Introduction:
Palutena is a mid-weight and semi-floaty. This combination usually leads to a sort of balance where the character is not able to take advantage of the extremes, yet is not punished by them too hard. Palutena may be in the middle, but she does lean towards the floatier and lighter side, meaning she does die off the top earlier, but her weight supplements that. She also can be combo'd a bit harder than lighter characters, but her floatiness prevents combos at later percents. She's also got a tall hurtbox, meaning she is easier to actually get the first hit on.Strengths:
1. Footsies
Palutena has an incredible footsies game. Footsies is essentially a midrange game where you are neither rushdown or zoning. Instead, you play close to your opponent, poking with strong aerials and/or ground moves, hoping to get in and out to find a chink in their armor. Essentially a bait and punish style that focuses on more aggression. Palutena's aerials have low landing lag and she's got one of the fastest ground speeds, allowing her to dart in and out while also having strong and quick aerials to punish the opponent. Playing the footsies game against Palutena can be very difficult, as her aerials can be hard to punish. Her fall speed however, being semi-floaty, is her weakness in this aspect. Noting her aerial habits is important. Did she f-air or b-air in this situation? Was it a rising f-air? When does she rising f-air? When does she landing f-air? All of these are important. If she does more rising f-airs in a certain situation, force that situation and punish it. Rising aerials have downtime afterwards, so time it based on your character's ability to get in and punish. Faster characters should charge in once the move comes out, while slower characters should go earlier, once she jumps, as she'll most likely buffer the move if it's rising. If it's a landing f-air, there will be downtime before she can react to your punish, so charge in early, especially since f-air and b-air come out so late at frame 9 and 8, respectively. She can also make use of her insane ground speed as well. Dashback -> dash attack is a common punish, so overextending your attacks can make all the difference. This is barebones fundamentals for footsies. If you have the time and are interested to go deeper, I recommend you read sonichurricane's the Footsies Handbook.
2. Advantage State
Palutena's advantage state is one of her best factors. When above her, her run speed allows her to cover ground quickly, making it hard to escape u-airs or dash attack. Couple that with her u-smash, she can mix you up from very long ranges if she reads the airdodge, usually resulting in a kill. Her Auto Reticle and Explosive Flame are both good for pushing advantage as well. When offstage, AR can catch your jump and position you further down offstage, limiting your options in terms of recovery. EF also burns resources such as air-dodge and jumps, reducing the opponent's options. Her edgeguarding is one of the best, with a counter, her aforementioned b-moves, strong and disjointed aerials, and her strong 2-framing with d-tilt. N-airs lingering hitbox can also be a pain to deal with, as it can cover the ledge and hits/beats out moves like Wolf side-b and Pikachu up-b.
3. Safety and Consistency
Palutena is a very safe character. Her aerials have low lag, she can quickly run out of situations, she's hard to edgeguard with her teleport recovery, she has both a counter and a reflector. She's also very consistent, as most of her combos will work on all of the cast, and her skill floor is higher than most. Not to say she's an easy character, she's just easier to get at a playable level with. However, by avoiding her n-air, you can avoid a ton of basic bread n butters that the lower level Palutena's use. Also having your 2-framing down to a science is most likely your only shot at consistently edgeguarding Palutena. If she spams aerials, it's likely they're all rising, so rush at her once the move comes out, as f-air and b-air don't have a lot of active frames. If they're landing, strike early.
4. High Damage Combos
Palutena's main combo starters are f-air, n-air, u-air, and d-throw. Avoiding f-air is about the footsies game. Predicting rising vs. landing is important to bypassing f-air walls. To avoid u-air, practicing your landing game can help avoid juggles and prevent her from pushing her advantage state. Avoiding d-throw is about avoiding grabs. If the Palutena is a grabber, start using your quickest moves or even spotdodge -> attack to punish. N-air is one of Palutena's best get off me options and one of her only OOS options. She'll most likely use this OOS if you land on her shield, so be careful when approaching her. If she approaches with n-air, you'd need to be wary of her crossup, as a poor OOS option just means more n-airs. B-air OOS for most characters will catch Palutena while she's crossing up your shield, and if your character has long enough range, just n-air OOS can catch both the crossup and the land in front. Bigger disjoints can help, so having a sword can make the matchup a bit easier, or even just knowing your longest range moves can go a long way
Palutena's advantage state is one of her best factors. When above her, her run speed allows her to cover ground quickly, making it hard to escape u-airs or dash attack. Couple that with her u-smash, she can mix you up from very long ranges if she reads the airdodge, usually resulting in a kill. Her Auto Reticle and Explosive Flame are both good for pushing advantage as well. When offstage, AR can catch your jump and position you further down offstage, limiting your options in terms of recovery. EF also burns resources such as air-dodge and jumps, reducing the opponent's options. Her edgeguarding is one of the best, with a counter, her aforementioned b-moves, strong and disjointed aerials, and her strong 2-framing with d-tilt. N-airs lingering hitbox can also be a pain to deal with, as it can cover the ledge and hits/beats out moves like Wolf side-b and Pikachu up-b.
