Template:SSB4 to SSBU changelist/Charizard

Aesthetics

• Charizard's model features a more subdued color scheme, more closely resembling its appearance in recent mainline Pokémon games. Its legs and arms are more defined, and the flame on its tail is more vibrant.
• During normal matches, Charizard uses the Pokémon Trainer's stock icon, name call, and Boxing Ring title instead of having its own. However, it still has its own stock icon used in numerous situations, such as the Spirits mode, as a Classic Mode opponent, and during Mr. Game & Watch's down throw.
• Charizard moves in a wave-like motion during its dash animation, similar to Lugia on the title screen for Pokémon SoulSilver. [1]
• Charizard now hangs onto the ledge with one hand instead of two.
• Charizard has two new taunts: one where it stands upright for its up taunt (similar to Ridley's down taunt), and another where it does a quick aerial flip and roars during its side taunt. Its former up taunt is now its down taunt.
• While maintaining its Flare Blitz victory pose from Smash 4, Charizard regains its victory pose from Brawl where the Pokémon Trainer pets its neck, replacing the roaring victory pose from Smash 4.

Attributes

• Charizard is once again part of Pokémon Trainer, allowing it to switch to Squirtle and Ivysaur.
• Like all characters, Charizard's jumpsquat animation lasts 3 frames (down from 7).
• Charizard walks slightly slower (1.2 → 1.187).
• Charizard runs faster (2 → 2.2).
  • Its initial dash speed is significantly faster (1 → 2.28), going from the slowest in the game to the 5th fastest.
• Charizard's air speed is much higher (0.92 → 1.103).
• Charizard has significantly higher traction (0.04 → 0.11), no longer being tied with Mewtwo for having the second lowest traction in the game. This allows it to punish opponents out of shield much more easily.
• Charizard moves its head closer to itself during forward aerial, standing grab, and when hanging on the ledge, leaving it less vulnerable to attacks.
• Charizard's midair jumps' animations have been changed to be more distinguishable from each other.
• Charizard's falling speed and fast falling speed are much faster (1.4 → 1.52) and (2.24 → 2.432) respectively. This makes it more prone to combos, but improves its tomahawk and overall neutral game.
• Charizard once again possesses hurtboxes on its wings like in Brawl, making it easier to hit from above.
• Charizard takes small amounts of damage while swimming. It shares this attribute with Sonic, Inkling, and Incineroar.
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-18 → 4-16).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-18 → 5-17), and more ending lag (FAF 33 → 38).
• Spot dodge has more ending lag (FAF 28 → 29).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-28 → 3-30).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 34 → 50).
• Air dodge's animation has been altered.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first hit transitions into the second hit faster (frame 10 → 7), which transitions into the third hit faster (frame 10 → 8), allowing the whole combo to connect more smoothly.
  • All hits have smaller hitboxes, with the third hit having one of them removed (4.5u/4u/3u → 2.4u/2.4u/2.6u (hit 1), 2.8u/2.8u/3.2u (hit 2), 6.5u/5.5u/5u/4u → 5u/4u/4u (hit 3)), reducing the attack range.
  • All hits have a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.4× (hit 1), 1.2× (hit 2), 1.6× (hit 3)), giving opponents more time to SDI each hit and DI the last hit.
  • The first and second hits deal less damage (3% → 2.5% (hit 1), 4% → 2.5% (hit 2)).
  • The first hit no longer deals set knockback (26/22 set/100 scaling → 20/20/24/20 base/30/28/25/25 scaling), causing it to connect less reliably into the next hits at very high percents.
  • The third hit has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 7-9 → 7-8).
  • The first and second hits have altered angles to keep opponents close to Charizard (120°/361° → 361°/180° (hit 1), 80°/55°/30° → 361° (hit 2)) like other neutral attacks, and have gained a hitstun modifier of 2, with the second hit also dealing less knockback (25/40 base/50 scaling → 20 base/30/28/25 scaling). This allows them to connect and jab lock more consistently, but removes their jab cancel setups against grounded opponents.
