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The Root Pack

Botanic Panic

Serving as the easiest and often first boss fight of Cuphead, the Root Pack are a trio of sentient, giant vegetables. The player fights each of the trio, Moe Tato the potato, Weepy the onion, and Psycarrot the carrot, in sequence. Moe and Weepy each have a single, relatively simple attack pattern, while Psycarrot has two he alternates between.

Overall, the three aren’t very impressive even by the standards of the rest of Isle 1, and are memorable mostly for being the introduction to boss fights for fledgling players seeking to collect their first Contract. Or in the case of this Movement, among their last.



Stats

You control the competent member of The Root Pack, thankfully: Psycarrot. He’s the final phase of the boss in the game, a psychic carrot who can fire laser beams and baby carrots. On the ground, Psycarrot keeps his pointy bottom in the earth, burrowing through it at pretty high speeds for his grounded movement animations. Aerially, Psycarrot is understandably less swift, with Luigi’s abysmal air speed and low falling speed / gravity.

Psycarrot’s grounded jump is decent, while for his aerial jump, Psycarrot floats telekinetically similarly to Ness but with less height. This slow midair jump makes him pretty vulnerable to combos. Psycarrot is as tall as Ganon when burrowing, and even taller when his full form reveals itself – quite a large target! He’s also only a midweight.

Moe Tato, the potato, and Weepy, the onion, follow Psycarrot at all times with the same half-burrowing animation. Root Pack’s gotta stick together! They have no trouble keeping up with Psycarrot’s movement, but unlike him, are restricted to the ground. If Psycarrot jumps over to a different platform, Moe Tato and Weepy burrow deep underground, out of sight, and emerge at the new landmass. This animation can be interrupted almost instantly, so don’t worry about waiting for your pack to arrive.

For certain moves, Psycarrot telepathically commands the Pack! During these moves, the Pack member halts in place to perform the action. Psycarrot, after he’s finished the initial, brief telepathy animation, is free to act! In exchange, during these attacks, the Pack member in question now has a hurtbox. Hitting them with a decently strong launching move cancels their animation and returns them to normal. In addition, any old attack’s damage is added to your own percent! I guess you’ve become psychically “linked” to them or something after commanding them so much.



Special Moves

Neutral B: Moe Tato

Tap B, and Moe Tato plants himself more firmly into the ground, spitting a chunk of dirt that flies straight forward as a projectile. It’s a bit further above the ground than it is in the original game, so you’ll need to do a full jump to get around this Kirby-sized obstacle. A shorthop alone won’t cut it! Your other option, of course, is to use dodges, shields, or character-specific moves. Dirt chunks have a maximum range of one Final Destination width.

A chunk of dirt deals 5% and weak horizontal knockback, keeping grounded foes grounded as they slide across the ground and launching aerial foes a bit backward. They’re a decent damage-racking tool, but nothing that’ll carry your entire camping game on its own. Tapping B once fires only one dirt projectile. If you want, you can double-tap or triple-tap the button to have Moe Tato automatically fire two or three shots in a row, without you having to go through the telepathy animation each time! To show this, Moe holds the dirt visibly in his cheeks, creating lumps like a chipmunk with food in its mouth.

Moe also has another trick up his sleeve. Hold B instead of simply tapping it, and at the cost of a longer startup animation for both Moe and Psycarrot, he spits out a pink earthworm instead of the dirt chunk. On hit, the earthworm still deals 5%, but doesn’t deal flinching or knockback. Instead, it wraps around the opponent, latching onto them to hinder movement. This status effect prohibits the target from using any jump except for shorthops. In other words, the opponent cannot use full jumps or midair jumps. Special Moves and other “jumping” attacks are fair game. After two seconds or when the foe is dealt tumbling knockback, the earthworm jumps off and burrows down into the ground below, never to be seen again.

The earthworm is a pretty powerful tool, given what we went over with the dirt chunk. Remember, shorthops don’t go high enough to jump over a dirt chunk – so if you’ve got an earthworm along for the ride, you’ll need to use some other method! Shields, airdodges, rolls, character-specific moves – as Psycarrot, it’s your job to punish these. Against offstage opponents, an earthworm, while tricky to land, also proves a deadly gimp!

