Brawler Arsenal

Grounded Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Popo and Nana swing their hammers in front of them, knocking away nearby foes. Neutral attack is the Ice Climbers’ fastest ground-based attack. Both swings (neutral attacks 1 and 2) are relatively safe when shielded, only punishable by fast out-of-shield jabs, making the Ice Climbers’ jab one of the best neutral attacks in the game. If both Popo and Nana hit both of their attacks (four hits), they deal great damage and knock the opponent into the air.

As your own out-of-shield option, you can punish most laggy attacks since Popo’s jab offers decent range.

The main drawback to neutral attack is its lengthy overall animation time (almost as long as some tilt attacks), so it can leave you vulnerable to whiff-punish attacks if you’re not careful.

Dash Attack

While running, Popo and Nana perform mighty hammer swings as they lunge toward the enemy, launching their foe vertically into the sky. Although the Ice Climbers can be punished if their dash attacks are shielded, it’s not particularly easy for the enemy to do so, as your duo passes through the enemy’s body, forcing your foe to turn around before attacking.

On hit, dash attack launches the enemy straight up into the air, giving you ample time to mount a juggle-trap offense.

Defensive Attacks

Tilts

Side Tilt

The Ice Climbers both unleash a powerful horizontal hammer swing that knocks away enemies. Side tilt is an excellent ground-based attack that’s safe when shielded (even without Nana) and fast enough to deter enemy aggression. It inflicts considerable damage and knockback, giving you enough space to set up an Ice Shot follow-up.

Up Tilt

Popo and Nana twirl their hammers above them, striking foes several times before popping the enemy vertically into the air. Up tilt should strictly be used as a persistent anti-air attack against descending foes. If you miss with it, you’re left exposed to punish attacks. While the Ice Climbers extend a large hit effect above them with their hammers, they also have small hitboxes surrounding their bodies, so opponents who dash into you can potentially be hit (although they have to dash all the way in). Overall, up tilt is incredibly unreliable as a ground-to-ground attack, since it’s easily punishable when shielded.

Down Tilt

Popo and Nana crouch down and sweep at the enemy’s legs, knocking away their foe. Like side tilt, down tilt is remarkably safe when shielded. Down tilt extends a sizable hitbox while at the same time limiting your vulnerability as both of your Ice Climbers crouch low to the ground. You can throw out down tilt as a ground-to-ground poke to check the opponent’s ground aggression.

At certain damage ranges, down tilt can force a tech get-up situation as it knocks down. If you see the opponent tech, go in for a punish dash attack.

Smashes

Side Smash

The Ice Climbers raise their hammers into the air and deliver a heavy, smashing attack that blasts foes far away. While visually, the Ice Climbers swing their hammers down from above and downward, the hit effect only covers a small horizontal range in front of them (so it’s not a viable anti-air).

Side smash can punish recovering opponents just as they rush to grab a stage ledge, if timed and spaced properly (such as after knocking them off the stage with down tilt). It’s also a powerful finishing move against foes near the left and right blast zones thanks to its high knockback power.

Up Smash

Popo and Nana perform an upward hammer swing, starting at their front and arcing above and behind, launching foes they hit into the sky. Up smash is a powerful anti-air with a wide arc that hits in front and behind the Ice Climbers. You can use it against short-hopping foes or as a surprise reactionary attack against aggressive opponents dashing into you. Naturally, it’s largely punishable when shielded, but if you can make a hard read on the opponent’s attacks, you can potentially launch them into the upper blast zone for a knockout.

Down Smash

Popo sweeps the front with his hammer while Nana immediately follows his lead with a rear sweep. Foes hit by the attack are knocked up and away. Unlike most clear-out attacks that sweep forward, then backward sequentially, the Ice Climbers’ down smash attack covers the front and the rear almost instantly as Nana quickly follows Popo’s lead with her rear sweep.

