Palutena is a Default/Starter Character in Super Smash Bros. Obliteration. She is the Goddess and rightful ruler of Angel Land and resides in a temple high above the Clouds in the highest part of Angel Land known as Skyworld, She is very trusting of the series protagonist Pit, who is her most trusted and strongest soldier. During the course of Kid Icarus, despite imprisoned she was telepathically able to communicate with Pit granting him Her Bow, to find the Three Sacred Treasures In Skyworld, Overworld, and Underworld, in order to defeat Medusa. Palutena's most recent appearance in Kid Icarus Uprising has her bestowing Pit with the "Power Of Flight which Pit uses in his latest quest to defeat a vengeful Medusa and the new ruler of the Underworld Hades. Kindhearted, Wise, Sweet and Benevolent, Palutena is ready to Alight the brawl with her knowledge and powers of an omnipotent Ruling Goddess. Using a Moveset based aroung Her Staff, Wings, Kicks, and Light Energy, Palutena is ready to travel like a ray of light to the top of the Mountain of Smashers in a fight for the ages.
Attacks[]
| Type | Name | Damage | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral | (3% = Start/Loop, 1% = Middle, 3.5% = Last, 7.5% = Total). | Thrusts her staff forward to emit a blast of light from its orb that hits multiple times, followed by an upward swipe. Long range and useful for spacing, making it Palutena's best ground attack. It is easily jab cancelled, and can combo into itself, grabs and, at very high percentages, a neutral aerial, back aerial or an up smash. The neutral infinite's finisher deals decent knockback, but has high ending lag. It is also tied with Wario's for the fourth slowest neutral attack in the game, being surpassed only by Bayonetta's, King Dedede's and Zelda's, with its first hit being active on frame 8. | |
| Forward Tilt | (Head = 6%, Tail = 4%, 10% = Total). | Twirls her staff in front of herself, hitting up to three times. Long duration, good range and can be used to punish sidesteps and rolls or pressure shields. It is unclankable, meaning it will not suffer ending lag if it collides with an attack without transcendent priority. However, it leaves her very vulnerable to other attacks due to its very slow start-up, long duration, high ending lag and lack of reliable protection. | |
| Up Tilt | (1.3% = loop, 2.5% = last staff head, 1.5% = last staff tail, 8.7%-9.7% = all hits connect). | Kneels and twirls her staff overhead, hitting up to seven times. Despite having a relatively low hitbox, it has decent vertical range. It has the fastest start-up of her tilt attacks and good KO potential at very high percentages. It also makes Palutena's hurtbox very low, even lower than her crouch. However, it has a rather long duration and fails to hit small opponents, such as Kirby. This move is unclankable. | |
| Down Tilt | (7% = grounded opponents, staff's head/tail, aerial opponents, 5% = staff's handle, aerial opponents only). | Twirls her staff along the ground in front of herself. It is her fastest tilt (though it still has relatively slow start-up), as well as her tilt attack with the lowest duration and the least ending lag. It can be used for edgeguarding and spacing, or to punish sidesteps and rolls, though it is more situational than her neutral attack in terms of general spacing due to its slower start-up. This move is unclankable. | |
| Forward Smash | Ethereal Wings | (15% = Near, 13% = Far). | Conjures ethereal wings and flaps them forward. Deals high knockback and has long horizontal range, giving it great KO potential. It has a sourspot near the tip of the wings, which deals less knockback, and a windbox that can push opponents that try to punish the move and gimp some some recoveries. However, it has high ending lag at 47 frames, making it risky to use. Its sweetspot KOs around 98%, while its sourspot KOs around 126%. She occasionally calls out its name upon use (ゴッド ウイング, God Wing in the Japanese version). |
| Up Smash | (6% = base, 12% = middle, 9% = top). | Conjures a blue beam of light that erupts from the ground. It has the highest vertical range of any up smash in the game as well as the second highest vertical range of all up smashes in the series, surpassed only by Snake's up smash in Brawl. It has three hitboxes: one at the base, one at the middle and one at the top, the bottom one being the strongest of the three. Its high vertical hitbox and great KO potential make it a very good edgeguarding tool, as it KOs around 98% when sweetspotted at the base. However, it has short horizontal range and high ending lag, though it is her smash attack with the least ending lag at 42 frames, as well as the least risky to use. | |
