Byleth (SSBU): Difference between revisions

|image = {{tabber|title1=Male|content1=[[File:Byleth SSBU.png|250px]]|title2=Female|content2=[[File:Byleth-Alt1 SSBU.png|250px]]|title3=Both|content3=[[File:fighter-byleth.png|250px]]}}

|tier = B-

|ranking = 42

Byleth is ranked 42nd out of 82 on the current [[tier list]], placing him in the B- tier.

Byleth is a tall, middleweight swordsman, yet has poor overall mobility (similarly to {{SSBU|Ganondorf}}, {{SSBU|Incineroar}} and {{SSBU|Dr. Mario}}), high startup and ending lag on many of his moves, and a rather short [[grab]] range. In the words of ''Super Smash Bros.'' series creator [[Masahiro Sakurai]], Byleth is a "distance demon",<ref name=Presents>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aqVlLlKkcg Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Mr. Sakurai Presents "Byleth"]</ref> since his optimal playstyle involves using his {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Heroes' Relics}} to zone out opponents at mid-range, similarly to {{SSBU|Marth}} and {{SSBU|Shulk}}. Thanks to his variety of weapons, Byleth's overall range is fittingly long in line with his archetype, and his attacks are generally very strong, especially for a middleweight, although this comes at the cost of his frame data being rather sluggish. All of these traits make Byleth's general gameplan very patient: his sluggishness and strength make it important for him to plan ahead and learn the opponent's habits before covering their options with his range and arsenal of hard-hitting weapons.

Byleth was slightly buffed in update 11.0.0. The most notable buffs were to [[Sword of the Creator]]: its decreased overall lag improved its utility for recovering, combos and as an out of shield option,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZLY-UGqA9k Byleth got BUFFED! - Patch 11.0 Byleth Analysis (Smash Ultimate)]</ref> while its increased base knockback improved its KO potential while offstage and removed its dead zone (the latter of which improved its consistency). [[Areadbhar]] became safer on shield thanks to it receiving shieldstun multipliers. In addition, it has less ending lag when used in the air; this slightly improved its recovery and edgeguarding potentials. Down smash and down aerial gained slightly higher knockback, which improved their already considerable KO potentials. On an extended note, down aerial's shield damage output was also increased.

|nsdesc=Wields {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Failnaught}} to fire an arrow. He can charge it for more speed and damage, change directions while charging, and can [[charge-cancel]] via [[shield]]ing until a certain duration. It must be charged a bit before it can be fired, similarly to how [[Bullet Climax]] cannot be shield-canceled instantaneously and must charge first. Charging to its maximum duration will cause Byleth to rear back with a long pause, before firing a powerful arrow that hits instantly and has a similar animation and range to the [[Staff]]; reaching full charge will prevent Byleth from cancelling the move manually. A fully charged arrow can nearly break full shields and gains the properties of an energy projectile, as it can be [[absorb]]ed. Also, while it can be [[reflect]]ed, the fully charged arrow cannot be [[inhale]]d or [[pocket]]ed. Byleth may occasionally say "Failnaught!" while using this move. The fully charged version pushes Byleth back and up when used in the air.

|ssdesc=Wields {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Areadbhar}} to perform a lunging, upward slash. Areadbhar possesses a [[sweetspot]] on its blade, as opposed to the weaker shaft. It has impressive horizontal and vertical range. If the move is smash inputted, Byleth lunges further, which improves its range. The aerial version involves Byleth backflipping to swing Areadbhar, which covers an area that his aerial attacks cannot and slightly propels him forward but at the expense of lag. The aerial version is effective at the ledge, as Byleth is able to sweetspot ledges while performing an aerial swing, which allows it to be used for edgeguarding or edgehogging. Byleth may occasionally say "Areadbhar!" while using this move.

|usdesc=Thrusts the Sword of the Creator diagonally upward to extend its whip form. It functions as a [[tether recovery]] that can attach to walls and allow Byleth to jump off up to three times consecutively without landing. If it connects with an opponent, the move instead acts like a [[hit grab]]: Byleth latches onto the opponent before [[footstool jump]]ing them, which deals damage based on how far away the opponent was. If their percentage is at least 50% when they are footstool jumped, it becomes a [[meteor smash]] that cannot be [[tech]]ed. This footstool jump has only one frame of ending lag, allowing Byleth to immediately follow up, with combos into moves such as neutral aerial (though this particular combo is only effective against {{SSBU|Donkey Kong}}), all other aerials, and reverse inputted side special. Against grounded opponents, the move first launches them up with the sword to allow Byleth to latch onto them. When activated in the air, it instantly cancels all of Byleth's knockback, which can improve his endurance.