Down smash is effective for punishing enemies rolling or landing behind you. Thanks to its relatively thick hit effect, with precise timing, it can be used to punish ledge-grabbing recovery, just as someone double-jumps or uses up special from beneath a handhold. Be cautious, though, as it’s unsafe to throw out haphazardly.

Grabs

Grabs

Popo reaches out and grabs a nearby opponent. Popo’s grab has moderate range, but is slow to start. Popo’s front throw is a simple hammer swing that knocks the enemy away, while his back throw is an over-the-shoulder backward throw into the air.

Up throw is an upward hammer swing that launches the enemy vertically into the air, from which you can chase their shuffling with a jump up air attack.

Down throw leads into a potential guaranteed combo with up air or neutral air attack against low-percentage foes. At higher percentages, you need to chase down the opponent’s shuffling habits to follow up with a combo.

While Popo performs a grab attack or throw, control of Nana is deactivated, disallowing any kind of desynchronization tricks.

Aerial Attacks

Aerials

Neutral Air Attack

While in midair, both Popo and Nana perform aerial spin attacks that hit in front of and behind them. Neutral air attack is a remarkably versatile attack that can be used in combos, the neutral game, and during your advantage state. It has low landing lag, so you can throw it out as a safe jumping attack to set up a dash attack combo.

As an anti-air defensive maneuver, you can perform short hop neutral air attack and immediately pull back the control stick to drift away from the opponent. This makes it a bit safer in case your opponent is looking to bait and punish it. Since its air lag is quite low, you recover early enough to avoid all landing lag, allowing you to shield upon landing.

Interestingly, the first active frame of neutral attack hits behind you. You can use this rear swing to offensively jump over grounded opponents, hitting them once you pass over. If this is shielded, it’s difficult for the opponent to respond with an attack since they must turn around to do so. You can combo into dash attack on hit at certain percentages.

As an air-to-ground offensive attack, you can jump into neutral attack canceled into fast fall, potentially surprising foes beneath you.

Forward Air Attack

The Ice Climbers deliver a forward-somersault hammer attack in front of them. Before Nana’s downward swing, she extends a meteor smashing effect in front of her. Forward air attack has much more landing lag than neutral air attack, but deals much more damage, making it better for finishing off enemies, especially while they’re offstage near the side blast zones.

A strong air-to-ground sequence to maximize shield-stun advantage is to jump and, at the apex of your jump, perform a forward air and fast-fall at the same time. This technique is best executed if your C-stick is assigned to an attack (tilt or smash attack). You can jump forward, then input down on the control stick while simultaneously pressing forward on the C-stick. If done correctly, you get a diving hammer attack that’s safe against shields. Against certain fighters at certain percentages, you can even follow up with a dash attack for a combo (followed by a juggle mix-up opportunity).

Back Air Attack

Popo and Nana turn around in midair with a rear-swinging hammer attack. Back air attack is similar to neutral air attack in its landing lag while boasting lower air lag and higher damage. You can use low-altitude air-to-ground back air (off of short hop, for instance) in your offense. On hit, you can combo with a dashing attack or a dash-in Squall Hammer.

Back air starts up relatively quickly, and thanks to its low air lag, you can swing multiple times in a single hop, or you can back air into double jump. This makes it one of your best edge-guarding attacks against midair opponents offstage.

Up Air Attack

Popo and Nana perform an upward wide-angle hammer swing that launches foes higher into the air. The beginning and tail end of this attack (behind the Ice Climber) can hit taller fighters standing on the ground, with the tail end having a slightly higher chance of doing so.

If you short-hop over an enemy and go for a deep up air attack and it hits, you can potentially follow up with a dashing short hop neutral air attack combo, dishing out major damage. This is a safe sequence to go for since not only do you cross up over the enemy, but if both of the Ice Climbers are shielded, you’re unpunishable.

Down Air Attack

While soaring through the air, the Ice Climbers almost instantaneously plummet to the ground with their hammerheads extended below them. Enemies crushed by the weight of their hammers are launched into the air.

