Robin (SSB4)

Robin in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Fire Emblem
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Pair Up

“	Robin Brings the Thunder!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Robin (ルフレ, Reflet) is a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. 4. Robin was confirmed during a live stream, alongside Captain Falcon and Lucina, on the official Super Smash Bros. website on July 14, 2014. As with Wii Fit Trainer and Villager, both male and female variants of Robin appear in SSB4, just like how players could select a gender for the character in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

The male English and Japanese voice actors, David Vincent and Yoshimasa Hosoya, reprise their roles as the male Robin from Fire Emblem: Awakening as does the Japanese voice actor Miyuki Sawashiro for the Female Robin. Instead of Michelle Ruff, Lauren Landa is now the female English voice actor for the female Robin.

Attributes

Robin is a middleweight character with average air speed and falling speed, as well as having the slowest dashing speed in the game. His array of tomes and Levin Sword give him a variety of options at both long and close range. Robin's unique durability mechanic means that his successful use revolves around carefully managing his attacks as, when overused, Robin either can no longer perform them (in the case of special attacks) or can only perform weaker variants (in the case of smash attacks and aerial attacks). However, when used up, his tomes and Levin Sword can be grabbed as items and thrown at high speed with significant KO potential.

Robin's special moves each have unique properties and great utility to boot. Thunder is a versatile chargable projectile that gains distinct properties as it charges, meaning that he can zone out opponents at any distance. Arcfire disrupts approaches and can initiate combos. Elwind is a long-distance recovery that has the interesting property of having spike hitboxes below Robin. Nosferatu is a high risk, high reward command grab and is one of the few healing moves in the game.

When equipped with the Levin Sword, Robin is a formidable character to face at close range. Since he is a sword-wielding character, all of his attacks are disjointed which naturally gives him an edge over most melee combatants. All of Robin's Levin Sword attacks deal high damage and knockback, and are potential KO moves. Some of Robin's Bronze Sword attacks are good options as well: his jab is surprisingly quick and long ranged, and its finisher can KO at high percentages; his neutral aerial is useful for spacing and off-stage gimping.

However, Robin is not without flaws in his moveset. Although his tilt attacks are relatively fast, they are weak and short ranged. His dash attack deals moderate damage and knockback, but it has high ending lag and is unsafe on shield. When Robin's Levin Sword is used up, his smash attacks and aerial attacks are much weaker, no longer capable of KOing. Finally, Robin's grab game is among the worst in the entire cast: his grab is short ranged with long ending lag, his pummels are the slowest in the game. While Robin's throws are generally not the most rewarding, his back throw has high knockback, which gives him plenty of time to charge up Thunder.

