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Spear Pillar

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Spear Pillar
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Spear Pillar as it appears in Smash.
PokemonSymbol.svg
Universe Pokémon
Appears in Brawl
Ultimate
Availability Unlockable (Brawl)
Starter (Ultimate)
Unlock criteria Complete Event 25: The Aura Is With Me.
Crate type Normal
Maximum players 4 (Brawl)
8 (Ultimate)
Music
Bolded tracks must be unlocked
Brawl Victory Road
Dialga / Palkia Battle at Spear Pillar!
Wild Pokémon Battle! (Diamond/Pearl)
Team Galactic Battle!
Route 209
Ultimate Pokémon series music
Main: Battle! (Dialga/Palkia) / Spear Pillar
Alternate: Battle! (Team Galactic)
Tournament legality
Brawl Singles: Banned
Doubles: Banned
Ultimate Singles: Banned
Doubles: Banned
Article on Bulbapedia Spear Pillar

Spear Pillar (テンガンざん やりのはしら, Mt. Tengan Spear Pillar) is a Pokémon series stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In Brawl and Ultimate, Lucario is fought here in its unlocking battle, and Mewtwo is also fought here in the latter.

Stage overview

Spear Pillar consists of an upper solid platform and a cave beneath it. The cave can act as an effective cave of life, as it is long and narrow. Both the top ground and the cave have grabbable edges at their sides.

Above the upper ground are two soft platforms, one on the left and one on the right, spaced symmetrically apart. These platforms move up and down nearly constantly, only stopping for a brief, random amount of time at their lowest and highest points.

In the background on the top ground is a large pedestal. After a random amount of time (~20 seconds), Dialga, Palkia, or Cresselia will appear atop the pedestal in a flash of light. The Pokémon will stay for a random amount of time (~25 seconds), while causing various effects on the battle at random intervals (~7 seconds). Afterwards, they will leave in a flash of light, and the cycle repeats.

In Brawl, only one of the three Legendary Pokémon can appear per match, determined randomly when the stage is selected. In Ultimate, any of the three Pokémon can appear, determined randomly each time.

The Pokémon that will appear is indicated by a color tint on the stage and background. Dialga is signified by a blue tint, Palkia is signified by a pink tint, and Cresselia is signified by the same blue as Dialga (in Brawl) or the stage's default green tint (in Ultimate). In Brawl, the tint is present at all times, as only one Pokémon can appear for a given match; in Ultimate, the tint is green by default (and for Cresselia) and only changes to the other colors when Dialga or Palkia are active.

The lake guardians, Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf can randomly appear in the background on the upper level, and will leave after a moment. Any of them can appear throughout a match, but only one can appear at a time. Uxie and Azelf leave the stage by simply vanishing, but Mesprit leaves by flying off-screen to the left or right. These Pokémon do not have any gameplay effect, being only aesthetic in function, and their presence does not affect Dialga, Palkia, or Cresselia.

Effects

Dialga, Palkia, and Cresselia can each cause various different effects on the battle when they are present. All of the effects are temporary, with varying durations.

Dialga and Palkia

There are four effects that both Dialga and Palkia are able to cause:

  • Tilting the screen by a random amount (between 10 and 30 degrees) to the left or right. The effect is only visual; flat surfaces don't become slopes, for example.
  • Causing an earthquake, breaking either the left, right, or middle third of the upper ground. This creates a more open route between the two floors. After a while, the broken terrain is rebuilt.
  • Firing a vertical laser beam covering either the left, right, or middle third of the stage on both floors. The beam lasts for around one second, dealing repeated hits for damage of up to 27% in Brawl or 26% in Ultimate. The beam's hits can be shielded, and in Ultimate, reflected or absorbed. In Ultimate, this vertical beam also breaks the third of the upper ground that it is fired through. The beam is blue when used by Dialga and pink when used by Palkia.
  • Firing a horizontal laser beam through the cave area. Apart from its position and direction, it functions largely the same as the vertical beam.

Dialga

File:Dialga Spear Pillar.jpg
Dialga on the altar.

Dialga has two effects of its own, in addition to the four it shares with Palkia:

  • Slowing down the passage of time, similarly to the Timer item. This stacks with other time-altering effects. In Ultimate, the background is changed to consist of blue ripples, the same background used by the Timer.
  • Roaring for a moment, then jumping onto the stage and attacking by using Roar of Time, dealing 25% damage and strong upwards knockback to nearby players.

Palkia

File:Palkia Spear Pillar.jpg
Palkia on the altar.