| Down Smash | Angel Wings | (15% = Clean, 13% = Late). | Conjures ethereal wings and flaps them downward on both sides. It also has a windbox at the tip of the wings that can push opponents that try to punish the move and gimp some recoveries. However, it has slow start-up lag for a down smash (though ironically, the fastest of her smash attacks with a difference of one frame), as well as the highest ending lag of all down smashes and the second highest ending lag of all the smash attacks in the game at 52 frames, making it very risky to use. It sends on a mainly vertical trajectory and KOs around 106% when clean, and is a semi-spike that KOs at 134% when late. She occasionally calls out its name upon use (ゴッド ウイング, God Wing in the Japanese version). |
Aerial Attacks[]
| Type | Name | Damage | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral | (1.7% = loop, 5% = last, 13% = all hits connect) | Spins her staff around her. The first five hits have the auto-link angle, which can potentially trap opponents into the rest of the attack. It is a great pressuring and juggling tool against opponents on platforms above, and it can combo into aerial or ground attacks at low percentages. Its high knockback also makes it a surprise KO option at high percentages. | |
| Forward | (9%) | A flying kick. Long horizontal hitbox and low landing lag makes it one of her most reliable spacing tools, and is a good combo option into most attacks at low to medium percentages, including her neutral attack, grab, dash attack or itself, though it has relatively high ending lag. It can also be autocanceled from a short hop and then fast falling. | |
| Back | (12% = shield, 9% = arm). | Rotates her body to slam her shield into the opponent. The attack grants her 8 invincibility frames on her upper body, allowing her to out-prioritize other attacks and some projectiles. Comes out one frame faster than her forward aerial, it has decent landing lag and can be autocanceled from a short hop. These traits make it one of her best edgeguarding and spacing tools at medium range, and is somewhat safe on shield if it hits with her shield's edge. However, it is easy to miss if the opponent is too close to Palutena, since it does not have a hitbox around her. It also has a very small sourspot on her arm that has reduced power, and high ending lag for an aerial at 41 frames. It KOs around 120% near the edge. | |
| Up | (4% = loop, 5% = last, 9% = all hits connect). | Twirls while emitting her halo, which hits up to five times. Its fast start-up and long duration allow it to reliably pressure aerial opponents above her. Has great KO potential at high percentages, often KOing below 100% near the upper blast line, and KOing around 140% if all hits connect on a grounded opponent. However, it has fairly high ending lag at 24 frames, and has more interruptible frames than autocanceling frames, meaning it cannot be autocanceled at all even some frames after the animation ends. This can, however, be mitigated by using other attack with lower ending lag before she hits the ground, like her forward aerial. | |
| Down | (9%) | A roundhouse kick. It sends grounded opponents at an oblique angle and always meteor smashes aerial opponents due to it lacking a sourspot. However, it lasts for only 1 frame and it has very low horizontal range, making it difficult to land, and it has the highest ending lag of any aerial attack in the game while not autocanceling unless used from a full hop. As a result, it works better as an out of shield option, though it is still more situational than her other attacks. |
Other Attacks[]
| Type | Name | Damage | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floor Attack (Front) | (7%) | Swings Her Staff In Both Forward/Back Directions, While Getting Up. | |
| Floor Attack (Back) | (6%) | Same As Front Attack, Just With Less Power. | |
| Floor Attack (Trip) | (7%) | Swings Her Staff In Both Forward/Back Directions, Near The Ground | |
| Ledge Attack | (8%) | Performs A Legsweep While Climbing Up. | |
| Dash Attack | (8% = clean, 6% = late) | Rams into the opponent with her shield. The attack grants her 12 invincibility frames on her frontal part of her body. It is easy to hit the opponent with the attack due to it granting Palutena a small boost forward. It is also tied for the third fastest dash attack, but it has high ending lag. These traits make it usable for catching landing opponents and penetrating through strong attacks without suffering damage. Its clean hit begins KOing at 150%, when hit by her arm. |
Grabs/Throws[]
| Type | Name | Damage | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grab | (N/A) | Telekinetically clinches the opponent. Palutena's grab range is fairly large and disjointed, although her dash grab has some ending lag. | |
| Pummel | (3%) | A small blast of light. Its average speed, yet high damage output makes it one of the better pummels in the game. | |
| Forward | (5% = hit 1, 4% = throw, 9% = total). | Curls herself, then telekinetically pushes the opponent forward. It is Palutena's second weakest throw in terms of knockback, though it can be used to set up an edgeguard. | |