You can replace one, but ONLY one, of the double-tap or triple-tap shots with an earthworm by holding a B press of your choice. Try mixing up your projectile patterns in this way! To show this, the earthworm-holding lump in Moe’s cheek turns pink.



Down B: Weepy Weep

Psycarrot telepathically communicates with Weepy, making him sad! : ( His eyes fill up more and more with tears if you charge this move for up to two seconds by holding B. Weepy’s attack has a noticeable delay between releasing the charge and him actually attacking, which is both a blessing and a curse.

With no charge, Weepy sends out two arcing tear projectiles, one to either side. They travel about 1.5 Ganons up into the air at the peak of the arc, landing one platform away from Weepy. Weepy’s sadness deals 5% on hit, along with very, VERY weak knockback and flinching that sends foes in the direction of the tear’s travel. Notably, the tear is a piercing projectile, meaning that even if it hits an opponent or other hurtbox, it keeps going. Making Weepy sad is a pretty awesome way to cover the airspace to both sides of him, but note that Weepy’s Down B attacks all have endlag that make him an open target.

With half charge, Weepy does the exact same thing, but adds two extra tears, for a total of four. These two added tears have a wider arc, landing two platforms away from Weepy.

With full charge, in addition to the four tears, Weepy sprays the whole area above him with a “fountain” of sadness! This actually has a good amount of power to it, dealing 16% and strong vertical KO knockback, and has a huge anti-air hitbox! That’s a lotta charge time, though, so you’ll need to get real clever to land that hitbox.

All three of Weepy’s attack variations also create puddles on the ground. When a tear drop lands on the ground, it creates a small puddle about the width of Kirby or so. And when Weepy uses his full-charge attack, the entire ground surrounding him (radius: 2 platforms) is soaked! Puddles evaporate after seven seconds. While on top of a puddle, and for a brief period afterward, your dash speed gets buffed substantially! This also increases perfect pivot length and the like. Puddles also affect your Down Smash, but more on that later!

You can double-tap Down B to have Weepy attack twice in a row (which does have a long-ish delay in between), much like with Neutral B but without the option to triple-tap. Also, you can hold B for one of those presses to charge that attack, much like the earthworm usage in Moe’s double-tap and triple-tap.



Up B: Levitate

Psycarrot focuses his energy and levitates the other two Root Pack members straight upward as they glow with a yellow aura. They reach a height of one Ganon off the ground over the course of a bit under a second, hover there for one second, and then fall back down.

During the Up B, Weepy and Moe Tato keep doing whatever they were doing, whether it be attack animations or following behind Psycarrot as he moves. They’re just above the ground now, which can lead to new strategies! Psycarrot can act immediately after his brief animation ends, but using Up B again during its duration doesn’t do anything special. Also note that the other two Pack members will never go offstage during Up B.

When the Pack members fall back down, they each become a hitbox which deals 10% and moderate diagonal knockback. Note that, even if the two are close together, the foe will only ever get hit by this once. That’s a pretty big hitbox, though, so make some use of it!

Another awesome use for Up B is switching up your projectile patterns. If the foe enjoys jumping into the air a lot, try getting Moe Tato to cover the airspace by levitating him during his Neutral B shots! Also, Weepy’s tears end up going further if he’s high up, since they fly in an arc.

In midair, in addition to the above, Up B levitates Psycarrot himself upward, reaching the height of Marth’s recovery move but over a second or so. Psycarrot can grab the ledge during Up B at any point, and can use aerials while levitating. However, you can’t airdodge in the middle of this move, and you’ll enter helpless after it’s completed.

Luckily, your Pack members are there to help you out! Whenever Psycarrot is offstage, Moe Tato and Weepy gather at the edge (unless they’re doing something else). Thus, whenever you use Up B to recover, their 10% falling hitboxes help cover the ledge! If only one of them is at the ledge, you won’t cover quite as big of an area, but it’s still a huge help. In this way, even though Psycarrot’s levitation from this move makes for a pretty unsafe recovery on its own, it still grants him a unique form of protection!

In order to facilitate this strategy, Weepy and Moe Tato don’t levitate for nearly as long when you use an aerial Up B. In fact, by the time Psycarrot stops levitating, they’ve already begun to fall!



Side B: Levitate AGAIN

With noticeable lag and halted momentum on first aerial use, Psycarrot projects a yellow ring as tall and thin as he is (it’s not a “circle” from the camera’s perspective due to its rotation). There’s a 1.75 SBB gap between Psycarrot and this large grab hitbox. If you grab a foe successfully with the command grab, Psycarrot flings the target forward after a short delay, dealing a nasty 17% and moderate knockback at a high-angle semi-spike.

The “short delay” bit isn’t just startup lag. In fact, Psycarrot can act a few frames *before* the foe gets launched! So you’ve got plenty of time to dash after the foe to chase their knockback and pressure / combo off of the command grab. Alternatively, you could use this time to set up some bullet hell for the foe to deal with.

As far as landing Side B in the first place, your best bet is forcing the foe to shield against your projectiles. After you’ve hit the foe with an earthworm, after all, the option to jump over projectiles is pretty much gone. As a command grab, Side B is pretty much designed to beat shields, and its long range makes it even more of a threat! Side B has rather long lag, though, so it’s interruptible and punishable. Additionally, there is a blind spot in between Psycarrot and the grab hitbox, so watch out for that.

Side B can grab projectiles too! If you don’t hold B upon grabbing a projectile, Psycarrot flings it forward much like he would an opponent. This multiplies the projectile’s speed and damage by 1.5x, making it quite a strong reflector! And grabbing your own projectiles is also pretty dang strong, since it lets you surprise the foe and mix up your bullet hell’s timing. Side B can grab multiple projectiles at once, and can also grab a foe in addition to that. So you can set up multi-projectile barrages, as well as flinging projectiles to pressure the foe as they’re thrown by Side B!

If you do hold B, the psychic ring closes in around the grabbed projectile, and you now have a degree of control over its position! Use up and down on the control stick to move the projectile vertically, up to two Ganon heights in either direction. Solid floors and ceilings block this movement, but drop-through platforms do not. By tilting the stick left and right, you can tilt the projectile counterclockwise or clockwise, changing the angle at which it flies when you release B! You can even send projectiles behind you if you want. And as a clear visual indicator, the psychic ring rotates with the projectile.

Using these controls, you can manipulate your projectiles in any number of ways! And just like the tapped version, the launched projectiles have 1.5x speed and power. So get creative with those angles! Like before, you can grab any number of projectiles at once here, and can also throw an opponent or two into the mix. Note, though, that opponents still get launched normally (like the first two paragraphs of this move) even if you hold B to manipulate the projectile(s).



Smash Attacks

Forward Smash

A note on Smash Attacks: Forward Smash and Up Smash directly utilize the other two members of the Pack. When you charge one of these Smash Attacks, Psycarrot’s telepathy animation acts exactly like a normal Smash Attack charge, and the relevant Pack member does the same.

Once you release the charge, Psycarrot can act right away. There’s a bit of delay before Moe Tato / Weepy does the attack, which increases with charge. So you can’t get a punish immediately due to the delay, but you can use the Smash Attack for unique combos and setups!

Note that you can command the other two Pack members to use Smash Attacks even if they’re in the middle of a Special Move, but NOT the other way around. Also, if an opponent causes the Pack member to flinch during an attack’s charge, they’ll cancel their attack like normal while Psycarrot is unaffected (kinda like Rosaluma).



Weepy cartoonishly spins on his side during this attack’s charge, almost like revving up Sonic’s spindash. When you release, he barrels forward at high speeds, dealing 15% and moderate-strength KO knockback to any foes who stand in his way! He travels a whopping 0.4 to 1 Final Destination lengths depending on charge, but then becomes inactive for a couple of seconds as he recovers from dizziness. Weepy is a bit of a wimp, so opponents can interrupt this roll with even the slightest of flinching, but Weepy doesn’t suffer that dizziness lag.

