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Lord Zedd

Lord Zedd is the main antagonist of Might Morphin' Power Rangers seasons 2 and 3. Zedd acts as the higher evil to Rita Repulsa (The second, actually, if you count the oft forgotten Lokar), and when he makes his first appearance in the show, he banishes her for around a season's worth of episodes. When she makes her reappearance later on, she and Zedd get married and by all accounts have a fairly healthy relationship despite being two evil despots. They even had a child, but nobody really wants to talk about that.

Lord Zedd is Emperor of All That He Sees, and is pure evil incarnate. He's incredibly threatening and powerful, with his main weaknesses being arrogance and a short temper. His powers mainly lay in sorcery, with him being able to transform objects into living, pun-spewing monsters, and shoot powerful red lightning from his staff. Despite being incredibly powerful, he still manages to be foiled by a group of teenagers every week, and gets the shaft whenever a new villain shows up (Master Vile, Dark Specter, Rita herself when she comes back). Despite this, Zedd is still one of the most popular Power Rangers villains, and definitely the most popular of the Power Rangers-original villains, thanks to his creepy design and great voice.


Z-Stats
Weight - 104 (19-23rd)
Walk Speed - 0.9 (68th)
Run Speed - 1.48 (70-71st)
Air Speed - 1 (54-56th)
Fall Speed - 1.7 (24-26th)

Lord Zedd is by all accounts a fairly typical heavyweight antagonist, with high weight and low overall speed. He stands slightly taller than Falcon does when standing up straight, but he doesn't have the hunched gait of Falcon, as Zedd stands tall and proud. He is around as wide as Falcon, with him holding his staff behind him, and holding his other hand forward, similar to the picture below. Jump wise, Zedd's are mediocre and, again, fitting of a heavyweight character, though they don't hit Ganondorf levels, but they push close to it. When Zedd dodges, whether it be on the ground or the air, he will perform a shadow step-style teleport. This has no additional gameplay functions, and is just a cool animation.


Z-Specials
Neutral Special - Z-Lightning
Zedd holds his staff up as it starts to crackle with red electricity, before it creates a bolt of lightning above Zedd that fires in the direction of the nearest opponent. The bolt is roughly arrow shaped and moves at a decent pace, travelling 8 Grid Blocks before disappearing. On contact, it does 5% damage with weak knockback, but high hitstun. The homing aspect is weak, with it simply flying forward in a set direction once fired, the direction only changing depending on the opponent's location. With this in mind, it is also possible to fire in the opposite direction Zedd is facing if the opponent happens to be behind him. The speed of this attack is relatively quick, with more starting lag than endlag, but it's easy enough to get out to defend Zedd.

Of course, this isn't all. This attack, in fact, has FIVE levels of charge - though there isn't much for the first 4 levels. Every 35 frames the charge is held, an additional lightning bolt will appear above Zedd, with each one forming the point of a Z that only appears when all 4 bolts are created. The bolts all act the same, and are fired at the same time, but an unlucky opponent will be taking 20% damage and a LOAD of hitstun if they all manage to connect. This takes a while to fully charge up, but you will definitely have time to charge it with your Putty minions hanging around (See next special). While not spammable, the Z-Lightning projectiles give Zedd a lot of defensive and offensive options.

There's still one more level of charge to cover. Once the Z is created, holding the button for another 50 frames will cause the four lightning bolts to converge into one large ball - which then flies upwards into the sky. It doesn't act as a projectile while going up, but once off screen it will fire down as a full Pikachu-style lightning bolt (But red, of course) roughly 4 Grid Blocks away from Zedd. This is basically a wall of pain 1.5 Grid Blocks wide and reaching from the top of the screen to the first platform below it, which hangs around for roughly two seconds before fizzling out. Touching the sides of the lightning bolt will deal 15% damage with mid-tier knockback that won't KO until after 150% - which is good, as it can easily allow Zedd to juggle the opponent around at least one time.

While most opponents will be facing the wall of lightning, unlucky ones may end up being hit by the bolt when it comes down. This is actually a powerful hitbox that deals 25% and can KO at 80%, but requires the opponent to be in the exact center of the lightning when it comes down. This is incredibly tough to pull off, as the opponent will be moving a lot, obviously. However, something fun to note is that Zedd gains control the frame the lightning ball starts to fly upwards, and the lightning wall wont be created until roughly 3.5 seconds after that. You might be able to see where this is going.