Palkia has three effects of its own, in addition to the four it shares with Dialga:

  • Halving gravity and all fighters' weights. In Ultimate, the background is changed to consist of blue swirls.
  • Mirroring the screen, such that pressing right causes a character to appear to move to the left, as well as having right-handed characters appear left-handed and vice versa.
  • Rotating the screen at a 180 degree angle, causing it to appear upside-down.

Cresselia

Cresselia on the altar.

Cresselia does not share any effects with Dialga or Palkia. There are two effects that Cresselia can cause, both of which are attacks:

  • Throwing a single crescent of energy that swoops across either the upper ground or the cave, like a boomerang.
  • Throwing a series of energy crescents across the stage in straight lines from its position.

Stage hazard switch

In Ultimate, when stage hazards are turned off in the rules, this stage has different functionality. The two soft platforms do not move, remaining fixed at their halfway point. Dialga, Palkia, and Cresselia can still appear, but they never cause any effects.

Ω form and Battlefield form

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the design of the main platform of the Ω form and Battlefield form is based on the top portion of the normal form, and it is resized and reshaped to match Final Destination and Battlefield, respectively. The three soft platforms of the Battlefield form are based on the soft platforms of the normal form. No Pokémon appear on these forms.

Origin

Spear Pillar as it originally appeared in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

This stage is based on Spear Pillar from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Platinum, which is situated at the peak of Mt. Coronet in the Sinnoh region.

Spear Pillar is the location of the two Legendary Pokémon Dialga and Palkia. Team Galactic, a criminal organization which operates in Sinnoh, travels to Spear Pillar to awaken Dialga/Palkia and bind them by a Red Chain created from the crystals of the lake guardians, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf. Team Galactic's goal is to use the Legendary Pokémon's power to recreate the universe with Cyrus, the Galactic Boss, as king and deity.

The player character travels up to Spear Pillar, where they impede Team Galactic's plan to control the Legendary Pokémon by defeating Cyrus. Upon defeat, Team Galactic retreats and the player has the chance to capture Dialga or Palkia.

Tournament legality

This stage is universally banned in mainstream tournaments due to the highly disruptive effect of the Pokémon's effects - especially Palkia's which alter the players' controls - which activate randomly and suddenly. The bottom cavern of the stage also acts as a large cave of life, prolonging matches and promoting stalling. The overall stage design with the separated top and bottom areas can allow for circle camping as well (though Dialga or Palkia can potentially break this camping by breaking part of the upper ground (suddenly creating an interception route before the camping player can react) or firing a laser through the cave (cutting off the camper's ability to run away).

Gallery

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The editor who added this tag suggests: Picture(s) of Uxie and Azelf on Spear Pillar in Brawl
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Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Trivia

  • If the player looks at the constellation at the top of the stage very closely, Arceus' face can be seen.
  • In Ultimate, using camera controls it is possible to view inside the ground of the main platform, where one can see the two sloped surfaces that are uncovered when either Palkia or Dialga break the centre of the main platform.
  • Despite appearing on this stage, Cresselia has no connection to Spear Pillar in the Pokémon games.
  • Hieroglyphic drawings of Dialga and Palkia can be seen on this stage, including on the two soft platforms.
  • The cave underneath the main platform resembles the Sinnoh Underground, with crystals partially burrowed in the floor and walls like in the Underground.
  • When the stage is rotated or mirrored, even the pause screen is affected by the switch.
  • Mesprit being the only lake guardian to fly off stage, may be referencing that it is a roaming Pokémon.
  • In Ultimate, prior to version 2.0.0, there was a glitch on this stage in Training Mode: if the session was reset while the screen had been mirrored by Palkia, the gameplay view would return to normal, but the UI and name-tags remained mirrored, with name-tags following the position the player would be at if the screen were still mirrored. The glitch remained for the session until Palkia mirrored the screen again and the effect finished without the session being reset.
The "meteorite" in the back of Spear Pillar.
  • If the camera is moved so it is possible to look near the back of the stage, what looks like a meteorite can be seen sitting near a tree.
  • Palkia would later become a Poké Ball Pokémon in Super Smash Bros. 4, using Spacial Rend to cause the same upside-down effect it can cause on this stage. Palkia returns as a Poké Ball Pokémon in Ultimate, but it cannot appear on this stage, and is not available for selection in Training Mode.
  • If Olimar uses his Final Smash, End of Day, when the screen is turned upside-down, the Bulborbs still appear at the bottom of the screen.

External links