Ridley (SSBU)

Ridley in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Metroid
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Plasma Scream

“	Ridley Hits the Big Time!	”
—Introduction Tagline

“	Joining the battle from the storied Metroid series, Ridley's long tail and sharp claws let him unleash a torrent of devastating attacks. His Final Smash is a powerful stream of plasma breath intense enough to bring down Samus's starship.	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Ridley (リドリー, Ridley) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was revealed as a newcomer alongside Inkling and Daisy from Nintendo's 2018 E3 press conference, on June 12th, 2018, with an animated trailer. Ridley is classified as fighter #65.

Similar to Bowser and Donkey Kong, Ridley has no voice actor and instead roars and screeches, similarly to his sounds in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and various Metroid games.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches; Ridley is the 25^th character unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Yoshi or anyone in his unlock tree; Ridley is the 6^th character unlocked after Lucina.
• Have Ridley join the player's party in World of Light: defeat the Frankenstein and Fleaman spirit in Dracula's Castle inside the World of Dark.

Except for the third method, Ridley must then be defeated on Norfair.

Attributes

Ridley, unsurprisingly for being a large character with powerful attacks, is a heavyweight character, although he weighs much less than a super heavyweight despite his similar size. However, his attributes compared to other archetypical heavyweights are noticeably different, with overall excellent mobility in the 10th fastest dashing speed, average air speed, 16th fastest falling speed, and an average frame data.

One of Ridley's greatest strengths is his dominant air game. Boasting overall quick, powerful, and long-ranged aerials, having two midair jumps, and decent air mobility give him overall excellent air pressure potential. His neutral aerial, due to having low all-around lag, good range, and average knockback, is a good comboing, spacing, and edgeguarding tool, while also being fast enough to break out of certain combos. Forward aerial, while having moderately weak power, has very high damage output when sweetspotted, and is infamous for effectively performing a wall of pain at low percentages, especially due to Ridley's aforementioned two midair jumps. Back aerial is quick, long-ranged and has very high damage and knockback, which makes it a deadly edgeguarding tool and can KO especially early offstage. Up aerial is a good juggling move with quick startup and good KO potential when sweetspotted, but it has moderately linear hitboxes. Lastly, down aerial is a stall-and-fall that powerfully meteor smashes opponents when sweetspotted, and can potentially be recovered from if initiated slightly above the ground. Even when sourspotted, it has high KO potential. Overall, Ridley has many options to rack up damage in the air, and has easy ways to set up into them.

Another strength of Ridley's is, like most other heavyweights, the overall great power present in his moveset. Only a few of his moves have little KO potential, and his other moves that do KO can do so exceptionally early, most notably moves like forward tilt, dash attack, forward smash, back aerial, and Wing Blitz. With the exceptions of Wing Blitz and forward smash, all of these moves have low startup and are therefore easy to land. Wing Blitz and forward smash, along with some of Ridley's other powerful attacks like down smash and down aerial, are all very good punishing tools, with forward smash notably being one of the strongest of its kind. Overall, his KO potential is large, and due to his relative size, rarely has problems landing said moves.

Lastly, his special moveset offers interesting options. Plasma Breath is a chargeable projectile move, and when fully charged, it deals substantial damage and can hit multiple times. These traits make it a useful edgeguarding, damage-racking, and gimping tool. Space Pirate Rush is a command grab with some unique perks; it can be cancelled into a throw at any time that puts both Ridley and the opponent into the air. This allows for easy gimps offstage as Ridley can drag opponents closer to a blast zone, potentially leaving them too far to recover. Onstage, when performed from one ledge to another, deals substantial damage and launches opponents offstage when Ridley reaches the edge of a floor, with the launch being capable of KOing at high percentages. Wing Blitz is Ridley's primary recovery move that can be aimed in four directions, and has impressive offensive potential. The up, forward, and back inputs all have high KO potential, and the down input meteor smashes opponents, with all variants having the ability to snap the ledge during the move, making it a deadly edgeguarding move. Lastly, Skewer is risky and requires a read. However, if sweetspotted, it deals extremely high damage and crumples enemies. It is optimal for punishing a shield break at low percentages where Ridley can't KO, where Ridley can later read an opponent's reaction to put them in a dangerous position.

While Ridley has amazing strengths, he also has some weaknesses. Ridley has the largest hurtbox out of all characters, combined with his heavy weight and fast falling speed makes him very easy to combo, juggle, and hit in general, and is also rather easy to punish due to some of his best attacks having noticeable ending lag. His options against projectile users and zoning is rather poor, despite having a projectile himself; Plasma Breath is laggy and its projectiles travel slowly, while the move also possesses a hurtbox on Ridley's mouth that damages and stuns him if he is hit there. Overall, Ridley's vulnerabilities give him difficulty against characters with better frame data and pressuring tools.