Zedd's playstyle is heavily based around control of the stage and of the opponent, just the way he likes it. Both facets of this attack represent that, with the standard bolts acting as decent projectile chasers and defense tools, while the lightning wall grants him incredible potential for combos.


Side Special - Z-Putty Underling
Lord Zedd points forward, summoning a Z-Putty from a burst of darkness. The Z-Putties are Zedd's personal type of Putty Patroller, which are physically stronger than normal Putties, but have a big weakspot: Hitting the large Z on their chest destroys them instantly. The summoned Z-Putty runs forward for 4 Grid Blocks, before it falls on its face. It will then get back up, and become an active minion character. The Z-Putty is a head shorter than Zedd is, but only during its initial run. Once the Z-Putty enters its active phase, it will gain a hunched stance that renders it significantly shorter than Zedd. Also of note, when the Z-Putty gets back up, it will also transform its right arm into a clay sword. Summoning a Putty is fairly quick, and Zedd is capable of canceling the very end of the summon into itself.

As you might be able to tell, the Z-Putty's different phases act differently. If the Putty hits an opponent while it is running forward, it will latch onto them, causing the opponent to become grabbed. Thankfully for them, the Putty is very weak and only requires half the amount of mashing for a grab escape. Even better for the opponent, when they escape, the Z-Putty will explode into a shower of debris (Seems they hit the Putty's weak spot while escaping), thus preventing the Putty from even becoming an active minion. This isn't much of a big deal to Lord Zedd, he has thousands of them. But the Putty did manage to distract the opponent, letting Zedd do whatever he wants for a brief moment, whether it be summoning more Z-Putties, getting out of dodge, or, most obviously, starting an attack on the foe.

Zedd can summon up to 3 Z-Putties at a time, all of which can grapple with a foe at the same time. This is easy to do thanks to Zedd's combo summoning, but the additions the extra two Putties add aren't that great. With all three Putties on the opponent, the mashing level will be boosted to that of a normal grab rate at 0%, while only two will be somewhere between that. And yes, all three putties will be destroyed when the opponent breaks free. This is basically just a better way for Zedd to lead into attacks, as there isn't much else to benefit from with all three in grapple mode. Also, if Zedd does attack the opponent, this will count as freeing them and result in the Z-Putties being destroyed. Not that Lord Zedd cares, anyway.

When acting as minions, Z-Putties have very basic behavior. They will go after the nearest opponent, running at above average running speed and jumping if they have to, and using three unique attacks to try and take them down. Z-Putties are still weak, however, only having 20% stamina, but are heavy enough to not be launched by most attacks. This unfortunately means that they're very easy to combo. The Z-Putties' first attack has them using their sword arm in a quick three hit combo that deals 2%, 2%, 3%, dealing weak knockback on the last hit. The second attack is a stronger swipe of the blade arm with better reach, and deals 13% with stronger knockback that can actually kill lighter characters. Their final attack is a jumping downwards slash that knocks opponents downwards, and deals 9% damage.

Z-Putties don't make terribly great minions. They aren't likely to KO all but the lightest opponents (and even then they still need to manage to wrack up SOME damage), and they go out pretty easily. However, Zedd doesn't really expect these peons to do that - he plans on doing it himself. Z-Putties are the ultimate distraction, capable of easily swarming opponents and distracting them while Zedd goes in for an attack himself. There are a handful of interactions with Z-Putties, but not that many.


Up Special - Dark Warp
Without any real animation to lead into it, Lord Zedd transforms into a small red sphere, which quickly blips away for around half a for second, before reappearing a distance away. Lord Zedd then bursts from the orb, completing the attack. The burst is actually a hitbox, hitting in a complete circle around Zedd's model the moment he fully reappears, and deals 12% damage with radial knockback that can KO opponents in the mid-100%s. This is a decently strong attack, but is obviously not the main focus of the move, since, as you might be able to tell, this is a recovery.

