Greninja (SSBU)

Greninja (, Gekkouga) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was officially revealed on June 12th, 2018 alongside and the rest of the returning roster. Greninja is classified as Fighter #50.

Billy Bob Thompson, Yūji Ueda, Frédéric Clou and Benedikt Gutjan's portrayals of Greninja from Super Smash Bros. 4 were repurposed for the English, Japanese, French and German versions of Ultimate, respectively.

Greninja is ranked 33rd out of 82 on the current tier list, placing it in the A- tier. This is a marginal rise from its 26th out of 54 placement in SSB4.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Greninja must then be defeated on Kalos Pokémon League (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Greninja being the 58th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the 6th character unlocked after.
 * Have Greninja join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Greninja, true to being a ninja-themed character, has very strong mobility; it has the 4th fastest walking speed, the 8th fastest run speed, the 10th fastest air speed, is tied for the 9th fastest falling and fast falling speed, the 2nd highest gravity, and possesses the 2nd highest jump height overall. However, unlike most characters who boast similar mobility (such as ), Greninja boasts a surprising amount of KO options, good range on plenty of its attacks, and KO throws.

One of Greninja's most notable traits is its high mobility which complements its grounded moveset. Greninja's dash attack comes out on frame 7 and has very low ending lag, as well as the ability to cross upon shields. Its knockback angle allows for many true follow-ups and strings over a large range of percents. Its neutral jab attack comes out on frame 3, making it a good grounded combo breaker. It can also lock, which gives Greninja access to potent punishes from opponents missing techs. Its down tilt is an excellent combo starter due to its low startup, ending lag and vertical launch angle. Greninja's up tilt is a frame 9 disjointed hitbox that acts well as an anti-air and can also be a combo starter. Its smash attacks are also reliable in their own right; its forward smash is quick for its range and power, down smash is an excellent punishment option for ledge regrabs, as well as sending at a low angle, and up smash is a potent combo finisher.

Greninja also has a very strong air game due to its aforementioned air speed and jump height. Greninja's aerials are reliable for multiple situations and all have low landing lag (except for down aerial, at 30 frames). Its neutral aerial is a decent low percent combo starter due to it having incredibly low landing lag and a good launch angle. It can also KO at high percentages. Its forward aerial acts as a combo finisher from its combo starters and can KO moderately early. Forward aerial's low landing lag and disjointed nature also make it safe on shield in many situations when spaced correctly. Its up aerial is a great juggling option with low all-around lag and boasting good KO potential near the upper blast line. Greninja can also utilize its multihits to drag down opponents to create tech chase and jab lock situations. Its back aerial is a very fast follow up or offstage edgeguarding option. Down aerial can be used as a mix up to return to the stage from far above, as well as perform surprise combos on hit with both its meteor smash and sourspot hitbox.

Greninja's grab game is overall very effective, due to its grabs being among the longest ranges of any non-tether grab in the game. Its forward, up, and back throws can KO at high percentages. Down throw acts as a middle percent combo starter, as well as a strong DI mix up, especially at higher percentages at ledge as a 50/50 between DI in and out in conjunction with forward throw. Up throw acts as a versatile combo starter that can lead to juggling situations. Because of this, Greninja has plenty of options off of a grab, as not one of its throws could be considered useless.

Finally, Greninja's special moves are effective in various situations. Water Shuriken acts as a versatile zoning tool, as well as a high-percentage KO option when fully charged. At low-to-mid percents, it is also a combo starter, allowing Greninja to rush down its opponent and follow up with any aerial attack or an up smash. Shadow Sneak works as an effective recovery mix up, as well as a potent KO move from a good read or pseudo-combo finisher. Despite lacking an offensive hitbox, Hydro Pump is a good recovery move for its long distance, and can be used for gimping recoveries due to having windbox properties. Substitute is a counterattack with the unique attribute of being able to be aimed in one of 8 different directions upon a successful counter. These angled follow ups allow for Greninja to gain pseudo-follow ups as well as KO earlier by picking the optimal angle in regards to stage positioning.