Another weakness, while not as significant as his susceptibility to combos and projectile pressure, is his laggy and rather predictable recovery; despite Ridley having average air speed, two midair jumps, and two useful recovery options being Space Pirate Rush and Wing Blitz, these can be easily intercepted by keeping Ridley offstage. Both of his recovery specials also have high startup and Wing Blitz has only four angled travel routes, which means that Ridley has to properly get into a good position to recover, which gives the opponent more than enough time to react.

Overall, Ridley has excellent pressuring potential with an arsenal of powerful moves, but sometimes has to rely on reads and baits to get maximum damage and prevent the opponent from capitalizing on his weaknesses. If Ridley makes one wrong move, he could be punished easily with a slew of combos, and face walls of projectiles he can't deal with.

Ridley's competitive potential is subject for debate, as many professional players like ZeRo consider him worse than the majority of the roster for his susceptibility to combos, while others like Leffen argue that he's surprisingly impressive in high level play thanks to the sheer effectiveness of his pressuring and edgeguarding tools. This can be further expressed by his tournament presence, where Ridley is a relatively unpopular pick, yet displays very respectable results, with Trela's Ridley even winning gold at TGC. Because of this, he's generally considered viable, but to what degree has yet to be known.

Update History

2.0.0

• Ridley can grab the ledge earlier after using his neutral (65 frames → 64), forward (67 frames → 66), and down aerials.
• The Final Smash Meter version of Plasma Scream has a higher knockback multiplier (x0.62 → x0.71).
• The instant KOing glitch involving Sonic has been fixed.

Moveset

• Ridley can perform two midair jumps.