|dsdesc=Wields {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Aymr}} to perform a sluggish, but extremely powerful downward slash. It has [[super armor]] during its grounded startup, can be reversed once, and Byleth can drop through platforms while performing it. Like other "bold" moves (such as [[Falcon Punch]], [[Warlock Punch]] and [[Hatchet Man]]), it triggers [[Special Zoom]]. When successfully executed, Aymr can break shields in a single hit. When it is used successfully while falling off the battlefield, by an edge, and it hits the battlefield, Byleth will be suspended, ending the fall. Much like the aforementioned "bold" moves, it expectedly has extremely high lag all around in exchange for its power, making it a very risky yet rewarding move mainly used for hard reads. Byleth may occasionally yell "A...ymr!" while using this move. When used in the air, Byleth is stalled slightly just before the hitbox comes out. It resembles {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Flickering Flower}}, a combat art learned exclusively by Edelgard upon mastering the {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Emperor}} class in ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses''.

===Most historically significant players===

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''See also: [[:Category:Byleth players (SSBU)]]''

*{{Sm|MkLeo|Mexico}} - The best ''Ultimate'' player of all-time, having picked up Byleth during the online metagame and primarily used Byleth in 2021 and most of 2022. His success with Byleth greatly improved opinions on Byleth's viability.

*{{Sm|Reno|Japan|p=Japan}} - One of the best Byleth players in the world since 2023, breaking out on the scene after placing 5th at the major {{Trn|Seibugeki 14}} upsetting {{Sm|KEN}}. Since then, Reno has placed highly at many Japanese events, including 2nd at the superregional {{Trn|Gen 2.0}} and 17th at the supermajor {{Trn|DELTA 5}}.

*{{Sm|Rizeasu|Japan}} -  Known for using a plethora of characters including Byleth, and is the best Byleth player in Japan. He notably won {{Trn|Chūbu Smash Chronicle 1}} and {{Trn|Sumabato SP 32}} with Byleth, defeating {{Sm|Yoshidora}} in the former and {{Sm|HIKARU}} in the latter. He is the second Byleth player to be ranked top 50 on a notable global ranking, ranking 49th on the [[LumiRank Mid-Year 2023]].

Initial opinions on Byleth, shortly after release, were mostly lukewarm, if not negative. Most players believed Byleth was a mid tier or even low tier fighter, citing his poor frame data, slow mobility, limited landing options, and poor matchups against faster characters that can fight up close. An early success for Byleth came at {{Trn|Frostbite 2020}}, where {{Sm|MkLeo}} used him to defeat {{Sm|Maister}} in grand finals; despite this, most players remained unimpressed, citing how MkLeo used {{SSBU|Joker}} until the very last game of the tournament, Maister's poor record against him, and {{SSBU|Mr. Game & Watch}}'s weakness against long ranged characters, in addition to matchup inexperience due to Byleth's then-recent release. A few weeks afterwards, the [[COVID-19]] pandemic hit North America, forcing a halt of tournament activity and leaving most of Byleth's early metagame development to proceed online.

During this period, MkLeo decided to continue using Byleth online, being unsatisfied with how Joker played under additional input lag. After adjusting to the new environment, he found success with Byleth, leading to a final placement of 5th on the [[Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7]]. Buffs to Byleth during the pandemic further improved his standing; more and more players began believing Byleth to be a viable threat, however the character was still occasionally dismissed as MkLeo's "online main", implying that Leo didn't take online tournaments as seriously and would eventually return to Joker following the reopening of offline tournaments.

MkLeo defied these expectations by continuing to use Byleth in all events he attended since the return of offline tournaments, starting with {{Trn|SWT: Central America Ultimate Regional Finals}}, often using him as his sole character. With Byleth, MkLeo has achieved dominance on par with what he had with Joker before the pandemic, if not arguably even greater, as he has placed no less than second in every tournament he has attended until {{Trn|Smash Ultimate Summit 4}}, winning the majority of them. His efforts have shifted the community's perception on Byleth, leading most players to believe that Byleth is an upper mid tier to high tier fighter.