However, Greninja is also flawed in many ways. One of Greninja's primary flaws is its inability to break out of disadvantage state. While not as bad as the previous game, Greninja still has difficulties escaping combos due to its fast falling speed and its aerials still having relatively high startup. This can sometimes be alleviated with its back or down aerials, but both are not very effective due to back aerial's almost entirely horizontal hitboxes and down aerial's landing lag. Another option is aerial Water Shuriken, which stalls Greninja in the air and can be used as a landing mix up, as well as Hydro Pump landing mix ups.

Another notable weaknesses is Greninja's multihit moves, especially back air and up air, being notoriously inconsistent, allowing opponents to escape out of these moves. As both aerials are some of Greninja's best combo tools, the inconsistency greatly affects its combo game.

Greninja's biggest weakness, however, is its terrible out of shield game, which is arguably the worst of the entire cast. Because of its high short hop, its aerials slow startup, and lacking a fast grab (although it has good range), Greninja lacks an effective out of shield option faster than frame 14. While its back aerial is fairly quick at frame 5 (making it frame 8 out of shield), it is unable to hit opponents in front of Greninja and is very inconsistent at hitting opponents behind Greninja due to its high short hop. Jumping or rolling out of shield are potential options to reset neutral, but they are very predictable and easily read. Thus, when Greninja is pinned down in shield, it has difficulty escaping the situation without being heavily punished. Combined with its vulnerability to combos, this gives it an atrocious defensive game.

Altogether, Greninja's playstyle requires players to think like an actual ninja: utilizing Greninja's superb mobility and fast attacks to rush down opponents, saving the slower attacks for potential mixups, mindgames and surprise KO options, and remaining unpredictable to prevent being trapped into disadvantageous positions.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Greninja has been greatly buffed in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. An assortment of its traits, such as its strong combo game and great mobility, that made up its playstyle have been further improved, while the general engine changes benefit said playstyle.

Most of the universal changes notably benefit Greninja. As with all other characters in the game, Greninja's already quick mobility is faster like most characters, which benefits its hit-and-run playstyle. The ability to run cancel into any ground move allows Greninja to further exploit its amazing ground mobility, allowing for easier setups into its combo starters, such as up and down tilts and dash attack. The universally reduced landing lag on aerial attacks gives Greninja an easier time landing and comboing, while the universal 3-frame jumpsquat improves Greninja's ground-to-air potential. The implementation of spot dodge canceling and the changes to perfect shielding improve its potential punish game, due to its wide variety of combo starters and fast frame data.

Aside from the universal changes, Greninja has also received notable direct buffs. The biggest ones were to its grab game; its standing grab is faster and its pummel, previously one of the worst in SSB4, deals less damage but is significantly faster, making it better all-around. Greninja's forward throw has higher knockback, allowing it to KO in an emergency, as with up throw. Its up and down throws also have better combo and juggling potential due to the universal changes to mobility — down throw notably now allows for potential KO confirms into forward and back aerials Outside of its improved grab game, Greninja now has a new down tilt that has lower ending lag and sends at more favorable angles, and its dash attack sends at a higher angle, further improving Greninja's combo game. Water Shuriken has more range, improving Greninja's camping ability combined with its faster mobility. Substitute now slows opponents down and offers Greninja intangibility during all of its attack variations, bringing it in line with other counterattacks. Greninja's KO power has also been buffed, with forward smash and forward aerial receiving higher knockback, up smash connecting better into its second hit, and down smash having faster startup.

On the other hand, Greninja is not without a few nerfs. Notably, the ability to tech footstools has made footstool combos much harder to pull off, which hinders Greninja's combo ability (specifically from its down aerial), though this is alleviated by the various buffs to Greninja's moveset. Substitute's attack variants are all weaker while also being more laggy overall, which compensates for the attack's new intangibility. In exchange for its buffed mobility, Greninja is now lighter, which brings it slightly more in-line with other combo-centric and/or hit-and-run characters, while not compensating much for its vulnerability to combos.

In terms of universal changes, some of them are as benefitial as they are detrimental to Greninja. The changes to air dodge mechanics slightly improve its previously below average edgeguarding game, but also make it more vulnerable to combos. The increased shieldstun makes Greninja's own attacks much safer on shield, but also weakens its already poor out of shield game, forcing it to abuse the revamped perfect shielding. Lastly, the weakening of rage makes it slightly harder for Greninja to take advantage of it, despite compensating for its lighter weight.