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	A double claw swipe followed by a bite. Alternatively, if the attack button is pressed quickly for each hit, the second hit transitions into a rapid-fire tail stab that ends with a swing. The third hit is relatively strong for a neutral attack, KOing middleweights under 200% from the center of Final Destination. Conversely, the neutral infinite's finisher has high base knockback, but very low knockback scaling, being unable to KO under 500% from center stage.
			1.5%
			5%
			0.7% (loop), 2% (end)
Forward tilt			10% (tail), 13% (tip)	Grabs his tail and thrusts it forward. Can be angled, and the tip of Ridley's tail acts as a sweetspot. Has long range and moderately low ending lag, making it a powerful spacing tool. The sweetspot KOs at around 155% from center stage.
Up tilt			7% (wing), 9% (tip)	Swipes one wing in an arc above himself, starting from behind. Renders Ridley's wing intangible while the hitboxes are active, which along with its coverage allows it to function as an effective anti-air. Its moderate speed also allows it to combo into itself at low to mid percents, and into any aerial attack at mid to high percents. Has blind spots beside Ridley.
Down tilt			6% (tail), 9% (tip)	A low tail swipe. Has long range like his forward tilt, and launches opponents upward, allowing it to combo into aerial attacks at a wide range of percents, as well as an up-angled forward tilt, dash attack, or up tilt (against larger characters) at low percents.
Dash attack			12%	A leaning bite. A powerful dash attack especially near edges, KOing at around 100% at the edge of Final Destination, and at around 160% from the center.
Forward smash			20%	Rears back, then generates a fiery explosion from his mouth in front of himself. Has slow startup and short range (covering less horizontal distance than his forward tilt), but deals very high damage and knockback, KOing under 80% from center stage.
Up smash			17%	A frontflip kick, covering Ridley's entire overhead. Has moderate startup and ending lag, but has a large overall hitbox and grants intangibility on Ridley's leg while the hitboxes are active, making it a powerful anti-air similarly to his up tilt. Can KO at around 105% from ground level.
Down smash			16%	Leaps and slams his open wings onto the ground. Hits both of Ridley's sides simultaneously with large coverage, and the leap during startup can allow him to dodge some ground attacks if timed right (especially floor attacks that may be used after hitting with Skewer, or ledge attacks), while the edges of the attack utilize the intangible half of Ridley's wings. However, it has the slowest startup out of Ridley's smash attacks, and deals the least damage, while being only slightly stronger than his up smash. Launches opponents upward, KOing at around 100%.
Neutral aerial			9% (clean, tail), 12% (clean, tip), 5% (late)	Backflips and swings his tail around himself, similar to Charizard's neutral aerial except backwards instead of forwards. Has the lowest startup, ending lag and landing lag out of Ridley's aerials, as well as a long duration and a large hitbox, making it one of his main approach options. Upon landing, it can also combo into a jab, forward tilt, down tilt or grab at low percents, and another neutral aerial or a forward aerial at mid percents, especially if the sourspot is landed.
Forward aerial			3% (hits 1-2, tail), 5% (hits 1-2, tip; hit 3, tail), 7% (hit 3, tip)	Stabs with his tail forward three times in quick succession. Deals the most damage out of Ridley's aerials if all hits are sweetspotted (17% total); however, it is also his weakest aerial knockback-wise, while its hitboxes are small compared to his other moves. Has moderate landing lag, albeit the first hit can set up a jab.
Back aerial			15%	A roundhouse kick behind himself, similar to his archnemesis Samus's back aerial. Ridley's strongest aerial, KOing at around 130% from center stage. Its horizontal range and high damage also make it a relatively safe approach option, despite its moderate landing lag.
Up aerial			12% (wings), 14% (tip)	Thrusts both wings upward while closed. Has a sweetspot at the tip of the wings, which can KO at around 120% in the air. Its moderate startup and landing lag alongside Ridley's speed make it effective for juggling. On landing, it can also combo into an up tilt or up smash at low percents, as well as any aerial (except down aerial) up to high percents, including a sweetspotted up aerial as a potential KO setup.
Down aerial			14% (clean, feet), 12% (clean, legs; late)	Plummets down stomping with both feet. A stall-then-fall with a sweetspot on its clean hit that meteor smashes opponents. Unlike most other moves of its kind, Ridley can also recover from it offstage if initiated at least at some height above the stage. However, it has very high landing lag, leaving it unsafe as a landing option and preventing any followups out of its meteor smash onstage. Resembles a move Omega Ridley uses in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption where he stomps down.
Grab			—	Reaches out with his right hand.
Pummel			1.6%	Thrusts his tail into the opponent.
Forward throw			9%	Tosses the opponent forward with one arm.
Back throw			11%	Turns around and performs an underhanded toss with one arm. Can KO at around 150% near the ledge.
Up throw			8% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Sets the opponent overhead and stabs them with his tail. Ridley's most damaging throw. Can combo into an up aerial at mid percents if the opponent does not air dodge, and otherwise lead into a frame trap by landing and punishing their air dodge landing lag.
Down throw			7%	Slams the opponent onto the ground. Has low ending lag, allowing it to combo into an up-angled forward tilt or down tilt at low percents, and a neutral, forward, back aerial or run-canceled up tilt at low to mid percents. Surprisingly, this is also Ridley's strongest throw, being able to KO at around 160%.
Floor attack (front)			7%	Performs a claw swipe around himself while getting up, starting from the front.
Floor attack (back)			7%	Swings his tail forward, then backward while getting up.
Floor attack (trip)			5%	Swipes an arm backward, then kicks forward.
Edge attack			10%	Climbs up and performs a claw swipe.
Neutral special		Plasma Breath	4.5%-5.66% (clean), 3.5%-4.4% (late)	Spits a fireball from his mouth forward, which bounces along the ground. It can be charged to have Ridley spit up to a maximum of five fireballs, which also increase in size and damage, dealing up to 28.3% if all of them connect. When charged, it is fairly effective for camping and edgeguarding due to its low ending lag and sheer amount of projectiles, and can rack up damage quickly if uninterrupted. However, it has rather high startup, and hitting Ridley's mouth while he is charging the move causes recoil damage to him depending on how much it had been charged. The recoil animation lasts 56 Frames.
Side special		Space Pirate Rush	4% (slam), 2% (drag loop), 7% (throw)	Rushes forward to grab an opponent, functioning as a command grab. If successful, Ridley slams them onto the ground and drags them forward along it, dealing continuous damage, then throws them either upon reaching an edge or if the special move button is held. The move deals more damage the more distance the opponent is dragged along the ground, dealing 17% minimum when throwing manually, and can rack up a lot of damage in a short span of time. However, they can mash out of the move before Ridley throws them, with how fast they can escape depending on the difference between their percent and Ridley's. In midair, it doesn't incur helplessness, allowing it to extend Ridley's recovery, and grabbing an opponent causes him to fall down with them until landing or throwing them manually, allowing it to be used for a sacrificial KO. However, it has some startup lag, and the aerial version causes Ridley to drop downwards after its horizontal momentum ends, making it possible to mistime a recovery.
Up special		Wing Blitz	18% (up), 16% (forward/back), 15% (down), 5% (down, landing)	Charges up, then performs a flying tackle in any of four possible directions: straight up by default; forward and slightly down; backward and slightly up; and down and slightly forward. The move travels a long distance, does not lose power while traveling and is noticeably powerful, with the forward and up tackles KOing under 130% from center stage. The down tackle also meteor smashes aerial targets, while allowing Ridley to save himself by grabbing an edge, making it potentially deadly for edgeguarding. However, the move has very slow startup, and its few angles limit the positions from which Ridley can safely recover with it.
Down special		Skewer	5% (tail), 40% (tip, hit 1), 10% (tip, hit 2)	Brings his tail back as it glows briefly, then stabs forward with it. If hit near the tip of the tail, it deals extremely high damage (50% total) and causes opponents to crumple, akin to a fully charged Focus Attack; both the sweetspot and the sourspot deal minimal shield damage, however. It has a very slow startup of half a second (30 frames), and conversely deals low damage and knockback if any other part of Ridley's tail hits, making it significantly hard to land especially in one-on-one battles. Additionally, the sweetspotted attack only allows Ridley to move after the opponent gets up again, making followup attacks based on reading the opponent's getup option.
Final Smash		Plasma Scream	15% (dash), 40% (cutscene), 15% (release)	Lets out a roar and dashes forward. Upon hitting an opponent, a cinematic sequence begins with Ridley headbutting them onto Samus's gunship; as the gunship flies off, he shoots it down with a laser that engulfs both the ship and the target in an explosion. After the cutscene ends, the opponent is meteor smashed and the gunship can be seen crashing in the background of the stage. This Final Smash is an instant KO on opponents at 100% damage or higher before the cutscene ends.