This is actually a fairly decent recovery, as it has an insanely quick start-up, and very good reach to it. When warping, Zedd will teleport 5 Grid Blocks in any of the 8 cardinal directions, which is determined by the player inputting on the joystick. The speed of the move, with the ending attack, makes it a near top tier recovery, something Zedd needs thanks to his mediocre jumps. The largest downside of the attack is its ending lag, which is bad compared to most other teleport moves, mostly to balance out the rest of it.

This also comes into play with Zedd's stage control nature. While the initial instinct is that you can use this to approach opponents (Something not entirely out of the question, at least) and follow up with a combo, but the hitbox and especially the end lag make that basically impossible. However, it can be used as a stylish combo ender, though it still requires the opponent take a lot of damage before it can kill. Overall, a good recovery move with a decent hitbox attached to it, with some basic approach and control utility to it.


Down Special - Darkness Burst
Lord Zedd pulls his arms in, and then lets out a roar as he thrusts them out, causing a short range burst of dark energy to surround him. The reach of this is fairly bad, only reaching half a Grid Block on either side of him, and doesn't protect from above attacks. It only deals 8% damage, but deals high knockback, allowing it to kill in the mid-100%s. The main upside here, besides the knockback, is that it comes out very fast, making it easily used on enemies who end up getting too close. This gives Zedd more control over his own personal space, but this isn't all.

If Zedd manages to hit with the move once, his body will start to crackle with red electricity. Using the attack again while in this state will cause the dark burst to become slightly larger, now reaching 1 whole Grid Block on either side, but still not protecting from above. The damage is increased as well, to 12%, though knockback remains the same. The speed also remains the same, on the whole just making it a much better move. However, this can only be used once before the charge runs out and reverts it back to the normal version. Make sure you time the attack well, as it can reap great rewards... but we still aren't done.

If you hit with the charged version of Darkness Burst, Zedd will then be both crackling with red electricity, and swirling with dark energy. On a third use, instead of the standard animation, Zedd will slam his staff down, unleashing the energy on both sides of him, AND above him. Specifically, he creates a pillar that deals upwards knockback. It's thin, covering one Grid Block in width, but reaching up 6 whole Grid Blocks, making it overall... very big. The bursts on the side remain the same, but both damage AND knockback are increased. Damage is bumped to 18%, while knockback can now KO at around 80%. Also as a downside, the animation becomes slightly longer, giving opponents more time to potentially dodge it.

You still need to be careful, as using this move at all will result in the attack reverting back to its standard variation. This can be an incredibly powerful move in Zedd's arsenal, but the issue comes with getting it to its great third stage. The obvious thing to do is to hit with it while the Z-Putties grab the opponent, but this can only be used for one charge due to the Putties being destroyed by Zedd's attacks. Even then, the opponent still has a good chance to escape from the Putty's grasp before you can use the move due to Zedd's slow speed. This is a move you need to use carefully, but it's power is great and grants a lot of control over the stage, even in its weaker forms.


Shield Special - Evil's Reach
In order to use this, yo'll actually need to hold the Special button down, as it will do nothing by simply pressing the button. While holding the button, Zedd will exit his shield and hold his free hand out, causing it to become surrounded with a red and black energy ball, which also seems to make his hand slightly larger. As he holds his hand out, a slight suction effect will become active in the first square of 9 Grid Blocks in front of him. The suction is invisible, but is very clearly noticeable if you're actually, you know, standing in it. If the opponent is dragged into the energy ball around Zedd's hand, they will be instantly snapped into his grab. He can then pummel or use his throws on them.

Zedd can hold this indefinitely, but it leaves him completely open on everything except his front. This isn't an amazing technique by far, it has a very limited reach, and the suction effect isn't strong enough to pull in players. It CAN easily suck in Putties, however, who will face twice as strong suction. Zedd can use this to grab Putties, which we'll get to when we cover his Grab Game. The main use of this is to pressure opponents in front of Zedd, basically creating a sort of dead zone in front of him to prevent opponents from easily approaching the Emperor.


