Holy Water

Holy Water (, Holy Water) is Simon and Richter's down special move in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Overview
The user throws in a flask of Holy Water in a downward arc, which deals a small amount of flame damage and knockback if it hits an opponent before it hits the ground. Upon making contact with the ground, the flask will burst, and create a pillar of fire similar to Arcfire. The flask will be thrown at a steeper angle if the move is performed in midair. Simon's Holy Water produces red flames with a flame hitbox, while Richter's Holy Water produces blue flames with an aura hitbox, which means Richter's version is unable to detonate explosives such as Blast Boxes and can damage red Pikmin. However, as the aura mechanic is unique to Lucario and not dependent on the hitbox's properties, its power does not increase when Richter's damage is higher. When Richter uses the move he will also say "Take this!", unlike Simon who simply grunts when he uses the move.

If the flask is shielded, it will bounce off the shield before detonating on the floor. If the flask is caught before it hits the ground, it can be picked up as an item and thrown. As it is an item, the user is unable to use the move if he is already holding an item (similar to Young Link and Toon Link's s). If the flask is shielded, however, the flames will damage the user as if it was reflected.

The flask has unique traits that allow it to break on contact: the flask itself is set to have 6% health, it takes 3% damage when it hits someone, and it depletes its health upon hitting a surface. It also takes no damage on contact with a shield, which is why it bounces upon hitting one. This allows the flask to be caught so long as it hits an enemy but not a surface (since it takes a maximum of two hits on an enemy for it to break), allowing for unique setups.

Origin
Holy Water is a recurring sub-weapon in the Castlevania series. As with other sub-weapons, usage of Holy Water requires hearts, which act as ammo; the protagonist can keep throwing Holy Water until they either run out of hearts, die, or collect another sub-weapon. When thrown, it creates a pillar of fire which hits multiple times, so it can be used in conjunction with the whip to deal massive damage while locking the enemy in place.

Because Nintendo of America enforced censorship of religious material during the NES and SNES eras, the item was renamed in North America to Fire Bomb. Simon's Holy Water is colored red much like its appearance from Castlevania to Super Castlevania IV, while Richter's is colored blue like in his playable appearances in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night onwards, as opposed to the green color in Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Dracula X. However, Richter is often shown utilizing a moving flame as opposed to a stationary one in his home series.

Real is water that has been blessed by a clergy member in a church for spiritual cleansing, baptism, or the warding off of evil. Many forms of media have depicted holy water having a burning effect on unholy creatures such as demons.

In Smash, its function is a hybrid of how it appears in Simon and Richter's games. The flame stays in one place like in Castlevania through Super Castlevania IV, but rather than being thrown in an arc, it is thrown directly downward at an angle, similarly to how it is used in Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.

Trivia

 * In spite of Richter's Holy Water not utilizing a flame effect, Pocket shows it as a flame attack, as indicated by the flame shown when pocketing the attack.
 * As long as the Holy Water flask is on-screen, the game treats Simon/Richter as if they are holding an item despite not actually holding an item.
 * This has the side effect of them not being able to pick up an item if the flask was caught by an opponent.
 * Another side effect is that they are unable to throw another flask until the first one is disposed of.
 * If a player using a Thrown Items ↑ spirit uses Holy Water but the flask is caught by a player using no spirits, that flask will change ownership and revert to its normal properties when thrown again. This is particularly odd given the first user is still "holding" the flask.

External Link

 * Article on the Castlevania Wiki.