Overall, Robin is a character with many talents but also a relatively high learning curve, and rewards players who understand his unique character and attack properties. Staying true to his Fire Emblem origins, Robin is played as a tactician: a skillful Robin player must learn to use his tomes and Levin Sword efficiently, otherwise he will no longer have the zoning ability or KO power after excessive use.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Robin starts with an upward slash, followed by a downward slash. The move can then proceed to a third finishing hit or into a rapid combo. The first is a fiery high-knockback explosion which can KO around 170%; it costs 1 durability from Arcfire and cannot be used if Arcfire is expended. The second is a barrage of wind blades that draws from Elwind's durability; it uses up 1 durability every 2 seconds for a maximum potential of 18 seconds.
			3%
			5%
			1% (loop), 2% (last)
Forward tilt			7.5%	A sword slash angled slightly downward. Good for spacing, but poor KO potential.
Up tilt			6%	An upward sword slash. Primarily an anti-air, little horizontal reach, and also isn't particularly powerful knockback-wise.
Down tilt			6%	A very quick downward slash, with quick recovery time. Knocks enemy down and away.
Dash attack			10% (clean), 6% (late)	A short sword stab close to Robin's body, has poor recovery and little KO potential.
Forward smash			Bronze: 9.6% Levin: 16% (clean), 5% (late)	A halfway sword slash in front of Robin, a viable close range punish. Without Levin Sword, KOs around 175%; with Levin Sword, can KO around 100%.
Up smash			Bronze: 9% Levin: 15% (clean sword), 10% (clean body), 5% (late)	An upward thrust. Without Levin Sword, has poor knockback and horizontal reach. With Levin Sword, can KO around 110%.
Down smash			Bronze: 8% Levin: 15% (clean), 12% (mid), 8% (late)	An overhead slash aimed in front of Robin. Without Levin Sword, KOs around 150%, and with Levin Sword, KOs around 110%. It can only hit behind with the Levin Sword.
Neutral aerial			7% (hits 1-2)	A fast double slash. Good for spacing but has no KO potential.
Forward aerial			Bronze: 6.6% Levin: 11% (clean), 5% (late)	Robin winds up and then does a swooping forward slash. With the Bronze sword, it has very poor KO potential. With Levin Sword, can KO around 140%.
Back aerial			Bronze: 9% Levin: 15% (clean), 5% (late)	Robin leans back for a slash, angled a little downward. With Levin Sword, KOs around 100%.
Up aerial			Bronze: 7.8% Levin: 13% (clean), 5% (late)	An upwards slash in a similar fashion to Marth's. With Bronze Sword, KOs around 155%; with Levin Sword, KOs around 110%.
Down aerial			Bronze: 7.2% Levin: 10% (early), 12% (clean), 5% (late)	A downward one-handed slash that also hits slightly in front of Robin. Can meteor smash, but only with the Levin Sword.
Grab			—	A short-ranged magical grab with long ending lag.
Pummel			3%	Zaps opponent with magic, is fairly slow.
Forward throw			8%	Flings opponent in front of Robin. Seemingly impossible to KO with even at extreme percents, can be followed up with Thoron.
Back throw			11%	Turns around and tosses the foe a fair distance above and behind Robin; decent KO move at the edge, but usually throws the foe out of reach for a follow up combo.
Up throw			8%	Sends foe up, with little KO power or combo potential.
Down throw			6%	Slams foe down, bounces them vertically. Potential for up aerial follow-ups at low percents.
Floor attack (front)			7%
Floor attack (back)			7%
Floor attack (trip)			5%
Edge attack			7%
Neutral special	Default	Thunder	3% (Thunder), 9% (Elthunder), 3% (Arcthunder), 1%/2.6% (Thoron)	Robin casts thunder magic from his tome. This attack chargable projectile with distinct properties for each charge level: Thunder (a fast, weak, and short-ranged spark) is produced when the special button is briefly charged. Elthunder (A yellow, stronger blast with more range)is accessed at the second level of charge, then followed by Arcthunder and finally Thoron (A more ranged blast creating an electric "X" on impact, and a powerful beam of lightning respectively). Changes Robin's active tome to Thunder if it isn't already.
	Custom 1	Thunder+	5% (Thunder), 11% (Elthunder), 5% (Arcthunder), 1.2%/3.5% (Thoron)	Robin casts stronger lightning magic. More powerful overall, with slower charging and less durability.
	Custom 2	Speed Thunder	2% (Thunder), 5% (Elthunder), 2.5% (Arcthunder), 1%/10% (Thoron)	Robin casts lightning spells quicker than normal. Faster and weaker overall. Durability is unchanged.
Side special	Default	Arcfire	2% (shot), 1% (pillar)	Robin casts fire magic from his Arcfire tome. It creates a tiny fireball that bursts into a pillar of flame on impact. Changes his active tome to Arcfire if it isn't already.
	Custom 1	Arcfire+	2% (shot), 8%/7% (explosion)	Robin uses a stronger tome to cast Arcfire. This spell creates a slow and large explosion in lieu of the usual flame pillar.
	Custom 2	Fire Wall	7%/4% (pillar)	This variation of Arcfire creates a larger pillar which sticks around longer and offers mild protection against attacks. The fire is also cast directly in front of Robin.
Up special	Default	Elwind	7% (shot 1 clean), 5% (shot 1 late), 5% (shot 2)	Robin casts Elwind below himself twice which propels him into the air. The first wind blade can meteor smash aerial foes. Changes Robin's active tome to Elwind if it isn't already.
	Custom 1	Soaring Elwind	5% (shots 1 and 2)	Robin alters the lifting power of each gust. The first one has less recovery potential, but the second has much more.
	Custom 2	Gliding Elwind	7% (shot 1 clean), 5% (shot 1 late), 5% (shot 2 clean), 4% (shot 2 late)	Casting Elwind at an angle, Robin fires the first gust more sideways, providing more horizontal distance than vertical.
Down special	Default	Nosferatu	0.8% (per hit)	Robin casts Nosferatu on a close opponent to curse them and drain their life energy. Inflicts constant damage and acts a grab, healing Robin as a result. More energy is drained if the player mashes the special button and/or attacks the foe from behind. Changes Robin's active tome to Nosferatu if it isn't already.
	Custom 1	Distant Nosferatu	0.6% (per hit)	This custom tome grabs opponents further away instead of close up, with less damage and healing.
	Custom 2	Goetia	1% (per hit)	Robin casts the strongest dark tome, Goetia, on an unfortunate victim. Does more damage and sucks in opponents, but provides no healing.
Final Smash		Pair Up	3%/2% (hit 1), 2% (hits 2-14), 14% (hit 15)	Summoning Chrom via a warp circle, Robin has him slash any opponents in his way. The foes are then flung into the air, followed by Chrom and Robin, who proceed to relentlessly attack them with the Falchion as well as lightning and fire spells respectively. After the two are finished, Chrom shouts "We're not done yet!" (A reference to one of his Dual Strike quotes) and joins Robin for a final simultaneous strike that smashes the victims to the ground, where the recoil will send them towards the upper blast line.