Z-Smashes
Forward Smash
Zedd rears back for the charge animation, before spinning around and thrusting his staff forward. As he spins around, the staff will turn red and grow giant. This gives the attack unprecedented range for a Smash attack, it being able to reach forward 6 Grid Blocks, and the width of the staff now taking up almost 2 whole Grid Blocks. This sounds like an utterly ridiculous attack, and it kind of is, but it's insane range is balanced by fairly mediocre damage, 8-14% depending on charge. The attack is also fairly slow, though it is only on the mediocre side for the start-up, the ending lag is pretty bad and punishable.

The head of Zedd's staff acts as a sweetspot for the move, but in an odd way. While the inner part of the staff deals fairly standard knockback (KOing around 120-90%, making it fairly weak), the head of the staff instead knocks opponents TOWARDS Zedd, rather than away.While this is technically weaker than the standard knockback, it is far more useful. The staff's reach allows it to strike through things like Zedd's lightning tower, and the sweetspot means that you can easily knock opponents into the lightning wall. The big issue is mainly the attack's endlag, which makes it easier to accidentally bring opponents right into your face if you hit with the sweetspot without any set-up.

The sweetspot does deal more hitstun than the standard hitbox, however, but this can only help so much. Of course, it isn't impossible to bring opponents in closer for a combo starter or continue, but it is very difficult to pull off and requires precise timing and the opponent to be at the right damage. The attack can also be aimed up and down, which lets Zedd potentially pull enemies downwards from the air, or even back onto the stage from slightly below it.

This is Zedd's most important attacks, despite how basic it may seem. There's tons of utility the sweetspot can give, whether it be combos, or knocking opponents into things Lord Zedd had already planned. One of the most impressive is timing the hit so that the opponent ends up struck by the lightning as soon as it comes down, which can deal stupid amounts of damage if you manage to pull it off. This attack lets the opponent be exactly where Zedd wants them, something he is all too happy about.


Up Smash
For the charge animation, Lord Zedd holds his staff forward as it pulses with a red light, his free hand hovering just above it, like he's enchanting it with a spell. On release, Zedd then holds his staff high, causing multiple explosions to surround him. The explosions happen quickly in a triangular pattern, going from Zedd's feet to just above his staff. The explosions all happen incredibly quickly, and all function as a single hitbox that covers a lot of area. It reaches 1 Grid Block away from Zedd on both sides, and goes around 2 Grid Blocks above Zedd's head, thanks to him holding his staff up. While it may not have a lot of reach, the area it covers is good enough to basically make it somewhat impenetrable.

Damage wise, the explosions will deal 13-22% damage based on charge, with directly upwards knockback that can KO at 100-75%. This makes it Zedd's main killing Smash, something his other Smashes aren't that great at doing. The main downside is that it has high starting lag and bad ending lag, meaning you're not really going to be able to throw it out unless the opponent is in a compromised situation, like grabbed by Putties. Generally, you'll want to have something set up before throwing out Up Smash, something Zedd won't have trouble with if you play your cards right.


Down Smash
Lord Zedd raises his staff up for the charge animation, both hands gripping its middle. Upon release, he slams the bottom of his staff into the ground, causing the area surrounding Zedd to both shake and crackle with red electricity. The area this quake covers is around 3.5 Grid Blocks wide in total, which might seem like great range, but the actual hitbox is limited to the ground itself, anything not touching it won't be hurt. The animation, overall, is fairly fast, but has some mediocre ending lag to it. On hit, the quake will deal 7-15% damage, with outright bad knockback that won't kill until very, very late.

However, this works towards something. Pressing the attack button again during the animation, but not the endlag, will make Zedd slam his staff down again. this is functionally similar in every way, except that it only deals 5% damage. Zedd can even perform this for a third hit, the the hitstun and poor knockback means that the three hits can combo into each other very easily, especially on opponents with low percents. As an added bonus, the third hit will even cause the opponent to trip - though this comes at the expense of slightly worse endlag, giving Lord Zedd only a brief moment to take advantage of it. This is one of Zedd's best damage dealers when all three hits are used, and the trip bonus at the end can be useful if you have Putties out, or need the opponent to stay still for a moment.


