Brawler Arsenal

Grounded Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Neutral Attacks

The mayor’s hardworking assistant swings quickly with a colorful mallet, hitting directly in front. It might look like this move swings over Isabelle’s head, but the hitbox only strikes in a line ahead of her. Holding Attack or tapping it repeatedly makes Isabelle swing over and over. This works a bit like Pikachu and Pichu’s neutral attack combos, which involve repeated headbutts. You might squeeze in four or five mallet swings in a close-range combo before the defender is pushed away, but three is more reliable. Depending on their position and size and damage, opponents can often slip out after three hits.

Dash Attack

Isabelle is somewhat clumsy, exemplified by her dash attack. While running, she trips and drops a breakable vase. Oh no! Until it smashes into the ground, the vase has a small circular hitbox. She can usually juggle right afterward, depending on how far away the opponent is launched.

Defensive Attacks

Tilts

Side Tilt

Isabelle swings a cute plaid parasol. This hits in front of her with good range and height, with the parasol on its side against anything in front. The opened umbrella is the main hitbox, but the handle hits as well if it’s used closer up. This is a good poke from several steps away, and can often combo right after popping an enemy up with down tilt or a dash attack. Solid parasol hits knock the recipient away a good distance, scoring Isabelle breathing room.

Up Tilt

Isabelle sweeps upward, literally, with a broom. She swings the cleaning implement from up-back to up-forward, hitting fairly fast to the back but pretty slow if you’re expecting this to hit someone standing on the ground in front. It’s intended mainly as a tool for swinging at jumping or helpless tumbling challengers. On hit, the victim is knocked upward, where you can try for more hits. They also get all the dust swept off them!

Since up smash hits only in front of her in a vertical line, up tilt has more significance than usual for Isabelle. Often, up tilts and up smashes are almost weaker/stronger counterparts of the same basic upward-arcing attack, but not here.

Down Tilt

Isabelle notices an unsightly weed and crouches to pluck it up by the root. As she rises with the agricultural intruder, anyone in the way is launched upward. This does the most damage up close to Isabelle, right where she’s weeding, but the hitbox extends a surprising distance in front with the vigor of Isabelle’s effort.

Smashes

Side Smash

With a combination confetti-and-firework-party-favor, Isabelle sets off a close-range blast. This attack has terrific knockback and good KO potential at higher percentages. It lacks a bit in speed and range, outdone on both by side tilt.

Up Smash

With an air of authority, Isabelle blasts on a whistle as a stop sign springs from the ground at her feet. There’s a weak launching hit at ground level, followed by a stronger hit as the sign pops up to full height. This is a strong attack in front, good for nailing prone foes who haven’t gotten up yet and tumbling enemies you’re sure will drift in front of Isabelle. But it lacks the wide horizontal coverage of many up smash attacks, since the only hitbox is along the sign in front.

Down Smash

Isabelle spins while emptying out a bucket of water, sloshing away challengers nearby. This hits pretty quickly in front, as fast as side tilt’s umbrella, before Isabelle empties out the second half of the water behind her. The back hit isn’t painfully slow, and can knock away enemies approaching from behind. Since up smash doesn’t cover both sides, down smash is your go-to when you need a clear-out option.

Grabs

Grabs

Swinging a big butterfly net over her head, Isabelle looks to wrap up defenders before a helping of grab attacks transitioning into a throw. Using a net gives her long reach on the grab attempt, but it’s very slow to compensate. It takes almost three times as long as the fastest grabs to reach opponents. The time required is the same as an uncharged side smash, so keep that in mind. Practice canceling a dash with a grab attempt for the max possible reach against ground enemies. Keeping Lloid Traps set up and harassing foes with lots of short-hopping slingshots paves the way for this slow grab to succeed.

Upon netting someone, front throw is the best options for raw knockback. Interestingly, back throw barely hurls the enemy at all, keeping them close to Isabelle’s back. Almost all other back throws are actually the farthest options, so use this to your advantage by immediately going for a mix-up where foes don’t expect it. Up throw hurls them straight up, perhaps triggering a Lloid Trap combo if he was set up beforehand (like if you set up a trap and camp on top of it, daring people to attack you). Down throw bounces them off the ground directly in front, in position for you to threaten with a dash attack or short-hopping slingshot.

Aerial Attacks

Aerials

Neutral Air Attack

A demonstration of civic spirit is in order, and Isabelle sets about it by spinning in the air with pom-poms. Coverage is decent on this attack, with hitboxes surrounding both arms as she twirls in circles with the pom-poms out to both sides. This is her fastest air attack to start up, and the hitboxes persist for a surprisingly long time, a third of a second, as she spins. This makes neutral air attack great for using above enemies before fast-falling down into them, and during short hops. Short-hop with neutral air attack, then fast-fall as soon as possible, and you’ll have a small jump with a spinning attack that covers almost the entire airborne period on the way up and down. Neutral air attack doesn’t start knocking grounded foes a long distance away until high percentages, so it can also be used to start reliable jump-in combos at low and middle percentages. If you land facing them after fast-falling with neutral air attack, pop them up with down tilt. If you land facing away (and close enough), launch them with back-hitting up tilt.

