Ivysaur Arsenal

Grounded Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Ivysaur’s neutral attack combo is a three-stage sequence, starting with a couple of vine slaps. Ivysaur’s initial neutral attack is much slower to hit than Squirtle’s and even Charizard’s, so beware relying on this up close too much. On short notice, down tilt and dashing attacks are faster to hit than neutral attacks. When poking up close, consider using short-hopping back air attack or neutral air attack in places where you might tend toward neutral attacks. Since Ivysaur has to go through pre-jump takeoff before neutral air attack or back air comes out, the overall sequence is a bit slower than a plain old neutral attack, but being off the ground makes those moves less exploitable if they’re blocked or dodged.

The neutral attack’s third stage is a furious multi-hit vine blender. You can perpetuate this attack indefinitely by holding the button, though any foe being hit by the vine is eventually pushed out of the hits.

Dash Attack

Along with down tilt, Ivysaur’s dash attack is its fastest-hitting physical strike. The galloping Bulbasaur evolution throws its weight into a forward headbutt, knocking victims into a low-altitude tumble that allows follow-up hits.

Defensive Attacks

Tilts

Side Tilt

The leaves surrounding Ivysaur’s bulb spin rapidly, delivering several slaps to the air in front of the Pokémon. It might look like this attack has vertical and back coverage, but it only hits in front. The active period is long, at least, with a hitbox along the floor. This makes it decent for edge-guarding, when trying to intercept someone’s fingers just as they grab the ledge, but before they’re intangible.

Up Tilt

Ivysaur’s tendrils serve as an anchor and trampoline, launching Ivysaur’s body straight up into a hopping hit. This has shocking reach upward, but very little side coverage. It can kind of hit someone standing flush against Ivysaur’s back, so it’s possible to use this intentionally as both anti-air and anti-ground by running toward a target, turning at the last moment, and using up tilt, but this isn’t crucial to Ivysaur’s success. This attack is clearly intended for juggle combos and anti-air, and for those roles it performs exceptionally, reaching way higher than most up tilts and up smashes.

Down Tilt

Ivysaur hunches down and slaps far in front with a low tendril swipe. Even at low-damage percentages, this knocks victims backward. The damage is low, but the range is good, and the speed is even better: down tilt is functionally Ivysaur’s fastest move by a lot (dashing attacks hit with the speed of down tilt, but require that you be running/dashing first, which adds some arbitrary amount to the execution time).

When in doubt, or worried about the lag on Ivysaur’s other moves, lean heavily on down tilt.

Smashes

Side Smash

After tensing up charging, Ivysaur launches forward, pushing itself with planted tendrils. Ivysaur itself is kind of like a big short-range projectile, almost like up tilt if it could be aimed sideways. The range and hitting power are solid, and Ivysaur can be aimed slightly up or down to account for tiny crouchers and short hoppers. There’s considerable lag afterward as Ivysaur rolls backward to its starting point.

Up Smash

This attack is very slow to start, even uncharged, but makes up for it with a huge hitbox right above Ivysaur. The bulb generates a spore explosion, which has considerable launching power against anyone caught inside the radius. If you can compensate for the speed (it takes nearly half a second for up smash to hit, uncharged), this move is great for shooting at aerial foes. The slow speed means you won’t be working this into guaranteed combos, but it’s also great if you can juggle enemies tumbling helplessly.

Down Smash

Ivysaur stretches its tendrils out wide to both sides at ground level, knocking away anyone nearby. For a smash attack that clears out on both sides at the same time, down smash is surprisingly fast. This isn’t one of those clear-out smashes that hits front right away, then behind much later. The reach for both vines is also terrific. If you’re finding yourself surrounded midstage, down smash is probably the solution. It only lacks coverage on the bulb, centered above Ivysaur.

Grabs

Grabs

Ivysaur’s vines give it much longer grab range than most fighters. You have to make the most of that extra reach, too, because Ivysaur’s grab animation is one of the slowest around. Practice with the range, so you’re attempting grabs from far enough away that smaller fighters can’t just counter-poke or grab Ivysaur first. Even better, practice dashing, then grabbing immediately; not only does the dash add even more to the range, but starting a grab during a dash gives forward momentum to the grab animation, so there’s a double bonus to grab range from dashing first. To practice the range, get flush against a fighter in Training Mode, dash away from them twice, then dash toward them once and cancel the dash by grabbing.

