Wario Waft

Wario Waft (, Wario Fart) is Wario's down special move, which makes use of his flatulence to attack opponents. The move was first revealed in the E3 2006 trailer for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, albeit with Wario creating a much larger explosion than what can be performed in the games.

Overview
Wario Waft is an attack which automatically charges as a match goes on. When Wario uses his down special, he will fart, with his fart becoming more powerful the more time it has had to charge, ranging from a tiny "poot" to a massive explosion (which has high knockback and damage). The move has four stages and Wario's stomach grows as the move charges. If Wario eats using his Chomp, it will make his Waft charge faster. Like Oil Panic, this is one of the few chargeable moves where the charge is retained after the user is KOed.

At minimum charge, Wario performs a small fart. The fart will trip any opponent it hits, although it deals no damage and it has very high ending lag, making it almost completely useless to use, especially within a 1v1 match.

After 15 seconds, Waft reaches its second stage. Wario performs a bigger fart which damages nearby opponents. The move is faster than a Waft with no charge although it is still quite weak and it is overall mostly useless. The move's damage also additionally scales as time goes on, making it stronger the longer Wario waits to use it.

After 55 seconds, Waft reaches its third stage. Wario performs a bigger, faster and stronger fart, which propels him upwards. It is his fastest fart, having lower startup and ending lag than his other farts. It also has solid KO potential and its damage scales over time, potentially making it even stronger.

At a full charge (110 seconds), Wario starts flashing orange and Waft reaches its fourth and final stage. Wario performs his largest and most damaging fart which propels him very high upwards. The move comes out more slowly than a half charged waft, although the move has super armor on startup and Wario himself has a powerful hitbox while he is rising. It is also his most powerful Waft starting from Smash 4, giving Wario players an incentive to fully charge his Waft. While the move does grant Wario a lot of height, Wario has no protection from the upper blast zone, resulting in him being KOed if he Wafts too close to the blastzone; however, this is only a major issue in Brawl. The height received also allows the move to be used as a recovery option, though using it as such is risky due to the charge time and Wario already having Corkscrew as an overall better recovery option. However, this move does not leave Wario helpless, meaning it can be followed up with Corkscrew and allow Wario to recover from incredibly far off the stage.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl




In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, only Wario's stomach grows as Waft charges.

Uncharged Waft is completely useless due to its abysmal speed and with its reward failing to compensate for its speed. A stage 2 Waft is also largely useless as it is very weak and not particularly fast for the amount of power it has. The quarter waft deals 10%, with its damage scaling up to 13% depending on how long it has been charged for. Interestingly, stage 2 Waft possesses two weaker sourspots which deal less damage and knockback. However, these sourspots are impossible to land as they are completely obscured by the sweetspot and have lower priority than the sweetspot. These sourspots were retained in later games, and they continue to be impossible to land.

A stage 3 Waft is by far Wario's most useful Waft. The move comes out on frame 5 and has very low ending lag (taking 29 frames to complete). The move also makes Wario rise upwards, making it very hard to punish (along with its low ending lag), and allowing it to be used as a recovery tool. What really makes the move shine though is its excellent KO power. The move deals 21% initially and has decent KO power however, its damage scales up to a massive 31% depending on how long it has been charged for. When the move has been charged for long enough to deal 31%, it has incredible KO potential, being able to KO middleweights under 60% at the center of. Because of its speed and power, half Waft is easily one of Wario's most powerful tools, especially if he charges it as much as possible before it becomes fully charged.

A fully charged Waft is not as useful, however. The move is slower, coming out on frame 9 and having much more ending lag (taking 59 frames to complete). One positive however is that the move does have super armor which lasts from frames 5-10, which can allow Wario to plough through attacks (which the half Waft cannot do). The move deals an incredibly high 40%, although its knockback is not very high for how much damage it deals. It has decent KO power although it still pales in comparison to a near fully charged Waft, especially since it is slower. However, Wario receives an extreme vertical boost and the rising hit deals 20% and has solid vertical knockback at high percents, making it a great recovery tool and occasionally allowing it to catch opponents high in the air. As a result, a fully charged Waft can still be useful at times although Wario players would usually opt to charge Wario Waft as much as they can before it reaches full charge (ideally charging it for 105-109 seconds) to get Wario's most deadly and useful Waft.

Overall, Wario Waft is one of Wario's greatest tools due to the speed and strength of his half charged Waft. The sheer effectiveness of the move results in professional Wario players adopting a highly defensive playstyle, in order to charge up Waft as much as possible and then hopefully release it and land it shortly before it reaches maximum charge.

In Super Smash Bros. 4


In Super Smash Bros. 4, the Wario Waft returns and it has seen some changes. Wario's entire torso now grows as the Waft charges, which negatively affects the move as it makes Wario's hurtboxes extend further. Uncharged Waft was unchanged from Brawl, still being an extremely slow and extremely weak attack.

