Overview

Cloud is a heavyweight fighter with powerful aerials and a unique set of special moves, many of which are based on his iconic attacks from the Final Fantasy VII series. His Buster Sword naturally grants him astonishing range and priority, as most of his attacks extend massive hitboxes while minimizing his vulnerability. True to form, he can unlock a powered-up mode by filling his Limit Gauge. When this gauge is full, Cloud’s overall movement speed increases, but more importantly, he unlocks additional special attacks that inflict massive amounts of damage, all with high launching power. Cloud’s strengths center around his damage output, overwhelming aerial neutral game, and threatening Limit Break attacks.

One of your sub-objectives with Cloud is to create space to charge up your Limit Break (down special), especially if it’s close to max. Anytime you earn a launch, an offstage throw, or if your opponent is playing timidly, you can charge a bit of your Limit Break until your opponent reacts to it. The threat of your powered-up special attacks generally forces the enemy to go aggressive, so you can think of your down special as a sort of stage-control “attack” (although stay sharp and be quick to cancel out of it if you’re in a tight spot). You can cancel Limit Charge in a number of ways: inputting down special (allows you to almost immediately attack), rolling, shielding, and jumping.

When dancing around foes fishing for a hit, focus on spending time airborne and “walling” out enemies with your Buster Sword. Fighters who don’t have extended attacks (i.e., those without weapons) have trouble dealing with Cloud’s aerial assault since his Buster Sword is essentially unchallengeable when swung. Mastering Cloud’s fast fall and double jump techniques is key to winning the neutral game. These techniques include fast fall into neutral air attack and up air attack, forward air attack canceled into fast fall, and jump neutral air attack into double jump down air attack.

Once you gain an advantage, you can follow up with a dash-in mix-up with your dashing attack, up tilt, and grab. If you score a launcher-type attack like up tilt or up air attack, you can apply an incredibly strong juggle-trap pressuring game using your up air mixed up with air dodge baits and shield-grab punishes. Once you take and deal enough damage, you can cap off your Limit Gauge to unlock upgraded special moves that can be used to efficiently KO your opponents. Limit Break Blade Beam and Climhazzard are particularly effective.

Although Cloud’s main weakness is his recovery game, he has a few tricks up his sleeve that allow him to alter his flight trajectory. Air Blade Beam and air Cross Slash prolong his airborne state a bit, and Climhazzard allows him to launch high for a ledge grab, with Limit Break Climhazzard extending its range (allowing you to grab on to a ledge without overextending).

Cloud has remarkably quick pivots and dash bursts, so he’s able to dash-dance efficiently. If you input repeated left-right flicks with the control stick, you can dash around back and forth, feinting your approach and tricking the enemy into committing to an attack you can capitalize on.

Cloud Vitals

Movement Options

Movement Ranks