Piranha Plant (SSBU)/Down tilt

Hitbox visualization showing Piranha Plant's down tilt.

Overview

Piranha Plant performs a low leaf swipe, then retreats back into its pot/pipe. It is a good combo starter due to its angle and low endlag, linking an instant dash attack forward aerial, or (on select characters such as Mario) dash grab at 0%, neutral, up or forward aerials at low percents, and even a back aerial kill confirm at high percents (around 70%-92% against Mario) if the opponent does not DI away. With DI in at higher percents, it can even lead into an up aerial for a kill.

Down tilt makes use as one of Piranha Plant's safest ways of poking, which strictly aids it's otherwise poor neutral. It features decent range, and is significantly better over forward tilt due to better shield safety at -10, and much better hurtboxes that do not put Piranha Plant at risk. It is especially useful as a counterpoke, meaning that it is quite useful to catch an opponent's extended hurtboxes and grant a combo, staying generally safe should the move miss or get shielded. As a result, it is an important asset to Piranha Plant in many matchups where poking the opponent is much more favoured, such as against sword characters or slow brawler-type characters.

However, the move falls short in numerous areas. Firstly, it is Piranha Plant's slowest tilt, at frame 9. Combined with its low range, it makes it somewhat risky to use in close-combat situations, as it could get out-framed. Secondly, its damage is quite low, dealing at max 7% at its tip, doing less damage than its down throw, which links into the same aerials down tilt does, although down tilt has a significantly longer combo window and is much less susceptible to DI. It can also hit most ledge hangs with its tip, and for characters where the tip isn't required to hit, down tilt can combo into itself, have a wider percent-range into aerials, or even lead to a forward smash kill confirm. It is incapable of killing at realistic percents, although it is one of Piranha Plant's only ways of launching the opponent upward with a horizontal move, so it is useful for starting juggles with Piranha Plant's good anti-air game.

Update History

13.0.1

• Down tilt has more active frames (9-10 → 9-11) and less endlag (FAF 29 → 27).

Hitboxes

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	6.0%	0		Forward	55	85	0		3.0	top	0.0	4.0	5.5	1.0×	1.0×	40%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	6.0%	0		Forward	55	85	0		3.0	top	0.0	3.4	9.5	1.0×	1.0×	40%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	7.0%	0		Forward	55	85	0		3.0	top	0.0	2.8	13.0	1.0×	1.0×	40%							Slash		All	All
3	0	0	7.0%	0		Forward	55	85	0		3.0	top	0.0	2.0	17.0	1.0×	1.0×	40%							Slash		All	All

Timing

Hitboxes	9-11
Interruptible	27
Animation length	39

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Interruptible

Trivia

• The move has a 40% trip chance that can never actually happen, due to its largely vertical launch angle.

Piranha Plant's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3 · inf) · Forward tilt (1 · 2) · 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 · Footstooled attack
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash