Duck Hunt (SSBU)

Duck Hunt (, Duckhunt), known in PAL versions as Duck Hunt Duo, are playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They were officially revealed on June 12th, 2018 alongside, , and the rest of the returning roster. Although they are a team, Duck Hunt are collectively classified as Fighter #59.

Duck Hunt retain their realistic dog barks and duck quacks, using a combination of recycled voice clips from Super Smash Bros. 4 along with additional new ones.

Duck Hunt is ranked 67th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing them in the C- tier. This is a slight drop from their 30th out of 54 placement in SSB4.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Duck Hunt must then be defeated on (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Duck Hunt being the 56th characters to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the last character unlocked after.
 * Have Duck Hunt join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Duck Hunt are a duo that fight collectively as if they were a single character, much like. They are lightweights, and specifically weigh as much as, which places them among the bottom 20 in that category. Duck Hunt also have below-average height, above-average walking/dashing speeds (being the 25th and 36th fastest, respectively), a slow initial dash (tied for the 12th slowest with, , , and ), low traction (the 15th lowest), above-average air speed (tied for the 20th fastest with , , , and ), average air acceleration and falling speed, and low gravity (the 14th lowest). Duck Hunt can also crawl and wall jump. These traits make Duck Hunt a character who, while lacking strong burst movement on the ground due to their slow dash, does a good job at maintaining aerial presence with their air speed and fairly high jumps. Collectively speaking, their overall mobility is average.

Due to having three unique projectiles for special moves, Duck Hunt excel in zoning and stage control with an emphasis on setups. Trick Shot generates a tin can that explodes on contact, and the fact that it can be maneuvered by the player with a press of the special button makes it a key component of Duck Hunt's pressure, setups, and stage control. Additionally, the fact that the can is generated on frame 1 gives it utility as a combo breaker. Clay Shooting involves throwing a clay pigeon that can be detonated with a press of the special button. It not only has use as a zoning tool, but it also functions as Duck Hunt's most potent combo starter, as the fact that they can act out of the move before it detonates allows them to chain the move into itself, aerials, or a combination of the two. Wild Gunman summons a gunman that shoots from their respective gun after a delay. This further supplements their zoning and setup-centered playstyle, since they can act out of the move before the gunshot. In addition, the gunmen possess their own hurtboxes, giving it occasional use for blocking attacks.

Duck Hunt's air game also has decent utility courtesy of their good air speed. Back aerial is a fast and powerful finisher that comes out at frame 7 and KOs middleweights as early as 120% from the edge of Final Destination, making it even deadlier in the context of edgeguarding. Neutral aerial also compliments their edgeguarding abilities, as it comes out fast at frame 6 and has lingering hitboxes that make it useful for gimps while the strong hit also functions as a passable KO move, KOing middleweights at 135% from the edge of Final Destination. Finally, up air is a good vertical finisher that starts KOing middleweights at around 135% near the blast zone, plus it comes out fast at frame 6 and has a decent amount of active frames.

Unfortunately, Duck Hunt's main weakness is that, outside of some of their aerials, the aspects of their kit that don't revolve around their versatile projectiles are rather lackluster. For example, while their aerials are undeniably the best parts of their kit outside of their special moveset, some aren't without their flaws. Although forward aerial is fairly fast at frame 7 and has decent range, it has atrocious KO power; even with the sweetspot, the move doesn't start KOing middleweights until around 180% from the edge of Final Destination, and the fact that the move has sourspots adds a layer of inconsistency to its already poor KO power. In addition, down aerial has some inconsistencies of its own, as while it is a decent spike on paper, the two hits don't always connect into each other. Duck Hunt's endurance also leaves more to be desired due to their low weight and exploitable recovery; while Duck Jump covers good horizontal and vertical distance, its unremarkable speed and lack of protection make it prone to edge guards. While their recovery fares better than in SSB4 due to it being able to be canceled into attacks and air dodges, the fact that Duck Hunt can only cancel their recovery 50 frames later still makes it fairly exploitable.

