inconsistency (kept) or a lack of out-of-region results (JAVI ON EARTH), leaving the character with limited results at majors and representation that consistently ranks in the bottom 20. As a result, Villager is currently ranked 69th on the current tier list, near the end of the lower-mid tier, with some players believing the character should be ranked lower.

: Mistake to Underestimate
Villager fights against characters who appear unsuited for battle, such as Isabelle and Wii Fit Trainer. This is likely a reference to the similar reason for Villager not being included in Brawl.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Villager has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
The default male Villager was among the fighters that were summoned to fight against the army of Master Hands. He was also present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed its beams of light. He is seen panicking alongside and a composed. He was vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters, excluding.

During the mode itself, the default male Villager can be unlocked early on shortly after rescuing, where the player arrives at a crossroads and has the choice to rescue him, or. If one of the others is rescued first, Villager's path will be blocked by a force field created by, which will disappear upon defeating a boss or can be circumvented by looping back to the other side.

Spirits
Villager Boy's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Villager has been unlocked. Unlocking Villager 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. Villager Girl also has a fighter spirit of her own, available through the shop. Each fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Villager is the first SSB4 newcomer to be confirmed for Ultimate. Coincidentally, Villager was the first newcomer revealed for SSB4.
 * Villager is the only SSB4 newcomer to appear on the game's boxart.
 * Villager's body and lighting on the boxart for Ultimate is flipped when compared to his appearance in the panorama, with only his face facing the same direction.
 * In the E3 demo of the game, Villager's portrait, strangely, used his in-game model as opposed to the render made for the final game. This was also the case with, and . This has since been fixed.
 * Coincidentally, all four of these characters were playable in the Super Smash Bros. for 3DS demo.
 * In the demo for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Villager's 7th and 8th costumes had a light skin tone, just like in SSB4. However, in the final game, the skin was changed to be a darker tone.
 * In Spanish, German, French, and Italian, the name tag and voice clip from the announcer on the victory screen is slightly different from the one used on the character select screen, instead featuring a noticeable translation of "the" (respectively, "el Aldeano"/"la Aldeana", "der Bewohner"/"die Bewohnerin", Flag of Quebec.svg "l'Habitant"/"l'Habitante", Flag of France.svg "le Villageois"/"la Villageoise", and "l'Abitante"). This trait is shared with, , , , the , Zombie, Enderman, and the s.
 * When Villager uses his Up Special, the color of the balloons that appear depends on who controls the character (gray for CPU, red for P1, blue for P2, etc.). also shares this trait.
 * Similar to 's Chomp, characters trapped in Villager's grab appears to have the upper half of their models removed, presumably so that even large characters can fit inside the net. This also happens with Isabelle.
 * In the results screen after a team battle, if the winning team consists of Villager in the front and behind him to the left, Villager’s net will clip through Ken’s arm.