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's initial dash speed is exponentially higher (1 → 2.28), going from the slowest in the game to the 4th fastest.
• Charizard runs faster (2 → 2.2).
• 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 to a less vulnerable position during forward air, down smash, standing grab, and when hanging on the ledge.
• Charizard now has hurtboxes on the base of its wings.
• 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.
  • The first and second hits deal less damage (3% → 2.5% (hit 1), 4% → 2.5% (hit 2)).
  • The first and second hits have altered angles and knockback to keep opponents close to Charizard, like other neutral attacks. This allows them to connect and jab lock more consistently, but removes their jab cancel setups against grounded opponents.
  • The last hit has fewer hitboxes, and the remaining hitboxes are smaller (6.5u/5.5u/5u/4u → 5u/4u/4u), reducing the attack range.
  • Charizard rears back in a more pronounced fashion during the ending lag of neutral attack's last 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).
  • It has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 11-13 → 12-13).
  • The sweetspot deals more knockback (40 base/100 scaling → 45/104).
• 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 Charizard's 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). It can no longer KO opponents below 200%, and the new angle and ending lag hurt the move's combo ability.
  • Due to Charizard gaining hurtboxes on its wings, the move is riskier to use as an anti-air option, as these hurtboxes extend upward during the active frames. This makes it easier for opponents' aerial attacks to trade with Charizard.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt no longer has a windbox drawing opponents in.
  • The changes to jostle mechanics allow down tilt to connect better against nearby opponents despite the removal of the windbox.
  • The hitbox does not extend as far (Z offset: 7-16 → 7-13.5), considerably reducing its range.
  • It features a tighter animation.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack deals more damage (11%/8% → 13%/10%) with knockback not fully compensated (100 (base)/45 (scaling) → 96/44), improving its KO potential.
  • Dash attack deals more shieldstun (1x → 1.5x) which, combined with the increased damage, makes it safer against shielding opponents.
• 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)). This considerably improves its KO potential.
  • Forward smash grants more intangibility (frames 22-25 → 20-24).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's second hit comes out more quickly (frame 17 → 14), allowing it to connect better from the first hit and giving the move faster interruptibility (FAF 49 → 47).
  • The outermost hitbox on the first hit now uses the 368° autolink angle instead of weakly meteor smashing them in place, allowing it to consistently link into the second hit.
  • Due to Charizard gaining 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.
• Down smash:
  • The knockback scaling and angles on down smash's hitboxes close to Charizard have been homogenized with the tipper hitboxes (KBG: 85 → 79; angle: 46° → 33°). Despite the move's lower knockback scaling, the more horizontal angle improves its KO ability.

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 off-stage.
  • 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 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.
  • The sweetspot has been moved inwards (X offset: 7.5 → 6), reducing its range.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's animation has been rotated slightly to prevent issues with the z-axis. The last active frame is now directly behind Charizard, increasing the move's vertical range and enabling it to punish opponents from below.
  • Due to the Sakurai angle being lower, DI is less effective when back aerial hits an airborne opponent. This improves its KO potential.
  • The first active frame does not contain the 16% sweetspot.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 41 → 38).
  • The move's initial auto-cancel window has been shortened (frames 1-4 → 1-3)
• 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. The sweetspot also has a longer duration (frames 18-20 → 18-21).
  • The clean hit has received a sourspot on Charizard's body that does not meteor smash, making it slightly harder to use for edgeguarding. The late hit also has a shorter duration (frames 21-26 → 22-25).
  • It auto-cancels later (frame 41 → 42).
  • Its initial auto-cancel window has been lengthened (frames 1-4 → 1-5).
  • Down aerial's animation has been altered.
  • Down aerial's landing animation no longer causes Charizard's tongue to clip through its head.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Standing grab has been moved forward (Z offset: 5-13.6 → 7.5-16), improving its range.
  • Dash grab extends further (Z offset: 5-12.3 → 5-16.5), improving its 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: 4-17.6 → 4-17.2), worsening 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.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw deals more knockback (60 base/65 scaling → 63/70).
  • Charizard spreads its arms out during the ending animation of forward throw.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw releases opponents faster (frame 29 → 26), though with its interruptibility frames 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.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw deals less hitlag, allowing it to execute faster.
  • Down throw's looping hits now deal knockback to bystanders (0 (base)/0 (scaling) → 0/100).
  • It has slightly more ending lag (19 → 22 frames), hindering its combo potential.
    • The decreased hitstun in tumble knockback exacerbates this nerf.
  • It has an altered animation where Charizard hovers slightly while breathing fire onto the opponent.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (8% → 10%).

Special moves

• Flamethrower:
  • Flamethrower's color is more vibrant compared to in Smash 4.
• Flare Blitz:
  • Flare Blitz deals drastically more damage (4% → 6% (hit 1), 15% → 18% (hit 2); 19% → 24% (total)).
  • Flare Blitz deals more knockback, KOing middleweights under 80% from the center of Final Destination.
  • The tumble animation following Flare Blitz's collision cannot be jab locked.
  • Grounded Flare Blitz has more range below it, being capable of hitting every character lying on the ground and a few hanging on the ledge.
  • Flare Blitz is now only able to grab the ledge starting frame 45 (about two-thirds of the way).
  • Flare Blitz causes Charizard to emit orange flames on startup instead of glowing blue. Its flame effects are much more intense.
  • Charizard's voice is now louder when using the move, allowing players to hear it without adjusting the Sound settings.
• Fly:
  • Fly no longer suffers RCO lag.
  • Due to rage being changed to not affect hitboxes with set knockback, Fly no longer launches opponents away from the rest of the hits when Charizard has rage, allowing it to connect more reliably.
• Pokémon Change:

• • Since Charizard has returned to Pokémon Trainer's team, Rock Smash has been replaced with Pokémon Change.
    • It can now change places with Squirtle and Ivysaur to adapt to certain situations.
    • The removal of Rock Smash reduces Charizard's own defensive capabilities, hinders it's landing options and eliminates one of its finishers.
  • Pokémon Change is much faster, as it does not need to load the next Pokémon during every switch. The quicker switch time allows it to potentially combo into another Pokémon's moves, work akin to an air dodge, or supplement the Pokémon's recovery.
  • Pokémon Change can now be used in the air. Like in Brawl, it also offers brief intangibility upon switching out.
  • Spamming Pokémon Change will grant no invincibility frames for a period of time. It also has a cooldown of 140 frames (2.33 seconds), which can be skipped via a special move.
• Final Smash:
  • Triple Finish replaces Mega Charizard X with the return of Pokémon Trainer.
  • Triple Finish has an updated animation, and its textbox closely resembles the textboxes in the Generation VII Pokémon games.
  • Charizard now fires five Fire Blasts in a row instead of six.
  • The undead glitch on the Stamina Mode, and results screen glitch on timed team battles have been removed.