Wolf (SSBU)/Down smash

Hitbox visualization showing Wolf's down smash.

Overview

Wolf performs a kneeling one handed slash on both sides of him. It has great range, and the sweetspots of the move are located on Wolf's claws and are extremely powerful, with its front hitbox being among the strongest down smashes in the game, while its sourspots can still function as finishers despite being much less powerful than the sweetspots. This is one of Wolf's most reliable finishers and edgeguarding options, and one of his best moves in general as it can easily KO opponents with its high power and consistent ability to 2 frame punish characters. It has moderate startup as its first hit comes out on frame 14, but has low ending lag as it is interruptible on frame 44. Because of this, it is safe on shield if the move is properly spaced or if the second hit is the one that connects with shield. Lastly, it is also a great finisher when reading an opponent's tech options, mainly out of his neutral aerial or forward throw.

One downside of the move is that its sourspots outpriortize the sweetspots. Although its sourspots are still strong enough to be finishers, landing them regularly can lead to very inconsistent KOs. Therefore, it is important to space and position the move well so that its sourspots don't hit the opponent.

Overall, Wolf's down smash is one of the best of its kind in the game due to its very high power, good range, low ending lag, safety on shield if spaced, and 2 frame punish ability. Although it was slightly weakened in updates 3.0.0 and 3.1.0, these changes have not hindered it very much at all, and it remains as an invaluable move in Wolf's toolkit.

Update History

3.0.0

• The sweetspotted front hit of down smash deals less knockback scaling with its base knockback not fully compensated, weakening it overall (50 base/90 scaling → 56/82).

3.1.0

• The sweetspotted front hit of down smash deals noticeably less base knockback, but has more knockback scaling (56 base/82 scaling → 37/93), causing it to KO later near edges and from center stage.
  • However, this allows it to KO slightly earlier from across the stage.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Hit 1
0	0	0	14.0%	0		Standard	50	80	0		3.5	shoulderr	-1.0	-0.6	-0.6	1.0×	1.0×	35%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	16.0%	0		Standard	37	93	0		4.5	armr	0.0	0.5	0.5	1.0×	1.0×	35%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	16.0%	0		Standard	37	93	0		5.5	handr	3.0	-0.5	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	35%							Slash		All	All
Hit 2
0	0	0	12.0%	0		Standard	50	80	0		2.5	shoulderr	-0.3	0.0	-2.0	1.0×	1.0×	35%							Slash		All	All
1	0	0	14.0%	0		Standard	50	90	0		3.0	armr	1.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	35%							Slash		All	All
2	0	0	14.0%	0		Standard	50	90	0		3.5	handr	4.0	-0.5	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	35%							Slash		All	All

Timing

Charges between	2-3
Hit 1	14-15
Hit 2	21-22
Interruptible	44
Animation length	63

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Charge interval

Hitbox

Interruptible

Trivia

• The move has a 35% trip chance that can only happen on slants due to the launch angle.

Wolf's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Floor attack (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Edge attack
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash