R.O.B. (SSB4)

R.O.B. (, Robot) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. After initially being leaked on August 19th, 2014 as part of the ESRB leak, his return to the series was officially announced on SSB4's official website on October 9th, 2014, during which was also announced.

R.O.B. retains his realistic robot sounds that he had in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

R.O.B. is ranked 35th out of 54 on the tier list, placing him in the D tier. This is a moderate drop from his placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 18th out of 38, and is his worst placement in the series. R.O.B.'s boasts a strong zoning game and recovery: Robo Beam and Gyro are chargeable, long-ranged projectiles, while Robo Burner is versatile; covers impressive overall distance; and is complimented by his much faster air speed.

R.O.B. also possesses a strong air game, thanks to all but one of his aerials having disjointed hitboxes, alongside a capable grab game. Despite being a heavyweight, R.O.B.'s overall mobility is also respectable. Notably, R.O.B.'s once poor KO potential has been significantly improved, thanks to receiving a number of strong KOing options.

However, R.O.B.'s ground game lacks range compared to his air game. This is most obvious with his arm-based attacks, especially in regard to his overall grab range, which is now the shortest ranged in the game. While it is still strong, R.O.B.'s zoning game has also been somewhat toned down, as Robo Beam is slower and Gyro deals significantly less damage. R.O.B. is also susceptible to combos because of his heavy weight and large hurtbox. Lastly, his newfound KOing options are hindered by noticeable amounts of start-up lag.

Overall, R.O.B. is a more powerful character compared to the previous game, thanks to him largely retaining his strengths and having noticeably improved KO potential; yet, the larger competition present and many of the tools the new characters possess harm R.O.B more than they did in Brawl, thus resulting in his lower tier position relative to the cast. As such, he has achieved overall average tournament results, and has gained a number of dedicated players to his credit.

After completing one of the two methods, R.O.B. must then be defeated on PictoChat 2.
 * Play 70 VS Matches.
 * Collect 200 unique trophies.

After completing one of the two methods, R.O.B. must then be defeated on Wrecking Crew.
 * Play 60 VS Matches.
 * Play through 10 rounds of Crazy Orders and defeat Crazy Hand.

Attributes
R.O.B. is the tenth heaviest character in the game, yet he possesses respectable overall mobility in spite of his weight class. This is thanks to his average walking and dashing speeds; above-average air, falling, and fast falling speeds; slow air acceleration; high traction, jump and double jump; and low gravity. Altogether, these attributes allow R.O.B. to outmaneuver some of his fellow heavyweights; make him almost as mobile as a middleweight; and grant him better jumping prowess than most characters of either weight class.

Like in Brawl, R.O.B. is a zoning-oriented character with very useful projectiles to keep his opponents at bay. Robo Beam enables him to attack from considerable distance, and becomes the noticeably stronger Super Robo Beam when it is left idle for 14.3 seconds. While Robo Beam interrupts opponents faster, Super Robo Beam deals more damage and has higher knockback growth. Gyro is an auto-chargeable projectile that becomes an item when fired. Compared to Robo Beam, it has a more favorable angle for disrupting opponents, while also being more manipulable as a projectile and having greater KOing potential. Thanks to R.O.B.'s item throws being among the strongest in the game, Gyro is also very useful when smash thrown as an item.

Aside from his offensive prowess with projectiles, R.O.B. also does not have issues against projectiles, courtesy of Arm Rotor's ability to reflect them with greater strength than they initially had. In addition to its reflection ability, Arm Rotor now boasts KO potential, thanks to its finishing hit having significantly higher knockback growth.

R.O.B.'s air game is also strong, thanks to the excellent and disjointed ranges of all but one of his aerials. Neutral aerial has large, disjointed hitboxes that make it a reliable combo starter at low to medium percentages when SHFF'd, as well as a useful spacing option. Up aerial is one of R.O.B.'s best moves overall, thanks to its usefulness in harassing airborne opponents by either juggling or KOing them. Back and down aerials are R.O.B.'s most damaging aerials when sweetspotted, and have large hitboxes like neutral aerial. However, they also boast specific strengths: the former has recovery potential thanks to it propelling R.O.B. forward slightly, whereas the latter is a meteor smash. Lastly, forward aerial is R.O.B.'s fastest aerial, which makes it reliable for spacing, especially when SHFF'd, as well as edge-guarding.

Unlike in Brawl, R.O.B. now boasts respectable KO potential. Like his up aerial, back aerial, up throw and Arm Rotor, R.O.B.'s smash attacks now boast KO potential, thanks to being buffed in various ways. Forward smash's sweetspot deals slightly more damage and higher knockback. Although forward smash's other hitboxes deal less damage, they have been re-positioned farther outward, which improves its range. Up smash's sweetspot and down smash also deal more damage and, like forward smash, have had their hitboxes tweaked for the better: up smash now has hitboxes on R.O.B.'s arms that launch the opponent into its thruster hitboxes, whereas down smash is now a semi-spike.