Forward Smash is your go-to way to punish a reaction to your bullet hell at long range! It also adds a powerful surprise option to strengthen your mixup game when zoning opponents out. However, if the opponent isn’t preoccupied with projectiles, the interruptibility makes Forward Smash easy to counter. In fact, it actually has “negative disjoint.” This means that Weepy’s hurtbox (the thing that receives damage) is smaller than his hitbox (the thing that deals damage), meaning he’ll get hit by attacks before he’s in range to hit foes.

Side note: Weepy’s negative disjoint here is the opposite of regular disjoint, which is when a hitbox is bigger than a hurtbox. Almost every attack in Smash has disjoint, even a simple punch. When people say “a disjointed move,” like a sword move or even Melee Puff’s back air, they usually mean a move with a LOT of disjoint, i.e. where the hitbox reaches FAR past the hurtbox.

Anyway. I mentioned earlier how Smash Attacks can interrupt a Special Move used by Weepy or Moe, and that actually comes with a bonus effect! For Weepy, if he cancels Down B into Forward Smash, he’ll keep crying as he rolls along, leaving a puddle trail as he rolls for up to 0.6 Final Destinations. This puddle behaves exactly like the one from Down B, so take advantage of that speed-boosting terrain!



Up Smash

The ground begins to rumble beneath Moe, who sports a look of concentration even as he begins to sink down. Upon release, Moe launches himself up into the air, dealing 18% damage and heavy upward knockback on contact. The longer the charge, the higher Moe goes, anywhere between 1x~2x Ganondorf’s height.

Moe’s girth gives this completely vertical movement some horizontal coverage, but he’s not going to hit much to either side of himself with this hitbox alone. It’s up to Psycarrot and Weepy to put foes in the path of this jumbo-sized potato cannon! Of course, that doesn’t mean Moe is without the ability to hit foes eye-level with him- that’s his job, after all. This input has two extra ‘quirks’ to handle that job.

For the first, Moe falls back on his main tool for threatening foes on the same x-axis. If Moe has any stored projectiles in his cheeks from double- or triple-tapping Neutral B, he’ll spit them all out, rapid-fire, at the height of his jump. Opponents in the air, either from Psycarrot’s combo tools or Moe’s impressive hitbox, will find themselves pelted with dirt and worm alike on their way down.

The second is an inevitable consequence of something getting shot into the air: falling. Moe remains at the highest point of his explosive ‘leap’ for a split-second before gravity wins dominance over cartoon physics and he comes crashing down. His body on the way back down is a sour spot dealing half the damage it did on the way up and moderate horizontal knockback.

With at least half a full charge, Moe’s meteor-like return creates a solid ‘wave’ of earth on either side of his landing, roughly half the height of his jump, which roll away to either side of him on the platform and vanish at its edges. They move a little slower than Moe’s normal projectiles, and serve as solid ground where most things are concerned.

The waves are essentially slopes for as long as they last, moving under the foe such that is simply moves them up and lets them back down. Only the very base of each wave’s ‘front’ is a hitbox, doing 10% damage and moderate upward knockback. Hardly noteworthy as an attack, but it handles the job Moe was meant to do: forcing the opponent up into the air, and making a nasty bottleneck when combined with airborne dirt clumps.

The slopes will also helpfully move the rest of the Root Pack. Weepy will roll up and down these slopes just fine, making it that much harder to jump over him, and giving his tears more horizontal range. Psycarrot is able to continue his ground game against opponents knocked into the air, or is given a boost to help pursue an opponent Moe sent flying with the Up Smash’s proper hitbox.



Down Smash

Psycarrot’s eyes flash, and he lifts his point, then spears it into the ground with enough force to plant himself. The dirt around him rumbles and shakes, and upon release, thorny roots burst from the ground, flailing about as low-hitting hitboxes that deal 17% damage and hefty knockback.