Durability system

Robin has a mechanic that is unique to him: as a reference to the Fire Emblem series, where items would break after being used too many times, most of Robin's weaponry will break if they are used too often, with differing weapons having a different number of uses. As an added visual indicator for durability, weapons that have depleted two-thirds of their uses will begin flickering.

If Robin depletes all of the uses of a weapon, he will drop it, and will temporarily be unable to use it for any relevant attacks. In the case of tome-based attacks, Robin will perform the animation, but no hitboxes are produced. For his Levin Sword, all such attacks will instead cause him to use his Bronze Sword, which cannot break, but also has poorer range, damage output, and knockback than his Levin Sword, and it also lacks the Levin Sword's electrical hitboxes. Weapons gradually respawn after they have broken, with their respawn times varying on the type of weapon.

All of Robin's directional aerial attacks can be performed with either his Levin Sword or Bronze Sword. If Robin is not holding onto the Levin Sword in midair, he will use the Bronze Sword if the direction is tilted; if Robin taps a direction in midair, then he will use the Levin Sword instead, provided it is not broken. If Robin has the Levin Sword equipped in midair, then he will always use it to attack.

When Robin's weapons break, he will throw the item away behind him. They will disappear almost immediately after hitting the ground once, but they can also be picked up and thrown; the Levin Sword deals 15% damage when smash thrown, while his tomes deal 18% damage when smash thrown, and both attacks can potentially act as KO moves.

• Thunder has 20 points of durability, with a custom version of it, Thunder+, having 10 uses instead. Even if the tome has less durability than the spell requires, it can still be performed, though the tome will immediately break afterward. Thunder respawns ten seconds after breaking.
  • Thunder uses 1 durability in both its regular and Thunder+ variants.
  • Elthunder uses 3 durability in its regular variant and 2.5 durability in its Thunder+ variant.
  • Arcthunder uses 5 durability in its regular variant and 4.5 durability in its Thunder+ variant.
  • Thoron uses 8 durability in its regular variant and 10 durability in its Thunder+ variant.

• Arcfire and its jab combo finisher involving fire both cost the same durability and can be used six times total before the tome breaks. Since they draw from the same pool of durability, if Robin uses Arcfire 3 times and his jab combo finisher involving fire 3 times as well, the tome will break. Arcfire respawns 10 seconds after breaking.

• Elwind and his jab combo finisher involving wind also pull from the same pool. Elwind can be used 9 times total before the book expires and respawns 6 seconds after breaking.

• Nosferatu has 4 uses. It respawns 40 seconds after breaking.

• Robin's Levin Sword has 8 uses before it breaks. The Levin Sword respawns 6 seconds after breaking.

Furthermore, if Robin attempts to use an attack that uses breakable weaponry and is hit while attempting to use it, then one use of the weapon is depleted, even if no damaging hitbox is produced.

