SSB4 Movesets - Krystal (Part 1)

Yo! Luigifan again! This time, I'm posting movesets I've created for Super Smash Bros. 4! This is an update of the Krystal moveset I designed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I've tweaked her attacks and added some custom moves! So, here we go!

Design: Krystal wears her Star Fox: Assault outfit (as seen in her trophy for both Brawl and SSB4) by default, with her Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Command outfits as alternate costumes. Regardless of her outfit, she wields her staff from Star Fox Adventures.

Series Symbol: Star Fox symbol

Stats (Overview):

Speed: 4.75/5 (Krystal’s running speed is slightly behind Fox’s, making her one of the fastest characters in the game – roughly the fifth-fastest, after Sonic, Captain Falcon, Little Mac, and Fox.)
Strength: 3/5 (Krystal’s moves hit very hard and come out rather quickly – faster than the likes of the heavy hitter standard (e.g. Bowser, Ganondorf, Ike, and King Dedede). However, her power lies not in brute force, but in precision. This means that she depends upon her ability to strike vital regions of the body with precise strikes. Without that, her damage output suffers tremendously. On the surface, this sounds similar to Marth, whose attacks are lackluster unless he connects with the tip of his sword. Krystal’s moves generally don’t have sweetspots as dramatic as Marth; rather, Krystal is far more susceptible to stale-move negation than most other characters. Namely, while most characters’ moves can lose up to 55% of their power if used repeatedly, Krystal’s moves can lose up to 90% of their initial potency if used too frequently – a significant reduction in effectiveness! Because her moves are so susceptible to losing their effectiveness, her overall offensive power is balanced out to a level somewhere below the game’s heaviest hitters (e.g. Bowser, Ganondorf, Ike, and King Dedede).)
Defense: 2.4/5 (Many of Krystal’s moves are easily punishable if they miss, despite coming out very fast. While the ending lag for most of her attacks is on par with other characters in her speed class, like Fox, a few of her attacks – namely her full neutral combo, her down smash, and her back throw – have either absolutely horrible ending lag or an absurdly long overall duration, to the point where using them carelessly is just asking to eat a huge attack (like a Falcon Punch). Her down air’s normal ending lag isn’t too bad, but its duration is rather extreme, and its landing lag is almost as terrible as the ending lag of her down smash. Her forward smash gets an honorable mention for having a fairly long duration, making it more punishable than most of her attacks, but not as much as her down smash or neutral combo.)
Weight: 1.9/5 (Krystal’s even lighter than Fox is. However, like the other Star Fox characters, Krystal falls quickly despite her low weight.)
Jump: 3.2/5
Recovery: 4.4/5
Special Movements: Wall Jumping, Crawling

Attributes (Detailed Summary):

Walking Speed: 1.44
Dashing Speed: 2.14
Air Speed: 1.02568
Falling Speed (Maximum): 1.9
Falling Speed (Acceleration): 0.15
Falling Speed (Fast-Fall): 3.002 (58% increase)
Weight: 78
Jump Force (Ground): 3.64
Jump Force (Short Hop):
Jump Force (Double Jump):
Jump Delay (in frames): 5
Meteor Cancel window (in frames): 25
Roll Length (in frames):
Roll Intangibility Frames:
Roll Distance:
Roll Speed:
Sidestep Length (in frames):
Sidestep Intangibility Frames:
Air Dodge Length (in frames):
Air Dodge Intangibility Frames:
Traction: ?
Stale-Move Negation Chart: ? (Max reduction: 90%)

Krystal’s stats may look unimpressive, but, having studied some Filipino fighting styles, I've come up with quite the moveset... Krystal is built as a glass cannon, being even lighter than Fox (but with a very good recovery to make up for it). Krystal also hits astonishingly hard, even rivaling the likes of Bowser and Ganondorf, but with better attack speed. However, she will not get far by spamming the same moves over and over again, as her power lies in precision rather than brute force. This is represented by making her especially susceptible to stale-move negation (see her stats above for details). To counteract this, her moves are designed to enable weaker attacks to combo into stronger ones, with her natural combo being the most egregious example of this principle. However, like Palutena, her moves tend to be highly punishable if they miss, so she needs to be careful and pick the best time to strike.

Equipment Used:

Offense: Staff (same as Rosalina and Palutena)
Defense: Suit (same as Samus, Zero Suit Samus, Captain Falcon, etc.)
Speed: Boots (same as Link, Zelda, Little Mac, Mii Fighters, etc.)