The roots reach a decent length from Psycarrot, but are low enough to the platform that they can be jumped over. Short hops work too, but the timing is very strict, so earthworm-bound foes will need to be very careful; the charge allows for easy timing mixups against them! To say nothing of having to deal with Moe or Weepy at the same time.

With puddles on the ground, Psycarrot’s roots grow rampantly; if he happens to be standing in one when he uses this input, additional roots fill the width of the puddle, extending the hitbox! They act just the same as the normal hitbox, making the input that much harder to evade.

Down Smash is decent enough used normally, but works excellently in combination with the rest of the Root Pack. Aside from the noted interactions above, Weepy’s roll and tears, and Moe’s dirt, force a response from the opponent that can leave them right where Psycarrot wants them. The waves Moe makes with Up Smash compensate for the lack of vertical coverage this move has, and having him in the air firing off multiple projectiles means opponents must thread the needle between dirt and root.

Noot (Psycarrot makes thorny roots come forcefully out of the ground around him. They cover the ground and are really strong! You can jump over them, but that requires good timing with an earthworm – charge the Down Smash for timing mixups against an earthwormed foe! Also, with puddles on the ground, the roots spread throughout the puddle if you’re standing them, possibly with reduced power OR possibly with the SAME power because getting those puddles is a lot of setup.)



Standard Attacks

Jab

Psycarrot appears shocked, arms to his side as he faces the screen. His third eye sprouts and begins firing beta-carobeams! For as long as you hold A, he fires the beams continuously with a range of 1 SBB, dealing rapid hits of 1% with transcendent priority.

The foe can SDI out, but when Psycarrot releases A, he does have a frame advantage. Despite the lack of a proper launching hit, the hitstun is high enough that Psycarrot can apply good pressure at close range. If the foe blocks, though, it is extremely unsafe and punishable on block. This is because blocking one hit of the move grants total immunity from subsequent hits, kind of like Link’s Spin Attack. Due to the move’s minimum duration lasting for a little bit, blocking at the start is especially potent, since Psycarrot cannot cancel it until more time passes.

Jab is aimed forward by default. However, you can use the control stick to aim it in absolutely any direction! Psycarrot can cover lots of different approaches in this way, whether grounded or airborne. In terms of zoning, Jab is an amazing way to augment Moe and Weepy, as it can for example punish jumps or rolls to evade projectiles. Additionally, while trapped in place with Jab, the foe is vulnerable to projectiles.



Forward Tilt

Psycarrot focuses his energy with a grin on his face, then summons a homing carrocket! This projectile starts slowly but speeds up a little bit over time, then explodes after traveling 1.5 platforms horizontally (or hitting an opponent). It deals 5% and moderate Sakurai Angle knockback, useful for harassing from mid-range in exchange for noticeable lag.

You can angle Forward Tilt up or down. It starts off with a straight path, but curves up or down over the course of its flight. Due to Psycarrot’s sheer height, this is quite relevant. The upward-angled shot catches most fullhops, so it works handily as a way to punish foes who jump over projectiles, but is punishable by just standing on the ground. The neutral-angled shot hits every shorthop in the game, but due to Psycarrot’s height, is avoidable by many crouches. Angling it down, of course, helps punish crouches.

Obviously, Forward Tilt augments Weepy and Moe in their projectile pressure. It also has a notable interplay with Moe’s earthworm: because the foe cannot jump higher than a shorthop, they have no way to jump over the neutral-angled shot. By limiting the foe’s options like this, Psycarrot can more effectively punish, by simply covering standard defensive options (shield, dodges) and punishing crouches.



Up Tilt

Psycarrot faces the screen and hops straight up a tiny distance, hitting weakly for 5% and small upward knockback that scales a good bit with percent. Up Tilt is a key move in your up-close boxing, as the only real melee-ranged ground move with the speed necessary to compete with a lot of characters. Usefully, it sets up Psycarrot’s air game, which as you’ll see is kind of really strong. (Seriously, US has just now written the first three Aerials and I’m already terriified! -Muno)

Up Tilt has good vertical range thanks to Psycarrot’s sheer height, but has pretty much no disjoint. So any attack from the foe will beat it out pretty easily. Also, it has no horizontal reach thanks to Psycarrot being, well, a really skinny carrot, so you need to space it well or combine it with perfect pivots. On shield, it’s also punishable due to just not pushing the shield far enough to avoid a simple shield grab.

You can use it to start true combos at low percents, into moves such as Aerials, Jab, and even itself again. Or you can launch a foe upward at high percents to start a juggle situation, using aerials and grounded moves to keep the foe from landing.



Down Tilt

Psycarrot sinks further into the ground with some force, causing his pointy carrot tip to jut out of the ground an impossible distance away! Specifically, this small hitbox appears 1.5 platforms in front of Psycarrot, popping foes up for 6% and inward-upward knockback to open up a combo. Due to the short vertical reach of Down Tilt, though, foes can easily evade it with a shorthop, which you can bait and punish.

Down Tilt interacts with terrain in a curious way. If you use the move close to the edge of the stage, or any fully “solid” bit of ground like Final Destination, the distance of the move wraps around. So using it at the ledge means your tip sticks out of the stage’s wall, and facing a wall lets you hit foes above you.

On a drop-through platform, due to how thin it is, Psycarrot’s tip just pokes out the bottom of the platform, dealing the same damage as well as popping the foe upward for an easy follow-up. Here, Down Tilt hits below the platform, as a unique way for Psycarrot to relieve pressure if he is trapped on a platform. This is quite an asset on select stages! Try using it to augment projectile pressure from the Pack while on a high platform.



Dash Attack

Psycarrot skids to a stop from his digging dash, kicking clods of disjointed dirt at the unfortunate foe. Dash Attack has enough reach to beat out many moves with its wave of soil, which stretches about 1 SBB forward and deals 6% and moderate knockback. Dash Attack completely halts Psycarrot’s momentum, and does not give a large momentum boost on use. Its startup lag is a tiny bit long, and so is its ending lag – so foes can punish after blocking it, unless you space it at the very tip of its range.

Any Pack members following Psycarrot (i.e. not busy with a Special or Smash Attack) copy his motion when he uses this move, basically adding to the wave’s reach and power. Each extra contributor adds 0.5 SBB to the range, and 3% to the damage. So basically, Dash Attack rewards Psycarrot for leaving Weepy, Moe, or even both at his side, rather than always just using their normal projectile pressure and whatnot. In exchange, that powered-up wave of dirt has massive reach, and becomes both impossible to contest and safe on ranged shields!



Aerial Attacks

Neutral Air

Psycarrot rears back, with the same manic grin he always sports directed in front of himself, and spins wildly like a top. His body, now an orange blur, acts as a hitbox that deals 2% damage and very light upwards knockback.

As he serves as the attack’s hitbox, he lacks much reach at all; he has to be uncomfortably close to an opponent to land the hit, not helped by the small start up.

The trick is that once he starts spinning, the player need only hold the A button to continue the attack. Psycarrot keeps on spinning until an attack hits him out of it, he lands, or the player releases the attack button.

Combined with his tall stature and the ability to chase after foes with his (admittedly lackluster) air speed and the light upward knockback, the player can keep a foe in the air, pull them along into a dangerous spot, rack damage like a champ, or eat into the opponent’s shield.

On releasing the A button, or on hit if the player chooses to tap the attack, Psycarrot hits any foes touching him with a flash of psychic energy dealing 3% and light knockback. If the player holds a direction on release/on hit, foes are knocked back in that direction. The knockback just so happens to position opponents just right for Psycarrot’s other aerials, too...


Forward Air

Psycarrot bends in his midsection to raise his point like a human might pull their knees to their chest, then stabs the air in front of himself with exaggerated force. The attack is lightning quick and has decent enough reach, albeit the hitbox is a little narrow. Foes take 6% damage and light knockback that’s angled more up than away; excellent for someone with Psycarrot’s floaty jump and low air speed.

