Ice Climbers (SSBU)

The Ice Climbers (, Ice Climber) are playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Alongside the rest of the veterans, they were confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Unlike Ultimate's predecessors, the Ice Climbers are now unlockable, instead of being available from the start. Although they are a tag-team, the Ice Climbers are collectively classified as Fighter #15.

voices the Ice Climbers once again in all regions, using a combination of new voice-clips and recycled ones from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The Ice Climbers are ranked 56th out of 82 on the Ultimate tier list, placing them at the end of B- tier. This is an extreme drop from their previous placement in Brawl, ranking 2nd out of 38, and is by far their worst placement in the series to date. The Ice Climbers are known for having some of the greatest damage output across the cast, which is supplemented by their quick frame-data and excellent KO potential. Their relatively small size and low crouch also makes him rather hard to hit; their crouch especially allows them to avoid most grabs and some attacks. Even then, their hammers are disjointed hitboxes, giving them good range for their size. Their grab game still remains among the best across the cast; forward throw and back throw can leave the opponent in very unfavorable positions, while up throw and down throw can start combos at lower precents and KO at very high precents. Finally, their special moveset boasts flexible versatility: Squall Hammer and Blizzard can both start/extend combos, Ice Shot is a decent zoning tool, and Belay is an excellent recovery for both climbers.

However, if the partner is gone, the remaining climber will be drastically weakened, especially in terms of raw power and recovery. The fact that the partner has less endurance and flawed artificial intelligence compared to the leader further amplifies this issue. In addition, the Ice Climbers both have rather poor endurance, as their moderately light weight makes them susceptible to early KOs. Their poor mobility, as well as a lack of reliable projectiles, hoists a lot of problems in the neutral game. Despite having disjoints, their range is still relatively lackluster, giving them trouble approaching and fighting those that can outrange him. Finally, while covering considerable distance, their recovery is rather predictable and situational, as Belay and Squall Hammer travel rather linear distances, while their poor air speed and floatiness make them vulnerable to edgeguarding.

Overall, while not as dominating as before, the duo still retain the tools to beat out every matchup once their desynced combos and zero-to-deaths have been fully mastered. As such, they still maintain excellent success in competitive play due to the efforts of players such as, and especially.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: The Ice Climbers must then be defeated on Summit (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with the Ice Climbers being the 10th characters to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the 2nd character unlocked after.
 * Have the Ice Climbers join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
The Ice Climbers are a pair of short middleweights (weighing the same as, , , , and , residing them at the lower end of the weight class) who, true to their franchise, are known for being a slow, yet floaty duo. Together, they have the 34th highest jumping height, the 14th lowest gravity (tied with and ), are tied with  and  for the 8th-10th slowest fast falling and falling speeds, the 46th fastest walking speeds, the 47th fastest dashing speeds, the 21st-22nd highest air acceleration, and the 9th-slowest air speed. The leader also has the 35th slowest walking speed, the 18th slowest running speed, is tied with for the 3rd-4th slowest air speed, and is tied with  for the 10th slowest initial dash. While their traction is the 2nd lowest in the game (surpassed by and ), their traction is among the highest in the game by the conditions of slippery surfaces, such as ice, due to wearing ice cleats. Due to these statistics, the Ice Climbers have difficulty approaching opponents, although wavedashing compensates that to a degree. In addition, their decent initial dash grants above-average distance, giving them a good foxtrot.

Unique to a majority of the roster, the ice Climbers are the archetypical tag-team fighters in Ultimate. Together, however, each Ice Climber is a unique character in their own right. The partner (Nana, by default) is controlled by a CPU and mimics what the leader (Popo, by default) performs with a seven-frame delay. As such, the player is essentially controlling a pair of characters at the same time with slight tweaks; the partner has increased mobility, worse artificial intelligence, they will inflict less damage, receive more damage, and are knocked back farther than the leader. When separated, the partner's AI takes control over their movement, and guides them back to the leader, ignoring most opponents in their path. While one Ice Climber deals respectable damage and can KO opponents rather easily on their own, the two's power combined can make them formidable. This is supplemented by the majority of the Ice Climbers' attacks being characterized by quick speed, which allows them to consistently apply pressure to their opponents, especially against characters that cannot outmatch their attacking speed without getting heavily punished for it, such as.

