Palutena Bow

Palutena Bow (, Palutena's God Bow), known as Palutena's Arrow (, Palutena Arrow) prior to Super Smash Bros. 4, is Pit's neutral special move.

Overview
Pit will pull his bow string back, and fire it when the button is released. The arrow does 3.3% uncharged and up to 8.6% charged. The player can change the direction the arrow will go while holding it - backwards, forwards, and upwards. Pit's arrows move much more quickly than other characters' arrows, and can be controlled in midair. He is not able to hold his drawn bow indefinitely in normal use; however, if the player keeps changing the direction the arrow will be released, he can hold onto it until the player stops (when he will lose the arrow, unlike and ).

Palutena's Arrows can actually be curved around in a full circle if controlled properly and thus avoid going off screen. Also, if two of Palutena's Arrows collide, they will cancel each other out.

Starting at 294%, a fully charged arrow can KO a middleweight such as Mario — making it deadly in Super Sudden Death — and an uncharged arrow can KO at 562%.

This is one of the few special moves that can perform a 180˚ and 360˚ reversal, by holding away from the direction the player is facing while charging an arrow. This does not affect attack power.

In Smash 4, the move functions the same, although the range of Pit's arrows have been drastically reduced, no longer able to curve in a full circle on large maps and only traveling almost the length of Final Destination before fading into sparkles. However, the arrows still maintain their incredible accuracy, making the distance nerf negligible. Fully charged, Pit's arrows travel much further, almost the length of two Final Destinations. However, the arrows disappear when it reaches the blast zone, removing techniques and mindgames that involve it (such as Arrow Rain).

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


 * 1) Palutena Bow: Default.
 * 2) Piercing Bow: Shots take longer to charge and cannot be controlled in the air, but they can pierce through opponents. They are also stronger: damage rises by 3-6%.
 * 3) Guiding Bow: Shots are weaker and slower (down by 1-2%), but they can be more easily controlled.

Origin
Palutena's Arrow didn't appear in a Kid Icarus game prior to Super Smash Bros. Brawl (though it does appear in the later game Kid Icarus: Uprising as the, which bases much of its aesthetic on designs which debuted or appeared in Brawl), but in the original games, Pit used a bow as his trademark weapon. The move appears to be based on the Arrow of Light, one of the three Sacred Treasures used to defeat Medusa. Normally, Pit fired regular arrows. Also in the original titles, Pit could aim his bow upwards, much like how he can with the Palutena Bow in Smash Bros. Before Kid Icarus Uprising, Pit's bow did not have the ability to split into two blades. This is explained in the Subspace Emissary.

Trivia

 * The trophy is the only one that is not a Final Smash, Subspace Emissary enemy, item, or alloy to have Super Smash Bros. Brawl on its game list.
 * The first time that this item is seen in the Kid Icarus universe is in Kid Icarus: Uprising, where it was dubbed "Palutena Bow".
 * This is the only special move Pit keeps in Super Smash Bros. 4 from Brawl.
 * Normally, Pit has golden rings hovering around his wrist (from wielding the Bow). When he uses this move, the rings slide onto the bow while charging before returning to his wrists when he fires.
 * In Kid Icarus: Uprising, these golden rings will only appear when he is wielding the Palutena Bow, suggesting that they are a part of the weapon itself. His initial appearance in The Subspace Emissary also suggests this, as when Palutena gives the bow to him, the rings appear once he holds the bow.
 * In Brawl, if Pit has the arrow on the screen after he is KO'd, he can continue to control it in unlimited time.
 * In a similar line to CPU players spamming Fireballs upon using Negative Zone, higher-leveled CPU Pit players will immediately fire a Palutena's Arrow after throwing an enemy. They do not aim these arrows either, making it possible that this is just a programming error.