Uses for weapons do not replenish while Robin is using a tome, and the only way to refresh the number of uses on a weapon is to get a new copy of it. Being KOed also recovers all weapons. Robin's Final Smash, Pair Up, recovers all weaponry to their full usage and repairs any broken weaponry if the attack connects. Respawn times are unaffected by custom movesets.

Of further note is that Kirby is affected by durability should he copy Robin; while able to properly charge and store Thunder, Kirby's tome will also break after its 20 points of durability are used up. If this occurs, he will automatically lose the copy ability.

Reveal trailer

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Alternate costumes

Trophies

Robin (3DS)

This is the male Robin, your avatar in Fire Emblem Awakening. The goal of this adventure doesn't change much because of your gender choice, but Robin's marriage options do. In Smash Bros., Robin brings powerful magic and swordplay to bear. He can exhaust his moves, but they'll be restored over time.

Robin (Wii U)

This is the male Robin, an avatar in Fire Emblem Awakening. The goal of that game doesn't change much because of your gender choice, but Robin's hairstyle options do. In Smash Bros., Robin brings powerful magic and swordplay to bear. He can exhaust his moves, but they'll be restored over time.

Robin (Alt.)

Robin's magic is powerful, but it has limited uses before needing to recharge. Thunder can be charged in stages, will become Thoron at max charge, and gains damage and speed with its charge. Arcfire creates a flame pillar, perfect for dealing with an edge-clinging foe.

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  Classic (3DS)

• RobinAllStarTrophy3DS.png

  Alt. (3DS)

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  Classic (Wii U)

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  Alt. (Wii U)

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  Pair Up

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• New Challengers 2: Robin is one of the seven opponents fought in this event alongside Greninja, Palutena, Shulk, Dark Pit, Mega Man, and Pac-Man.
• The Falchion's Seal: Robin must use Pair Up to defeat a giant Charizard.
• The Ultimate Swordsman: Both male and female Robins are opponents that Ike must defeat.

Co-op Events

• A Royal Errand: Robin and Marth must collect 500G from Wario and Bowser.
• Peach in Peril: Female Robin is one of the opponents Bowser and Bowser Jr. must defeat without KOing Peach.
• Scheming Sorcerer: Yoshi and Toon Link must defeat male and female Robin, followed by giant male Robin and giant metal female Robin.
• The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.

Gallery

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  Male individual Robin.

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  Female individual Robin.

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  Artwork of Robin and Lucina from the official site.

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  Robin's splash art.

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  Robin's amiibo.

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  The pic of the day shown during Robin's reveal.

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  Male Robin in the Wii U version.

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  Male Robin using Arcfire on Olimar.

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  Both versions of Robin in Kalos Pokémon League.

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  Male Robin fighting Ike.

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  Using Elwind on Fox and Captain Falcon.

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  With Chrom, who appears in his Final Smash.

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  Attacking Marth.

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  Female Robin with Lucina.

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  In the 3DS version, with the two Fire Emblem veterans.

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  With Link on Tortimer Island.

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  A female and male Robin, using the Levin Sword and a thunder tome respectively.

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  Robin using Arcfire.

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  Female Robin frozen on Mushroom Kingdom U.

Trivia

Robin wielding the Levin Sword as an item alongside the Bronze Sword.

• When Robin's Levin Sword runs out, he can still catch and carry it around as a throwing weapon. While he is still holding it, his next sword can regenerate in his other hand, making it look like he has two.
  • Both his Bronze and Levin Swords are considerably shorter than their Fire Emblem counterparts.
• Robin's poster on the official site is illustrated by Yusuke Kozaki, the art director of Fire Emblem Awakening.
• The official art of the Wii Fit Trainer and Villager has only their female and male forms respectively, making Robin the only character on the site to have their official art incorporate both the female and male versions (not counting the Mii Fighters, which are three separate characters).
• July 14, the day that Robin was revealed, is one day before Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū was released in 2010, and it is two days before Fire Emblem for the GBA was released in 2003.
• Robin is the first and so far only Fire Emblem representative not to have Counter as a down special move and a neutral special move involving a charged sword strike.
  • Robin is also the first Fire Emblem representative to have a projectile and rapid jab.
• When Robin is KOed, both genders of the character can potentially yell their respective defeat quotes from Fire Emblem: Awakening: male Robin can say "Reckless fool...!" while female Robin can yell "I was careless!".