Most of the Ice Climbers' grounded moveset is fairly quick and disjointed, allowing for versatile usage. Their neutral attack is quick, hits twice, and launches at a low angle, making this attack fairly good at guaranteeing follow-ups at lower percentages, giving the duo a reliable stun-lock, and allowing the Ice Climbers a quick option to keep opponents away from them, making it a useful get-off-me tool that deals respectable damage to boot. Forward tilt can be angled, and has a chance to trip opponents. It has impressive knockback growth, and can KO fellow middleweights at about 135% at the edge of Final Destination. Their up tilt is short-ranged and weak, but one of the Ice Climbers' most effective tools in their kit, hitting multiple times with low knockback and dealing excellent damage. It also allows for a direct chain into a series of up aerials until about 115%, making it paramount in initiating combos. Down tilt is one of their quickest grounded moves, acting as a strong semi-spike that can KO at high percentages by the edge, and making follow-ups into dash attack or similar moves very easy. Dash attack has relatively fast start-up lag, can cross-up shields, sends opponents above the leader for quick transitions into up aerials, comparatively to up tilt. It also propels each Ice Climber forward, making it a viable tool for approaching. While it is useful in starting aerial combos, it can KO at very high precents while nearing the upper blast zone.

Complimenting their tilts, the Ice Climbers' smash attacks are some of the strongest in the game while being surprisingly quick and rather safe for their power, making them very useful and excellent KO options in their disposal. Forward smash is the duo's strongest smash attack, dealing impressive damage despite its quick speed, and respectable knockback even at lower percentages, reliably KOing at about 70% at edge of the stage. Up smash is similarly powerful, sending opponents flying quite early and KOing fellow middleweights under 115% on grounded levels. While the move's particularly slower start-up and ending lag and mediocre base knockback make it more situational as a KOing option, it is still viable due to its quick speed, impressive damage output and respectable power. It hits in a wide area directly above and behind the Ice Climbers. Down smash launches opponents at a diagonal angle, and is the weakest of the duo's smash attacks, but is still among the strongest of its kind as it KOs middleweights at 105% at the center of Final Destination without rage. Its instantenous start-up lag also especially makes it useful as a burst or emergency KO option when none of their other options yield better results. Each Climber sweep in specific directions, allowing this move to catch rolls and surprise opponents who approach from behind. However, with only a single Ice Climber present, they become vulnerable to rolls due to the lack of a hitbox from behind.

The Ice Climbers' aerial game is among the best in Ultimate, being the basis of most of their combos and useful for KOs at higher precents. Neutral aerial is short-ranged, and deals weak knockback, but is also quick to start and has a long-lasting hitbox, making it passable as a gimping tool. When an opponent is launched upward, it also can add on some extra damage when using up tilt is unfavorable, or launch opponents directly forward to set up an edgeguard. It is also a fairly strong sex kick, as the clean hit KOs fellow middleweights at about 165% by the edge with rage. Forward aerial is a disjointed and powerful hammer-swing, which deals heavy damage and is surprisingly safe for its power due to its moderate ending lag and low landing lag. While the move's sourspot can KO earlier than 135% by center stage, the partner's version of the move has a sweetspot that hides a very strong meteor smash that can net a KO at impressively low precents offstage, and acts as one of the Ice Climbers' most viable edgeguarding tools in their kit. Back aerial can be a useful move for its quickness, large, disjointed hitbox, and respectable knockback, KOing as early as 105% when edgeguarding with it. It is deceptively strong offstage as such, and when used properly, it can allow for a stage spike and particularly useful edgeguard. It is also safe on shield, with the following Ice Climber's attack actually being positive on shield. Up aerial is the duo's strongest aerial and one of their best KO options in their kit onstage. The move has excellent juggling capabilities at low percents, and KOs most opponents at around 110-125% when used out of a down throw. Down aerial is a stall-then-fall that covers the entirety of the Ice Climbers' underside, and moves slightly diagonally forward, making it excellent at punishing opponents who attempt to juggle them and getting out of disadvantage. While the leader's attack can only KO at very high precentages, the partner's attack completely offsets that; it is a steep semi-spike that KOs middleweights at around 125% by the edge. In addition, it can be effectively used out of a short hop to attack opponents directly in front of the Ice Climbers, while also being quick to act out of makes it situational for edgeguards.

The removal of chain grabbing (and by extension, wobbling) means that the duo's grab game has become more situational and in-line with the rest of the roster, limiting its effectiveness. However, while it is not as potent as it once was, the Ice Climber's grab game is still outstanding and among the best across the cast. The Ice Climber's grab itself has been vastly changed. For starters, only the leader grabs opponents, while the partner cheers. This means that the duo can no longer grab more than one opponent at a time. Additionally, the Ice Climbers have the shortest-ranged set of grabs in the game, making it risky to attempt to grab in the first place. However, this is compensated by their grabs being among the fastest in the game. Forward throw is a basic throw with moderately strong base knockback and causes tumble from 0%, which allows it to open options for a tech-chase or lead into an edgeguard, while its moderate knockback growth allows it to KO at very high precents at the edge with rage. Back throw has incredible base knockback at the expense of minimal knockback scaling, making it difficult to use in either combos or as a KO option, but useful in desyncs and leading to edgeguards. Up throw notably allows quick access to juggling with up aerial and leads to various follow-ups at lower precents, while it can KO at very high precentages near the upper blast zone. By far, down throw is factorized as the duo's best component of their grab game; it can KO middleweights at around 180% with rage, while it is capable of initiating aerial combos or follow-ups, desynced combos, KO confirms and juggles at low precents, all of which can be devastating. All of their aerials excluding down aerial can all be used for combos out of down throw and the opponent's placement in air can make it difficult for them to escape from a combo once it has been started, especially if desynced.