| Back | (6% = hit 1, 4% = throw, 10% = total). | Telekinetically elevates the opponent, then performs an inverted version of the Arabesque, a ballet kick, which flings the opponent backward. It is her strongest throw, but it is somewhat weak for a KO throw, not doing so on most middleweights until 140% near the edge. As a result, it is often forgone in favor of her up throw, provided she has rage. | |
| Up | (8% = staff, 4% = throw, 12% = total). | Elevates her staff, then telekinetically throws the opponent upward. It is her second strongest throw, making it usable with rage, and it can also KO opponents earlier on stages with platforms. It often replaces her back throw as her primary throw to KO, provided she has a high level of rage enough and the opponent is not near the edge. | |
| Down | (3% = hit 1, 2% = throw, 5% = total). | Telekinetically slams the opponent onto the ground with her left hand. It is her weakest, albeit nonetheless her best throw, due to its impressive potential for combos and KO set-ups. Depending on the opponent's DI, it can combo into any of her aerials except down aerial (her back aerial combos out of a reverse aerial rush). While it can be followed up with a down aerial or an up smash, both require the opponent's air dodge to be successfully read and the opponent to fail to DI Properly. |
Taunts[]
Up Taunt = Makes a sweeping gesture with her arms and produces ethereal wings and emits her halo while saying "You shall be purified!" (浄化してあげましょう, You will be purified).
Side Taunt = Laughs tauntingly while twirling around her staff as she performs an inverted version of the Arabesque.
Down Taunt = Lets go of her staff, which floats next to her, and brushes her hair aside while emitting her halo, saying "Ready when you are." (いつでもどうぞ？, Feel free whenever).
Special Moves[]
| Type | Name | Damage | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral Special | Autoreticle | (3% = per hit) | Aims a reticle over the opponent, then fires three blasts of light at that location. It can only be initiated if an opponent is within range, with nothing blocking her target, and said opponent is not currently intangibile. It can be used as a way for stopping direct approaches and locking, as well as forcing an approach. It is also able to hit opponents behind Palutena (if she is moving during the attack and the opponent is at the maximum horizontal range towards her). In addition to its offensive potential, it has defensive potential due to it stalling her in midair, making it useful to discourage opponents from edgeguarding or gimping her. However, it has high ending lag if it doesn't target anything. |
| Side Special | Reflect Barrier | (5%, 1.17x = reflected projectiles). | Raises her shield forward to emit a rectangular barrier which pushes opponents away and reflects projectiles. Palutena's shield has an unblockable hitbox when it is being raised. If the barrier reflects an attack that deals at least 50%, it will break. However, unlike other reflectors, it can be used immediately after being broken. The barrier stays out for almost a full second (58 frames). |
| Up Special | Warp | (N/A) | A teleport. Palutena disappears and then reappears in a chosen direction. It can be edge canceled, allowing for defensive and movement options, but renders Palutena helpless after reappearance unless edge canceled. |
| Down Special | Counter | (1.3x, min = 10%). | Covers her chest with her shield in a defensive position. If she is hit, Palutena performs a counterattack with her staff, similarly to the counterattacks used by majority of the Fire Emblem characters. It has a high damage output, but it is the second weakest counterattack in the game in regards to knockback. It is also one of the few counterattacks that comes with a sweetspot, which is located at the tip of her staff; the sourspot (located at the handle of the staff) while keeping the damage multiplier has much less knockback. It as a remarkable horizontal range (being able to counter large disjointed hitboxes such as Shulk's forward smash), but poor vertical range (as can be seen here). It also has the highest ending lag of any counter, both if it misses and if it hits, giving the opponent a chance to punish if it reacts properly. |
Final Smash[]
| Type | Name | Damage | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final Smash | Black Hole Laser | (N/A = Black Hole, 2.4% = Mega Laser hits 1-12, 12% = Mega Laser hit 13, 40.8% = Total/Max) | Palutena Illuminates her staff's orb and twirls around repeatedly before firing a Black Hole from her staff's orb, after which she quickly retreats off-stage in order to fire a Mega Laser into the Black Hole. The Black Hole does not deal damage, but pulls the opponent into itself and places them in a tumbling state. Conversely, the Mega Laser hits multiple times before concluding with a final blast that launches the opponent and dissipates the Black Hole. It is strong enough to KOs middleweights at 35% while near the edge of Final Destination in the 3DS version. |