Chamberlain grab

Grab - Handcuff Capture
skekSil opens his beak menacingly while swiping an ancient-looking gold pair of handcuffs in front of him. He lunges slightly forward as he does so, giving himself an impressive grab range comparable to DK's, albeit with noticeably more end lag if he fumbles, more akin to Samus' tether, at frame 68 (with both stats increasing a slight bit from a dash). Should he snare a victim -- character or minion -- Chamberlain will utter "aaaaaaaagh!" in triumph as he closes one side of the handcuffs around their wrists or wrist equivalent. All in all, a rather risky grab for skekSil to mindlessly throw out, especially without any degree of essence armor, but one that also can net him some nice payoff.

If the player double-taps the pummel input, skekSil won't stop at grabbing just one victim, but rather will hold on while lunging out again, performing a second grab the same length as his initial one. He'll lunge forward by default, crossing up his first victim to do so, though the player also can direct the control stick backward immediately after the double-tap for Chamberlain to swipe in that direction instead. If he whiffs, his end lag likely will result in victim number one escaping before he retreats back to take hold of them again (if they're a character, as minions can't mash, and left un-thrown will be let go automatically after two seconds).

If skekSil captures a second character or minion, however, he'll slap the other side of the handcuffs closed around them. Minions will continue in their movement trajectories up to skekSil or his grabbed victim(s), turning around in their normal state or pausing a training stage square away, waiting in anticipation, if they're corrupted -- both behaviors helpful to skekSil in having a minion close by to grab alongside his opponent, so long as they get in range before the character breaks out. If you're following, this leaves skekSil with three possible grab combinations...character-plus-character, character-plus-minion and minion-plus-minion.

With two beings captured, the player can lightly tilt the control stick side to side for skekSil to move between them (a 15-frame process, so he can't just casually pummel both for easy damage), with smashed inputs leading to throws as usual. Characters caught in the handcuffs while Chamberlain is holding a second victim remain in their grabbed animation, able to mash free as usual, meaning he almost always will want to throw a first character victim before a second unless there's a distinct benefit to throwing the second one first. That benefit could be spacing or, if one of the beings skekSil captures is a corrupted minion, putting it closer to his opponent or another minion as its target over himself (a scenario a captured character can try turning against skekSil by mashing free and immediately running a distance away).

After skekSil throws one captured being, he'll release the second, leaving it chained via handcuffs to victim number one. The chain has 20 HP and left untouched will last for seven seconds before it dissipates automatically. The two captured beings have one Battlefield platform of leeway in any direction before the chain runs taut, leaving some characters and minions with more pull than others. If both beings move in opposite directions, a 50-50 split between weight and movement speed determines who wins out, with the dominant one pulling the other around at half their regular movement speed (upgraded to 90 percent of movement speed if the submissive character stands still).

The half-weight, half-movement speed split remains constant if both characters enter the air, though if only one character is airborne, weight becomes the dominant factor -- in other words, a heavy character on the ground can pull around a significantly lighter character with minimal slowdown, while a featherweight is essentially anchored in place if a connected heavy character is airborne. The same general principle holds true if one character is launched, upon which lighter characters or minions can be pulled along behind heavier ones. Even then, though, there's a slight slowdown in how far the launched character travels, meaning skekSil generally gets the most use out of chaining characters when damage racking, rather than KOing, is his focus.

skekSil's larger minions naturally drag around the smaller ones as they continue moving around. Corrupted minions always will move inward at their increased speeds to attack their chained counterparts, while in their right state of mind, smaller minions will not resist as larger ones drag them around. Instead, they'll face backward and attack characters who come too close, creating a pretty good range of hitboxes for skekSil to work around. Characters can drag minions around too, with their varying weights coming into play, though the minions will always move inward to attack them (whether or not they're corrupted), leaving them with little choice but to keep moving or break the chain -- launching the minion can cause the attacker, too, to be knocked back a short ways.

Regardless, the temporary tether can make dodging Chamberlain's crystal beam far more difficult for his foes, as the chain encumbers their defensive movements. Minions also can knock chained foes or other minions into the beam, in the best case scenarios letting skekSil drain two beings for the price of one. As slight balancing factors, the chain automatically dissipates on contact with the beam, and draining two minions at once can, of course, result in two corrupted minions coming after him. Chamberlain will not slap a second pair of handcuffs whenever he regrabs a chained character or minion (after the universal one-second timer ticks down) but rather will refresh the timer and HP on the grab victim's existing pair of cuffs.

In FFAs, skekSil can force any number of possible fun strategies by chaining two opponents together, requiring that they either cooperate in freeing themselves to retaliate against their captor or engage in a quickdraw type of reaction contest to see who can drag and/or launch the other first. Team battle handcuff applications can be equally compelling -- just one variant could involve skekSil chaining a teammate to a foe and then launching the teammate so they can land the killing blow closer to the blast zone.