Counter

Counter (, Counter) is the down special move for Marth, Roy, Ike, Lucina, and Chrom, all of whom are fighters from the series.

Overview
It is used as a counterattack to redirect damage and knockback at the attacker when the user is hit. In addition, the move serves as an excellent edgeguarding tool against opponents with predictable recoveries.

Marth
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Marth's countering stance has him face away while holding the Falchion slanted downward in reverse grip, and counterattacks with an outward slash in normal grip (akin to a composite version of his first input neutral attack and dash attack). His Counter starts-up faster and lasts twice as long as Roy's Counter, but deals a flat 7% damage regardless of the attack. Upon a successful counterattack, he might say "" ("There!"), "" ("I've read you!"), or "" ("Like I'll let you!"). In Ultimate, the latter voice clip has been changed to "" ("I won't let you!").

Marth's Counter in Brawl has the same animation as in Melee. It has been generally buffed in terms of utility, now reflecting back 1.1× of the original attack's damage, with a minimum damage of 8%, as opposed to a flat 7%, and allowing him to deliver a OHKO anyone close to him should he counterattack a strong enough hitbox. It retains its fast startup and long duration, but has lost the ability to deflect projectiles behind him. Curiously, it can be used on any vacuum created by an attack, such as Kirby's.

In Super Smash Bros. 4 's Counter once again has the same animation as in Melee and Brawl. It has been buffed again, dealing more knockback and now reflecting back ×1.2 the original attack's damage. However, it can no longer be activated by vacuum attacks. In the game's release, there existed a bug where, if Marth were to use Counter just after being ledge trumped, he would propel backwards, which mostly resulted in him being KO'd. This glitch was patched in update 1.0.4. Interestingly enough, instead of using quotes for a successful counterattack, he now uses the generic grunts when he attacks. The reason for this change is unknown. His counterattacking quotes, however, can still be found in the Sound Test.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Marth's Counter retains the same stance and attack animation as in SSB4. However, it no longer has him merely use his standard attack grunts during the actual counterattack, as his counterattack quotes from Brawl have returned with new voice clips; in particular, he now has English-language quotes for successfully countering an attack, uttering "My turn!", "Predictable!", or "Nice try!" when doing so. Both Counter and the counterattack have increased ending lag, making the move easier to punish if whiffed, and limiting its utility in edgeguarding, respectively; however, the counterattack has faster startup.

Roy
Roy's counterattack in Super Smash Bros. Melee has him rear down a bit as he holds the Binding Blade in front, reverse grip for his countering stance, and counterattacks with an inward slash while still holding in reverse grip. His Counter deals ×1.5 the original attack's damage and deals more knockback when striking with the full blade, but has slightly slower start-up and lasts for a shorter time, which makes it unable to be used for immediate countering, but is much more damaging compared to Marth's Counter. If the attack is a smash attack, the attacker is knocked back at a 90° angle. Since only damage is countered, and not knockback, some attacks will deal less knockback when countered, such as the forward smash of a Home-Run Bat. This applies to future games' counterattacks. If used in conjunction with 's Oil Panic, it is the most powerful non-charged attack in Melee, delivering an OHKO (if Oil Panic has absorbed the highest possible amount of damage, which is 250% damage and also delivers an OHKO). His quotes are different from Marth's during a successful counterattack, either grunting or saying "" ("Now!") or "" ("There!").

In Super Smash Bros. 4, 's Counter has a different animation: his countering stance is much different, now holding the Binding Blade in reverse grip while pointing it downward while standing upright. The counter slash itself is changed to a reaping swat to Roy's right side (from two-handed-to-one-handed). It has been buffed in the transition from Melee, gaining more counter frames, increased knockback, and range, but its damage multiplier was reduced to ×1.35; this still leaves Roy's Counter with the highest damage multiplier (barring Shulk's Vision with Buster active, which has a ×1.82 multiplier). Unlike Marth and Ike, his counterattacking quotes (and grunt) remain intact. Roy's counter was also given the unique effect of dealing mildly less knockback while airborne.

In Ultimate, Roy's Counter retains its stance and attack animation from the previous installment. Additionally, Roy's lines are now dubbed into English, as he may utter "Now!" or "Gotcha!" when successfully countering an attack. Roy's Counter has a longer duration, and the counterattack has increased knockback that makes it even stronger.

Ike
Ike's counterattack stance has him holds Ragnell right in front of himself in reverse grip, and he counterattacks with an inward slash while still holding it in reverse grip. Like Roy in Melee, Ike's Counter is not as fast as Marth's (the counterattack frames start 5 frames after Marth's), meaning it cannot be used for immediate countering, but the countering stance lasts for the same duration as Marth and has the same duration of counter frames, which gives it less vulnerability after the counter frames end due to its slightly slower activation. His counterattack has greater range and knockback than Marth's, and reflects back ×1.2 the original attack's damage, with the minimum damage being 10%. Upon a successful counterattack, he will shout "You're open!" In Japanese, he will shout "" ("Naive!").

In Super Smash Bros. 4, 's Counter has the same animation as in Brawl. It now activates slightly faster, now leaving him one frame less vulnerable at startup, and is the counterattack with the second-longest counter window, behind 's Double Team and 's Vision when fresh.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Ike's Counter behaves similarly to in previous iterations, but now has a blue flame effect. Additionally, Ike has new quotes in English when successfully performing a counterattack: Ike's Path of Radiance version says "Gotcha!", while his Radiant Dawn version says "Amateur!"