  • The third hit launches at a consistent angle (70°/60°/50°/45° → 60°).
  • Charizard rears back in a more pronounced fashion during the ending lag of the third hit.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a new sweetspot hitbox on frame 12 that is centered in front of Charizard's tail, with the original sweetspot remaining intact. This makes the sweetspot larger and prohibits issues with the z-axis.
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 43 → 38).
  • The sweetspot deals more knockback (40 base/100 scaling → 45/104).
  • It has more startup with a shorter hitbox duration (frames 11-13 → 12-13).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has an altered animation, with Charizard jumping higher and its wings spreading out more to its sides.
  • In addition to the hitbox above Charizard, it possesses new hitboxes covering its wings as they spread out. This increases the move's lateral range above Charizard, although due to the high placements of these hitboxes, it still cannot effectively hit grounded opponents at its sides.
  • It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 9-13 → 9-12).
  • It launches opponents slightly away from Charizard instead of towards it (96° → 78°/84°), and deals much less knockback (40 base/130 scaling → 50 base/80/85 scaling). This collectively worsens both the move's combo and KO potential, stringing into itself less reliably at low percents, and still having too much ending lag to combo into other moves, despite Charizard's faster jumpsquat, while it is now unable to KO grounded opponents below 200% (compared to KOing below 140% under the same circumstances in Smash 4).
  • Due to Charizard once again possessing hurtboxes on its wings, the move is riskier to use as an anti-air option, as these hurtboxes now extend upward especially during the active frames, leaving Charizard more vulnerable to trades with aerial attacks.
  • The body hitbox uses a normal effect with punch SFX, instead of slash ones.
• Down tilt:
  • The changes to jostle mechanics allow down tilt to connect more consistently against opponents right next to Charizard.
  • The hitbox does not extend as far (Z offset: 7u-16u → 7u-13.5u), considerably reducing its range.
  • It no longer has a point-blank windbox to push opponents into the hitboxes; however, this is made negligible by the jostle changes.
  • The headbutt has a more pronounced animation.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack deals more damage (11% → 13% (clean), 8% → 10% (late)) and launches at lower angles (50°/60° → 45°/55° (clean), 60°/75° → 55°/70° (late)), with knockback not fully compensated (100 base/45 scaling → 96/44 (clean), 100/30 → 98/27 (late)), improving its KO potential.
  • It has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 1.5×, increasing its safety on shield in combination with its higher damage.
• Forward smash:
  • Charizard no longer breathes fire during forward smash's animation.
  • Forward smash deals more damage (17% → 19% (clean, late body), 14% → 16.4% (late head)) with knockback scaling not fully compensated (94 → 91 (clean, late body), 86 (late head)), improving its KO potential.
  • It grants more intangibility (frames 22-25 → 20-24).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's second hit is faster (frame 16 → 14), allowing it to connect better from the first hit. The move's total duration has been reduced as well (FAF 49 → 47).
  • The first hit's innermost hitboxes after frame 6 use the 368° autolink angle, while the outermost hitbox uses different angles (280° → 280° (frame 7), 320° (frame 8), 340° (frame 9)) with more set knockback (10 → 32, 42, 60), allowing it to link more consistently into the second hit.
  • Due to Charizard once again possessing hurtboxes on its wings, the move is riskier to use as an anti-air option, although to a much lesser extent compared to up tilt.
  • The first hit's late hit has smaller hitboxes (4.2u/5.5u/5u → 4.2u/5u/4.2u), with the outermost hitbox also being moved inward (X offset: 9u → 7u), reducing its range.
  • The first hit's animation has been sped up. This allows it to hit faster behind Charizard, but reduces its duration (frame 6-11 → 6-9).
• Down smash:
  • The knockback scaling and angles on the hitboxes close to Charizard have been homogenized with the outer hitboxes (KBS: 85 → 79; angle: 46° → 33°), increasing its consistency and overall improving its KO ability.
  • It no longer has a trip chance. However, due to the move having been unable to trip opponents regardless, this change is negligible.
  • Charizard faces towards the screen instead of downward, and sports an angrier expression.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (20 frames → 10 (neutral), 22 → 19 (forward), 24 → 20 (back), 20 → 13 (up), 33 → 21 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has faster startup (frame 9 → 8) and significantly less ending lag (FAF 60 → 40), making it safer to use offstage.
  • Its animation has been sped up. This shortens the duration of its hitboxes (frames 9-25 → 8-20), but allows it to hit faster around Charizard.
    • The auto-cancel window is unchanged, increasing the move's ending lag before it can auto-cancel.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has one frame less ending lag (FAF 47 → 46).
  • It no longer auto-cancels in a short hop, as Charizard's faster falling speed causes its auto-cancel window to fall short by one frame. In combination with it now having the most landing lag of any forward aerial alongside Snake's, this considerably hinders its safety and utility for approaching.
  • The sweetspot has been moved inwards (X offset: 7.5u → 6u), reducing its range. The middle hitbox is also slightly smaller (4u → 3.8u).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's animation has been rotated slightly to prevent issues with the z-axis.
  • The first active frame has shorter range, and does not contain the 16% sweetspot.
  • The last active frame is aimed more behind Charizard instead of above it, reducing its vertical range, but allowing it to hit more consistently.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial's lower landing lag alongside the removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes enable it to function as a potent combo starter onstage.
  • It has smaller hitboxes (6u/5u → 5u/5.5u (clean), 4.5u/5.5u (late)) that no longer extend horizontally from Charizard's leg, and the clean hit's inner hitbox is now a sourspot that does not meteor smash (270° → 361°). This reduces the move's range and makes it slightly harder to use for edgeguarding.
  • The late hit has a shorter duration (frames 21-26 → 22-25).
  • The move's animation has been lengthened by one frame during startup, leading to several small frame changes:
    • Its initial auto-cancel window has been lengthened (frames 1-4 → 1-5).
    • The clean hit has a longer duration (frames 18-20 → 18-21).
    • Its ending auto-cancel window is active later (frame 41 → 42).
  • The stomp has a more pronounced animation.
  • The landing animation no longer causes Charizard's tongue to clip through its head.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs are active for one more frame (frames 8-9 → 8-10 (standing), 10-11 → 11-13 (dash), 11-12 → 12-14 (pivot)).
  • Standing grab has been moved forward (Z offset: 5u-13.6u → 7.5u-16u), while dash grab extends further (Z offset: 5u-12.3u → 5u-16.5u), increasing their range.
  • All grabs have more ending lag (FAF 34 → 40 (standing), 42 → 46 (dash), 40 → 43 (pivot)).
  • Dash and pivot grab have more startup (frame 10 → 11 (dash), 11 → 12 (pivot)).
  • Pivot grab doesn't extend as far (Z offset: 4u-17.6u → 4u-17.2u), reducing its range.
  • Standing and dash grab's animations have been altered, with Charizard lunging farther forward, matching their increased range.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals less damage (2% → 1.6%).
  • It has much less ending lag (FAF 17 → 8), but deals considerably more hitlag (4 frames → 15), increasing its effective duration.
    • Relative to the rest of the cast, Charizard's pummel is among the slowest but most damaging, rather than average on both accounts.
• The speed of Charizard's forward and back throws is no longer weight-dependent.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw deals more knockback (60 base/65 scaling → 63/70), allowing it to KO around 20% earlier.
  • Charizard spreads its arms out more near the end of the animation.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw releases the opponent earlier (frame 29 → 26), though with its total duration unchanged. This makes it harder to DI, but gives it more ending lag.
    • Despite this change, it has increased combo ability due to Charizard's much faster initial dash speed and jumpsquat.
  • Due to the Sakurai angle being lower against aerial opponents in Ultimate (45° → 38°), it has improved edgeguarding and KO potential.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw's looping hits no longer inflict hitlag, allowing it to execute much faster, despite releasing the opponent later (frame 52 → 55).
  • The looping hits deal knockback to bystanders (0 base/0 scaling → 0/100), making the move safer in battles with multiple opponents.