The Ice Climbers' special moveset has very flexible versatility. Their neutral special move, Ice Shot, has the duo each create a slab of ice that slides across the stage, shrinking as they melt. Unlike most projectiles, the ice acts more like a container or soccer ball in that the incoming projectile is completely stop, allowing the Ice Climbers to counter most projectile-spam playstyles more easily. At extremely high percents, it can also freeze opponents, allowing use of setups or reads. If the ice get attacked by a move that deals damage, the projectile's ownership will change, allowing it to harm the Ice Climbers if collided with. The ice's decent amount of hitstun also make it useful for edgeguarding. Their side special, Squall Hammer, is a respectable mobility-based tool for racking up damage and approaching while being relatively safe on shield or cross-ups. Upon excessively continued presses, the attack can cover distance for recovering, which renders them helpless after usage. It is also one of the easiest methods to access desyncs available to the player. Meanwhile, the finishing hit can KO at high precentages while nearing the blast zones. Their up special, Belay, covers an excellent amount of distance and functions as a tether recovery as it auto-grabs any ledges within range, making it one of the best recoveries in the game. The following Ice Climber also has a window of full invincibility during its entire duration until pulling up the leader, which makes it useful for punishing or as a situational counterattack with proper timing. The partner also has a very situational, albeit strong hitbox on the way up, allowing for an early KO from the top blast zones, or a means to apply extra damage at the end of an aerial combo. Finally, down special, Blizzard, is a slow, read-based punishing tool that freezes opponents in their tracks and deals significant amounts of damage at point-blank range. Using the attack while an opponent is already frozen increases the freeze time slightly and can allow the duo to make space between them and their opponent if need be, or tack on extra damage while frozen. Specifically, this move is especially formidable when edgeguarding, as freezing an opponent near the edges of a stage can make it easy to nudge them off without any means to escape and/or recover. It also has priority over some other projectiles and can cancel them if the two collide. Overall, the duo's specials are all useful in specific situations and can help to create openings for additional combos or surprise KOs.

An extremely prominent factor of playing Ice Climbers is learning how to consistently perform a crucial technique, called desynching. It is an advanced technique that allows a player to manipulate the following Ice Climber into acting slower than normally. At its most basic form, whenever the following Ice Climber is not within a specific range of the leader, the partner's AI will take manual control of the partner and return it to the leader. During this time, none of the leader's inputs are read by the partner and its AI inputs are prioritized until it has returned to the leader, and might act independently of the leader's current movements being performed. Using desyncs can allow for some remarkable combos, zero-to-deaths and setups that are completely impossible with other fighters.

However, the Ice Climbers have noticeable flaws, with the biggest one being the remaining climber being drastically weakened without the partner, similar to. While having outstanding damage output and KO potential, it becomes heavily diminished if the partner is KO'd, and the fact that the partner sustains more damage/knockback and has flawed artificial intelligence further compounds this issue. In addition, due to the duo's fairly sub-par weight combined with being among the lightest middleweights in the game, their endurance is also unimpressive, making them quite vulnerable to early KOs, especially vertically due to their floatiness. Rage further pronounces these flaws, since damaged opponents can send the duo flying even earlier without leaving them much means of benefiting from their own rage due to their sub-par endurance. To make matters worse, if the leader is KO'd before the partner, the game counts the partner as KO'd as well. When separated, the AI guides the partner back to the leader and the partner is unable to act and defend themselves from any threats. When the leader is grabbed by an opponent, the partner will act shocked or scared and cannot attack until the leader has escaped or been thrown, which now makes previously near-guaranteed escapes from grabs impossible. The partner also has their own hidden percentage that racks up separately of the leader's and can make it easy for an opponent to KO them first. Because of this, it is important for the leader to hurry back to the partner in an attempt at defending them, though this can potentially lead the leader into dangerous situations as well. Their recovery, despite covering a considerable distance, is also largely situational and predictable. If the partner is unable to reach the ledge, it can put the leader at a disadvantage, even if they successfully return back to the stage. Since the partner flings the leader at a greater height, it is possible to overshoot the ledge, leaving the leader unable to defend themselves while descending helplessly onstage due to their floatiness. In addition, Belay and Squall Hammer travel rather linear distances, and the former often inadvertently costs the partner if not tethered, while their slow air speed and floatiness make them vulnerable to edgeguarding. Should the CPU-controlled Ice Climber get KO'd during the stock, the remaining Ice Climber will have drastically nerfed damage output, KO ability, and recovery, with Belay becoming practically useless and Squall Hammer losing a good deal of distance (whereas with both Ice Climbers, they are excellent recovering tools).