Grab Game
Grab & Pummel
Zedd reaches forward with his free hand in a fairly standard grab animation. It has reach comparable to that of similar sized characters, like Ganon or Falcon. Lord Zedd will menacingly grasp the opponent by their collar as well, showing his dominance. For his pummel, Zedd will zap the opponent with lightning from his staff, only slightly moving it each time, barely needing to put effort into the attack. It's a standard heavy pummel, dealing 3% damage with each blast, but being slow enough that you won't be able to use it many times when the opponent is at low percents.

As mentioned earlier, Zedd can grab his Z-Putty minions as well. Using the pummel while one is grabbed will instantly destroy it, in case you ever feel like cleaning up your incompetent soldiers. But in addition to that, Zedd can toss the Z-Putties around. he can throw them in four different directions, with the animations mostly consisting of basic one handed throws in said directions. This can be useful for repositioning them, but in addition the thrown Putty will become a sort of projectile. Any opponent hit by a flying putty will be grabbed by them, giving you a second chance to hold opponents down. The Putties are always thrown roughly 5.5 Grid Blocks forward. One important thing to note is that Putties can't grab opponents if there isn't any ground beneath them, with the thrown Putties still technically treated as being grounded. This prevents you from throwing Putties off stage to drag opponents down.


Forward Throw
Lord Zedd quickly smacks the opponent with the back of his hand, and then while they're flying forward, he quickly snaps his fingers, causing the opponent to be caught in a web of red electricity and magic. This makes it so that the opponents are stuck in the air for roughly 1.5 seconds, making them vulnerable for that time. The attack has low end lag, meaning that Zedd can easily take advantage of the situation, though he does need to be quick about it.

The smack deals 5% damage, while the opponent becoming caught in the web will deal 4% extra, making this fairly weak. It has set knockback as well, with the opponent being caught 1.5 Grid Blocks above the ground, and 3 Grid Blocks (give or take, it depends on the size of the character) away from Zedd. If Zedd decides to let the timer run out, then the opponent will enter normal fall, complete with their Up Special being available. Zedd has quite a few options to take advantage of this, from his FSmash, to jumping into the opponent with an aerial, or maybe being able to start a combo. He can also take a non-direct route and ready up some Putties or charge his lightning attacks.

As a final note, if the attack is used again within a ten second period after being used, the timer will be reduced to 0.5 seconds. This prevents any cheese regarding infinites.


Back Throw
Using his free hand, Lord Zedd lifts the opponent over his head and then slams them into the ground behind him, launching them off. This is a fairly powerful throw, dealing 15% and being able to KO in the early 100%s, but it is very slow, both in terms of animation and endlag. This means that it can't be used for much besides KOing. The endlag is bad enough that it leaves Lord Zedd open to potential attacks, but this really only applies to when multiple characters are fighting.

This move will mostly want to be used at high percents, something that Zedd has little difficulty doing, what with his higher damaging attacks and variety of stunning tactics. He can grab opponents out of the Putty grabs, drag them in with his FSmash then perform the throw, or even bait them into a grab using his projectiles or his Shield Special. Also, since a good number of Zedd's throws involve slamming the opponent down, when used on the ledge it will simply act like they were slammed into the ground, no janky shenanigans here.


Up Throw
Lord Zedd once again lifts the opponent up with his free hand, but this time he slams the opponent down in front of him. This causes them to fly upwards, but Zedd quickly follows up by shooting a ball of lightning from his staff, which flies into the opponent and launches them. The initial slam only deals 5% damage, and also deals set knockback to the opponent. By the time the lightning ball hits the opponent, they will be roughly 1.5 Grid Blocks from where they were slammed, and 3.5 Grid Blocks up into the air.

As for the lightning ball itself, there's a brief amount of start-up for it, which leaves Zedd vulnerable to attacks from minions or other players. The ball itself resembles the lightning balls from the NSpec, but it will instead deal 7% damage and some decent knockback, KOing in the mid-100%s. This isn't much of a KO throw, but it can certainly be used for that. It's main use, however, is to potentially start combos, as Zedd gains control only a few frames before the lightning hits, and the attack itself has some decent hitstun. This is a generally versatile throw, however, and can be used for other things, like spacing and placement. Also, if the lightning ball misses somehow, the opponent will enter normal fall a few frames after when it's supposed to hit.