Forward Air Attack

Like Villager, Isabelle’s front and back air attacks are tiny projectiles launched from a slingshot. The slugs travel fast with incredible distance for air pokes, dealing decent damage right up close but quickly dwindling to low damage along the travel path. With the shot’s path, you always want to release these lateral to desired targets. They’re great at any range along the path, allowing Isabelle to harass and zone, and covering her during forward jumping movement.

The only risk is missing just over or under someone with the small shot, and getting beat by speedier air attacks (and up tilts) too close. Despite their reach and travel speed, shots require decent aim. High-jumping shots can easily miss erratic enemies air-to-air, and when short-hopping low to the ground with shots, savvy defenders will crouch (or even crouch-walk forward) under even the lowest shots. (Near stage edges, get around this by firing at toe level when falling past the stage!) Firing rapid shots also sounds like a good idea, and it is, but is easier said than done under control. Short-hopping forward with forward air quickly puts you so close to enemies that slingshot attacks aren’t prudent. Manually short-hopping in place, inputting forward air attack, then dragging the jump to fall backward (or fast-falling) to cut forward movement, repeat, is hard to do well.

Back Air Attack

Isabelle’s backward-facing slingshot attack. Back air is slower to shoot than forward air attack, but dishes out a little more damage. Err toward forward air when moving at enemies for the speed edge, and back air when zoning/running away from foes, when you have no intention of moving forward. Shot damage diminishes with distance traveled.

Like with forward air, using back air rapidly to wall off enemies and control space is a strong and fun approach, but surprisingly complex in execution. Either use an automatic short hop back attack (control stick to Isabelle’s back plus Attack+Jump), then drag Isabelle to her front side, repeat; or manually short-hop, tap back+Attack as briefly as possible (for a back air without too much backward stick influence), then drag Isabelle to her front on the way down.

Up Air Attack

Isabelle swings straight up very quickly with a small harvest of turnips, which she holds out for almost half a second. This does the most damage on the initial thrust, but stays active as a weaker hit for a long time for an air move. This hits only slightly slower than neutral air attack, and stays out even longer. Unfortunately, the hitbox doesn’t hit low enough on Isabelle’s body to make the attack useful as a long-lasting jump-in, like with neutral air attack. But it does make it a great all-purpose move when juggling or jousting with airborne targets above. Unlike with Villager, there’s no random element to the number of turnips produced.

Down Air Attack

The downward-aiming counterpart to up air attack. Isabelle swings turnips straight down. This is much slower to hit than up air, and is in fact Isabelle’s slowest air move. Use it for spiking foes offstage and bouncing them midscreen at medium-damage percentages and higher. Although it’s slow to hit and has a small hitbox, down air stays out for a surprising amount of time, a bit shorter-lasting than up air. This means it’s a little easier to time against foes below than many down airs that only hit for a tiny fraction of a second.

Special Moves

Specials

Neutral Special: Pocket

Isabelle reaches out, grabs any nearby projectile or item, and quickly stores it. Pocket works against projectiles and items whether they’re in motion or resting on the ground. An icon above Isabelle’s portrait indicates when she has something stored.

When something is Pocketed, the results upon inputting neutral special again depend on the object in question. For items that can be held and swung/thrown, Isabelle pulls the item out and holds it in her hands. For projectile items that exist only as shots and not as objects that a fighter can grab and heft, Isabelle ejects the projectile as if it were hers all along.

Like Villager’s version, Pocket is a unique special move that serves both offensive and defensive functions. Against ranged attackers focused on zoning, Pocket can throw a big wrench in their plans since it’s easy to catch their weapons of choice. This removes the incoming threat to Isabelle while giving her an instant extra tool to work with. Of course, if they’re going to stick to their long-range tactics, you’ll need to keep tossing their tools back, freeing Isabelle’s hands (and Pocket!) for more catches.

In some cases, Pocketing an enemy’s item might deprive them of one of their special moves, which is naturally a huge hindrance to their plans. An example is against Link, who can only have one Remote Bomb active at a time. Pocket his Remote Bomb when he tosses it, and instead of treating it like a single-use item for Isabelle, ignore it. Link can’t use Remote Bomb again until Isabelle is KO’d or she finally relents and pulls out the bomb!

Side Special: Fishing Rod

Casting a line with a reach that’s a bit less than that of a front/back air slingshot round, Isabelle takes a relaxing fishing break, Super Smash Bros.-style. After casting, she leaves the line out for about five seconds before automatically reeling it in. Moving the control stick around makes Isabelle move the pole around (but this doesn’t have much purpose unless you’re standing at a platform edge and can lower the hanging hook somewhat). Pushing any Attack button input or side/neutral special reels the line in early (up/down special doesn’t work).

The hook at the end of the line is a hit-throw, reeling enemies in if it hits them. With no further input, Isabelle throws them forward. Hold the control stick during the reel-in period to choose a different throw direction. Fishing Rod throws deal a lot more damage than grab throws, and fulfill the same general roles. Front/back Fishing Rod throws have the most raw knockback. Hold up to hurl them straight up, or hold down to bounce them off the ground, with either of those giving you a chance to combo after.