Collectively, Greninja's strengths and weaknesses are more defined. It now performs much better as a hit-and-run, combo-centric character, with excellent mobility and various KO options and set-ups at a variety of percentages, but with its light weight and attributes making it just as vulnerable to combos while keeping its terrible out of shield game. Despite its nerfs to its previous footstool combos, Greninja has been generally compensated due to the gameplay changes to the engine and the buffs to its moveset giving it a more traditional combo game. That said, various veterans have also been buffed to varying degrees, especially through game updates, while Greninja has comparatively received minor, unimpactful changes from them. Nevertheless, Greninja has improved from SSB4, keeping up with the rest of the cast and retaining its status as a viable character in competitive play in Ultimate.

Update history
Greninja has received a mix of minor buffs and nerfs and glitch fixes via game updates. Some important nerfs include removing the ability to cancel endlag with Hydro Pump and the universal projectile shield damage nerf affected Greninja's safety and neutral game making actions in general less safe. To partially compensate, other aspects like down smash and pummel were made more reliable and increased shield size improve the potency of rushdown.

These changes do not affect Greninja in significant ways, and thus the competitive standing has not changed since launch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

On-screen appearance

 * Emerges from a Poké Ball, then performs a ninjutsu hand sign that emits a small burst of water from its hands.

Taunts

 * Up Taunt: Stands upright, clasping its hands together before assuming a ninjutsu stance. The stance resembles one of its attack animations from the Pokémon series.
 * Side Taunt: Shakes head from side to side, causing its tongue to whip out in the same directions. Particles of saliva fly off with each whip.
 * Down Taunt: Poses with arms out and palms upward, and summons small sprays of water from them, which deal 1% or 2% damage and produce some knockback, though they're able to KO only at above 420%. A video showing the exact KO percentages at which each character can be KO'd can be found here.

Idle Poses

 * Crosses arms over its body, then separates them with a flourish.
 * Hunches over and assumes a ninjutsu stance.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Does a few hand seals with splashing water, and then a ninja pose. It resembles one of its attack animations in Pokémon X and Y.
 * Up: Performs Double Team to briefly create three afterimages of itself.
 * Right: Does a flip, lands in a spinning pose, and crosses its arms.

Tier placement and history
In the early metagame, players quickly noticed that Greninja had been buffed from Smash 4, with improved versatility and speed, and despite losing its footstool combos, it gained a stronger combo game thanks to improved frame data on moves such as its dash attack, up throw, down throw, and neutral air. Greninja's high learning curve did not deter players such as, , and from seeing success with the character. Due to Greninja's buffs and its strong representation, it was considered an upper-high tier character in the early metagame.

This perception, however, began to shift following the end of the online metagame. Greninja players began pointing out frustrating traits in the character's movesets, most notably how inconsistent Greninja's multi-hit moves could be. Furthermore, Greninja's best players from before the pandemic either became less active, changed mains, or saw a decline in results. Greninja still saw strong results on a national level from Lea and ; however, Lea went on a hiatus in mid-2022 due to health issues, while Tarik often used alongside Greninja. This led to a noticeable drop in representation: while Greninja had the 10th highest representation in the game in the second half of 2019, that had dropped all the way to 33rd by the second half of 2022. As it stands, Greninja is still considered a high tier character by many players; however, a declining playerbase has led to slightly lower opinions compared to the early metagame.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Greninja players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Greninja players in Europe in the early metagame. Placed 1st at, 2nd at , 5th at , 7th at , and 9th at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 13th on the European Smash Rankings.
 * - One of the best Greninja players in Europe. Placed 1st at both and, 9th at both  and , and 13th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 27th on the PGRU v3 EU.
 * - The best Greninja player in Canada. Placed 9th at, 13th at , 17th at both and , and 33rd at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 1st on the Smash Canada Rankings Ultimate.
 * - One of the best Greninja players in the world. Placed 5th at both and, 7th at both  and  , and 9th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 21st on the Fall 2019 PGRU.
 * - Placed 9th at both  and, 13th at , and 17th at both  and  with wins over players such as , , and . Currently ranked 86th on the Japan Player Rankings.
 * - Placed 1st at, 3rd at , 7th at , 9th at , and 13th at with wins over players such as , , and . Currently ranked 21st on the Japan Player Rankings.
 * - One of the best Greninja players in the world in the early metagame. Placed 5th at, 9th at , 13th at , and 25th at both and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 29th on the Spring 2019 PGRU.
 * - The best Greninja player in 2023. Placed 2nd at, 5th at , 7th at both and , and 9th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 6th on the PGRU v3 EU.
 * - One of the best Greninja players in the United States, but is currently banned from several tournaments. Placed 3rd at, 7th at , 25th at , and 33rd at both  and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked as high as 2nd on the New York City Ultimate Power Rankings.