Outside of the issues of the following Ice Climber, the duo's moveset comes with its own problems. Barring their situational projectile from Ice Shot, the Ice Climbers lack a reliable projectile and can be easily camped out or their projectiles turned against them. In addition, while the duo have surprisingly great range for their size due to their disjointed hitboxes, their overall range still remains sub-par. This is worsened considering the fact that their hammers are among the shortest of any weapon. As such, characters with superior disjoints can easily outrange them (specifically swordies)&mdash;notable examples being or. Conversely, Blizzard's range has been nerfed significantly and is dangerous to use liberally. When combined with their poor mobility, this combines to give the duo major difficulty approaching, especially against the likes of speed demons (like or ). The duo are also vulnerable to juggling, due to their aforementioned slow falling and air speeds. Furthermore, the duo suffer from the loss of a few important tools between the transition from Brawl to Ultimate. Arguably, the changes that impair the Ice Climbers most are the changes to grab-based mechanics in Ultimate. The additional period of intangibility between grabs and the partner's lack of a grab makes the Ice Climbers' previously most potent tool, chain grabbing, impossible. This significantly impedes their damage output compared to Brawl or Melee and no longer gives the Ice Climbers an almost guaranteed stock off of a single grab. Desynching, in itself, can also have certain drawbacks. An accidental desync off of up tilt or down throw might make it more difficult to follow-up with the duo's combos, or can even cause the partner's attack to miss entirely, hindering the duo's damage-racking capabilities. Desyncing can also leave the following Ice Climber vulnerable because of the increase in reaction time between the leader and the partner and nerfed defenses; in particular, abilities, such as dodging and jumping, are significantly delayed, giving the opponent ample time to counterattack if properly read. Finally, the Ice Climbers suffer from being rather predictable and are forced to endure a severely poor disadvantage state. Because of their reliance on mid-air combos and some situational oddities, the general playstyle of the Ice Climbers can be easily picked apart and exploited early on in a match. In cases like this, it can become difficult, if not impossible to return to neutral or even win trade-offs without having to take serious risks.

Overall, the Ice Climbers are among the least beginner-friendly characters on the roster, but offer amazing potential with practice. The duo's playstyle is a polarizing hybrid of the tag-team and glass cannon archetypes, being gifted with an extremely versatile moveset, with an outstanding damage-racking and combo game, excellent KO potential, dominating off-stage presence, a long and flexible recovery, an impressive out of shield game despite their low traction, along with a formidable grab game in conjunction with desyncs, although they are compensated with their poor endurance, awkward properties within the partner and lackluster defensive game. The inherent complexity of controlling two characters at once can also be difficult to understand for new players, and combined with their somewhat situational moveset, and severe handicaps when the partner is lost are also considerable barriers of entry. However, learning the quirks of the pair, especially desynching, can open an incredibly potent and powerful game-plan. This includes long and relatively free-form combos, many being zero-to-death options&mdash;some even being true&mdash;as well as other unique setups and mix-ups that very few characters have any proper answers for. While the aforementioned strengths and weaknesses have led to a relatively small pool of players that main the Ice Climbers, those that do and put in the effort to learn their intricacies are frequently able to bulldoze their opponents better than almost the entire roster.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Near the end of both Melee and Brawl, the Ice Climbers were considered one of the best characters among the roster due to being known for possessing arguably the greatest damage-racking capability in both installments via wobbling in the former game and infinite chain grabbing in the latter game; in particular, the Ice Climbers can even acheive a guaranteed early KO and/or zero-to-death after using them, although both of those aforementioned tactics required great practice to pull off. Most likely owing to this, the Ice Climbers received a plethora of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Brawl to Ultimate, being drastically nerfed overall, although not enough to outweigh their received buffs.

The Ice Climbers' KO potential and damage output have been further improved: a sizeable portion of their moveset, including forward smash, down smash and forward aerial, inflict more damage while retaining disproportional KO power, while other moves, such as their aerial attacks and up smash, have increased knockback values as a whole. In addition, all of their throws (sans back throw) are now capable of KOing at very high precentages, giving the Ice Climbers access to newfound KO options that were previously absent from their kit; this further extends the prevalance of the Ice Climbers' most prominent key strengths in Ultimate, their damage-racking capability and KO potential.