However, the flaws of other aspects of Duck Hunt's kit are most apparent in their ground game, as their grounded normals are mediocre at best and well below average at worst. While their rapid jab is a good damage racking option, neither it nor the standard jab start KOing middleweights until 190%. Forward tilt, while being disjointed and having passable startup at frame 8, lacks range in comparison to other disjoints and doesn't start KOing middleweights until 150%. Up tilt, while in theory being a frame 7 combo starter into neutral and up aerial at low and mid percentages, isn't that consistent in practice due to the fact that its narrow hitbox struggles to hit grounded opponents even at point blank range. Even down tilt, which is among their best grounded moves due to being their fastest grounded poke (at frame 6) and being capable of starting tech chases, suffers from being an even worse disjoint than forward tilt in terms of both range and KO power.

While the aforementioned moves are simply mediocre, the same cannot be said for their dash attack, a move that is genuinely below average; it has slow startup at frame 10 while also having abysmal KO power, as it can't even KO middleweights past 200%. On top of having slow startup, Duck Hunt's poor initial dash further hinders its use as a burst option, a role that dash attacks are generally meant to fulfill. Duck Hunt's smash attacks don't do their ground game many favors either, as while they have good KO power and are disjointed for utilizing the NES Zapper, their startup is rather subpar and they have awkward hitboxes that prevent all the hits from connecting at times. Their grab game is also a contributor to their less than stellar strength on the ground; their standing and pivot grabs have deceptively good range, but the reward they get from a grab leaves more to be desired due to none of their throws leading to consistent combos or KOing at reasonable percentages.

Overall, Duck Hunt excel at controlling the neutral by simultaneously controlling both the duo and their assortment of projectiles in order to generate setups, frame traps, and pressure whether the opponent is onstage, at ledge, or offstage while their good air mobility and fair share of fast aerials also give them a slight emphasis on offstage edgeguards. In exchange for these strengths, they have a notable lack of flexibility in other aspects of their kit due to their overall average recovery and ground game, meaning they have to be more reliant on crafty use of their projectiles in order to get things going compared to other zoners.

Essentially, Duck Hunt are solid characters, yet other characters of a similar archetype simply have more flexibility in parts of their kits that don't revolve around their projectiles. For example, while is good at zoning and creating setups with Boomerang and Remote Bomb, he is considered to be a high tier character because he has notable strengths all across the board, such as a strong out of shield option in the form of Spin Attack, safe and potent aerials in the form of his neutral and forward aerials, and an overall better ground game than Duck Hunt due to the greater reach and power of his disjoints, as well as his more combo-friendly grab game. While it is not entirely certain whether Duck Hunt's strengths outweigh their flaws or vice versa, Duck Hunt are generally considered to be viable.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Duck Hunt received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Ultimate, but have been buffed significantly overall. Duck Hunt's notoriously inconsistent KO potential has been improved in many ways: their infamously unreliable smash attacks now connect much more reliably (though there are rare instances where their final hits may still fail to connect), while their forward tilt is now a situational KO option thanks to its much higher base knockback.

Trick Shot, which was already a powerful, versatile projectile, has been improved in many ways: it KOs earlier, travels further, has less endlag and can now be hit in air, all of which improve its utility. Clay Shooting has less ending lag and forces opponents to stay in place if they get hit, which make it an excellent combo tool. In addition, it now explodes into shrapnel that deals damage in many directions, increasing its effective range.

Duck Jump now allows the duo to act out of it after at least 50 frames; when coupled with the reintroduction of directional air dodges, these changes somewhat improve the safety and reliability of their once-risky recovery. Lastly, Wild Gunman has less ending lag, higher damage outputs and knockback (to the point that the orange and sombrero gunmen boast KO potential at high percents), and the defeated gunmen each maintain a hurtbox that allow Duck Hunt to use them to block incoming attacks.

Duck Hunt also benefit from the universal changes of Ultimate. Their mobility has improved, particularly in regard to their dash/initial dash speeds and their aerials' reduced landing lag. These changes, when coupled with many of Duck Hunt's moves in general having less endlag, somewhat improves their combo game.

However, Duck Hunt have received some nerfs. Their lighter weight further worsens their already poor endurance. Some of their aerials have also been worsened: clean neutral aerial's noticeably lower knockback growth hinders its KO potential, forward aerial has a slightly shorter duration, and down aerial no longer auto-cancels with a short hop. Lastly, Trick Shot has lost some of its set-ups into Clay Shooting, while the latter is harder to destroy and its shrapnel can also damage Duck Hunt.