3. Safety and Consistency
Palutena is a very safe character. Her aerials have low lag, she can quickly run out of situations, she's hard to edgeguard with her teleport recovery, she has both a counter and a reflector. She's also very consistent, as most of her combos will work on all of the cast, and her skill floor is higher than most. Not to say she's an easy character, she's just easier to get at a playable level with. However, by avoiding her n-air, you can avoid a ton of basic bread n butters that the lower level Palutena's use. Also having your 2-framing down to a science is most likely your only shot at consistently edgeguarding Palutena. If she spams aerials, it's likely they're all rising, so rush at her once the move comes out, as f-air and b-air don't have a lot of active frames. If they're landing, strike early.
4. High Damage Combos
Palutena's main combo starters are f-air, n-air, u-air, and d-throw. Avoiding f-air is about the footsies game. Predicting rising vs. landing is important to bypassing f-air walls. To avoid u-air, practicing your landing game can help avoid juggles and prevent her from pushing her advantage state. Avoiding d-throw is about avoiding grabs. If the Palutena is a grabber, start using your quickest moves or even spotdodge -> attack to punish. N-air is one of Palutena's best get off me options and one of her only OOS options. She'll most likely use this OOS if you land on her shield, so be careful when approaching her. If she approaches with n-air, you'd need to be wary of her crossup, as a poor OOS option just means more n-airs. B-air OOS for most characters will catch Palutena while she's crossing up your shield, and if your character has long enough range, just n-air OOS can catch both the crossup and the land in front. Bigger disjoints can help, so having a sword can make the matchup a bit easier, or even just knowing your longest range moves can go a long way
Weaknesses
1. Poor Get Off Me and OOS Options
Get off me options are essentially what they sound like. They're moves that get your opponent off you, usually due to speed, range in a radius, and knockback. These get off me options are usually used OOS, as that's usually when you need an opponent off of you. While in shield, it'll almost always be n-air OOS to try to turn the tables on you. Proper spacing, pressure using speed, and using your safe moves to bait her out of shield can net you a free punish. Characters that are good at this are Wolf and Fox. Her other get off me option is less close range. If you try pressuring her up close, she can dash-attack, as it's a very fast move. However, it's very punishable on shield, so predicting it is important. Shielding will cover both of her get off me options, however, this can lead right into a grab, so shield -> long range aerial is a safe play.
2. Poor Ground Game
Palutena is a pretty bad ground game. All of her tilts last a long time and can be easily punished, her jab is slow, and her specials are meant for longer ranges than up close, and so, she can really struggle against small and rushdown heavy characters, such as Fox and Pichu. Her only good ground move is dash attack, which still has a ton of lag, so it's likely Palutena will be taking to the air for her aerials. Her short hop is fairly high, so having a smaller character means that her aerials may whiff, especially since some characters duck low when running, such as Inkling.
3. Small Characters
Palutena's aerials are very forward facing, and due to her SH height and fall speed, she often misses her aerials or small/crouching opponents, so she may often opt for landing aerials in a matchup, making it easier to predict. If you're playing a small character, go for early attacks to punish this, and if she hits you right back, play low and wait for her aerials instead. Switch between both playstyles and adapt.
3. Small Characters
Palutena's aerials are very forward facing, and due to her SH height and fall speed, she often misses her aerials or small/crouching opponents, so she may often opt for landing aerials in a matchup, making it easier to predict. If you're playing a small character, go for early attacks to punish this, and if she hits you right back, play low and wait for her aerials instead. Switch between both playstyles and adapt.
