Rayquaza (SSBB)
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| Rayquaza in Super Smash Bros. Brawl | |
|---|---|
 
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| Universe | Pokemon |
| Availability | Hacking |
| Final Smash | |
| Tier | Banned |
Rayquaza (レックウザ, Rayquaza), stylized as RAYQUAZA in European versions, is an unplayable character in Brawl and only playable in Boss Battles via hacking. It has no voice actor, instead being voiced with metallic screeches.
When playable, Rayquaza's power level scales with the difficulty setting chosen for Boss Battles. Depending on this, it can KO players with just a few hits using a mix of large sweeping hitboxes, projectiles, and charging moves. Being among the most durable bosses on top of this, thanks to having numerous elemental resistances and having only negligible weak points, Rayquaza can take a long time to bring down. All things considered, Rayquaza is among the better and more well-rounded boss characters in Brawl.
Attributes
Rayquaza is one of the most durable Brawl bosses, giving it some ability to outlast opponents; factoring in resistances and Intense difficulty, it effectively has around 300 HP. This, coupled with its constant passive armor, makes it capable of responding to any attack fiercely. Furthermore, it has a decently fast, easy-to-use side switching move in Dash, something that other bosses have some difficulty doing, while also being a decently strong and fast attack in its own right. Rayquaza is also one of few bosses to possess projectiles in Electric Ball and Blast, though their slow nature can make them easy to avoid and the former can be reflected. Regardless, they can prevent characters from camping on the other side of the stage, if Air Dash isn't enticing. Finally, its Lightning Strike and Iron Tail give it decent "get off me" tools, the latter of which can break shields up close, making up for its occasional blindspots. These come together to make Rayquaza one of the most all-around bosses.
However, Rayquaza has multiple moves that are arguably useless, including Dig and Ground Burst, which do not track the opponent. With Dig being one move that is meant to help Rayquaza side switch, this does reduce its flexibility by a bit. Lightning Strike also fails to deal significant knockback, often only tacking on damage without impeding the opponent, which gives it less utility than it would imply. Electric Ball is vulnerable to reflection, which can deal gigantic damage if attempted against a character that has them, such as Falco. While Lightning Strike does help anti-air, it has a notable blindspot on the ground, making it difficult to impossible to hit grounded characters with. Iron Tail, while it does deal with characters behind Rayquaza well, doesn't hit completely into the magnifying glass, allowing characters like Fox to get in a massive amount of chip damage with projectiles; in these cases, Rayquaza can't do much other than Air Dash, which isn't difficult to avoid or crouch underneath. Rayquaza also suffers from the regular drawbacks of bosses, with its attacks all having high startup and endlag that make them punishable. For example, Meta Knight's Mach Tornado and Charizard's Rock Smash can deal extremely high damage to it, being usable repeatedly during its attacks. Thus, playing as Rayquaza often means watching attacks while one is being used, and buffering the next response afterwards.
Health values
| HP Values |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boss Battles | 115.4 | 121 | 133.2 | 128 | 135 | 148.6 | 141.5 | 150 | 164 | 155 | 165 | 182.7 | 191 | 205 | 224.5 | ||||
| Multiplied by 0.6× when a second player is present. | |||||||||||||||||||
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken | ×0.7 | ×0.7 | ×0.5 | ×1.0 | ×0.7 | ×0.5 | ×0.5 | ×0.7 | ×0.7 | ×0.7 | ×0.3 |
| Unknown weak point | ×1.0 | ×1.0 | ×0.7 | ×1.5 | ×1.0 | ×0.7 | ×0.7 | ×1.0 | ×1.0 | ×1.0 | ×0.8 |
Moveset
Like all bosses, Rayquaza's moves are inputted using a set of commands with a GameCube controller, chiefly with the D-Pad. Move names are taken from the Japanese strategy guide for Brawl. Damage varies by difficulty, the following being taken from the game's files.
| Image | Move | Input | Base Damage | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Iron Tail |  |
8% (start), 18% (front, close), 20% (front, far), 16% (back) | Rayquaza sweeps its tail across the ground. Hits twice, and can break shields quite easily at higher difficulties. | |
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Dig | + |
22% (start), 16%, 15% (return) | Rayquaza flies up slowly, then crashes into the character while burrowing into the ground, then appears on the other side. If used while controlling Rayquaza, it doesn't track the opponent, only hitting the middle of the stage. | |
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Dash | + |
16% | Rayquaza ducks down and rushes to the other side of the stage. Its head can damage opponents when doing so. | |
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Air Dash | + / |
12% (start), 24% (attack) | Rayquaza flies up, and then dashes back and forth near the ground; when controlled, this is only used once. Small characters can evade this attack by ducking if they can fit between the "waves" of Rayquaza's wavy shape and the ground, but the move also produces a wind that can push characters around into a spot where they can be hit, making crawling an asset. Breaks shields on higher difficulties. | |
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Diagonal Electric Ball |  |
20% (head), 2% (loop), 12% (otherwise) | Rayquaza sends a ball of electricity in front of itself diagonally, which can be reflected by various reflecting attacks but not absorbed by PSI Magnet or Oil Panic. Breaks shields on higher difficulties. | |
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Lightning Strike | + |
2% (loop, end) | Rayquaza flies up in a tight circle and attacks with a multi-hit lightning bolt with decent knockback. It breaks shields down quickly. During the time Rayquaza rises, touching it will deal electric damage. It's one of the few attacks that are easier to dodge on higher difficulties due to its much shorter duration. Breaks shields on higher difficulties if held all the way through. Similar to Pikachu's Thunder. | |
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Ground Burst | + |
10% (start), 25% (emergence), 18% (emergence, late) | Rayquaza burrows underground, then bursts out of the ground where the player was standing. If used while controlling Rayquaza, it doesn't track the opponent, only hitting the middle of the stage. | |
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Horizontal Electric Ball | +/ |
20% (head), 2% (loop), 12% (otherwise) | Rayquaza lowers its head and sends the lightning orb in front of itself, which travels across the stage unless it hits the ground, when it will explode. Like its diagonal counterpart, it can be reflected by various reflecting attacks but not absorbed by PSI Magnet or Oil Panic. Breaks shields on higher difficulties. | |
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Blast |  |
16% (head), 14% (explosion) | Rayquaza's eyes glow, and then it creates an explosion at the location where the character was at that time. While Rayquaza's eyes glow, fighters in contact with its head will be spiked to the ground, often a perfect setup for the explosion. If used while controlling Rayquaza, only one blast will occur. Deals massive damage to shields on higher difficulties. | |
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Self-Destruct |  |
N/A | KOs Rayquaza. |
Codes
Like all Brawl bosses, Rayquaza can be accessed using a Gecko code that enables debug mode controls for Player 3 in Boss Battles. It is encountered randomly without additional external modifications, meaning other bosses need to be defeated or forced to self-destruct with their own codes to reach Rayquaza's stage. The following codes are for the NTSC-U version of Brawl and both codes must be on.
| Enable Boss Control | |
|---|---|
| 4A000000 | 810F1F3C |
| D2000000 | 00000002 |
| 901F058C | 5400843E |
| 90020070 | 00000000 |
| C277F780 | 00000010 |
| 7CDFF050 | 2C06414C |
| 4082006C | 2C1C0002 |
| 40810064 | 39820074 |
| 809E0038 | A0EC0000 |
| 7C043800 | 41810050 |
| A0EC0002 | 7C1C3800 |
| 41820044 | 3CC0804E |
| A0C6E4C0 | A8EC0004 |
| 2C070000 | 41820030 |
| A8EC0004 | 7C063800 |
| 4082000C | A38C0006 |
| 4800001C | 2C07FFFF |
| 4082000C | AB8C0006 |
| 4800000C | 398C0004 |
| 4BFFFFD8 | 939E0038 |
| 60000000 | 00000000 |
| 4A000000 | 805A9320 |
| 14000078 | 00000000 |
| E0000000 | 80008000 |
| Rayquaza control for Player 3 | |
|---|---|
| 4A000000 | 805A9320 |
| 30000070 | 00005C01 |
| 16000074 | 00000038 |
| 0008001E | 1080001E |
| 0180000B | 0184000C |
| 0182000D | 0181000D |
| 01880010 | 02880013 |
| 02840014 | 02800017 |
| 0282001A | 0281001A |
| 0480001D | FFFFFFFF |
| E0000000 | 80008000 |
In competitive play
Tier placement and history
Being a boss character only playable through hacking, Rayquaza is banned in all competitive Brawl tournaments. Because of how difficult it is to set bosses up — requiring constant cycling through Boss Battles without further external modifications, on top of necessitating difficulty setting rulings — Rayquaza, and all other Brawl bosses, have seen zero competitive experimentation.
In The Subspace Emissary
Rayquaza appears as a boss at The Lake in The Subspace Emissary, being the second boss of the game and fought by Fox and Diddy Kong. It later reappears in The Great Maze with reduced health.
Gallery
Rayquaza roars.
Rayquaza charges a ball of electricity.
Rayquaza soars into the sky before using Dig.
Rayquaza flashes its eyes before creating an explosion.
SSBCharacters}} Pokemon universe}} Category:Rayquaza (SSBB)]]