Rapidly repeating the input during the startup (which is kind of long) leads instead to less exaggerated, but similarly quick thrusts one after the other. Each does 2% damage and lessened knockback, with a lower angle to the knockback; better for pushing a foe in a given direction at arm’s length than keeping them in the air, or for catching an opponent expecting the normal version of the input out of an air dodge.



Down Air

Psycarrot pulls his point up in an animation vaguely similar to his Forward Air’s. Unlike his Forward Air, he stabs straight down, point cartoonishly stretching long and thin for a blink and you’ll miss it animation touch.

What can’t be missed is the result of a direct hit: 10% damage and a powerful spike. The hitbox is thin enough that it requires being directly above the opponent, and the motion is slow enough to be infeasible outside of a punish or combo finisher (the Neutral Air in particular setting it up perfectly if its final hit is aimed down).

An effective finishing blow after you knock an opponent off stage, either through an aerial combo or a well timed assist from Moe or Weepy. On shield, Down Air is a situational pressure tool. Its landing lag means that it is unsafe if Psycarrot is already traveling downward, but if used near the beginning of a jump, he can rise high enough to evade most out of shield options.




Back Air

Psycarrot swipes his point behind himself, flicking hit opponents up and over his head in an arc to the tune of 7% damage and moderate knock back.

The motion hits a short distance below Psycarrot and a decently sized area behind him, working both to get enemies back into a controlled space and force the fight into the air. Getting a ground opponent airborne with this input requires more careful precision than the options Moe and Weepy provide.

The input is relatively quick and decent combo fuel, but getting the opponent behind Psycarrot for it takes some finagling. For example, his low air speed keeps him from easily crossing up an opponent, or their shield. He’ll usually be free to act again right as the opponent is above him.



Up Air

Psycarrot holds up a hand in a finger gun pose, aiming with his third eye. Out from a cloud of smoke shoots a large turnip, roughly crate-sized, soaring upward like a cannonball- minus the distance.

It travels up in a short arc, just a hair further than you would hope from a melee attack, then arcs almost straight down into the ground. Smashing the input has the turnip gain a little more height before the inevitable, though it deals the same damage and knock back either way- a healthy 10% and moderate, respectively.

With its arc, the turnip is almost better as an anti-air move. Of course, there’s one other trick up Psycarrot’s sleeve; the turnip only disappears (breaking into dozens of pieces in a cartoonish explosion) on hitting the opponent or the ground, or when Psycarrot creates another.

Psycarrot’s own hitboxes can inflict knock back on the turnip as though it had Jigglypuff’s weight, letting him aim it any direction he sees fit, or even juggle it in the air to keep it active for a good, long time.



Grab Game

Grab

Psycarrot bolts straight up and points his finger dramatically, third eye appearing and flashing with psychic energy. Foes on the ground within a short distance in front of Psycarrot freeze in place, surrounded and bound by beta-carobeams.

The limited reach and reasonable speed of this grab make it a ‘gotcha’ option that’s not terribly great in a vacuum, but reliable in context with the rest of the Root Pack’s tricks and traps.

Psycarrot’s pummel causes the rings to contract, squeezing the foe for continuous, rapid hits of 1% damage that add up quick.



Back Throw

Psycarrot bends forward and seizes the opponent between his leaves. He then bends back, forward, and back again, slamming the opponent back and forth against the ground. He releases them on the final slam for 10% damage and respectable knockback, bouncing them off the ground and into the air in a low arc.

There, they likely remain airborne long enough for Moe to set up a shot, or in perfect position for Weepy’s projectiles. Psycarrot himself is free to act shortly after the throw, usually with a short hop aerial or slightly delayed tilt.



Forward Throw

Psycarrot flicks his finger, and the energy holding the opponent explodes, flinging them away at a very low arc. The explosion deals 8% damage and moderate knockback, the arc making it a passable KO move later on. In fact, due to its quick startup, Forward Throw is impossible for a human to react to without predicting it. Similarly to Lucario’s forward throw, this allows Psycarrot to quickly dash in, grab, and Forward Throw, potentially killing at earlier percents since the foe will likely fail to properly DI.