Down Throw
Once more, Lord Zedd slams the opponent on the ground using his free hand. This time, he instead follows up on this by jabbing the bottom of his staff into the opponent. He then charges both the staff and opponent with electricity, before finally performing a quick kick to their prone body that launches them off. The slam deals 2% damage this time, while the electricity deals 8%, and finally the kick deals another 2%, equaling a decent 12%.

The kick deals the knockback, which is relatively light. It won't kill until the late 100%s, but can still manage to punt opponents pretty far. The upside here is that the throw has very low endlag, letting Zedd move around while the opponent is still flying. he can use this for a number of things, like combo starting, though it isn't the best at that. It can be very good at spacing, however, which is what you should consider its main use. It's relatively low knockback can also make it a good choice for throwing opponents into obstacles, like Putties and lightning walls. And of course, there's always FSmash.


Z-Standards
Jab
Lord Zedd holds up his free hand, and lets burst a blast of red energy from it. This is very fast, as you would expect from a first Jab hit, coming out in only a handful of frames. The attack has a relatively small hitbox, but has decent reach, as the hitbox only comes from the end of Zedd's outstretched arm. The hitbox may be small, but the added reach makes it easier to hit with. On contact, it will deal a fairly pitiful 3% damage with no knockback, but very good hitstun for a jab hit.

The second hit has Zedd performing a powerful downwards swing with his free arm. This is significantly slower than the first hit, and most jab combo hits in general, more equivalent to a slow Tilt. This helps it play into the first hit's very good hitstun, as even with this slow speed, that means it combos in perfectly. It deals a shockingly powerful 10%, with downwards knockback that on stage will bounce the opponent into the air, but can also be used for ledge guarding.

You can, of course, combo from the first hit of the jab into a lot of other attacks, given the hitstun the attack provides. Examples include most of Zedd's Tilts, his grab, Darkness Burst, or a single shot of Z-Lightning. Really, there is a lot you can play out from this, making it a great opener.


Forward Tilt
Lord Zedd grabs his staff by both hands, and swings it forward in a much less exaggerated way than one would expect. This is actually a multi-hit move, as inputting the attack button again will cause him to swing the staff in the other direction. Both hits are similar, having roughly 0.6 Grid Block reach, with Zedd only really using half of the staff's length for the attack. Zedd does move forward slightly with each swing, however. Both swings are similar in speed as well, having slightly slow opening and ending lag to them, making them not that great to throw out.

The main difference in the two hits is the damage and knockback they deal. The first hit deals 4% damage with barely any knockback, but high hitstun that lets the second hit combo from it. You can't use this to potentially extend the combo to other moves, however, as the ending lag is higher, meaning you have very little choice but to combo into the second hit. This isn't much of a problem, as the second hit deals 8% damage, with decent knockback that can KO at around 160%. This is the most fluid move to combo from Jab, and can easily rack up more damage than most other combos, and even has a better chance at KOing. It's worth noting that the length of FTilt is actually shorter than the first hit of Jab, meaning that you will need to be close in order to score the combo.

Other than that, while this is slow, it is a decent KO option with how early it can kill for a Tilt. It's still not entirely recommended to use it on its own, as it works far better when placed with other moves that deal high hitstun.


Up Tilt
In a very simple animation, Zedd performs a magically charged uppercut with his free arm. This attack has decent reach to it, thanks to how Zedd swings his arm, and the added magical effects. It reaches forward roughly 0.5 Grid Blocks from Zedd, impressive range, especially on a pure melee attack. Speed wise, there is some starting lag, making it slower than most other comparable moves, but it has slightly lower endlag. Though even in this case, it's still worse than you would expect from a Tilt.

The uppercut deals 10% damage and high upwards knockback, being able to KO in the early 100%s, roughly past 140%. This makes it genuinely very powerful, especially for a single hit attack. The knockback is directly upwards, even if it hits before the peak of the attack, which makes this very easy to start aerial combos, or even potentially juggle using other moves like Darkness Burst or a free Z-Lightning blast. Added things like Z-Putties and FSmash make it easy to approach and throw this out to try and open into a combo or such. Despite being so simple, this attack is one of Zedd's best for getting opponents into the air - though the merit of actually being in the air depends on the situation.


