Nosferatu

Nosferatu (, Resire) is Robin's down special move.

Overview
When the move is used, Robin casts a spiral of dark magic in front of himself, acting as a special grab. When the move lands, Robin will either declare the attack’s name or grunt menacingly if he has not already spoken the "Nosferatu!" voice line. Opponents grabbed take 0.8%/2% darkness damage multiple times over 155/80 frames (2.58 3 /1.3 3 seconds). In Super Smash Bros. 4 opponents take damage every 8 frames for a maximum of 15.2% damage. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the hit rate varies based on the number of players: 9 frames with 2 players (max 16% (19.2% with the 1v1 multiplier)), 8 frames with 3 players (max 18%), 7 frames with 4 players (max 20%), 6 frames with 5 players (max 24%), and 5 frames with 6 or more players (max 28%). Other opponents take a small amount of damage and are knocked back if they touch the victim. In the air, ensnaring an opponent with Nosferatu will cause both Robin and the opponent to slowly fall down. If the opponent lands before Robin does, Robin will continue floating in the air until the move has finished. Robin will be helpless if the move ends with him in the air. Using this move changes Robin's active tome to Nosferatu.

The opponent held by Nosferatu may escape faster by button mashing, depending on their percent. If their damage when initially grabbed is 0%, each input made will reduce the duration by an extra 5 frames. The higher their percent is when grabbed, the less effective each input will be. The effect is linear until 120%, where at that point mashing has no effect on the duration. When the move ends, the opponent is put into an aerial grab release. The release also does not give the grab immunity given by other grabs, allowing the opponent to be re-grabbed as soon as they leave the release animation.

In addition to its damaging properties, the move heals Robin. For every tick of damage the move does, Robin heals for  in Smash 4 and   in Ultimate, with diff being Robin's current damage minus the victim's damage (which cannot be negative, and updates after each tick of damage from the move). The healing is multiplied by 1.25× if the opponent is caught from behind. As a result, Robin will heal at least 12.16%/8% (9.6% with 1v1 multiplier) damage if the opponent started with higher damage, and can heal over 40%/25% if Robin has 100% or more damage than the opponent. In Ultimate, the multiplier given by the "diff" caps at 8.4 (or a difference of 300%), meaning Robin can heal a maximum of 75.2% (76.8% with 1v1 multiplier) from one use if  (without the usage of damage increasing effects such as spirits).

Nosferatu uses Robin's Nosferatu tome every time the move is activated regardless of the move connecting. The move can only be used a total of 4/3 times before the tome's durability is depleted. The tome respawns after 40/30 seconds have passed. This is the longest cooldown of all Robin's weaponry along with the least uses of any tome in Robin's arsenal. Because of this move's extremely limited uses, using the move recklessly is generally not advised due to the tools Robin loses as a result. However, burning through the Nosferatu tome does have a niche strategic application of being able to obtain a throwable used tome in the quickest time possible. Used tomes deal good damage and have KO potential when thrown.

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


 * 1) Nosferatu: Default.
 * 2) Distant Nosferatu: Nosferatu is used twice as far from Robin, making it easier to catch opponents without being directly in front of Robin. If the opponent is directly in front of Robin, the move will miss them entirely, as the dark energy is farther down, leaving Robin open to attack. This move deals 12% to the opponent, regardless if attacked from in front or from behind. The move's healing formula per hit is , with no change based on damage difference; when used in front of an opponent, it will heal Robin by 6%, when used from behind, it heals Robin by 8%. This move also has a slightly longer start-up.
 * 3) : Uses the tome Goetia, which is stronger than Nosferatu, but has no healing capabilities. It takes longer to start the move. At startup, Robin creates a dark vortex that pulls in foes before beginning to attack them. This attack has a relatively bigger range than Nosferatu, and summons a bigger dark energy spiral that engulfs the opponent and deals 19% damage.

Origin
Nosferatu is a special magic tome from the Fire Emblem series. When a unit casts Nosferatu, it drains a portion of the damage done to the enemy back to the caster to heal their HP; this effect carries over into Smash. However, Nosferatu tomes have mediocre accuracy, making it harder to hit enemy troops with it, also reflected in Smash by the difficulty in landing the move. Different games depict Nosferatu as different types of magic, usually some sort of holy light magic; in Awakening, however, it is dark magic, and this depiction is what Smash uses.

Goetia is another dark tome that is introduced in Fire Emblem: Awakening. It is the strongest dark tome in the game, inflicting much more damage than Nosferatu, but it does not have the healing property Nosferatu does. It is also easier to land in Awakening.

As a, Robin ordinarily cannot use dark magic in Fire Emblem: Awakening, though he or she can potentially wield such magic if he or she reclasses to one that can, such as a ; however, if Male Robin marries , his daughter gains the skill , which allows her to use dark magic tomes in any Tome-wielding class. Masahiro Sakurai gave Robin the ability to use Nosferatu as a Tactician in order to "capture certain aspects of the original title".

The word "Nosferatu" itself is a nonsense word meant to sound Romanian, and has come to be synonymous with "vampire" in fiction since coming to prominence in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, and the synonymous 1922 vampire horror movie Nosferatu, itself a loose adaptation of Dracula.

Trivia

 * Nosferatu and Aymr are the only down special moves to belong to a Fire Emblem character that are not counterattacks.
 * In Awakening, Goetia has a might of 19, which is reflected in the damage it does as the third variant of Nosferatu.
 * Nosferatu is one of the few moves in SSB4 that is able to hit from behind without the opponent automatically turning around upon taking damage.