R.O.B.'s grab game has also improved. Forward and back throws are still limited in regard to utility, but are nevertheless decent for spacing and setting up edge-guards. In comparison, R.O.B.'s up and down throws are much more useful. Up throw is his most damaging throw; a viable KOing option, especially when boosted by rage; and can even be used for combos at low percentages. In comparison, down throw deals respectable damage, and is a reliable combo starter into his up aerial from 0% to medium percentages.

Although R.O.B. possesses a number of useful traits, he also has some noteworthy shortcomings. Despite his KO potential's drastic improvements, landing his KOing options can still be problematic because of them being laggy and/or having unimpressive ranges. The latter trait is particularly noticeable in regard to R.O.B.'s arm-based attacks, most of which have hitboxes that have either become smaller and/or tweaked for the worse. For example, his grab game is hindered by his overall grab range now being the shortest in the game because of his much smaller grabboxes, whereas his up tilt has drastically less utility because of its adjusted hitboxes.

In addition to R.O.B.'s hitbox issues, his hurtbox also hinders him, as it has become larger since Brawl. When coupled with his faster falling speed, he is much more susceptible to combo-oriented characters, such as and. This is further compounded by his aerials' inability to reliably break combos: neutral and down aerials are too slow, forward and up aerials only hit in front of and above R.O.B., respectively, and back aerial has both slow start-up and only hits behind him.

While R.O.B.'s zoning game remains his greatest strength, the universal nerf to projectile camping has somewhat toned it down. Gyro, in particular, has been the most adversely affected of his projectiles: in addition to retaining its susceptibility to being stolen, a fired Gyro deals drastically less damage and covers less range. The removal of glide tossing also significantly hinders its approach potential. Robo Beam's nerfs are not as severe in comparison, but are nevertheless noticeable: it now deals slightly less damage, and both it and Super Robo Beam travel slower. As a a result of these nerfs, R.O.B. now has a more difficult time dealing with most characters that have better projectiles (such as and ); attacks that counteract his own projectiles (such as  and ); or both (such as ).

R.O.B.'s custom moves can alleviate many of his weaknesses. Wide Angle Beam, true to its name, can be aimed in a much wider arc, which enables R.O.B. to catch aerial opponents easily. However, it deals slightly less damage. Infinite Robo Beam, also true to its name, can be shot infinitely. This allows R.O.B. to use his zoning game constantly and defend himself. However, it also deals less damage, cannot ricochet, and Super Robo Beam needs to charge for longer. Reflector Arm acts like a traditional reflector, having a higher reflection multiplier and longer duration. However, R.O.B. will not move when using it, preventing him from pressuring the opponent.

Backward Arm Rotor has a shorter duration, but is a very effective defensive option, as it moves R.O.B. backward, and comes out much faster (contrary to what its description suggests). High-Speed Burner has less fuel, but allows R.O.B. to recover more easily due to its increased aerial movement. Robo Rocket functions like a traditional recovery move, launching R.O.B. upwards, and can even meteor smash. However, it cannot be used in bursts; covers less horizontal distance; and its meteor smash is weak. Fire Gyro deals more damage, but covers less distance when fired. Slip Gyro slides across the stage, making it more predictable, but trips opponents when the Gyro hits them, giving R.O.B. access to many follow-ups.

Overall, R.O.B. is a defensive character that still possesses a strong zoning game, but now wields improved close-range offense. While R.O.B. now has to use close quarters combat more frequently because of his playstyle now being less reliant on his projectiles, he can now effectively KO opponents without having to rack up an outstanding amount of damage. As a result, he has become a more potent character than he was in Brawl and has some dedicated and noteworthy mains to his credit, such as, , and.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
R.O.B. has received a mixture of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Brawl to Smash 4 but was noticeably nerfed overall. The most prominent buff was to his KO potential; many of his KO options in Brawl have become more powerful and/or slightly easier to land, while other moves have been strengthened to the point of possessing reasonable KO potential, such as his up aerial and down smash. R.O.B. has also seen some benefits from the changes to Smash 4's mechanics as the weakening of SDI improves the reliability of his multi-hit moves and the changes to hitstun canceling and DI have improved his combo potential. R.O.B. also benefits from the introduction of rage as it further improves his KO power and his solid recovery and heavy weight allow him to build up a high amount of rage. R.O.B.'s mobility has also improved significantly, especially in the air, sporting higher walking speed, dashing speed, air speed, falling speed, air acceleration, and gravity. In particular, the latter four are all above average now, with the latter three no longer being among the lowest in the game, which makes him much more resilient.