Once they’re in Ivysaur’s clutches, the standard options are in play. Use front or back throws to push enemies toward a desired stage edge, or to go for outright KOs at high-damage percentages. Back throw has unusually heavy loft, great when backed to stage edges. Up throw leads to immediate juggle opportunities straight up, which Ivysaur has no problem capitalizing on. Down throw bounces foes off the ground directly in front, for lower-altitude juggles.

Aerial Attacks

Aerials

Neutral Air Attack

Airborne Ivysaur splays its big-bladed leaves and pinwheels to hit in all directions. This is a great attack for general use, with Ivysaur like a flying pizza cutter. For the full combo, you have to strike right away, but the move is still good for bullying with late hits, like after fast-falling. Since Ivysaur’s ground attacks tend to be slow and laggy, it helps to think of short-hopping neutral air attack as basically a ground poke.

Forward Air Attack

Ivysaur lashes out with a vine from diagonally up-forward to down-forward. For an aerial attack this is slow, hitting in about the time smash attacks usually take, but the range and power are great. Recipients get knocked off their feet.

Back Air Attack

Ivysaur whips backward twice. The hitbox for the two backward hits covers a slightly smaller wedge than forward air attack’s. The first vine whip combos into the second to knock victims away. Back air attack has slightly less coverage and damage than forward air, but it hits much faster, as fast as neutral air attack. And back air has equally good reach, if shallower coverage up and down.

Up Air Attack

When the bulb on Ivysaur’s back explodes, enemies nearby can be launched far away by the sudden burst of air and spores. The bulb explosions during up air attack (and down air attack, and up smash) hit a huge area around the bulb, making this a dominating move when going after enemies higher in the air, or standing on platforms above. It’s not fast for an air attack, but up air from a short hop is still twice as fast as uncharged up smash, while fulfilling the same role.

Down Air Attack

An upside-down version of up air attack and up smash, featuring Ivysaur flipped upside down to direct the bulb’s spore explosion downward. Down air attack does less damage than other bulb moves but hits faster, with just as generous a hitbox. With the big bulb explosion blanketing a circle under Ivysaur, this can even be used to ward off foes on lower platforms without dropping down a floor. It also has the obvious use, aiming downward at enemies on the ground or, even better, offstage.

Special Moves

Specials

Neutral Special: Bullet Seed

Ivysaur starts shooting seeds straight upward rapidly. The force Ivysaur gathers to start shooting is an attack in itself, popping close-range foes up right into the seed fusillade. On a normal input, the whole sequence launches victims at the end. Holding the input launches more seeds. Depending on the target’s damage percentage, you can hold them in place for three or four times more seeds than standard, still scoring the launcher hit on release.

It’s nice that it pops up point-blank challengers, and it’s a surprisingly quick hit up close, but you’ll mostly use this special to shoot at enemies far above, like after they’ve been popped up or way offstage and are tumbling back.

Side Special: Razor Leaf

Ivysaur tosses a crescent-shaped plant projectile, which twirls at variable speed through anything in the way. It can plow through multiple targets, if they’re all lined up. When throwing this special, use a tilt-style input for a slower version that doesn’t travel as far before disappearing. This mostly affects the leaf’s deceleration toward the end. For a fast, farther-reaching Razor Leaf, use a snap-style input, like with a smash attack.

Up Special: Vine Whip

Ivysaur’s Vine Whip special is variable depending on where you use it. Midstage, Ivysaur only lofts up a little bit during the first midair use of a given jumping period. It’s better to think of this as a powerful up-forward-aimed vine attack, like a midair smash, rather than a traditional up special. Used this way, it has huge vertical reach, great for striking at high-fliers and helpless tumbling enemies. It also doesn’t leave Ivysaur helpless after, so you can still double-jump (if it’s in reserve) or perform other actions while in midair, even another up special Vine Whip.

Offstage, Vine Whip is Ivysaur’s lifeline. Within reach of a valid ledge, using up special lashes Ivysaur to the ledge with the outstretched tendril. Vine Whip’s aim is automatic, winching a ledge from above or below. Ivysaur then drifts down to the vine’s extended length, waiting for another input before pulling into the ledge or dropping off (since the Vine Whip tether to the edge counts as touching a surface, dropping off into space allows for a double jump).