Ridley (SSBU)/Neutral aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Ridley's neutral aerial.

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Overview

Ridley backflips in the air whilst swinging his tail around himself, similarly to Charizard's neutral aerial albeit backwards instead of forward, possessing a sweet spot on the tip of the tail. The move loses some of its power in the later half of its duration, as Ridley almost completes his backflip.

Neutral aerial has the lowest start-up, end-lag and largest coverage of Ridley's aerials thanks to its large hitbox and duration, making it one of Ridley's most important moves with a surprising amount of use cases. The aforementioned properties allow it to combo into certain grounded options at lower percentages such as jab, forward tilt, down tilt and grab, while allowing confirms into forward aerial or another neutral aerial upon reaching mid percents. Its ability to auto-cancel from a short hop allows it to be used as an anti-air, effectively catching opponents attempting an aerial approach on Ridley as well as assisting Ridley in his own approaches.

However, the move has a few shortcomings, some of which can be exploited if used unwisely; though it is able to auto-cancel from a short hop its duration allows shielding opponents to quickly counter attack out of shield should they block it during its early stages. Additionally its safety on shield leaves a lot to be desired, only being as safe as -7 if landed properly with the early sweetspot hit-box. Finally, despite possessing a sweetspot on the tail its kill-power is lacking, only being able to score kills at much higher percentages or if used offstage while edgeguarding opponents.

Update History

2.0.0

• Ridley can grab the ledge earlier after using his neutral aerial (65 frames → 64).

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
Clean hit
1	0	0	12.0%	0		Standard	55	62	0		6.5	tail8	7.0	-2.0	0.0	1.2×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	9.0%	0		Standard	55	62	0		6.5	tail8	0.0	-2.0	2.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
0	0	0	9.0%	0		Standard	55	62	0		7.5	tail1	3.0	-2.0	-2.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Late hit
1	0	0	8.0%	0		Standard	55	62	0		5.0	tail8	7.0	-2.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	5.0%	0		Standard	55	62	0		5.0	tail8	0.0	-2.0	2.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
0	0	0	5.0%	0		Standard	55	62	0		6.0	tail1	3.0	-2.0	-2.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All

Timing

Attack

The move enables ledge grabs from both sides starting on frame 64.

Initial autocancel	1-2
Clean hit	8-14
Late hit	15-20
Ending autocancel	28-
Interruptible	40
Animation length	63

Landing lag

Interruptible	13
Animation length	29

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Interruptible

Ridley's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3 · inf) · 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