VULTURE EDITS

VULTURE EDITS:

1. Clarified Neutral Special wingsuit operations with no flight path programmed:
If the player held B without inputting a flight path, Vulture simply will hover in place for up to five seconds.

2. Capped length of time characters can stand on drones during cumulative air time before landing onstage:
Characters also will fall off of any drone they've stood on for more than five cumulative seconds while in the air, until they've touched non-drone ground once again.

3. Clarified Down Special inputs used in extracting and activating multiple transparency pods:
He can place up to two pods onstage at a time; a tapped Down Special input prompts Vulture to extract a second pod after he's placed the first while a smashed input results in him activating the existing placed pod. He can place up to two pods onstage at a time; a tapped Down Special input prompts Vulture to extract a second pod after he's placed the first while a smashed input results in him activating the existing placed pod. With two placed pods, Down Special influences whichever one is closer to him at the time.

4. Clarified Down Special properties in altering ledge locations:
A grounded pod with range wrapping around a ledge will not remove the ledge but rather will move it back to where the intangibility ends, which in most cases is lower down the side of the stage, closer to the blast zone. This can let Vulture quickly alter opponents' targets in recovering, potentially resulting in them overshooting onto the stage and getting punished. Vulture also can alter the ledge to remove it from the grasp of opponents hanging there to stall, starting them falling and forcing them to recover a second time, or briefly restrict their get-up options to jumping or air dodging, both exploitable options.

5. Implemented brand-new Back Throw:
BACK THROW - IMPALE
Vulture uses his talons to kick his victim behind him in the air, dealing a light 4%, before slicing a protruding feathered blade from his wings in a downward arc behind him to deal 10% and pin his foe against the stage. The victim ends the throw in their prone state, able to use a roll, stand up or use a get-up attack, the latter of which will hit Vulture if he simply stands in place. Unlike Snake, who ends D-Throw facing his victim, Vulture faces away, requiring a bit more creative thinking for a follow-up beyond "lol press U-Tilt past a certain percentage." Fortunately, he's got no shortage of options in that regard, the most straightforward of which is darting away before performing a quick turnaround dash grab, propelled by his levitation.

He can try restricting his opponent's options with a transparency pod placed within rolling distance to either side, or reading his victim's choice with a corresponding flight path (to swoop backward with B-Air if they roll away, for example, or up and quickly back down if they use a get-up attack). Increasing his array of options further where flight is concerned, Vulture takes approximately half a second between when he kicks and impales his victim, letting the player quickly navigate him to he impales his victim into prone on a drone or stage chunk. With the former construct, as with F-Throw, he'll deal the 10% in impact damage to the drone, too, with the possible ensuing explosion hitting him if he uses the throw atop the aircraft but not if he's further away in the air. Though Vulture doesn't have a truly standout KO throw, situational F-Throw aside, proper planning can let him supplement both of the previous two throws with drone explosions and turn grab-game into a truly harrowing experience for those at higher percentages.

6. Clarified mechanics of Down Throw when initiated from atop a drone:
If Vulture initiates this throw while standing on a drone, he'll carry it and his opponent around, able to toss both at once the same as an earth chunk. As the drone resumes its original movement pattern after being tossed, Vulture often will have an easier time directly following up on the prone victim it's holding, compared to one on a falling earth chunk.

7. Fleshed out Forward Air with uses in relation to drones:
With drones, Vulture, and whichever F-Air spacing he chooses to pursue, a new series of explosive (pun intended) mix-up possibilities are opened up. In scenarios where a drone has low HP, Vulture can surge in as though he intends to blow it up with both the first and second hits of F-Air (which can combo on drones as, unlike opponents, they take no knockback). Immediately afterward, he can either follow through and detonate the aircraft with F-Air's strong hitbox, or feint away after the weak hitbox, before punishing any defensive maneuvers opponents on or near the drone have taken. Alternatively, throwing out F-Air near an intangible drone can condition opponents to fast-fall down or air dodge, as a result of the threat that Vulture will suddenly turn it solid and blow it up with hitbox number two.

8. Created consistency with wing armor mini-mechanic in Neutral Air, Up Air:
N-Air -> Armor threshold nerfed from 20% -> 15%

Vulture's wings will catch falling victims during the first part of the move and turn their landing lag against them, with the wings capable of absorbing up to 15%, past which the opponent will cause Vulture to plummet in his helpless state, similarly to if his N-Air armor were penetrated.