Overall, the changes to Duck Hunt greatly benefit them, as they are considered to be better than they were in SSB4. These buffs and nerfs, however, also change their playstyle somewhat. When coupled with Ultimate's faster engine, the combination of Duck Hunt's lighter weight, improved mobility and generally improved normal moves gives them more a more aggressive playstyle than in SSB4. Despite this, the large retention of their camping game also enables them to use it potently, despite the faster game engine favoring more offensive playstyles.

Initially, Duck Hunt were believed to be considerably worse than in SSB4, to the point that their playerbase was even smaller than it was in SSB4. , the best Duck Hunt player in the world, most notably held this negative perception of them, and thus resorted to using secondaries, such as. However, as time went on, Raito started achieving very strong results competitively with them, such as placing 3rd at both and, placing 5th at , and taking sets off of notable players including , , , and.

These commendable results indicate that Duck Hunt have maintained their viability, but have also potentially become even more viable than in SSB4. Along with Raito, other Duck Hunt mains, such as and, started achieving respectable results as of late. Although Duck Hunt's playerbase is still small, their impressive results, especially by Raito, indicate that they can be very potent when mastered.

Update history
Aside from glitch fixes, Duck Hunt have received a mix of buffs and nerfs from game updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Duck Hunt's hitboxes, see here.
 * Duck Hunt can crawl and wall jump.

Announcer call
In European versions, the announcer refers to Duck Hunt as a duo.

On-screen appearance

 * The dog leaps into an 8-bit sprite of grass with the duck on his back before they both rise from the grass while the dog performs his signature laugh. The grass then disappears in a puff of smoke.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: The dog performs a frontal handstand, while the duck balances on one of the hind legs and quacks negatively in response.
 * Side taunt: The dog lays on his side and does his infamous laugh, while the duck flies next to him.
 * Down taunt: The dog stands on his back legs and does a dance.

Idle poses

 * The dog and the duck sniff the ground.
 * The dog scratches his ear.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: The dog jumps into a patch of 8-bit grass. He then, along with the duck, pops up from the grass and proceeds to do his signature laugh.
 * Up: Runs on screen and turns around to kick away a can from Hogan's Alley. He then assumes a pose in which he stands on his left hind leg while raising his right and brings his front legs towards himself.
 * Right: Summons a Wild Gunman to shoot to the left, then another one to shoot to the right. He then continuously holds the pose used to summon them. The Wild Gunmen don't appear in Team Battles.

Tier placement and history
In the early metagame, most players believed Duck Hunt were worse than they were in SSB4 due to Ultimate's game mechanics encouraging more aggressive gameplay, which contrasted Duck Hunt's more campy playstyle. Despite this, Duck Hunt's playerbase, most notably, showed that their buffs from SSB4 ensured their viability. As a result, Duck Hunt's perception in the community improved, with most people believing that they were as viable as they were in SSB4.

However, Duck Hunt's results have since seen a slow decline, due to their playerbase stagnating and Raito's results declining. When coupled with Duck Hunt's worst flaws remaining mostly unaddressed, such as their mediocre KO potential and below-average ground game, the current consensus is that they are lower mid tier characters, ranking 67th on the first and current tier list.

Most historically significant players
See also:Category:Duck Hunt players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Duck Hunt players in the United States. Placed 9th at, 13th at , and 13th at with wins on the likes of , , and . Currently ranked 4th on the Washington Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Duck Hunt players in the United States. Placed 3rd at, 5th at , and 33rd at with wins over the likes of , , and . Currently ranked 3rd on the New York City Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Duck Hunt players in the United States when he was active. Placed 5th at, 7th at , 9th at , and 49th at with wins over players such as , , and . Currently ranked 7th on the Michigan Ultimate Power Rankings.
 * - The best Duck Hunt player in the world. Placed 3rd at, and , as well as 5th at both  and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 17th on the Fall 2019 PGRU.
 * - The best Duck Hunt player in South America. Placed 1st at, 4th at , 7th at , 9th at , and 49th at with wins over players such as ,  and . Currently ranked 10th on Chilean Power Rankings.
 * - The best Duck Hunt player in Europe. Placed 25th at both, and  and 33rd at  and   with wins over players such as , , and . Currently ranked 3rd on the Austrian Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Duck Hunt players in the United States in the early metagame. Placed 5th at, 7th at , 9th at , 13th at , and 33rd at with wins over players such as , , and.