Down air attack has a unique landing-lag animation. Instead of being grounded for a set amount of time, Popo and Nana bounce off the ground and slightly into the air. During this bounce, they’re vulnerable to attacks, although they’re considered airborne. It’s unsafe to most shield-jab reprisals.

Special Moves

Specials

Neutral Special: Ice Shot

Popo and Nana summon ice chunks in front of them before whacking them forward with their hammers, damaging foes they slide into. Ice chunks have special properties: they can bounce off walls and damage the Ice Climbers themselves. Ice chunks can be hit and “reflected” by normal enemy attacks, potentially hitting Popo and Nana during the ice’s return path.

While Ice Shot can be reflected by enemies, it’s a useful tool in your arsenal since it forces a reaction from the opponent. If you get a high-ground advantage, you can throw out ice chunks that slide down to the platform below. With these ice chunks as cover, you can mount an offense afterward.

Side Special: Squall Hammer

The Ice Climbers become a single unit and deliver a high-speed spinning hammer attack, striking both in front and behind several times before launching nearby enemies up into the air. While spinning, the duo can move left and right with control stick input. Adding Special inputs boosts the Ice Climbers into the air slightly, making Squall Hammer useful as a recovery option.

If Squall Hammer is executed while Nana is defeated, or if the climbers are “desynced” (that is, if they’re apart or if one of the other climbers is currently performing a certain move), Popo and Nana perform a solo Squall Hammer. While they can still move, they gain much less height from the special. The final hit of their solo Squall Hammer packs much less punch, and the attack deals less damage overall.

While Squall Hammer leaves you vulnerable with its landing lag, it’s possible to mitigate this with good Special input timing. While grounded, the final hit of Squall Hammer halts your momentum and leaves you exposed for a while. But if you can time the Special input pop-up effect right before the Ice Climbers perform the final swing so that you pop into the air briefly, you can keep your momentum going into the air where the Ice Climbers swing airborne, but then land when the animation is over so that you essentially bypass all landing lag. This has incredibly positive implications in your recovery game, allowing you to get to a ledge while minimizing your vulnerability.

Up Special: Belay

With the duo connected by a safety rope, Popo picks up Nana and throws her high into the air. When Nana reaches the apex of the launch, she pulls Popo up with her. During Nana’s speedy ascent, she launches foes who collide with her. Belay is unique in that it’s only effective if Nana is near Popo. If she’s been knocked off the stage, or if the two have been desynced, Popo goes into his throw animation with no effect.

As a recovery special, Belay can be used to grab onto a ledge from very low altitudes. It also doubles as a vertical attack since you can hit foes above you as Nana rockets into them. But it leaves you in a helpless falling state, so both Popo and Nana become sitting ducks as they descend from the air. It’s best used as a last resort to get back to a ledge.

Down Special: Blizzard

Both Ice Climbers fire a flurry of ice from their palms. Enemies in close range become frozen in a large ice formation, unable to act. Blizzard’s freeze effect activates once a sufficient amount of damage is inflicted with it at close range. Once frozen, further Blizzard hits extend its freeze duration. Ideally, you hit with all the projectiles from both Ice Climbers to maximize the freeze.

Blizzard is one of Ice Climbers’ best attacks when they’re synced. It’s relatively safe when shielded, and if all of their projectiles hit, the enemy is frozen helplessly, giving you enough time to wind up for a smash or forward air attack follow-up, dealing massive damage in total.

The main downside to Blizzard is that it has quite a bit of start-up time. But if you have the chance to start a close-range Blizzard against an opponent, you should take it. Foes recovering beneath a ledge are prime targets for freezing, as well as enemies descending from the air. If you can condition your opponents into a defensive posture while they’re falling, you can nail them with Blizzard if they air-dodge. Otherwise, you can force a great deal of shield damage.

Final Smash: Iceberg

This Final Smash causes a huge Iceberg to emerge in the center of the stage. Opponents who touch it take damage upon each contact. You can control the Iceberg with the left and right inputs. You also move as normal, so be wary of self-destructing.