9. Clarified mechanics of Down Air grab hitbox on a victim standing on a drone:
More situationally, Vulture can drop down and grab a foe standing on a dangling earth chunk or drone. In doing so, he enters the same cargo throw-esque grab animation that follows his D-Throw, carrying his victim pinned atop the construct. Landing this option is rare but essentially a free 15% for Vulture, as he can kick the opponent down without undergoing D-Throw's usual startup.

10. Revamped Down Tilt to include initial melee hitbox:
Vulture pokes a wing tip forward, close to the ground, slightly slower than Wario's D-Tilt on account of a moment of start-up, but reaching out a tad further, slightly less than a Battlefield platform. The poke deals 2-3% with a bit of stun and comes with 33-percent chance of tripping grounded opponents. Used at a range, Vulture's wing can shield-poke victims or knock those standing on platforms or drones off the side into their tumble state, though its slightly staggered speed restricts D-Tilt from comboing into itself on foes past low percentages. That's not to say Vulture can't initiate combos out of D-Tilt with other moves, however, with jab or F-Tilt from a slight distance, U-Tilt at point-blank range and grab all being possible contenders.

If the player repeats D-Tilt within 20 frames of the initial input (similarly to Link's F-Smash), Vulture will strike his wing quickly against the ground in retracting it, sparking a small area of fire in front of him. It takes 40 frames overall for the fire to come out, covering slightly less than a Battlefield platform horizontally and a Pokeball vertically, and dealing rapid hits of 2-3% over their five-second duration. The hits inflict flinch and push victims gradually to the flames' outer edge, with a maximum possible damage output of 35% if the victim has a metal or giant status effect, or otherwise Smash DIs into the flames for the lulz. Vulture can have up to two spark patches onstage at once, after which any additional two-hit D-Tilts performed during this time create sparks that vanish immediately after the move's 58-frame duration.

The traps created can be effective obstacles, able to snag foes tripped from the first hit of D-Tilt or force those further away into the air when approaching Vulture. If Vulture is at close range upon pitfalling a victim with a Down Special pod, striking a spark patch over where they sit buried also can pile on a nice bit of extra damage. With wingsuit flight, he can fly up and strike platforms to place flame traps there, and then drop them down if he's already placed Down Special pod there, restricting landing options around a segment of stage. And, if the sparks are placed on one of Vulture's drones, their damage output will eventually reduce the aircraft's HP to zero, even if it was at full durability. This can effectively turn the constructs, ordinarily harmless unless blown up with an attack, into ticking time bombs of sorts, traveling either in set or custom formations. As with F-Air, he also can create a mix-up situation to confuse opponents near or on drones, creating uncertainty as to whether he's going to use both D-Tilt inputs to set a drone ablaze or just poke at them with the initial strike. As with many drone-related strategies, however, this isn't without risk for Vulture; though he does not take damage from his own fire traps, he remains vulnerable to exploding drones.

11. Tweaked tapped Up Tilt variants to grant combo-starter properties:
A tapped U-Tilt results in a series of five light hits of 2%, with a moment of hitstun but no real knockback to speak of at the end. Though smaller characters can Smash DI out after the first few hits if they're caught on the outskirts of the hitbox, Vulture can chain together multiple U-Tilts or combo into a shorthopped aerial if the victim is larger or caught at the turbine's center. A held input, on the other hand, gives the turbines a strong hitbox, dealing 13-14% and vertical knockback KOing around 130%, right as they emerge from Vulture's back at point blank range, plus a vertical wind hitbox akin to G&W's U-Air for the duration of the move. The first U-Tilt variant can combo into the latter, which in turn serves as a good utility aerial launcher for Vulture in forcibly transitioning opponents from the ground to the skies.

12. Fleshed out Forward Smash with multiple directional knockback properties in midair:
Used in midair during a flight path, Vulture will descend down in place during the slam at Dedede's Up Special fall speed. Now, as opposed to always launching foes diagonally, Vulture's wings will knock opponents in differing trajectories, depending on their positioning at the moment of impact. Opponents who graze the top of Vulture's wings during the first few frames of the slam will take strong vertical knockback, while those hit during the remainder of the slam take the diagonal knockback as usual. Beyond that, opponents caught underneath Vulture as he descends downward after slamming will be spiked powerfully, with knockback KOing off the screentop from 120-95%. If Vulture lands using F-Smash out of a flight path, he'll exit out of the remainder of the path, with it being stored for the next time he uses Neutral Special.