While Byleth is widely agreed to have been initially underestimated, skeptical players have argued that Byleth's success was largely due to MkLeo's skill as a player, as no other Byleth players have been able to get close to his consistency: data collected by [[OrionRank]] curator {{Sm|Barnard's Loop}} also showed that MkLeo made up roughly 66% of all results obtained by Byleth up to November 2021.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/LoopBarnard/status/1461497570925101058|title=Byleth data up to November 2021}}</ref> On the other hand, the only other Byleth player with consistently notable achievements globally was {{Sm|Rizeasu}}, a player who was also known for playing a variety of other characters outside of Byleth. As such, Byleth was ultimately ranked 32nd on the first tier list; despite ranking as a high tier, the placement was still rather low for a character that had been used to win majors.

Byleth's overreliance on MkLeo was further shown following the first tier list, as MkLeo began shifting away from Byleth to other characters. Although he still pulled out the character on occasion, it notably had less success compared to his other characters. Outside of MkLeo, Rizeasu continued to use Byleth in his roster while {{Sm|Reno|p=Japan}} also became a prominent player in the Japanese scene, however neither of them were able to fill the gap left by MkLeo. With dwindling representation at a national level and MkLeo himself admitting that Byleth doesn't fit well with the current metagame, Byleth fell ten spots to 42nd on the second and current tier list ranking near the top of B- tier, one of the biggest drops of any character from the first to second tier list.

|1||{{CharHead|Marth|SSBU|hsize=20px}}||[[Temple]]||''{{SSBUMusicLink|Fire Emblem|Story 5 Meeting}}''||The stage references how Marth used Temple in single player modes in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'', due to that game not having a ''Fire Emblem'' stage. Marth starts with 100 HP.

|6||{{Head|Byleth|g=SSBU|s=20px|cl=Red}}{{head|Byleth|g=SSBU|s=20px|cl=Blue}}{{CharHead|Byleth|SSBU|hsize=20px|color=Yellow}} (×3)||[[Garreg Mach Monastery]]||''{{SSBUMusicLink|Fire Emblem|Fódlan Winds}}''||The three Byleths' color schemes represent the house leaders in ''{{iw|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Three Houses}}''. The red Byleth prefers down specials, the blue one prefers side specials, and the yellow one prefers neutral specials, referencing the primary weapons of {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Edelgard}}, {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Dimitri}}, and {{iw|fireemblemwiki|Claude}}, respectively. The CPUs will always have these costumes even if the player uses these costumes. They each start with 50 HP.

Byleth unlock notice SSBU.jpg|Byleth's unlock notice after downloading him from the [[Nintendo eShop]].

<!--NOTICE BEFORE EDITING: When using pronouns, use those that match the gender of the default when referring to their Smash incarnation (treating the alternate gendered variant as a character costume like Alph) and gender neutral for home series info. However, completely omitting pronouns is entirely a valid style, as long as the sentence stays coherent. Additionally, do not add in anything about either Byleth's trailer or the character himself is the most disliked. We didn't do any of that for previous games so there's no reason to do it here.-->

*Byleth's internal codename is "master", referencing their role as a professor in ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses''.

*Male and female Byleth have slightly different idle stances; female Byleth holds the Sword of the Creator with its tip pointed upwards, while male Byleth holds it with its tip pointed downwards. All animations that can be played from their stand animations (like their idle animations) are subsequently affected through the animation blending. Additionally, their idle pose and [[victory pose]]s are different between each other.

*Byleth is also the only character in the game to debut after ''Ultimate''{{'}}s original release in December 2018, which was also the case with fellow ''Fire Emblem'' characters [[Roy]] and [[Corrin]] in their debuts.

*When either male or female Byleth is [[Star KO]]'d, they shout, "My battle ends here...!" This is a reference to a line of dialogue when they die in ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses''.

*Unlike most humanoid fighter models in ''Ultimate'', the bind pose of male and female Byleth is uniquely an "A-pose" instead of a [[T-pose]].<ref>[https://twitter.com/firubiii/status/1222377730550980610]</ref> This is shared with {{SSBU|Terry}} and {{SSBU|Mythra}}.