Sheik (SSB4)/Forward aerial

Overview

Sheik leans forward and slashes in front of her. Her forward air is notably one of Sheik's most commonly used moves in high level play, and is often considered the best forward aerial in the game. It is very safe to use thanks to its great range, low startup and landing lag, quick interruptibility and extremely early autocancel window. Due to all of these, it can can combo into itself multiple times, a neutral aerial, or Bouncing Fish to rack up damage and edgeguard offstage opponents. It deals more damage when hit with the sweetspot, dealing 5% instead of 4.3%.

Sheik's forward aerial had its damage lowered in game updates. Patch 1.1.0 made its sourspot override its sweetspot. However, since less damage also results in less knockback, this allows it to combo into itself even better.

Interestingly, despite being actionable on frame 35, Sheik's forward aerial actually has much higher ending lag, taking 87 frames to complete. While this has virtually no effect in regular gameplay due to its aforementioned interruptibility and low landing lag nevertheless, it prevents Sheik from grabbing ledges for a long time after using the move, requiring her to land on the stage or grab the ledge with Vanish instead. [1]