Vulture suffers a smidge more end lag than even Ganondorf does with F-Smash descending onto the stage, and can even self-destruct if he uses it too low offstage without a highly specific flight path programmed to get him back to safety. He can, however, try to circumvent this by landing on a drone (that has enough health to not be destroyed by the F-Smash hitbox) and then immediately turning it transparent, letting him cancel out of the cooldown. Onstage, Vulture can hold out F-Smash's lingering blade hitbox while flying around, attempting to nudge foes into position for him to land whichever of the slam's three knockback trajectories will prove most ideal for him in the moment. Drones and falling earth chunks can prove helpful in reducing opponents' aerial means of escape in this process, and a crafty Vulture player could plug in a seemingly noncommittal flight plan that in practice could be telegraphing any of the three slam knockback angles, remaining as unpredictable as possible up until the last second.

13. Slightly nerfed Down Smash knockback:
On account of their anti-gravity nature, the plumes come with an abnormally high base launch rate that, at full charge, will send a victim with moderate damage halfway up to Battlefield's blast zone at a fast speed. The energy won't actually KO until close to 200%, on account of pitiful knockback scaling, but the sheer distance a successful hit can put between Vulture and an opponent makes D-Smash one of his best breathing-room options - and one that can launch foes right up into a perilous airspace to boot.

14. Fleshed out Down Smash with new self-boosting property, used in midair:
And the last target Vulture is capable of boosting into the air with the anti-gravity energy is...himself. Vulture can fastfall or use a downward flight path into his own energy to launch himself skyward, taking no damage and traveling up a set distance (halfway up to Final Destination's blast zone) rather than his damage determining his launch height (he can't KO himself off the screentop, either). Unlike with a flight path, Vulture can't control his ascent, but if he finds himself in need of getting some air without a corresponding path ready to go, or wants to save his flight for a different elevation, harnessing the anti-gravity energy can prove serviceable. Indeed, it may be his preferred method for vertical travel in situations where he wants to progress skyward with a drone or stage chunk close by - he can fire the energy down onto the construct before zipping down to be sent upward side by side with it, rather than programming or carrying it up himself.

15. Fleshed out Up Smash with information on momentum-pausing, intangibility, uses around platforms and drones:
A comparatively simple move next to his other Smashes, U-Smash also is another move Vulture can use in briefly diverging from a flight path, here halting his horizontal momentum in the process as a way to pause and avoid an attack without canceling the path altogether. It's also a disjointed hitbox he can use to destroy drones without fear of the following explosion.

The solid aircraft will halt Vulture's ascent if the player charges the move only partway, so the damage isn't enough to destroy it, though his wings still will poke through the drone to hit opponents on top. This trick can come in handy against opponents attempting to navigate the drones or those caught in landing lag from an aerial (for example, from a drone Vulture suddenly has switched from transparent to solid underneath them). More riskily, Vulture can ascend through a drop-through platform with U-Smash and try using the weak landing hitbox to send a victim into their tumbling state off the side, potentially letting him either soar down and follow up with an aerial or pursue a jab lock combo against them on the ground, a drone or a ground chunk. And on a more basic level, his wings' intangibility makes them a valuable tool against opponents who get too predictable or careless in landing. With help from a flight path, Vulture can move himself underneath opponents attempting to fall down with an aerial and intercept their attack with his wings, potentially even KOing at higher percentages or close enough to the screentop.

16. Made general damage/knockback buffs for Forward Smash, knockback buff for Up Smash:
F-Smash -> Deals 23-35%, up from 18-31%; KOs from 100-65%, down from 130-95%
U-Smash -> Strong hit KOs 105-75%, down from 115-85%; weak hit KOs 135-95%, down from 145-105%

17. Fleshed out playstyle with information on options for deviating from flight paths, resulting benefits:
Fortunately for Vulture, a handful of his moves offer him an escape route if he finds a flight path no longer meets his needs mid-match, or otherwise is on the brink of punishment. Though dangerous off-stage, F-Smash can bring Vulture down to the stage in a pinch, while U-Smash lets him pause and ascend a short bit vertically mid-path before continuing onward. D-Smash boosting, meanwhile, can send Vulture skyward for a better vantage point, letting him take to the air without devoting flight path mileage to vertical gains. With a construct or opponent in tow, D-Throw and U-Throw, respectively, also can allow for surprise deviations, as Vulture breaks from flight to ascend and toss his cargo in the middle of what might have previously appeared to be a predictable path. Combined with regular flight around his drones and stage chunks, these options grant Vulture pretty unparalleled command of his own positioning onstage, a valuable feature in instilling uncertainty as to exactly how he's going to come at his foes (perhaps best demonstrated with B-Throw follow-ups or mix-ups from the multiple hitboxes of F-Air and D-Tilt).