The universal reduction of landing lag has also exponentially benefitted their aerials. Known for possessing high landing lag in their attacks in Brawl, all of their aerials now have among the lowest landing lag relative to the cast in Ultimate. This not only improves the safety of his aerials, but now gives them the capability to lead into follow-ups in conjunction with desynching. The Ice Climbers also have a drastically improved combo game on their own due to the removal of hitstun canceling, the weakening of SDI, and the aforementioned desynching remaining mostly intact, although the removal of hitstun canceling comes at the expense of making the Ice Climbers more vulnerable to combos themselves. In addition to the universal 3-frame jumpsquat, this allows the Ice Climbers to make better utility of their aerial attacks. Thanks to Ultimate's improved freezing properties, Blizzard can also freeze opponents easier and longer, which can lead to high damage output, access to early and guaranteed KOs while edgeguarding, shield pressure, and follow-ups if performed correctly.

However, the Ice Climbers have received several noticeable nerfs, with the most devastating ones revolving around their grab game. In particular, the Ice Climbers' grab game was drastically and adversely affected the most; the following Ice Climber now lacks the ability to grab and/or controllably act when the leader is grabbed or throwing an opponent (excluding when the partner is in the air). In addition to the expansion of invulnerability to grabs after a grab release, this dramatically alters how their combo game functions: it removes the Climbers' extremely powerful chain grabbing technique in Brawl and, by extension, wobbling in Melee, instead forcing them to rely on desynching in order to combo the opponent at the fullest. Moreover, the leader's grabs, while still quick relative to the cast, have noticeably more startup and ending lag, and much less range, now being the shortest set of grabs in the game. Outside of this, the Ice Climbers' moveset have received various reductions to their damage output and a considerable portion of their moveset connect less reliably and consistently when the Ice Climbers are together during the stock due to the reduction of hitlag. The following Ice Climber also has significantly worsened endurance compared to the leader due to sustaining 1.02x times increased damage/knockback from attacks, and the partner's artificial intelligence is now flawed, leading to more likely inadvertent self-destructs and making it harder to maintain both Ice Climbers during the current stock. Upon using Blizzard, the following climber also no longer performs it behind the leader when Blizzard is performed on the ground, and the move itself is less effective as a spacing tool due to its lack of knockback at maximum proximity. Finally, due to the changes in Belay's hitboxes, the move's height can be drastically reduced if the hitbox is out-prioritized, and its overall size is smaller, making it harder to connect against grounded opponents.

Universal changes to Ultimate's engine both assist and impair the Ice Climbers. The universal growth to mobility has improved the Ice Climbers' ability to approach and chase down their opponents; in particular, the partner is significantly more mobile compared to the leader, which makes them harder to separate. However, since their overall mobility still remains slow relative to the cast, their problematic matchups against speed demons from their previous incarnations still remain in Ultimate, although the reintroduction of wavedashing compensates for that by restoring their fearsome grounded approach from Melee. Dash-canceling's expanded utility also improves the utility of their grounded attacks. The increased shieldstun and increased startup on shield grabbing notably benefits the Ice Climbers' safety on hit, due to their moveset's natural high damage output and low ending lag, making them harder to punish, yet it does not drastically compromise the Ice Climbers' own punishes due to their quick grabs, formidable grab game and improved out of shield game. Conversely, the universal nerfs to grabs make it riskier for the Ice Climbers to throw out one, as their ending lag can prove more punishable, especially since their grabs are now the shortest-ranged in the game. The revamped air dodging mechanics have significantly improved their edgeguarding game, and the reintroduction of directional air dodging has improved their recovery via either using one as a short-ranged recovery without the necessity of using Squall Hammer or Belay when separated or if the partner is gone, or to extend their recovery in a pinch with both Ice Climbers. However, this has also resulted in their air dodges becoming some of the slowest in the game, and since air dodges can only be performed once while landing, this makes them more vulnerable to edgeguarding and juggling due to their floatiness and predictable landing options. The introduction of rage improves their KO potential to an extent, but due to their rather poor endurance, damaged opponents can benefit from it by sending the Ice Climbers flying even earlier with high levels of it. Finally, despite their exploitable improvements, most of the Ice Climbers' former flaws that plauged them in Brawl and Melee still reprise in Ultimate, such as the difficulty in maintaining both climbers during the stock, severe handicaps when the partner is gone, sluggish aerial mobility, and susceptibility to camping, with the former issue being further pronounced as well.

Overall, the Ice Climbers are drastically less effective than in Brawl and Melee. Their learning curve has became drastically more steep, as the removal of chain grabbing and wobbling and weakening of miscellaneous toolkits force them to rely on desynching to perform at full capacity. As such, the Ice Climbers are by far the most nerfed characters in the transition to Ultimate. However, due to their aforementioned received buffs to both their moveset and from the game's engine, combined with the game's updates offering them noticeable benefits and improvements, the duo's current tier standing still remains to be determined: the Ice Climbers still remain as relatively viable characters in Ultimate, albeit heavily underperforming compared to Melee and Brawl.

Update history
Aside from glitch fixes and only three nerfs (one of them was eventually addressed), the Ice Climbers have been buffed significantly via game updates. Update 2.0.0 improved the following Ice Climber's artificial intelligence in order to make them follow the leading Ice Climber more reliably and make unintentional self-destructs less possible, though this comes at the expense of making desyncing harder to perform and requiring more practice to execute successfully. Aside from this, Belay has been improved for recovery via its enlarged edge-grabbox, allowing it to be used as a safe tether recovery more reliably that does not often requires to sacrifice the following Ice Climber to recover.

The Ice Climbers' Final Smash (Iceberg) has been granted rather significant improvements following update 3.0.0, where it increased Iceberg's power via the FS Meter, and especially update 8.0.0, where this update slows the opponents more during Iceberg's startup, sped up Iceberg's appearance and increased the peak's hitbox to make it harder to avoid, and extended the Condor's search-radius. The latter buff is especially crucial for the Ice Climbers, as they can grab onto it more easier to control the iceberg without the risk of self-destruction. Aside from Iceberg's improvements, the Ice Climbers also benefit from the universal expansion of shield-sizes in update 7.0.0, making them much less susceptible to shield poking.

Update 9.0.0 granted the Ice Climbers some of the largest improvements. This update slightly addressed one of the Ice Climbers' most overwhelming issues by reducing the partner's damage and knockback-multipliers. Alongside their improved AI since update 2.0.0, this made them less susceptible to being separated from the leader and improved their endurance by making them less vulnerable to early KOs. Belay has also received noticeable improvements, thanks to its tether recovering distance being lengthened and the leader no longer being inadvertently prevented from using it if the partner automatically performed it. Aside from these improvements, a few of their moveset received quality-of-life buffs: dash attack has slightly more range and improved consistency, down smash's knockback has been strengthened, and Squall Hammer will sweetspot edges earlier, improving its recovering potential.

Finally, update 13.0.1 improved the Ice Climbers once again by granting them a few impressive buffs. Belay's start-up lag was decreased, which improved both its versatility for recovery and utility as a follow-up from up tilt. Comparatively, dash attack's overall frame-data has been improved, which made it safer and improved its utility for setting up aerial pressure or leading into aerial combos. Lastly, down smash's KO power has been improved even further by strengthening its knockback scaling like in update 9.0.0. The latter improvement, in particular, has now made the Ice Climbers' down smash one of the strongest in Ultimate.

Overall, the Ice Climbers fare drastically better than during the launch of Ultimate. Although desynching requires more practice to be performed successfully, their learning curve has became less steep and their neutral game is more viable, as their KO potential has been improved, the Ice Climbers are more difficult to separate from each other and their combo game is more reliable without having to be reliant on desyncs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Moveset
For a gallery of the Ice Climbers' hitboxes, see here.
 * Although the Ice Climbers have among the lowest traction in the game, their traction is completely unaffected by slippery terrain, such as ice.
 * The following Ice Climber will taunt whenever the leader throws an opponent.
 * Additionally, when the leading Ice Climber is grabbed, the partner will panic.

On-screen appearance

 * The Condor flies in with them hanging off its feet. The Ice Climbers jump off while high-fiving each other, and the Condor flies off.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: The duo set down their hammers and jump excitedly once. Originates from their victory animation during the results screen in the Ice Climber NES game.
 * Side taunt: The duo point their hammers diagonally upward and shout "Yup!" in triumph as wind blows behind them, in a similar manner to ' side taunt.
 * Down taunt: The duo dance playfully in a circle, similar to 's down taunt.