: Dog, Duck, Zapper
Duck Hunt's opponents are animals, or in the case of the s, humans wearing animal costumes. All the stages are grass and nature-themed stages, except for round 6, which instead references Duck Hunt being a dog like the Nintendogs. Due to being an animal, Rathalos also fits this theme and is fought as the final boss of their route.

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

Role in World of Light
Duck Hunt were among the fighters that were summoned to fight the army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Duck Hunt were present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. The duo was seen panicking alongside and a composed, with the dog covering his eyes and the duck attempting to lift the dog off the ground with Duck Jump. The duo was then placed under Galeem's imprisonment alongside the rest of the fighters, excluding.

In the mode proper, Duck Hunt can be found inside a forest covered in fog to be challenged and recruited.

Spirit
Duck Hunt's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Duck Hunt has been unlocked. Unlocking Duck Hunt in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Their fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with their artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Duck Hunt are the only fighters who travel to Living Room in Classic Mode.
 * If Duck Hunt are hit by Max Malicious Moonsault, the duck's wings will be spread out in a t-pose fashion.
 * This also happens if a directional air dodge is used or when caught by an attack with a special grabbing animation. This is also true with the latter in SSB4.
 * Duck Hunt are the only characters who face all of the fighters in the same round in their route.
 * They are also the only characters to face all of the fighters in their route, albeit in different Rounds.
 * There's a graphical error with Duck Hunt's on-screen appearance when done facing the left. The smoke effects appear behind the 8-bit grass instead of in front of it.
 * Duck Hunt's slowest walking speed animation has the dog walk close to the ground, and visibly sniff the ground. This is a reference to the animation that plays at the start of a round of Duck Hunt.
 * Despite not being present in Team Battles, Wild Gunman's appearance and firing sound effects can still be heard if Duck Hunt are the leading fighters of a winning team.
 * Duck Hunt,, , , , and are the only fighters to appear as allies in spirit battles.
 * In European Spanish, European French, German, 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, a noticeable translation of "the" is featured (el Dúo Duck Hunt, le Duo Duck Hunt, das Duck Hunt Duo, il Duo Duck Hunt). This trait is shared with, , , , , , and the s. Additionally, Duck Hunt and are the only fighters to have this trait in the European versions, but not in the American version.
 * Duck Hunt, the Ice Climbers,, , and  are only non-DLC characters who do not appear in more than one spirit battle from their respective home universes.  does not appear in any  universe spirit battles at all. This is not counting Olimar, who appears only in Mockiwi spirit battle as himself, but is fought in other spirit battles with Alph taking his place.
 * While the Mii Fighters technically represent the universe, they appear in most of the Mii-related spirit battles.
 * If the player is only using VS. matches to unlock characters, like in SSB4, the universe is the final one with playable representation to appear. Duck Hunt are the penultimate characters to unlock in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (with the final being Jigglypuff, whose universe already has unlocked playable representation in Pikachu, Charizard, Lucario, and Greninja), the final characters to unlock in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and in Ultimate, all other characters that follow Duck Hunt in the timed encounters are from universes that have already appeared.
 * Unlike in SSB4, the duck does not blink in any animations that the dog does. This is similar to a situation in SSB4 where R.O.B. does not emote in the Wii U version's Versus Mode.
 * However, if Duck Hunt are trapped in a bind pose, the duck can be seen blinking.
 * In almost all of their spirit battles, Duck Hunt is solely representing dog characters. Squawks' battle is the only one where Duck Hunt represents a bird character.
 * Unlike other Sound Tests with multiple characters in them (such as Popo & Nana, Pikmin & Winged Pikmin, and Banjo & Kazooie), Duck Hunt's voice clips are not split between the dog and duck, nor are their clips given specific designations. The Sound Test first lists the dog's four barking clips, followed by the duck's two quacking clips, followed by the dog's star KO voice clip.