Stage 2 Waft is stronger, now dealing 12% and having increased knockback. This overall makes quarter Waft more effective although the move is still rarely useful and the move also has increased ending lag to compensate. Strangely, the sourspots also received increased damage and knockback, despite still being impossible to land.

Stage 3 Waft has become noticeably less effective. The move now only deals 20% and the move's damage only scales up to 24%, making the move much less powerful when it is close to being fully charged. In addition to this, the move has much higher ending lag (taking 20 more frames to complete), and the move does not travel as high, making it much more punishable and generally making it less useful than in Brawl (although this is also due to the changes to Wario's fully charged Waft).

Fully charged Waft has seen the most drastic changes, however. The move now deals a less extreme 27% but has vastly greater knockback, now being capable of KOing middleweights at around 50% from the center of (about twice as early as in Brawl). Additionally, due to the changes to hitstun cancelling and DI, Wario now has reliable ways he can combo most of the cast into a fully charged Waft, and if he has rage (which he can easily build up to the his high weight), Waft can KO even earlier. This makes a fully charged Waft much more devastating and effective overall despite its reduced damage. However, Wario does not rise as high after performing a fully charged Waft, hindering its recovery potential.

Overall, Waft remains an incredible tool due to the newfound strength of a fully charged Waft.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate


Wario Waft returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and it has seen some adjustments. The fart clouds have been redesigned and Wario's fully charged waft has seen a few adjustments. The move has a new animation where Wario faces away from the screen and it now triggers Special Zoom when it connects.

In earlier versions of the game, these were the only changes Wario Waft received, apart from a fully charged Waft receiving one more frame of ending lag. Because of this, Wario Waft became an even more effective tool, as Wario gained even more ways to combo into Waft both due to universal changes and buffs Wario himself has received, making it even deadlier than before. In update 11.0.0 however, the stage 3 and fully charged Wafts were nerfed.

The stage 3 version received 3 frames more startup lag and 5 more total frames, which overall made it harder to land and removed a couple of setups into it (such as landing down aerial → Waft). The fully charged version was made 3 frames slower, both in startup lag and total frames, which made it harder for Wario to combo into, especially out of up tilt due to the nerfs that move received in the same patch. A positive change the move received however is that it gained more super armor, now lasting from frames 4-13, rather than from 5-10.

Overall, Wario Waft still remains a very powerful tool, even after receiving nerfs in update 11.0.0. Despite the move's increased startup lag, Wario still has more ways to lead into his Waft than the previous game both due to universal changes and buffs Wario himself has received which overall makes it a more practical combo ender, even if it is a riskier move in neutral.

Wario-Man Waft
In Brawl and Smash 4, Wario-Man possesses a Waft of his own with unique properties. His uncharged Waft is similar to Wario's although it stuns grounded opponents and it pushes aerial opponents back. A stage 2 Waft only takes one second to charge and it is stronger than Wario's. A stage 3 Waft only takes 5 seconds to charge although it is weaker than Wario's, dealing less damage (in Brawl) and knockback. Wario Man's fully charged Waft still takes 110 seconds to charge but it is incredibly powerful when fully charged, dealing 50% and being capable of OHKOing.

In Smash 4, Wario-Man's stage 2 and 3 Wafts retain the higher ending lag Wario's versions received. His stage 3 Waft is also stronger, dealing 2% more damage than in Brawl.

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


 * 1) Wario Waft: Default.
 * 2) Rose-Scented Waft: The Wario Waft will add a flower to the opponent's head, but loses a lot of knockback. It also charges faster, and possesses a much larger hitbox.


 * 1) Quick Waft: The Wario Waft charges much faster, but doesn't deal as much damage or knockback. All waft charge levels other than the half waft are faster overall, as well. An uncharged waft can potentially lead to a getup chase situation due to the reduced ending lag.

Origin
The Wario Waft move is unique to Smash Bros., though it is directly inspired on Wario's crude personality and his general love for as seen in multiple game manuals and promotional websites for many of his games. One of the first instances concerning Wario and farting is the Japanese manual for , where Wario mentions that his reaction was not produced "because his fart caught on fire".

While farting would later be part of the actual games that feature Wario around the development of Brawl, such as being one of Wario's special items in ' (namely, ), or in the microgame from ', none of thoses instances of farting work the same way as how Wario Waft works in Smash, as the former two act more like clouds of some sorts, instead of being an explosion that hurts anyone in contact like the move in Smash.

Wario Waft would later make an appearance as Wario's skill in , as well as in the minigame from the Nintendo DS version.

Trivia

 * In Brawl and Ultimate, Wario's stomach sticks out of his shirt slightly when he has a fully charged fart ready. In Smash 4, his entire torso bulges with a fully charged fart.
 * As seen on the above graph, Wario-Man gets to higher charge levels (except the last) faster than regular Wario does. However, this does not actually speed up the charging process; the two forms simply use different formulas when calculating what charge level the move is at.