Down Tilt
From his crouching position, Zedd quickly twists his torso around and seems to strike behind himself with his staff - but he also strikes in front of himself with the bottom of his staff. This is actually a fairly fast move with some decent range to it, and consists of two hits rather than a single one, one striking behind Zedd and the other in front of him. Uniquely, the starting part of the animation acts as a very weak hitbox, dealing 2% with very little knockback, though it still remains safe on hit and knocks opponents away from Zedd. The reach of this part is minimal, only hitting 0.3 Grid Blocks from Zedd's position.

The second hit is the strike with the bottom of his staff, which is considerably better... but not by much. It deals 8% damage with mediocre knockback that is also safe on hit, but still not great. The great part here is the range, which manages to reach 0.8 Grid Blocks away from Zedd, making it his best reaching Tilt. This isn't great at killing, as neither hit will KO until very late percents, but it's main use comes in defense. The attack is incredibly fast, having very little starting lag on the first hit, and only a bit on the second. This means that the attack is actually fairly easy to throw out if you end up surrounded, knocking opponents around to give you a brief bit of leeway. In addition, the reach of the second hit makes it a prime poking tool.


Dash Attack
From his dashing animation (Which, for the record, is a glide across the ground), Zedd enters a slide as he grabs his staff with his free hand, and then spins it around as he comes to a stop. After he stops, Zedd will slash the staff upwards, before returning to his idle. This attack has some high opening lag to it, and high end lag too, both because Zedd needs to move his staff from hand to hand. Besides this, the attack has decent reach, with the radius of the spin reaching out 0.5 Grid Blocks from Zedd's hand, which itself is held out in a way to give it more range than normal. The slide to a stop, which constitutes 0.6 Grid Blocks, gives it another boost in range.

The spinning staff will deal up to 5 hits, with the first 4 acting the same, but with the last being different. The first four hits will deal 2% with no knockback, and will, obviously, combo into each other. These hits lead directly into the final slash upwards, which deals 10% with knockback that can KO in the early 100%s, making it a decent KO move. Zedd can easily trap opponents in this attack through a few methods, the most obvious being the Z-Putties. The attack's hitbox is technically radial, though it is nearly impossible for opponents to get caught below or on the opposite side of it under normal circumstances. It can, however, hit opponents that fall into it, though the initial hits here won't combo into the final hit.


Z-Aerials
Neutral Aerial
Zedd quickly swipes his staff in front of him, and then swipes it behind him, all while it is imbued with dark magic. This move has some slight starting lag to it, but is otherwise fairly fast. The downside is some heavy ending lag for an Aerial, but even then it's merely bad than terrible. The attack hits on both sides of Zedd, as you would expect from the animation, but, also as you may expect, there's a delay between the hit in front and the hit behind.

Both hits are the same, aside from when they come out. They both deal 12% damage with decent knockback that can KO in the mid-to-late 100%s. The staff, like in most other moves involving it, has decent reach. It reaches around 0.7 Grid Blocks on either direction, making it very good, especially for an Aerial like this. The main purpose of this move is to throw it out to keep opponents off of you, though it's lower speed than the DTilt make it slightly less reliable, but it's higher damage means it can potentially KO. Both attacks fill a similar defensive niche, so pick whichever feels best for the situation.


Down Aerial
In a fairly standard stall-then-fall animation, Lord Zedd slams his staff downwards, and then plummets back down to the ground beneath him. This behaves similar to how moves like Ridley's DAir works, in fact it has roughly the same start-up and ending lag, making it functionally a copy of that move for the most part. Like Ridley, this attack can't be cancelled early, but it does have a specific end point, which mirrors Ridley's stomp.

That isn't to say it's a carbon copy, however. The staff slam is slightly faster than Ridley when it comes to the actual falling part, and the hitbox is much different. The hitbox is relegated entirely to Zedd's staff, rather than his body. The staff stretches out 0.8 Grid Blocks from Zedd's body, making it very wide compared to Ridley's relatively puny hitbox. This, of course, means that it deals les damage, only 12% with weaker knockback. Said knockback doesn't spike normally like Ridley's does, instead only the head of the staff can spike, making it the ideal part to hit with, but also much more difficult to do. This can basically function as an aerial wall of pain, or a quick way to get Zedd back to the ground.