However, R.O.B. also received some significant nerfs. His powerful zoning game has been hampered as his projectiles have seen some noticeable downgrades. Robo Beam travels significantly slower while Gyro is much weaker when fully charged and its firing rate is slower. R.O.B. was also one of the characters who was hindered the most by the removal of glide tossing as it significantly hinders his approach with Gyros. This makes approaching more important, as R.O.B.'s camping and defensive game was significantly toned down. R.O.B. is a larger target and a fair amount of his moves have reduced range making him an even easier target to hit. Further compounding this is his increased falling speed and gravity, as while it does make him a lot more resilient and makes it drastically easier for him to land, it gives him a high susceptibility to combos, especially considering the changes to hitstun canceling. R.O.B.'s overall frame data has been nerfed as many of his attacks have increased startup lag, shorter durations, increased ending lag or all three. R.O.B.'s aerial game has also been toned down. R.O.B.'s short hop is also significantly lower which greatly reduces his aerial output and his forward and back aerials have increased landing lag with the later also having a much worse auto-cancel window now, as well as his up and down aerials. While R.O.B. has much greater KO power, his existing KO moves have seen some downgrades, making them harder to land, as many of them are noticeably laggier and some of them, mainly forward smash and back aerial, now have significantly weaker sourspots. Neutral aerial is weaker in exchange for having more combo potential, forward aerial is weaker and has increased ending lag, back aerial is drastically laggier and possesses many new sourspots, up aerial deals much less damage (although it connects more reliably and the final hit is stronger) and down aerial is weaker. His recovery was also slightly nerfed overall, as while his air speed and air acceleration are drastically faster, Robo Burner travels slower and covers less distance while his aforementioned increased falling speed and slower back aerial further hinder his recovery.

Overall, while R.O.B.'s KO power is greater, it does not make up for his worse zoning game combined with his worse frame data, aerial game and recovery. R.O.B. is largely forced to engage in a mix of zoning and close quarters combat in order to score KOs and his worse frame data, reduced range on multiple moves, larger size and increased susceptibility to combos do not help this matter. The changes to Smash 4's mechanics also do not benefit him as much as some other characters as the changes to hitstun canceling is very much a double edged sword for him and he has seen some notably hindrances mainly from the removal of glide tossing. R.O.B. does not even benefit from having a better matchup spread as while he has an easier time against some of the characters who gave him a difficult time in Brawl such as, , and  due to their severe nerfs, this cannot be said for the entire cast and he has a very difficult time against , and. As a result, R.O.B. is considerably worse than in Brawl.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Throws/other attacks

 * Forward throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Edge attack:

Special moves

 * Robo Beam:
 * Arm Rotor:
 * Robo Burner:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Arm Rotor:
 * Robo Burner:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Robo Burner:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Gyro:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:
 * Super Diffusion Beam:

Update history
Like and, R.O.B. has received a very small number of direct changes from game updates. Update 1.0.4's changes to LSI indirectly buffed him by enabling his Beep Boop combo ( → ) to function past low percentages, and become one of the game's most infamous 50/50 KO combos out of grab. However, update 1.0.6 notably decreased the knockback of R.O.B.'s, with it now KOing roughly 15-20% later; previously, it was the strongest up throw in the game, and the second strongest throw of any kind after '.

Despite this, up throw remains a powerful KOing option and one of the best KO throws, especially on stages with platforms. Its lower base knockback also granted it combo potential at low percentages; when coupled with its lower base knockback and launch angle, its combos are more varied compared to down throw's (which can mainly just combo into uair regardless of percent), such as being able to combo into and, which can additionally more easily lead into farther followups. As a result, up throw can now be used to perform more damaging combos at low percents compared to what down throw can do, while additionally conserving the freshness of both down throw and up aerial for more powerful Beep Boops later on.

Update 1.1.1's increase to shieldstun indirectly nerfed R.O.B.; in addition to making his relative shield safety among the cast less impressive because of his moves having low damage output or being projectiles (and thus saw less increase to their shieldstun than most other characters' moves), getting grabs that he was heavily dependent on to KO became remarkably more difficult, especially with his already terrible grab range that made shield grabbing difficult even before the shieldstun patch. Lastly, update 1.1.4 marginally increased the size of R.O.B.'s hurtboxes and decreased his tripping stance's invincibility frames by standardizing it, though these had a negligible impact on his viability.

Although updates 1.1.3 to 1.1.6 notably nerfed some of R.O.B.'s more difficult matchups, such as, , , and , they nevertheless remained difficult, with Bayonetta and Cloud in particular remaining a severe problem for R.O.B. as they became the meta's most dominant characters. On a related note, buffs to other characters in these updates have also made many of R.O.B.'s other matchups less favorable, most notably, , and. Due to remaining relatively static throughout Smash 4s lifespan, while DLC introduced largely unfavorable matchups and most of the cast becoming stronger via game updates, R.O.B. became less viable by the end of Smash 4s development than he was during the initial release of Smash for Wii U.