What makes it more useful at any given stage of the fight is the same arc, setting them up for either of Psycarrot’s pals and giving him plenty of breathing room to fire off a projectile after them. Psycarrot can even choose to pursue the foe thanks to the meager end lag, should the situation call for it.



Up Throw

Psycarrot rotates his finger quickly, and the opponent rotates with it, a miniature cyclone of color within the rings of energy holding them. They spin so quickly that they begin to lift off the ground and fly straight up into the air!

The sheer friction from the air and rings inflicts 7% damage. More importantly, foes are flung straight up with light knockback, not enough to reliably KO, but enough to set them up for Psycarrot’s air game or anti-air options. If levitating themselves, Moe and Weepy will certainly appreciate Psycarrot giving the opponent a lift! At low percents, you can pressure after throwing, with the threat of Aerial Attacks and Up Tilt forcing a reaction.



Down Throw

Psycarrot hops on top of the foe, disrupting the psychic hold in favor of something more direct. He basically goes full jackhammer on ‘em, rapidly stabbing the foe with his pointy tip as they’re trapped in prone. Down Throw lasts for one whole second, dealing 7% with many rapid hits and leaving the foe in untechable prone at the end.

During a Down Throw, you can use the control stick to move both yourself and the foe left or right at a slow, but decent, pace. Compared to some of your other throws, which alter the foe’s positioning in broad strokes, Down Throw lets you fine-tune exactly where you want your opponent to be left at. Use this quirk to bring the foe into Weepy and Moe’s optimal ranges, or to augment the tech-chase aspect of Down Throw by bringing the foe near a ledge and limiting their getup options!

At the end of this throw, Psycarrot actually leaps upward a decent distance, pogo bouncing off of the foe with just enough height to reach low platforms such as those on Smashville, Battlefield, and Dream Land. This lets Psycarrot tech-chase with Aerial Attacks, with each of the five offering a different reward for punishing a different option. On stages with platforms, he can instead choose to maneuver underneath one during Down Throw, then take advantage of the platform to instantly land. Here, he can punish in-place getups with Down Tilt by poking through the platform, or use his dash speed (which is quicker than his sluggish air speed) to punish tech rolls.



Miscellaneous

Playstyle

Simply put, the Root Pack believes in strength in numbers. Moe, Weepy, and Psycarrot want to combine their efforts to corral and combo opponents around the stage, or stagger them such that a foe evading or countering one will be caught by the next.

The trade off is that Psycarrot (and by extension the player controlling him) is the brains of the operation, and must coordinate the group’s efforts. Individually, the pack are a trio of large targets whose inputs are slow and dotted with blind spots that can be capitalized on by smaller, speedier opponents.

Their advantage state is rock solid, though it takes some great effort to maintain, let alone make the most of. The group can zone and wall break and form long combo strings all in one neat little package, but need to scramble when on the backfoot where they don’t have the freedom to get one member rolling as the other two occupy the opponent.

Getting the opponent into the air in and of itself is a strong advantage state for Psycarrot. His aerials flow into one another very easily, letting him push the opponent around and into the path of Moe Tato or Weepy’s bigger attacks, piling on damage as he does.



Final Smash: Betty Beet



Psycarrot got the Smash Ball! (Oh, and Weepy and Moe got it too, I guess.) He summons Betty Beet, the unused fourth member of the Root Pack! She sprouts out from the ground and then flies around like a helicopter, using her leaves like a propeller, and comes packed with an armful of babies. Betty chases foes around, her propeller dealing rapid hits of 3%. More importantly, she chucks her babies straight up into the propeller, sending chopped beet flying to either side for the biggest AoE hitbox you’ve ever seen! It deals several long bursts of rapid-hits for 8% rapid hits! After ten seconds of this, Betty disappears in a cartoon poof. Psycarrot and the gang, meanwhile, are free to act during all of this!