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 71 → 77), and no longer inflicts 4 frames of hitlag on the opponent upon releasing them. This hinders its combo potential, with Charizard's faster jumpsquat failing to compensate.
  • It has an altered animation where Charizard hovers slightly while breathing fire onto the opponent, and lifts itself higher into the air with a more exaggerated breathing animation upon releasing them.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (8% → 10%).

Special moves

• Flamethrower:
  • Flamethrower's clean hit lasts longer (3 frames → 4), and it has gained a mid hit, which lasts 3 frames before the late hit and deals more damage (1% → 1.3%). This improves the move's damage racking ability overall.
  • The flames have a more vibrant coloration.
• Flare Blitz:
  • Flare Blitz deals drastically more damage (4% → 6% (hit 1), 15% → 18% (hit 2); 19% total → 24%)), with knockback scaling only minimally compensated (84 → 77), KOing middleweights under 80% from the center of Final Destination.
  • Charizard cannot be locked if it gets knocked down by the move's collision; attacks will instead cause it to get up as if hit beyond the lock limit. This leaves it less vulnerable to deadly punishes.
  • The first hit uses an autolink angle (60° → 366°) and set knockback (60 base/80 scaling → 60 base/46 set/78 scaling), allowing it to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • In addition to the hitbox following Charizard's rotation, the first hit has a hitbox that consistently stays on its lower side. This gives the move more range below Charizard, allowing it to hit every character lying on the ground and a few hanging on the ledge.
  • The first hit has a lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.1×), allowing it to transition faster into the second hit.
  • The move is only able to grab the ledge starting on frame 45 (about two-thirds of the way).
  • It causes Charizard to emit orange flames on startup instead of glowing blue. Its flame effects are also much more intense.
  • Charizard's voice is louder when using the move, allowing players to hear it without adjusting the Sound settings.
  • The recoil damage from the second hit of the move is no longer applied all in one go, but is instead applied over the course of a few frames, with it being applied over the next 5 consecutive frames when hitting an opponent, or in intervals of 10 frames when hitting a wall.
• Fly:
  • Fly no longer suffers RCO lag.
  • The first hit has different angles (70°/95°/80° → 100°/70°/65°) and less set knockback (130/140/140 → 120/80/115), while the looping hits use an autolink angle (72°/90° → 367°). In combination with rage no longer affecting moves with set knockback, this allows it to connect much more reliably.
  • The looping hits's hitboxes are spread around Charizard instead of placed in front of it, while the last hit has one hitbox less, but one of its hitboxes has been moved much farther back. This allows the move to hit behind Charizard and further helps in its linking ability.
    • However, this reduces the looping hits' frontal range.
• Down special:
  • Since Charizard has returned to Pokémon Trainer's team, Rock Smash has been replaced with Pokémon Change.
    • This allows it to change places with Squirtle and Ivysaur to adapt to difficult situations and matchups.
    • The removal of Rock Smash reduces Charizard's own defensive capabilities, hinders its landing options and eliminates one of its finishers.
  • Pokémon Change executes much faster, and no longer requires the game to load the next Pokémon with every switch. This significantly increases its safety, and allows it to potentially string into another Pokémon's moves.
  • It can now be used in the air. This allows the player to mix up their recovery between different Pokémon, and to utilize its intangibility frames as an alternative air dodge, with the notable advantage of coming out on frame 1. As a result, it poses much less of a risk than in Brawl as a defensive option.
  • It has a cooldown of around two seconds after the Pokémon switch is executed. However, it can be skipped by using another special move.
  • It no longer resets stale-move negation, effectively weakening Squirtle when Charizard switches.
  • It can no longer skip the ending lag of the switch if performed near the edge of a moving platform.
• Final Smash:
  • Triple Finish replaces Mega Charizard X with the return of Pokémon Trainer.
  • Charizard fires five Fire Blasts in a row instead of six, and the move deals less total damage (58% → 44.3%).
  • It has a different text box, more closely resembling its appearance in the Generation VII games.
  • The undead glitch on the Stamina Mode, and results screen glitch on timed team battles have been removed.