On-Screen Appearance: Krystal is dropped in via Arwing, like Fox and Falco.

Basic Attacks:

Jab Combo: 12 Eskrima Strikes:

Attack #1: A quick downwards staff swipe to the cheek [of the face]. Does about 4% damage.
Attack #2: A quick follow-up downwards swipe to the other cheek (again, referring to the face). Does about 4% damage by itself, for a total of 8% if both attacks hit.
Attack #3: A swipe to the waistline, which does about 5% damage (total damage by this point is 13%).
Attack #4: A follow-up strike to the other side of the waist, for 5% damage (total 18% damage).
Attack #5: A stab to the stomach, which does 8% damage (total = 26%).
Attack #6: A stab to the head, which does 10% damage, for a total of 36% damage. (Yeah, that Strength stat is misleading, huh? No, Krystal isn’t particularly strong; it’s just that this combat style is really effective at targeting the more vulnerable regions of the body, so if you’re caught in a combo by a skilled practitioner, it’s going to hurt like crazy!)
Attack #7: Krystal flips her staff around and whacks her enemy on the head, doing 9% damage (total 45% damage).
Attack #8: Krystal flips the staff again to whack the enemy's chin, doing 8% damage (total 53% damage).
Attack #9: An upwards swipe to the hip, which does 6% damage (total 59% damage).
Attack #10: A follow-up upwards swipe to the other hip, which does 6% damage (total 65% damage).
Attack #11: A swipe at the enemy's ankles, which does 3% damage, for a total of 68% damage. In addition to flinching, the enemy is tripped as though he/she slipped on a banana peel (except that he/she ends up prone, rather than on his/her butt).
Jab finisher: The coup de grace, Krystal thrusts her staff towards the ground and strikes her prone foe square in the chest (read: right where the heart is), stunning him/her (as if his/her shield broke) and inflicting 15% damage!!!!! It has much worse start-up than the other moves in the combo, but it’s still not terrible, so if the second-to-last blow landed, the foe shouldn’t be able to react in time to dodge.

Jab Combo Summary: Krystal easily has the best and most elaborate basic combo in the entire game. While she lacks an infinite, her entire basic combo can inflict a total of 83% damage if all 12 hits connect! The finale also stuns the target, leaving them highly vulnerable to a charged Smash attack or Joust. All but the last two strikes in the combo have been buffed to deal 1% more damage than they did in the Brawl version of the moveset, with the second-to-last blow having its damage reduced by 1% and the finisher being left the same. Thus, the total damage has been increased from 74% to 83%. However, there isn’t much (if any) knockback throughout the whole thing, and even though each individual attack is fast, the combo is so long that it nonetheless takes about 2 seconds to pull off the whole thing – more than enough time for another combatant to nail Krystal from behind with a charged Smash attack or other powerful move (like, say, a Falcon Punch. Ouch.) Furthermore, ending the combo early leads to the enemy’s hitstun wearing off relatively quickly, and each attack in the neutral combo has rather noticeable endlag on its own, which can possibly allow the foe to start a basic combo (or other quick attack) of his/her own before Krystal is ready to defend herself. On the other hand, the flinching from each blow typically gives Krystal more than enough time to land the next. Basically, if Krystal lands the first hit of the combo, it’s more likely than not that she’s going to land the entire attack string (unless interrupted), leaving the foe primed to eat a Smash Attack at 83% damage worse for wear. This is a huge part of what makes Krystal an utter nightmare to face one-on-one (but far more manageable in a free-for-all), establishing her status as a walking middle finger to the competitive scene.

(The really fun part is that it's completely possible (and not even overly difficult) to perform this combo in real life; it's based on the 12 basic strikes of eskrima, which I learned while studying martial arts in high school. I repeat - I learned how to do this myself, in high school. It really only scratches the surface of what a truly skilled practitioner of eskrima is capable of.)

Tilt Attacks:

Forward Tilt: A strong staff swipe, which has some knockback. It inflicts about 14% damage. Like most tilt attacks, it’s fast and has good range, but its knockback isn’t exactly enough to KO opponents unless they’re already suffering from an obscenely high damage percentage. Note that this move can be angled up or down by tilting the Control Stick forward and up or forward and down, respectively; the up-angled version does 16% damage with slightly more knockback than the standard version (and the knockback is at a higher angle), while the down-angled version does 12% damage with slightly less knockback than the standard version (and the knockback is at a lower angle).
Up Tilt: Krystal swings her staff over her head, knocking enemies away for 12% damage. Like most tilt attacks, it’s fast and has good range, but its knockback isn’t exactly enough to KO opponents unless they’re already suffering from an obscenely high damage percentage.
Down Tilt: Krystal ducks down and swings her tail, hitting for 10% damage. Like most tilt attacks, it’s fast and has good range, but its knockback isn’t exactly enough to KO opponents unless they’re already suffering from an obscenely high damage percentage.