 1.0.5

 1.0.6

 1.1.4

Technical changelist 1.1.4

Moveset
For a gallery of R.O.B.'s hitboxes, see here.

Tier placement and history
Thanks to his potent zoning and grab games, R.O.B. was initially considered a high-tier character during SSB4s release, similarly to initial perceptions of him during the early days of Brawls metagame. However, after update 1.0.6 nerfed his up throw's power, his reputation declined to the point that he was perceived as a mid-tier character. Nevertheless, R.O.B.'s representation in competitive play remained decent, while he continued to enjoy decent placements thanks to mains such as, , and. This resulted in him being ranked 20th on the first tier list.

However, other characters like, and, most notably, , have achieved much stronger results than R.O.B. To further compound this, R.O.B. has become rarer in competitive play due to having unfavorable matchups against all but one of the DLC characters. This decline in popularity and results would end up with R.O.B. being ranked 28th on the second tier list. Without significant breakthroughs against his unfavorable matchups, as well as further notable changes towards his zoning capabilities, he continued to languish from the addition of the DLC characters and waning perception. All of this led to him falling to 33rd on the third tier list (this drop is notable for being the third highest between the second and third tier lists). While other top-tier characters continued to have their competitive prospects developed, R.O.B. players have failed to propel his competitive prospects further, leaving his issues towards a large susceptibility to combos and difficulty in landing KO moves exacerbated further. As with the previous drop, he continued to fall behind in the metagame. Thus, this relegates him to 35th on the fourth tier list.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:R.O.B. players (SSB4)
 * - One of the best R.O.B. players in the world. Placed 4th at, 9th at the , and 17th at , , and with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 8th on the South Florida Power Rankings.
 * - The best R.O.B. player in Canada. Placed 1st at, 2nd at both and , 9th at , and 17th at . Previously ranked 4th on the Montreal Power Rankings.
 * - The best R.O.B. players in Europe. Placed 3rd at, 7th at , 9th at , and 13th at both and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 5th on the German Power Rankings.
 * - Placed 13th at both and, 17th at both  and , and 33rd at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 4th on the Kentucky Power Rankings.
 * - The best R.O.B. player in Japan. Placed 5th at, , and , and 9th at both and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 96th on the JAPAN Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best R.O.B. players in the world. Placed 3rd at, 4th at both and , 17th at  and 25th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 10th on the New England Power Rankings.
 * - Placed 9th at, 13th at both and , and 25th at both  and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 4th on the Spanish Power Rankings.

Solo Events

 * All-Star Battle: Secret: R.O.B. is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are unlockable characters in previous Super Smash Bros. games.
 * Mechanical Menace: As, the player must defeat a metal R.O.B., a metal and Metal Face in a Stamina Battle.
 * Robotic Rampage: R.O.B. is allied with two R.O.B.s and must defeat a giant metal R.O.B.

Co-op Events

 * Robots vs. Dragons: R.O.B. and Mega Man must defeat a giant, a giant and Ridley in a Stamina Battle.
 * The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.

Alternate costumes
R.O.B.'s default costume differs between the international and Japanese versions of SSB4. In the American and PAL region versions, his default costume consists of his Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) color scheme; in the Japanese and Korean versions, his default costume consists of his Family Computer (Famicom) color scheme. This affects the color scheme of R.O.B.'s standard trophy, but not his appearances in the Sound Test for or the Special Orders tickets for. His Final Smash trophy and Classic post-credits scenes in also use his Famicom color scheme. Newly scanned R.O.B amiibo default to the language's default color instead of the color of the R.O.B amiibo, unlike other amiibo variants.

Trivia

 * R.O.B.'s Boxing Ring English title in Ultimate and the American version of Smash 4, "The Last of His Kind", is a reference to the fact that R.O.B. is the only surviving member of his kind following the conclusion of Brawl's Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary.
 * R.O.B. is the only character in the series to have different default costumes in different regional releases of the same game.
 * Despite having different default costumes in different regions, the official website shows R.O.B.'s Famicom color scheme in official artwork, although half of the screenshots show his NES color scheme.
 * Unlike in Brawl, R.O.B. can now be rendered helpless. This can only be done if he lands on Pac-Jump's trampoline while the trampoline is red.
 * In the Wii U version of the game, since its release, R.O.B. cannot display emotion in the game's Smash mode, which is a visual glitch. However, he can properly emote in most other game modes, as well as on any mode in the 3DS version of the game.
 * R.O.B.'s in-game portrait is the only one that does not briefly emit flashing sparkles when his chargeable attack (Gyro in his case) is fully charged.
 * R.O.B.'s status as a video game peripheral is referenced in Palutena's Guidance to Pit regarding R.O.B., in which Pit suggests calling him "Mr. HVC-012". HVC-012 is R.O.B.'s Japanese product ID.