Lucina
As a clone of Marth, Lucina has the same Counter that he does, with the same 1.2× multiplier as well. The main difference setting it apart from Marth's Counter is the animation, as her countering stance mirrors her battle stance in Fire Emblem: Awakening, which is further referenced in her official artwork and her up taunt (though it instantly shifts to Marth's counter stance before she counters), and the counterattacking slash is in a more upward arc while she is kneeling during the active hitbox window. The altered animation for Lucina's Counter causes it to have noticeably shorter horizontal range in front of her than Marth's Counter. Before update 1.0.8 in SSB4, she used the generic grunts when she attacks upon a successful counterattack; after said update (as well as in Ultimate), she may say either "You're mine!" or "My turn!". In Japanese, she may say either "" ("There!") or "" ("An opening!"). In Ultimate, Lucina's Counter shares the changes made to Marth's version.

Chrom
As an Echo Fighter of Roy, has the same Counter that he does, using the exact same stance and counterattack animation as well. Also, Chrom shares Roy's ×1.35 damage multiplier on his counterattack. Chrom also shares Roy's effect of dealing less knockback while airborne. Unlike Roy however, Chrom's counterattack does not have flame properties, and it has lower base knockback but even higher knockback scaling, making it weaker against weaker attacks, but stronger against more powerful ones. When successfully countering an attack, Chrom may utter "No way!" or "Not today!" in English.

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

Marth and Lucina

 * 1) Counter: Default.
 * 2) Easy Counter: Expanded hit window, but deals less damage.
 * 3) Iai Counter (known as Rush Counter in the PAL version): Is faster, knocks opponents backwards, and has a higher damage multiplier (1.2× → 1.3×) and launch power. However, it has a considerably narrower hit window, lower minimum damage (8% → 6%), and the counter strike has slightly more ending lag.

Ike

 * 1) Counter: Default.
 * 2) Paralyzing Counter (known as Paralysing Counter in the PAL version): Paralyzes enemies instead of damaging them.
 * 3) Smash Counter: The counterattack is slower, but much more powerful, with a damage multiplier of ×1.5. It will result in an OHKO if Ike counters a very strong attack (a hitbox that deals around 30% damage). Similar to Roy's Counter in Melee.

Roy
Like the other DLC characters, Roy has no custom move variations.
 * 1) Counter: Default.

Origin
Counter is based on a core element of Fire Emblem gameplay: in all games of the series, when a unit attacks another unit, the targeted unit will perform a counter-attack to strike back at their attacker if they currently have an equipped weapon with a compatible. There are also skills that can provide benefits when attacked, such as Vantage, which allows characters to attack first if its conditions are met. However, at the time of Melee, no skill directly increased the damage dealt to an enemy when under attack.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance introduced the identically-named skill, which returns an amount of damage dealt to the skill's user to the enemy. The skill does not exist in Marth or Roy's native games, however, and their appearance in Melee predates its introduction. In both of Ike's games the Counter skill can be assigned to him through the use of the Counter scroll item. Through re-classing to the class, Marth, Roy, and Ike can all obtain the Counter skill as  in ; however, Lucina is unable to obtain Counter under any circumstances, as it is exclusive to male units, and her father, Chrom, cannot pass it down to her either, both because he doesn't have access to the Warrior class and because Aether is the only skill he can pass down to his daughters even if he did.

Trivia

 * In SSB4, every character's Counter contains a window of invincibility during the first few frames of activation. As such, they can block a very strong attack (like Critical Hit) without taking damage.
 * In Brawl and SSB4, Ike has an unused Counter quote ("Gotcha!") in the Sound Test. There also exists unused sounds in Ike's voice bank intended for his version of Counter, where he shouts "Take this!" or "You're through!". One of his unused counter quote (Gotcha!), has been later used in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for his Path of Radiance costume when it connects, with the other quotes remaining unused.
 * Lucina faced a similar situation prior to update 1.0.8 in SSB4.
 * While in SSB4 Marth doesn't talk when his Counter is activated, he can be heard talking while multi-countering in Roy's trailer.
 * For Marth, this is his only sword-based move that does not have any sweetspots or sourspots.
 * Roy's Counter in Melee does not have a limit to its maximum damage. If 3 or 4 Roys continuously counter each other, they can drive the damage of the counter's hitbox past 512, which crashes the game. This is because hitboxes in Melee only have room to store 9 bits for damage, which equals a maximum of 511 before it overflows into other code.
 * As of Ultimate, this move is on the movesets of the most characters out of all moves in every Smash Bros. game, being in the movesets of five characters.
 * Counter is one of three moves to share a name and function between non-clone characters (due to Ike not being a clone of any sort to the other four users, as well as Palutena using a move with the same name and similar function). The other two are Inhale and Light Arrow.
 * During 's presentation, Sakurai commented on the fact that, aside from Byleth and Robin, the Fire Emblem characters share this move; he explained that, when bringing in the Fire Emblem franchise, he wanted to represent the turn-based aspect of the series and compared Counter to the opponent attacking first and then the player.
 * If the Shadow Assist Trophy freezes Marth, Lucina, Roy, Chrom, or Ike while performing Counter, the counter hitbox will remain active and trigger if hit. The frozen character will not attack until being unfrozen, but will remain intangible in the mean time.