Playing Against Palutena in the Neutral
Palutena plays similarly to Melee Marth. Long range with quick aerials, but a punishable downtime before or after their swing. When approaching, look out for her aerial timings for any patterns. Repeated rising aerials means to punish after the move, so rush in at different times depending on your character's speed. Faster characters should run in once the move is actually out, while slower characters may want to run once the animation starts. It's all variant based on character speed and how close you play against her in the neutral, but this all comes with experience with the character. Against a landing aerial user, rush in as soon as you see her jump with faster characters, but if you're slow, you have to predict the jump, or use your longest range move. Most of Ultimate's cast is fast enough to punish as soon as she starts to jump, however, due to most characters either being simply fast in the air/ground, have long limbs/swords, or have projectiles to put hit Palutena as she rises, messing up their rhythm and catching them off guard. Also be careful of dashbacks, as Palutena is a very fast ground character, and dashback -> dash attack is a strong and effective whiff punish. Overshoot your attacks if you get hit by this. Against her shield, her only options really are n-air, so baiting it out with proper spacing on her shield is important, as there is a lot of downtime after n-air.
Punishing Palutena
Juggling Palutena can be very tricky. Her fall speed is moderate, but it's her teleport that makes it tricky, as she can instantly port to the other side of the stage with decently low end-lag. Predicting this does however get you a free punish, so if she up-b's while you're juggling her, expect it again. When she's higher up, she'll usually teleport down, if she's closer to the ground, she'll teleport to the other side. A center stage Palutena will either teleport to the sides or not at all. If there are platforms, she can teleport straight up while at center, and when descending, she can edgecancel them, which can be very hard to punish, but can be hard to execute in high pressure scenarios. If your u-air/juggling tool doesn't have much range, or you become predictable, she can quickly fast-fall n-air, which allows her to get a grab or combo with more n-airs. If you can bait out fast-fall n-air, however, it's a free punish due to the downtime. When edgeguarding Palutena, it boils down to where she'll teleport. If you cover the ledge and attempt 2-framing, she'll teleport higher, especially if there are platforms. Most Palutena's will go low however, so you could try to 2-frame, or you could predict when she teleports and catch her before she can, if you're fast enough at least. At the ledge, her best options (aside from the standard getup, roll, getup attack, etc.) are teleport from ledge (either to the platform or back onto the ledge as a mixup), or n-air from ledge, a high reward play. Shielding at the ledge protects you from the n-air, but if she teleports to the platform, you won't be able to punish. Ledgetrapping can be very character dependent, however.
Recommended Matchups
1. Pikachu
Palutena's weakness against fast and close-range fighters really shines in the matchup against Pikachu. Pikachu's ability to pressure shields with spaced f-airs and TJolt approaches, force shields with his strong punish game off a TJolt landing or a fast-fall n-air, and to punish shields with his insane early grab game and u-throw/d-throw Thunder kill confirm gives him one of the best aggressive games in Ultimate. Couple that with his relatively small hurtbox and Palutena's high reaching aerials, and you've got a great character against Palutena.
In the neutral, Palutena doesn't have a very strong approach game. She's more of a bait and punish, so adopting that strategy as Pikachu is a great way to play the matchup. Pikachu's safe aerials in f-air and b-air, strong ground game with d-tilt and jab, and his small hurtbox grant him a stronger neutral in the matchup. TJolt approaches as well as spaced f-air are your good options in neutral, and always be on the lookout for a d-throw -> n-air loop, as well as practicing your combos to optimize damage.
Juggling Palutena can be hard, as Pikachu's u-air will never kill in a serious match. Where Pikachu excels is catching her mixups with moves like u-smash, Thunder, Quick Attack, and TJolt. U-smash can catch her airdodges, spotdodges, and be used in teleport reads, Thunder can clip her off the top, QA can be used to follow her teleport on read or even reaction, and TJolt can be used to apply pressure, should she teleport away. Edgeguarding Palutena can be rough, even for a character like Pikachu, as teleport recoveries are nearly unedgeguardable. If she goes high, hit her with Thunder or follow her with f-air/b-air to send her back offstage or even an u-smash on stages like FD and Kalos. If she goes low, 2-frame with low-angle f-tilt, TJolt, d-air, or a b-air/n-air at the ledge. Ledgetrap with TJolt and f-air to catch out teleport, use shield to cover n-air, and then up-b, aerial, or even turnaround rising TJolt punish teleport (if she's on a platform). Up-b is a good option with decent reward, as it can be used OOS, and can reach platforms or center stage while still popping up Palutena.