Idle poses

 * Both twirl their hammers.
 * Each Ice Climber looks behind themselves curiously.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: The Ice Climbers jump indefinitely up and down with joy. Based on their victory animation during the results screen in the Ice Climber NES game, similar to their up taunt.
 * Up: Both nod and high-five one another, with Popo chanting "Yup!" before facing the screen while smiling.
 * Right: Nana hides behind Popo, only showing her face as Popo shifts from left to right while his arms are positioned next to his hips.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Ice Climbers players (SSBU)


 * - The best Ice Climbers player of all-time and the only Ice Climbers player ever ranked top 100 on a global ranking, ranking as high as 19th on the UltRank 2022.
 * - One of the best Ice Climber players in Japan since mid-2022, although he has lower activity and peaks than FNKA. He has placed well at several majors, including placing 13th at the supermajor and 25th at the supermajor.
 * - One of the all-time best Ice Climbers players in Japan who uses a more synced playstyle. Although inconsistent, he has the highest peaks out of any other Japanese Ice Climbers player, placing 5th at the majors and.
 * - Co-mains Ice Climbers with and was considered the best Ice Climbers player in Japan during the early metagame. Placed 2nd at, 3rd at , 4th at , 7th at , and 25th at . Ranked 52nd on the Japan Player Rankings.
 * - Known for his contributions to the Ice Climbers metagame. Although his performance isn't as good as other Japanese Ice Climbers players, he has still seen some respectable results including 25th at the superregionals and.

Tier placement and history
Prior to Ultimate's release, players were quick to notify that the Ice Climbers lost their most devastating attributes from Brawl and Melee: their infamous zero-to-death chain grabbing and wobbling, respectively. When combined with the changes to gameplay-based mechanics during the transition from Brawl to Ultimate that either heavily impaired or altogether removed several of their infamous tactics, this caused players to believe that the Ice Climbers wouldn't be viable, a belief that held on throughout the early metagame.

Upon Ultimate's release, the Ice Climbers' competitive perception, which was estimated to be poor, has dwindled even further and, in turn for worse, became more significant than most would think. Several of the cast have immediately acknowledged their retained weakness (which have also been more pronounced): the infamous difficulty of maintaining both climbers in a single stock, the partner's vulnerability, their steep learning curve, poor endurance, slow aerial mobility, their vulnerability to camping and the severe handicaps brought to the leader if the partner dies during the stock, as well as the removal of several quirky combos and zero-to-deaths involving the partner from previous installments. As such, the Ice Climbers’ representation was minuscule, and all the players who mained the duo in Brawl have completely dropped them in favour of other characters. As a result, the general consensus have widely perceived them to be either low or bottom-tier.

A few months after release, the duo's playerbase and competitive scene started to make surprising breakthroughs: with the few that stuck with them discovering new desynching setup and damaging combos, as well as new versatile zero-to-deaths off of desyncs. In turn, players such as, , , and  have picked up the duo, received excellent results in tournaments using the character; the former, in particular, have mastered the duo enough to the point that the Ice Climbers can beat almost every match-up across the board once their desynced zero-to-deaths has been pulled off out of a grab. As a result, the Ice Climbers' improving results have gradually improved the community's perception on the duo, with the general consensus believing that the Ice Climbers are either upper mid-tier or high-tier at least, like in their days of Melee, which is a notable improvement compared to their initial low-tier status. Overall, the Ice Climbers remain as characters that should not be underestimated, although not to the extent of Melee and Brawl, ranking 56th on the first and current tier list.

: Duos for Days
Referencing themselves being duos, Ice Climbers fight a pair of characters from a given universe in each stage. Continuing the duo theme, both and  are fought regardless of the difficulty.

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

Role in World of Light
Although the Ice Climbers are absent from the opening cutscene of World of Light, the duo were vaporized offscreen and later placed under Galeem's imprisonment after unleashing his beams of light to engulf the world, along with the rest of the other fighters (excluding ).

The Ice Climbers are unlocked in the southern portion of the icy mountain next to the Temple of Light (where and  are unlocked), located at the top left corner of The Light Realm. Unlocking them eliminates the icy paths so they can be traversed in both directions, as well as opening an additional path to the shrouded forest, making them an obligatory unlock.

Later, the rest of the fighters prepare their final stand against Galeem and Dharkon, including the Ice Climbers among them.

Spirit
The Ice Climbers' fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Ice Climbers have been unlocked. Unlocking the Ice Climbers 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.

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

Alternate costumes
Their 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th costumes swap Popo and Nana, making Nana controllable. The stock icons and character select portraits change to reflect this. Popo and Nana act separately in terms of their costume's color.