Up Aerial
Lord Zedd quickly swings his staff upwards in an uppercut like motion, not dissimilar to how the UTilt works. However, the obvious difference comes from two factors. The first is that the staff itself gives the attack much greater ranger than the generic uppercut, hitting a maximum of 0.9 Grid Blocks from Zedd. The second is that it's in the air, which is fairly self explanatory. The attack is relatively fast, but with noticeable starting and ending lag. It isn't especially terrible, however, but bad enough that this isn't a move you want to casually throw out.

Damage-wise, the attack deals 12% damage with directly upwards knockback that can KO at 90% off the top platform of Battlefield. This makes it pretty good for juggling purposes, but it actually has a second, more interesting function. The staff is long enough that it can actually hit opponents BENEATH Zedd, but only during the very start of the attack. It can be difficult to pull off, but if you can it can easily incapacitate enemies thanks to high hitstun, and lead directly into aerial combos. Also fun is juggling grounded opponents into potential aerial projectiles. This is a generally highly useful attack, what with its high knockback and interesting hitboxes, generally making this one of Zedd's better aerial kill moves, but not his best one.


Back Aerial
Lord Zedd places his staff under his arm, and then grabs it with both hands. He then thrusts it backwards, the spike at the bottom of it flowing with dark magic. This attack has high starting lag, and a hitbox that doesn't last that long, but it is by far Zedd's best killing move. It has high ending lag as well, especially if you end up landing during the middle of it, making throwing it around not the best option, especially considering how poor Zedd is in the air.

The attack has decent range, though not as comparable to other attacks, only reaching 0.6 Grid Blocks. It also deals a hefty 15% damage on hit, and can KO at 100%, making this Zedd's best killing move while in the air. As is obvious, the fact that the move is so slow is its main issue, but landing with it is very satisfying. There isn't much beyond this move besides killing, however, it isn't even easy to combo into, making it very limited in its scope.


Forward Aerial
Lord Zedd prepares to thrust his staff forward, only for it to start glowing red as he preps. As he thrusts it forward, the staff transforms into a snake made of red energy, which slithers forward as a hitbox. The staff returns to normal as Zedd pulls it back during the ending lag. The snake will form a curved pattern, with its body going upwards 5 times before it sticks its head out to bite. This takes up roughly 2/3rds of a Grid Block's vertical space, but stretches out 0.9 Grid Blocks, making it overall one of Zedd's best reaching attacks.

This comes at the expense of there being pretty hefty starting and ending lag, however, especially on landing lag. The body of the snake deals 9% damage with fairly mediocre knockback, but the head of the snake (A hitbox taking up a roughly 2x2 section of the smaller grids) will deal a much heavier 15% with knockback that can KO in the early 100%s. This is a decent attack overall, but not something you can throw out, which is a factor of Zedd's air game that is fairly important thanks to his poor aerial abilities.

As a final note, if you enter landing lag while using this move, the serpent will actually transform into a large boa constrictor briefly, which Zedd will quickly transform back into his staff after wrangling with it for a moment.


Final Smash
Serpentera Strike
Lorde Zedd has the Smash Ball! Upon pressing the Special button, Lord Zedd will fire out a massive bolt of red lightning from his hand. The bolt is very large, reaching roughly 5 Grid Blocks forward, and being as tall as 1 Grid Block as well. It comes out at lightning speed, though there is standard Final Smash start-up when used. Any opponent struck by the bolt of lightning will receive 25% damage, but no knockback, as this is actually a cinematic Final Smash, and the lightning is merely the trigger for it. Like most cinematic Final Smashes, any opponent caught in the blast will end up being taken to the second part of the Final Smash.

It cuts to a scene of Lord Zedd sitting on his throne as he lets out a laugh, and then gives the thumbs down. It then cuts to the outside of where he is sitting... inside the mighty Serpentera, a powerful Zord capable of destroying planets! Serpentera unleashes a massive blast from its mouth down to the Earth below it, striking the opponents that have been unfortunate enough to face its power. The blast incinerates the opponents, dealing 30% damage and knockback that can KO well before 70%, making this a truly powerful Final Smash.