Best Pikachu Mains:
ESAM: ESAM is THE Pikachu. He not only pushes the meta via optimized combos, he's a content creator with full confidence in his ability and his character, making him the best resource for Pika knowledge. His results and wins have resulted in his 16th placing on the Spring 2019 PG Rankings.
2. Pokemon Trainer
Pokemon Trainer is a tough matchup for Palutena mainly due to Squirtle. Squirtle's strong combo game on most of the cast, small stature, and quick speed make him almost a pseudo Pikachu. He's able to rushdown and avoid Palutena's rising aerials, allowing him to almost guarantee a landing aerial and therefore a punish. He's also able to edgeguard Palutena decently, with low angled f-tilt and even Waterfall being able to 2-frame. If she doesn't go for the ledge, Water Gun can push her offstage. However, you shouldn't count out the others. Ivysaur has a powerful spike that makes 2-framing easier and kill earlier, as well as a strong u-air to kill Palutena in juggle situations. Coupled that with a ton of kill confirms at 70%, where Squirtle's combo game tips off, and Charizard's powerful last resort options in side-b, u-smash OOS, and his throws, give you one versatile option for any matchup.
In the neutral as Squirtle, around early percents, you wanna go for your combo starters in f-air, d-air, d-throw, and late dash attack. Palutena will whiff her rising aerials or go for landing aerials, so getting in early but not too early avoids both options and forces n-air or dashback. If you're able to get in early, f-air is a quick, frame 5 move that can hit Palutena before she uses her own moves or beat out n-air. The only trouble would be dashback, which even then may be too slow due to Squirtle's fall speed and f-air's 6 frames of landing lag. If Palutena starts reaching 60-70%, it may be more beneficial to switch to Ivysaur. Ivysaur's neutral greatly uses Razor Leaf, which can be reflected, so use it more defensively for zoning. Razor Leaf can confirm into a ton of options in f-air, Grab can net you a kill as well with d-throw -> n-air -> FF -> Vine Whip. Charizard's neutral is based on conditioning your opponent. You can pressure their shield with empty-hops mixed with a grab -> kill throw or even a side-b finisher if she n-airs OOS. If she's approaching, u-smash can help OOS or as an anti-air, and Charizard's speed is still fast for a heavy, making his dashback very effective against a dashattack.
Punishing Palutena is best via Ivysaur. His juggle game is incredible, as u-air and Vine Whip are long range moves with devastating kill power. U-air also sends Ivysaur back to the ground, allowing him to cover options much faster. U-smash reads kill Palutena very early, and Razor Leaf can cover directional airdodges. However, Squirtle still has a very strong early punish game, so preferably use him first. His juggling game is however the weakest, so switch to Ivysaur in those situations quickly. Charizard's u-air and u-smash are decent moves that can juggle, along with his quick fall speed and ground speed, allow him to cover a ton of distance during mixups. Offstage, Ivysaur d-air can 2-frame and kill very early, as well as f-smash being a strong tool for ledgetrapping, as it has deceivingly long range and pulls Ivysaur back, allowing him to dodge getup attack. Squirtle can also 2-frame with low-angled f-tilt, as well as Water Gun to cover above-ground options. Charizard's neutral-B can be used to cover the ledge, but Palutena's teleport can avoid it. D-air is a strong option, but will hardly ever hit due to teleport. Using tipper b-air and side-b at the ledge can kill very early however, so basic fundamentals in ledgetrapping is useful as Charizard, especially due to how scary his basic options can be, in the form of tipper b-air and grab -> u-throw/b-throw (for roll from ledge).
Pokemon Trainer Mains to Study:
Tweek: Tweek's odd ability to pick up any character and dominate has no exceptions, including his Pokemon Trainer, who recently won him a tournament over fellow PT expert Wishes at Spectrum #100. As expected from the #2 ranked player in the world (as well as being regarded as the best skill wise from other top players), he's capable of dominating with pretty much any character. Tweek is well-known for being arguably the best Squirtle as of right now, however Tweek is the best option to watch due to his decision making.
Puppeh, Pandarian, and Wishes: All 3 are very strong Pokemon Trainers to watch. Watching Tweek is good for decision making, but watching these three's VODs are important for learning matchups, due to their higher experience compared to Tweek.