Trivia

 * One of the Ice Climbers' preview pictures show them using Blizzard against a, referencing the species' weakness to cold in the Metroid series.
 * When the leading climber is grabbing and pummeling an opponent, the partner's animation will lag for every pummel-hit.
 * Hitting the accompanying Ice Climber will not cause controllers to shake if the vibration setting is turned on. This applies to everything from normal attacks, throws, or Final Smashes.
 * When played on the world-map for World of Light, only the leading Ice Climber appears.
 * If the partner is caught in a non-cutscene trapping Final Smash (such as Triforce Slash, Great Aether, or Omnislash) and the leader is KO'd, the partner will disappear, leaving the opponent attacking nothing. A similar situation occurs in Brawl.
 * When getting hit from behind, the Ice Climbers' back-hitting/wall-bouncing hitstun animation causes them to freeze for a brief moment before going into their tumbling animation. This is due to additional frames being added past the final point of the animation.
 * The animation itself mimics how hitstun animations worked from Smash 64 to Brawl.
 * The freeze itself is a reference to the duo's dying animation in Ice Climber, in which they freeze for a brief moment after touching an antagonist.
 * When navigating the camera around the Ice Climbers during certain animations, such as their ledge-hanging animations, the fur trim on the bottom of their coats and around their wrists seem to detach from their jacket, exposing multiple gaps. There are also gaps when looking at their face at certain angles between the fur trim.
 * Additionally, zooming in on Popo's face reveals a gap between his hair and fur trim.
 * Also, looking closely at Nana's hair reveals a small gap underneath between her hair and forehead.
 * In a Stock or Stamina battle, if the leading Ice Climber gets KO'd, the vanishing effects of the partner do not appear whenever the leader respawns.
 * If one looks closely at one of the Ice Climber's non-leading feet during their wall jump teching animation, it twists the other direction during the move. This can be more easily seen if the match is currently slowed down.
 * The Ice Climbers and are the only fighters that use sprites for their default fighter spirits.
 * The Ice Climbers,, and /'s Classic Mode routes all share the same theme, facing dynamic character duos as opponents in each round.
 * While most other characters have the announcer say "(character) wins!" at the victory screen, the Ice Climbers have the announcer say "Ice Climbers win!" The "(character) win!" audio-clip is typically reserved for the Japanese version, though it is most likely used with the Ice Climbers because of their two-in-one nature and name. and Banjo & Kazooie also share this distinction.
 * In Spanish, 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 selection screen, instead featuring a noticeable translation of "the" (los, les, die, and gli Ice Climbers, respectively). This trait is shared with, , , , , Zombie, Enderman, and the s.
 * In the Ice Climbers' battle portrait, the following Ice Climber is slightly positioned lower than they are in their full artwork, in order to make their face fully visible. Banjo & Kazooie are the only other fighter with such an edit.
 * The level of artificial intelligence for the following Ice Climber (Nana, by default) is 77 out of 100, which is slightly higher than a level-8 CPU (75 out of 100); the non-standard number is likely a pun on Nana's name, as one of the ways to say seven in Japanese is " (nana)".
 * While most characters have two different sets of knockback-based voice-clips, the Ice Climbers are the only characters to be an exception to this rule: they vocalize either their low or high knockback-based voice-clips or remain silent, regardless of how far/fast they are launched from knockback.
 * Additionally, the Ice Climbers are the only characters that retain their voice-clips from Brawl, but do not make usage of their unused knockback-based voice-clips, a trait shared with Link, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf from Smash 4.
 * When Popo is the leader, they vocalize either their medium and one of the heavy knockbacks based on a small probability. Both are missing a light knockback and 1 heavy knockback, which goes unused in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and also in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. If Nana is the leader, the Ice Climbers' knockback-based voice-clips won't play for unknown reasons.
 * The Ice Climbers are the only characters who have fewer dash-to-run frames when performing a pivot dash instead of a regular dash.
 * When playing on a custom stage, there is a visual glitch in the Ice Climber's on-screen appearance where the Condor does not disappear and only does so once "GO!" appears on the screen.
 * If both Ice Climbers perform a smash attack with the Home-Run Bat, Nana will vocalize first, which is during the windup rather than before the swing. This is a carryover from Brawl, where all characters will grunt during the windup animation. This is shared with.
 * The Ice Climbers' description on the North American amiibo website is based on their trophy description from Melee.
 * Instead of being supported by a clear stand on their amiibo, the Ice Climbers are instead supported by a blue iceberg, which is not present in their official render.
 * The Ice Climbers are the only characters who wield weapons at all times to be affected by stance mirroring.
 * The Ice Climbers seen in 's reveal trailer after everyone has been turned back into trophies are actually two Popos.
 * During Palutena's Guidance regarding the Ice Climbers, assumes that their absence in SSB4 was due to illegal teaming. This dialogue is a humorous reference to the Ice Climbers being cut due to the consistent technical issues that Masahiro Sakurai and the development team faced when attempting to make them function properly in.
 * When functioning as the following climber, Popo and Nana are the only characters capable of dashing through other characters in Ultimate.
 * When one Ice Climber gets KO'd off the top blast line, the other Ice Climber has a greater chance of being KO'd the same way. For example, if the leader were to get Screen KO'd, the partner likely would as well, instead of the usual completely randomized chance.
 * If performs Shadow Flare against the AI-controlled Ice Climber, they will flinch and take the initial damage, but the shadowy orbs that normally follow from this attack will not appear.