Tilt Attack Summary: Krystal’s tilt attacks are very, very average. Compared to Mario’s tilt attacks, Krystal’s have slightly more startup lag, but roughly the same ending lag. Compared to the first attack in Krystal’s basic combo (and most of the subsequent attacks, for that matter), the tilt attacks have a bit more startup lag (as is usual for tilt attacks versus jabs), but the tilt attacks actually have a bit less ending lag. On the other hand, the attacks in the basic combo can have their endlag canceled by performing the next attack in the chain, while the tilt attacks have no such privilege (not that they need it, since, as mentioned, their endlag is on par with Mario). As for the knockback, that’s also roughly on par with Mario. As a weapon-user, Krystal has very good reach on her tilts, on par with Marth and Lucina.

Dash Attack: Krystal leaps forward and kicks for 9% damage (it looks a bit like Fox’s Forward Smash from Melee, except for being a running kick rather than a flip kick and has sex-kick properties).

Ledge Attack: Krystal climbs up onto the edge and quickly slaps forward to drive off potential attackers. This attack does 5% damage and has very little knockback; its range isn’t very good, either. However, it’s relatively fast (though there is a short delay as Krystal clambers up) and it stuns the target for about 30 frames; it’s not much, but it should help Krystal get into a better defensive position.

Rising Attack: Krystal pushes herself to her feet and thrusts forward with her staff in one motion, while also kicking backwards with one foot. The staff thrust does 10%, while the kick does 6% damage. The staff thrust has decent knockback, while the kick has mild knockback.

Smash Attacks:

Forward Smash: Krystal spins her staff at the target to stun them (hitting 4-8 times, with 1% damage for each hit, based upon how much you charge the attack), before knocking them far away with a mighty swing, which inflicts 15%-21% damage. The initial twirl has no knockback (but causes flinching), and the home-run swing has the high knockback you'd expect from a Smash Attack, comparable to Lucina’s Forward Smash.
Up Smash: Krystal simply executes an upward stab with her staff for 16%-22.4% damage, not unlike Marth and Roy's Up Smash from Melee. This blow can send foes skyrocketing, and it is both very fast and possesses amazing vertical reach. However, the horizontal reach is a bit weak.
Down Smash: Krystal ducks down and spins around several times, striking enemies with both her staff and her tail. The attack hits multiple times (each staff strike does 6% damage, and each tail strike does 4% damage); the entire Smash Attack could do 120% damage or more if all of the hits connected, but her enemies will probably have been sent flying by then with only around 18%. (Of course, anything that resists the knockback from this attack is fair game to eat the entire move.) Unlike most Smash attacks, the damage of each hit is unaffected by charging the attack; charging it increases the number of hits instead. Krystal is essentially untouchable during this attack, due to her low profile and the fact that she is continuously attacking, but she isn’t invincible; disjointed-hitbox attacks (such as a sword strike or tool-assisted grab) and projectiles can still harm her, and anything immune to flinching has a golden opportunity to strike. In addition, she will be dizzy for a second or two after she's done spinning, which leaves her vulnerable to counterattacks (and also prevents this move from being spammed endlessly to effectively make Krystal immune to any inferior-priority attack and/or effortlessly destroy bosses). The damage of each hit is barely affected by how much the attack is charged up; instead, charging the attack determines how many times Krystal spins around. If the move is uncharged, Krystal only spins around 6 times for an attack duration of 50 frames and a theoretical maximum of 12 hits, but she spins around 12 times for an attack duration of 100 frames and a theoretical maximum of 24 hits if the move is fully charged. This move also has finite launch resistance similar to Yoshi’s double-jump, allowing Krystal to ignore knockback below a certain threshold while it’s in progress. The amount of launch resistance is dependent on the charge level, ranging from roughly a quarter of Yoshi’s double-jump resistance (if uncharged) to roughly half of Yoshi’s double-jump resistance (if fully charged).

Unfortunately, the moveset is much too big for one journal post, so I will have to continue it in a separate journal.