There’s nothing else quite like this attack, which is like a tether-throw hit and a sort of shield that can be active for a huge amount of time. Since it can be used in midair and left out for full airborne periods all the way to the ground, it gives Isabelle the means to ward away people in front. For example, double-jump as high as possible, using Fishing Rod at the apex in the direction of onrushing enemies, then leave it out the entire time Isabelle drifts back to earth. As Isabelle lands and the hook drifts level with her (it doesn’t fall quite as fast as Isabelle), tap Attack or Special to pull the hook in. This basically gives Isabelle a midair grab attempt that reaches from her full jump altitude to the ground, with an active period lasting about a full second.

Offstage, attempting to thwart recovery, Fishing Rod is devious and hard to deal with. Leap out toward enemies offstage and cast the line into airspace they have to traverse. Don’t leave the line out too long, since you have to recover too! If the hook hits the enemy in midair, immediately hold the stick down to thwart their recovery attempt; if there are no bites, retract manually before falling too far. Either way, use Balloon Trip to return to firm ground. Any shenanigans with Fishing Rod are amplified by setting down Lloid Traps first. For example, standing on your own Lloid Trap, hit a nearby foe with Fishing Rod and hurl them straight up. As Isabelle pulls them in and launches them upward, they’ll probably trigger the Lloid Trap, which will launch and fly up with them, juggling off the Fishing Rod throw!

And Fishing Rod has uses beyond attacking. It can reel in items, and it works for tether-style ledge recovery! When in midair facing a ledge and within range, side special casts the line to catch the handhold. From here, a dangling Isabelle can reel herself into the ledge, grabbing it, or release, falling down. Beware, if releasing, that using Fishing Rod to catch a ledge does not count as having actually touched that ledge, so Isabelle doesn’t restock a double jump if you release after using Fishing Rod as a grappling hook. If you dangle, reel Isabelle in with an Attack/Special input, then release—that’s a legit ledge grasp, and you can release and double-jump, and even Fishing Rod the same ledge again. You can use the same ledge as a grapple point for Fishing Rod up to three times in a row, but beware that the fourth time you try to reel in the ledge without feet touching earth, the hook and lure will finally break!

Up Special: Balloon Trip

This skill is strictly for movement and recovery, and has no attack portion. Isabelle sits on a swing buoyed in the air by one or two balloons. Two full balloons allow Isabelle to gracefully float through the air for a huge amount of time, giving almost unsurpassed mobility and recovery ability. Use the stick to direct her left/right travel, and tap or hold the Special button for Isabelle to take little swings for momentum, traveling upward quicker. When the balloons’ loft is exhausted, they automatically release, leaving Isabelle to fall to the ground, helpless except for being able to steer and fast-fall. To cut the balloons early, tap Attack.

If this move is used repeatedly, or if enemies shoot the balloons out from above Isabelle’s perch, her movement ability will be greatly reduced. Let Balloon Trip refill spare balloons by holding off on using the move until you need it; the balloons restock and refill over time.

Sometimes you have no choice but to repeatedly use Balloon Trip, cutting up special’s movement capacity on every reuse. The most obvious example is when dancing with an enemy in the airspace off to the side of a stage, or even directly beneath it. For example, below the stage, dangerously close to losing a stock by falling, you activate Balloon Trip in an attempt to recover, but the enemy hits Isabelle (or aims for the balloons, imprecisely, and hits Isabelle in the process). Out of the helpless tumble you can use Balloon Trip again, but with reduced floating capacity. In this case, who cares? You have no choice.

Down Special: Lloid Trap

Isabelle plants her friend Lloid the gyroid, who looks like a cross between an acorn and a fire hydrant. Lloid bides his time underground, sticking around for up to 10 seconds before disappearing. During that time, if any enemy steps on him, he automatically launches vertically, dragging them upward for several hits before a powerful finishing explosion high off the ground. In addition to Lloid going off automatically if triggered by an adversary, Isabelle can manually launch him with another down special input.

Lloid Trap combines with front/back air slingshots and Fishing Rod to form the foundation of Isabelle’s harassing zoning game plan. Lloid Trap can be used to lay claim to a particular bit of land, since anyone encroaching on Isabelle’s territory will inevitably have a rocket launch to deal with. Having Lloid Trap set up potentially increases greatly the power of her grabs and Fishing Rod specials, since throws can combo into Lloid Trap’s launch. The trap is also great to set up at stage edges when edge-guarding. Finally, you can plant Lloid Traps and immediately launch them manually to attack high-fliers.

Final Smash: Dream Town Hall

Activate Isabelle’s Final Smash to call upon Tom Nook for a grand new contracting project: the construction of a new town hall! Unfortunately for whoever is caught in the build, such rapid work falls a bit short of safety standards, causing heavy damage. The range on this Final Smash is short, so make sure you’re right next to the target and facing them before unleashing the industriousness.