3. Diddy Kong
Diddy Kong's incredible ability to apply pressure on the ground and punish poor defensive options make him either beat or at the very least go even with Palutena. His Banana forces a defensive option just by holding it, even moreso at high percents, and a lot of his moves have low lag that can be used on the ground or in a shorthop, such as d-tilt and b-air.
In the neutral, having a Banana out applies a ton of pressure to the opponent, especially at kill percents, so make sure to be comfortable with Banana and itemplay in general. Use Banana to punish landings, airdodges, or spotdodges, or even in an empty hop, similar to a tomahawk. It's also decently used in the air, as it can stall the opponent long enough for you to reach them, as they'll be stuck in hitstun for a second. B-air is a solid walling option, as you can spam it, being able to use it twice in one shorthop. F-air has more range, however is a bit slower, and popgun being used at the midrange can force a shield and still let you approach. However, if Palutena reads the popgun, she can quickly dashattack. Side-b is a great burst option when punishing moves like dash attack, however, and can even be used on shield due to it's command grab properties, as well as an attack. Empty hops with Banana are definitely scary as well, so I recommend implementing that into your play. Diddy should play a pressure game with Banana, and even defensive at times, so against Palutena, play close in the midrange when you have Banana, but maybe pull back and use popgun/spawn a Banana from far away. Diddy excels at punishing Palutena's footsies style. Against rising aerials, Banana her as she's landing (you may need to SH banana), or even Banana her landing into whatever punish you want. Against landing aerials, you need to predict it as she jumps, so Banana as soon as she jumps. This ability to punish the aerials from far away while also being fast on the ground gives Diddy a big advantage in the neutral.
Some good punishes after Banana are d-throw -> double b-air, dash attack -> f-air, or even smash attack after Banana. F-smash is usually better than u-smash, so long as you're either center stage/f-smashing them towards the side of the stage you're closer to, while u-smash is better on platforms or if you're gonna be f-smashing them towards the blastzone while you're on the other side of the stage. However, f-smashing allows you to set up edgeguards, so on more fast-fally characters, maybe opt for the f-smash or even a b-throw. Being comfortable with punishes from Banana is key to being able to pressure Palutena, as if she's not scared of your punishes, your neutral crumbles. Learning the Diddy Kong platform infinite can be helpful in securing stocks, but is very tough to get consistently, so make sure to practice it when you can, and to go for it during friendlies to help you notice when you should go for it and what situations occur where this infinite is applicable. Diddy's biggest form of ledgetrapping involves placing the Banana at the ledge, which covers regular getup and getup attack. Their remaining options are double jump from the ledge, jump from the ledge, and roll from ledge. Against double jump from the ledge, sometimes they'll try to grab the Banana, so if they do that, it may be a good idea next time to place the Banana a little further back, but you can also usually punish them while they're focused on the Banana such as with a shieldgrab. Against jump from ledge, f-air sends them right back, and against roll from ledge, b-throw sends them back. Palutena can have difficulty at the ledge, as her semi-floaty nature makes double jump from the ledge more predictable, and her mid-weight status can get her killed by an f-smash if she does regular getup or getup attack on a Banana. Diddy can even 2-frame by throwing Banana at the ledge, allowing him to get a pretty easy d-air.
Diddy Kong Mains to Study:
Dakpo: Probably the most well-known Diddy, Dakpo is well known for his use of the infinite in tournament, as well as his 50 minute in-depth guide to Diddy Kong as a whole. An incredible resource on learning the matchup as Diddy and the character himself.
ZeRo: The GOAT of Smash 4 has not been to a tournament in a bit, focusing on streaming. That said, his Diddy was and is still a force to be reckoned with, with a heavy defensive and pressure based game, very similar to a Street Fighter player. Often times he'll have opponents cornered their entire stocks, and with this playstyle earned him the title of the best Smash 4 player 4 years in a row, with countless tournament wins. He also recently released a guide to Diddy Kong, which is again a great resource.
Stage Select:
FD is probably Palutena's worst stage, as she loses a lot of platform extensions on her combos with n-air and u-air, and loses some of her teleport cancel options. The rest of her stages should be okay, with Battlefield being her best due to the exact opposite of FD, and possibly even PS1/PS2.
Summary:
To summarize:
- Take note of rising/landing aerials
- Get good at ledgetrapping and 2-framing consistently
- Pressure her to force a whiffed n-air OOS
- Pick a fast character and small character
May. 29/2020 - Changed Twitter handle
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