On-screen appearance

File:RidleyOnScreenAppearanceUltimate.jpg

Ridley's on-screen appearance.

• Swoops down at an angle, before landing and letting out a roar.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Roars and strikes a menacing pose, flapping his wings rapidly.
• Side taunt: Spins in a circle, finishing in a celebrating pose.
• Down taunt: Straightens up his body as if noticing something, before easing up while slightly smiling. His body lets out a noticeable crackle as he stands upright.

Idle poses

• Spreads his wings out and shakes his body a little.
• Caresses his chin with his claw and licks the edge of his mouth while audibly snarling.

Victory poses

• Flies into the scene, lands, and drifts to a stop.
• Somersaults and screeches, then lands with a slash.
• Claws at the ground repeatedly and bites once afterwards. He then turns toward the camera as he grins. The way the camera is angled makes it appear as if Ridley is ravaging a downed opponent, but Team Battle clearly shows that he is scratching at the bare ground.

An intense and sinister variation of the Metroid victory theme.

• 
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In competitive play

Notable players

•  Iota - Placed 2nd at Just Roll With It! 10 and has taken a set off of Mekos
•  Kvothe - Placed 9th at Don't Park on the Grass 2018.
•  Locus - Placed 13th at Don't Park on the Grass 2018.
•  Trela - Placed 1st at Ultimate Shockwave 2 and TGC Returns
•  Venom - Placed 2nd at LAN ETS 2019 while defeating SuperGirlKels, Darkwolf and Fwed
•  Vreyvus - Placed 2nd at Valhalla II
•  Gemini - Placed 17th at Midwest Mayhem Ultimate

Classic Mode: It Can't Be! Space Pirates!

Ridley fights characters who pilot their own spaceships.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	Samus	Norfair	Title Theme - Metroid
2	Fox and Falco	Venom	Break: Through the Ice
3	Olimar	Distant Planet	Fragment of Hope
4	Rosalina & Luma, Mario, and Peach	Mario Galaxy	Fated Battle
5	Meta Knight	Halberd	Dangerous Dinner
6	Zero Suit Samus	Frigate Orpheon	Vs. Ridley
Bonus Stage
Final	Master Hand	Final Destination	Master Hand	On intensity 7.0 and higher, Crazy Hand fights alongside Master Hand, and the track Master Hand / Crazy Hand plays during the battle.

Role in World of Light

Although Ridley does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Ridley was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He is in the Dracula's Castle sub-area, appearing on the map once the player defeats The Creature & Flea Man spirit in the subterranean area.

Spirits

Ridley's Fighter Spirits can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. They are also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 500 coins. Unlocking Ridley in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As Fighter Spirits, they cannot be used in Spirit Battles and are purely aesthetic. Each Fighter Spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, other forms of Ridley makes an appearance in a few Primary and Support Spirits.

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  267. Ridley

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  268. Meta Ridley

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  289. Little Birdie

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  291. Omega Ridley

Alternate costumes

Ridley had two palettes in demo versions of Ultimate that are not available in the final game: a dark, charcoal colored one with orange wings, and a light gray one with green wings, claws, teeth and protrusions. Each corresponds with the colors of Meta Ridley and Mecha Ridley, respectively.

Ridley's cut palettes.

Gallery

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  Ridley's splash art.

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  Ridley’s amiibo.

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  Ridley's fighter card.

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  Using Plasma Breath on Mario Galaxy.

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  Jumping on Wrecking Crew.

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  Using Wing Blitz on Midgar.

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  Using a Hammer on Wrecking Crew.

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  Using Skewer against Fox on Battlefield.

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  In his Meta Ridley costume with Samus on Castle Siege.

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  Ridley attempting to burn Marth with his neutral special on 3D Land.

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  Ridley about to be hit by Zero's Genmu Zero on Midgar.

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  Ridley, Jigglypuff, Ice Climbers, and Zelda on Summit.

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  Taunting on Wily Castle.

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  With Kirby, Mario, Link, Inkling, Marth, Pit and Villager on Battlefield.

• RidleySmiles.png

  Ridley smiles.

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  Using Space Pirate Rush on Sonic on Castle Siege.

Trivia

• Ridley’s model appears to be based on his Super Metroid sprite with additional details and embellishments, some of which loosely resemble his design in Metroid: Other M. His size is significantly reduced to that of his appearance in the NES Game Metroid, where his hunched posture is only slightly taller than Samus.
  • Sakurai was reported to have heavily based Ridley on his depiction in the original Metroid, specifically how the sprite appeared hunched over even while flying.
• Previously, Sakurai did not want to include Ridley in Super Smash Bros. as a playable fighter due to various reasons, including believing that reducing his power to playable levels will undermine his presentation and, more infamously, his size being too big to properly integrate into the universe, the latter to the point that it has widely been considered an internet meme.
  • In fact, as of the current version of the game, Ridley has the largest character model of all playable characters, with even his hunched over posture being taller than the likes of Bowser and Donkey Kong, his head alone being taller than Mario, and his total wingspan being far longer than most character's entire height. This is most noticeable during his down taunt, where his straightened back demonstrates how much taller he is than other characters.
  • His fighter tagline, "Ridley Hits the Big Time!", likely references the size debacle.
  • According to Sakurai from a Nintendo Dream Magazine interview, Ridley was added in due to the Smash Bros Fighter Ballot.
• Since this is his playable Smash Bros. debut, this also marks Ridley’s debut as a playable character in any game
• Ridley's pose in his official artwork resembles the pose Bowser makes in his official art for SSB4, only mirrored.
• His animated reveal trailer is the first time since Ridley's role in the Metroid manga where Ridley has displayed a sense of humor, playfully twirling the hat of a defeated Mario when revealing himself to Samus while flashing an inhuman grin.
  • The way Ridley twirls Mario's hat bears a striking resemblance to Mario in the beginning of the reveal trailer of Super Mario Odyssey.
  • The part where a Metroid attacks Ridley before a stunned Pikachu is likely a reference to the ending of Super Metroid when the Baby Metroid protects Samus from Mother Brain.
    • It also resembles a pivotal point in his boss fight in Metroid: Samus Returns, where the Baby Metroid saves Samus from Ridley by leeching some of his energy.
    • The fact that it is Pikachu might also be a call back to their previous encounter during the Subspace Emissary.
      • Coincidentally, both Pikachu and the baby Metroid save Samus in a similar manner in their respective games, with Ridley in both instances briefly clutching his head and then roaring with rage.
    • Interestingly, Pikachu also appears on Pyrosphere in the 2014 Smash Bros. Direct when Ridley's appearance as a boss character on that stage was first teased.
• The moment Ridley appears in his introductory trailer resembles his appearance in Metroid: Zero Mission, just before his fight. This includes the way Samus looks at the screen, Ridley's entrance animation, and music timing.
• Ridley is the second Smash Bros. boss character to become playable in the series after Giga Bowser and the only boss character to be playable at all times, as Giga Bowser is limited to Bowser's Final Smash.
• There is an error on Ridley's page on the Latin American and Canadian French version of the Smash Bros. website. The reveal trailer videos are unavailable, with the Latin American version mistakenly linking to a Japanese Mario Tennis Aces video.
• Ridley is the first playable character from the Metroid universe:
  • That's not a variation of Samus Aran.
  • Who is male rather than female.
  • Whose animations are mirrored.
  • Who cannot wall jump and lacks a tether.
• Masahiro Sakurai has stated in an interview that Ridley's down taunt is among his favorite taunts in the game.
• Ridley is one of two newcomers (the other being Inkling) to be in a veteran's gallery on the official website, specifically Marth's.
• Ridley has the fastest running speed out of all the newcomers, running at the same speed as Charizard.