: Your Turn, Greninja!
Greninja battles characters that represent different s from the Pokémon games: for example, Charizard and Bowser represent the Fire type, while Mewtwo, Ness and Lucas represent the Psychic type. Interestingly, the types represented correspond to those initially available in the.

Note: All rounds except the sixth round take place on Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2. If applicable, each stage will also shift to their appropriately-typed form at the earliest possible opportunity. (The stages remain in their default form in rounds 3 and 5, as none of the stages have Psychic or Fighting-themed forms.)

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

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

During the opening cutscene, Greninja was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Greninja leaped into the air to avoid one of the beams, which hit instead. Greninja was hit shortly after and vaporized, getting imprisoned by Galeem afterward along with the other fighters, sans. A puppet fighter cloned from Greninja is later seen alongside ones cloned from, , and other fighters.

Greninja was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat, and it can be found in the Mysterious Dimension at The Dark Realm. It can be seen impeding the path, making it an obligatory unlock.

Greninja is later seen among several other fighters, making their last stand against Galeem and Dharkon. It also shows up in the bad ending where Galeem emerges victorious against Dharkon, witnessing Galeem engulf the world in light.

Spirit
Greninja's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Greninja has been unlocked. Unlocking Greninja 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. Its fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * In the Pokémon series, Ash-Greninja is only obtainable as a male. The fact that Greninja transforms into Ash-Greninja for its Final Smash, Secret Ninja Attack, implies that Greninja is a male in Ultimate.
 * Greninja's new character portrait resembles its air dodge animation.
 * It also resembles 's character portrait from Super Smash Bros. 4 but with the arm and leg positions mirrored.
 * Greninja's down taunt has a unique property where it will seemingly be absorbed by counters without triggering the counterattack, even against grounded opponents despite the grounded hitboxes being standard hitboxes. This is because despite the grounded hitboxes being standard hitboxes that are counterable like any other hitbox, the aerial hitboxes actually take priority over the grounded hitboxes, and the aerial hitboxes are windboxes, which cannot trigger counters but will still be negated by them. Since counters respond to both grounded and aerial hitboxes, the game treats this interaction as a windbox connecting with a counter and completely ignores the regular hitboxes that hit grounded opponents.
 * As Greninja's down taunt is the only attack in the game with direct windboxes that trigger hitlag for the user, this gives the unique appearance of the attack striking the counter but being negated.
 * Greninja's fighter number, 50, is the same as the number of its costume in Super Mario Maker. It shares this distinction with.
 * Greninja,, , , and  are the only base game characters to never appear as minions in any Spirit battles.
 * Alongside, Greninja is one of two characters in Ultimate with a taunt that cannot be canceled, due to the fact that their non-cancelable taunts have hitboxes.
 * Strangely, this does not apply for and 's taunts that have damaging hitboxes
 * Greninja and Luigi are also the only two characters whose Classic Mode titles feature their names.
 * Greninja can also be unlocked immediately after clearing Classic Mode as Sheik, referencing their ninja-like traits and movements.
 * Greninja appears slightly tilted in its damage meter compared to its character artwork. This distinction is shared with fellow Pokémon series character.
 * Coincidentally, both are final evolutions of starter Pokémon and both have Dark as their secondary type.
 * Both are also found and unlocked in the Dark Realm in World of Light.
 * Incineroar and are the only Pokémon that are not encountered in Greninja's Classic Mode route.
 * Oddly, Greninja does not vanish when performing a directional air dodge despite the sound effects playing. It shares this oddity with and.
 * In Ultimate, Greninja has a weight of 88, which almost matches its weight in Pokémon (in pounds), being 88.2 lbs.

Greninja (SSBU)