Marth (SSBU)/Side special

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Hitbox visualizations

Type	First	Second	Third	Fourth
Up
Forward
Down

Overview

Dancing Blade can be used as a standard combo ender. It should be avoided in neutral as it is very unsafe on shield, with most opponents having enough time to dash forward and grab before Marth can jump. His safest option if a non-ending hit does hit a shield is to continue using Dancing Blade, delaying hits in hope that the opponent drops their shield. It is Marth's third fastest out-of-shield option, tied with neutral aerial. It is slightly easier to perform than up aerial (second fastest by 1 frame) and doesn't leave him as vulnerable as whiffing his fastest out-of-shield, up special.

The down-angle ender provides the most damage. The side-angle ender sweetspot can KO very early on, being able to KO several characters below 70% at ledge (30-50% earlier than the non-sweetspot hits). The side-angle ender's sweetspot can be hard to hit as it has lower priority than the weaker hits, requiring the attack to be delayed for the highest chance of hitting the sweetspot. Because of various other factors such as rage and directional influence, hitting the sweetspot is inconsistent and it is best to plan around a non-sweetspot hitting instead. Forward tilt is a good, grounded alternative if the side-angle ender's sweetspot is too difficult to land.

The first hit can be used to attack an opponent recovering along the stage, making it a safer alternative to up special (which has the potential to face the wrong way and likely lead to an SD). It also serves as a mixup option, as the tech timing is different than that of an up special along with requiring different reaction timing, potentially resulting in the opponent buffering an air dodge if they've been conditioned to expect up specials. The first hit can also be used to reorient Marth to properly use an aerial or correct his direction to more safely perform an up special.

While recovering, the first hit can be used to slightly halt his downward movement. This can make his recovery slightly less predictable, along with being much safer against opponents that have high-commitment edgeguards or to intercept opponents who go for an offstage KO.

Hitboxes

First hit

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
0	0	0	2.5%	0		Forward	25	30	0		6.5	top	0.0	9.0	13.0	0.5×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	3.0%	0		Forward	25	30	0		5.5	top	0.0	9.0	16.0	0.5×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	2.5%	0		Forward	25	30	0		5.5	top	0.0	9.0	8.0	0.5×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All

Second hits

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Up
0	0	0	2.5%	0		Forward	30	30	0		4.5	top	0.0	6.0 to 16.0	12.5	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	3.0%	0		Forward	30	30	0		3.0	top	0.0	6.0 to 18.0	16.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	2.5%	0		Forward	30	30	0		4.5	top	0.0	9.0	8.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
Forward
0	0	0	2.5%	1.0		Forward	30	25	0		6.5	top	0.0	9.0	13.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	3.0%	1.0		Forward	30	25	0		5.5	top	0.0	9.0	18.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	2.5%	1.0		Forward	30	25	0		4.5	top	0.0	9.0	8.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All

Third hits

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Up
0	0	0	3.0%	1.0		Forward	55	30	0		4.5	top	0.0	6.0 to 15.0	9.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	4.0%	1.0		Forward	55	30	0		3.0	top	0.0	6.0 to 16.0	12.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	3.0%	1.0		Forward	55	50	0		4.5	top	0.0	9.0 to 11.0	3.5	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
Forward
0	0	0	3.0%	1.0		Forward	55	30	0		6.5	top	0.0	9.0 to 11.0	12.5	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	4.0%	1.0		Forward	55	30	0		5.5	top	0.0	9.0 to 11.5	16.5	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	3.0%	1.0		Forward	55	30	0		5.5	top	0.0	9.0	8.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
Down
0	0	0	3.0%	1.0		Forward	40	30	0		4.8	top	0.0	5.6 to 7.0	14.0 to 10.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	4.0%	1.0		Forward	40	30	0		3.0	top	0.0	4.0 to 7.0	19.0 to 10.0	0.7×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All

Fourth hits

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Up
0	0	0	5.0%	1.0		Forward	85	40	0		4.5	top	0.0	6.0 to 21.0	10.5	1.0×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	7.0%	1.0		Forward	80	40	0		3.0	top	0.0	6.0 to 21.0	15.0	1.0×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	5.0%	1.0		Forward	85	40	0		4.0	top	0.0	21.0 to 24.0	11.0 to 4.0	1.0×	0.8×	0%							Slash		All	All
3	0	0	7.0%	1.0		Forward	80	40	0		3.0	top	0.0	23.0 to 27.0	14.0 to 4.0	1.0×	0.8×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
Forward
0	0	0	4.0%	5.0		Forward	74	103	0		8.0	top	0.0	9.0	11.7	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	6.0%	5.0		Forward	85	125	0		7.0	top	0.0	9.0	15.5	1.5×	1.0×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	4.0%	5.0		Forward	74	103	0		7.0	top	0.0	9.0	5.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
Down, hits 1-4
0	0	0	2.0%	1.0		Forward	2	20	0		5.0	top	0.0	6.0	11.0	0.5×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	2.0%	1.0		Forward	2	20	0		4.0	top	0.0	6.0	16.0	0.5×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	2.0%	0		Forward	2	20	0		4.5	top	0.0	6.0	6.0	0.5×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
Down, hit 5
0	0	0	4.0%	1.0		Forward	57	90	0		5.0	top	0.0	7.0	11.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	5.0%	1.0		Forward	60	90	0		3.0	top	0.0	8.0	18.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Marth Sword		All	All
2	0	0	4.0%	0		Forward	57	90	0		4.5	top	0.0	5.0	5.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All

Timing

First hit

Hitboxes	9-11
Earliest continuable	12
Continuability window	2-30
Interruptible (grounded)	40
Interruptible (aerial)	30
Animation length	66

Grounded
Aerial
Continuability

Second hit

Upward

Hitboxes	4-7
Earliest continuable	8
Continuability window	2-29
Interruptible (grounded)	39
Interruptible (aerial)	41
Animation length	51

Grounded
Aerial
Continuability

Forward

Hitboxes	5-7
Earliest continuable	8
Continuability window	2-29
Interruptible (grounded)	39
Interruptible (aerial)	41
Animation length	48

Grounded
Aerial
Continuability

Third hit

Upward

Hitboxes	5-7
Earliest continuable	8
Continuability window	2-24
Interruptible (grounded)	44
Interruptible (aerial)	47
Animation length	51

Grounded
Aerial
Continuability

Forward

Hitboxes	4-6
Earliest continuable	7
Continuability window	2-24
Interruptible (grounded)	44
Interruptible (aerial)	47
Animation length	53

Grounded
Aerial
Continuability

Downward

Hitboxes	5-7
Earliest continuable	8
Continuability window	2-24
Interruptible (grounded)	44
Interruptible (aerial)	47
Animation length	53

Grounded
Aerial
Continuability

Fourth hit

Upward

Hitboxes	6-10
Interruptible	45
Animation length	66

Forward

Hitboxes	7-9
Interruptible	56
Animation length	75

Downward

Hits 1-4	7, 10, 13, 16
Hit 5	19-21
Interruptible	75
Animation length	87

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Continuable

Earliest continuable point

Interruptible

Parameters

Horizontal speed multiplier on startup	0.5
Added vertical speed in the air	1.4

Trivia

• Despite being a forward-angled attack, the second hit's standard variant is named "SpecialS2Lw" (or "SpecialAirS2Lw" in the case of the aerial version) within the game's files, using the suffix of the downward-angled attacks instead.

Marth's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Floor attack (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Edge attack
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash