Sheik (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)


 * This article is about Sheik's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Sheik. Also, for information about Sheik's alter-ego, see Princess Zelda.

Sheik is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Sheik transforms from Zelda by using her down special move Transform, and can also transform back into Sheik. Her design saw great changes in that she was given a great deal more detail in her costume, as well as a knife and pony-tail. The most significant change to her design is in her figure, which now appears much more feminine than in previous titles. Sheik's Brawl design isn't based on her appearance from Ocarina of Time like it was in Melee. It's actually based on conceptual designs that were created for Twilight Princess.

The playability of Sheik had earlier been hinted by Eiji Aonuma, the director of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, who stated that he sent Twilight Princess-style designs of Sheik and Ganondorf to Sakurai.

Sheik can be selected off of the Character Select screen by clicking on her image, like selecting a starting Pokémon with Pokémon Trainer. However, unlike Pokémon Trainer, there is no Random option between the two.

Sheik saw a large drop in her tier position, from rank 3 in Melee to rank 23 in Brawl. Her loss of many of her killers and her chaingrab caused a drop-off in her position.

Attributes
Sheik is one of the fastest characters in the game, having the fourth fastest running speed, a great distance of her DACUS that can be used for killing, and a very high attack speed. She has one of the best abilities to combine attacks effectively, as her attacks have very little start up and ending lag, and generally have low knockback, allowing them to chain effectively. The best example of this is Sheik's Forward Tilt. Most of Sheik's attacks can lead to a forward tilt, especially at low percentages, especially the Up Tilt, Down Tilt, Neutral Aerial, Forward Aerial, Back Aerial, Down Smash, and Jab Cancel. Additionally, the low knockback of the Forward Tilt can be repeatedly linked into itself, especially against heavy characters and fastfallers, making for great damage-racking potential. This can also be ended with almost any of Sheik's attacks, and it can easily rack up 50% or more in one string of attacks, especially on fast-fallers or heavy characters, making her a hard counter to Fox. Sheik's Up-tilt is also a powerful attack. At very low percentages, it can lead into itself, and at slightly higher percentages it leads into a Forward Tilt. It has a very large range and long-hitting hitbox, making it a powerful defensive move. Sheik's smashes are also fairly good. Her down smash has multiple hits and has long range. Her up smash can kill easily at around 100%, but only when it is sweetspotted, which is not always easy. Her forward smash isn't very powerful, but it is a two hit combo and has fairly good range.

Sheik has a fairly powerful air-game that really only lacks in one area: versatility. Her Back and Neutral Aerials have very similar knockback and speed and negligible landing lag outside of auto-cancel. If hit in the initial few frames, they have decent knockback, making them useful for edgeguarding, and they have good range. Her Up Aerial has some landing lag and has less knockback. Her Forward Aerial is a very quick swipe with low knockback but a great trajectory (slightly below horizontal), low lag, but sub-par range. This makes it a great move for killing at higher percents. Her down aerial is a Stall-Then-Fall, negating all vertical knockback, but unfortunately, it has high landing lag.

Sheik does have versatility amongst her special moves, however. Needles are a fast projectile that can be very hard to dodge and can be charged for increased damage. Sheik's Up Special is somewhat low in terms of recovery distance, but it has the second highest knockback of any of Sheik's moves. Combined with the invulnerability it grants, this can occasionally be used against some moves as a powerful counter, but it's also one of the hardest moves to hit with unless used in this way: it can also be used to edgeguard through Vanish Gliding. Sheik's Forward Special is the Chain, which can be used for a Tether Recovery, and also has some offensive potential through Chain Locking, which is great for punishing Shielding, Rolling, and Spot Dodging, and Chain Jacket, which can be used to insert the knockback and priority of the last attack into the Chain, which can prove useful on some characters with less priority or some projectiles. The Chain makes her a sub-impossible match-up for Ganondorf. Additionally, the Chain has high priority, and combined with the massive range behind it, the priority is a blessing. It is slow coming out and returning, however, and leaves her vulnerable from behind, a problem that can be capitalized on. Sheik's Down Special transforms her into Zelda, which allows use of two different characters in the same match, which can help to balance some of Sheik's weaknesses. Sheik also can wall jump, wall cling, and crawl.

Sheik is not a character without any weaknesses, however. Above all, Sheik does not have much killing power on most of her moves, as a majority of her killers in Melee were severely nerfed. Her two most powerful killing moves are her sweetspotted up smash and Vanish, which are hard to connect with compared to Sheik's other moves. Sheik can use techniques such as DACUS and forward tilt to help connect her up smash, to an extent, nothing else kills reliably below 150%. This makes Sheik very reliant on getting numerous hits to rack up damage and edgeguarding. Additionally, Sheik's best chain of attacks (the forward tilt-lock) often stops working before the opponent reaches kill percentage (stops at about 50%, depending on the match-up of course: lasts to later percentages on fast-fallers and heavy characters like Wolf and Bowser, but stops sooner on light and floaty characters like Kirby and Jigglypuff). Sheik also has poor priority and attack range on a good number of moves. Sheik is also very light-weight and tall for her weight class, making her easier to kill than many characters (though this is not without its advantages, as it allows Sheik to escape some chaingrabs, including Dedede's infamous Chaingrab), and her poor recovery often comes up short. Sheik is also one of the fastest-falling characters in the game, making her vulnerable to any chaingrab that is effective against fast-fallers.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack - Sweeps her right hand left then right, then repeatedly jabs with her arm straight and with her fingers sticking out. First two hits, 3%. Jabs, 2% each, 1% if hit with the tip of her fingers.
 * Dash Attack - Throws her arms forward and forcefully separates her hands. 7%.
 * Strong Forward - Kicks her leg in an arc. Its high speed and low knockback allows good combo ability, being able to do it repeatedly or follow up with another attack. 5%.
 * Strong Up - Sheik raises her right leg above her and slams it down. First hit, 6%. Second hit, 7%. A good combo ender.
 * Strong Down - Sheik does a quick spin kicking the ground with her leg. 8%.

Smash

 * Side Smash - Sheik kicks in front of her twice trapping the enemy in the first kick at low percentages and knocks them back with the second kick. Knockback is quite low for a smash attack. First hit, 5% uncharged, 7% fully charged. Second hit, 9% uncharged, 12% fully charged.
 * Up Smash - Sheik raises her arms above her head holding them together and forcefully separates them to the left and right sides of her body. Powerful knockback when sweetspotted, but less powerful when not sweetspotted. It is also possible to hit twice with it for huge damage. Body (hits first), 17% uncharged, 23% fully charged. Wind, 12% uncharged, 17% fully charged.
 * Down Smash - Sheik spins her body on the ground sticking her legs out. First hit, 13% uncharged, 18% fully charged. Second and third hits, 10% uncharged, 14% fully charged. Decent knockback.

Other

 * Ledge Attack - Sheik swiftly kicks her foot up off the edge. Similar to her Up Air, except sideways. 8%.
 * 100% Ledge Attack - Sheik slowly gets up and forcefully brings her elbow forward. 8%.
 * Floor Attack - Sheik kicks backwards, then brings her leg over her head in a kick, then gets up. 6%.
 * Trip Attack - Gets up and spins around with her leg extended. 5%.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Air -Sheik kicks forward with her leg. 13% during the first several frames, 5% during the rest.
 * Forward Air -Sheik claws in front of her with her left hand. 9%. Good for edgeguarding due to its low angle of trajectory.
 * Back Air - Sheik kicks backward with her right leg. 11% during the first several frames, 6% during the rest. Sweetspot is her foot.
 * Up Air - Sheik does a quick screwdriver kick. 15% during the first several frames, 6% during the rest of them.
 * Down Air - Sheik kicks down throwing herself down with it, in a similar fashion to Sonic's down-aerial. High ending lag. 10%.

Grabs & Throws

 * Pummel - Sheik elbows the enemy with her left elbow. 3%.
 * Forward Throw -Sheik elbows the enemy with her left arm. 5%, then 2%.
 * Back Throw - Sheik throws the enemy behind her and kicks backwards. 5%, then 2%.
 * Up Throw - Sheik flips upside-down and kicks the enemy with both of her feet. 3%, then 2%.
 * Down Throw -Sheik throws the enemy down to the ground, flips, and axe kicks the enemy's midsection, sending the enemy upward. Two hits of 3%.

Changes from Melee to Brawl
Sheik has, as stated before, undergone a large nerf from her previously high tier position in Melee. Her specials have seen some change. Needle Storm immediately begins charging if special move button is tapped, rather than firing a single needle. The special button must be tapped twice to fire a single needle. Needle Storm will eventually stop charging by itself, instead of requiring the player to throw the needles or press Z to save them. Her recovery is also slightly improved, as Chain can now be used as a tether recovery, and Vanish now has more damage, more knockback, and less landing lag. Like Zelda, her in-game transformations take longer than before, but render Sheik/Zelda invincible. Chain also moves more freely than in Melee. Her normal moves have also undergone changes. Her Forward Smash has increased knockback on the second hit. Her Down Smash has lower knockback. Her Up Smash has increased knockback on the sides. If Sheik is close enough, the tip and side hits can both strike the opponent, sending the enemy at a ~60 degree angle. Her forward tilt has less knockback, but is better at comboing. Her up tilit has more knockback on the second hit. Her Down aerial now angles diagonally downwards, and is a Stall-Then-Fall. Her Up aerial is now a better juggler, but no longer a good kill move. Her Forward aerial has less knockback and a smaller sweetspot. She also has a better, shorter short hop, and can crawl.

In cosmetic terms, Sheik looks more feminine, has a lighter skin tone, smaller eyes, and a different outfit. She also now has a braid. She can now be chosen instead of Zelda at the character selection screen (one simply selects Zelda and then clicks on the image of Sheik behind Zelda's portrait.)

Role In Subspace Emissary
If one chooses to rescue Zelda from Petey Piranha in the Subspace Emissary, the player can still transform into Sheik, despite her not technically being introduced until much later. Thus, Sheik is the only character in the Subspace Emissary to be playable before she's introduced. After Peach and Zelda  are rescued by Lucario, Meta Knight, and Snake, the two princesses are ordered to stay where they are until the Halberd is under their control. Zelda transforms into Sheik and walks out with Peach, opening a window to the outside of the ship. Both princesses then make their way to the front deck of the ship. There, they witness Fox's Arwing attacking the Halberd, and his lasers meant for the Halberd's turret nearly injures Peach. In response, Sheik leaps into the air and uses Vanish onto the Arwing, striking the windshield and forcing Fox to jettison. They fall back to the Halberd, and begin to fight, but Peach offers them both tea, ending any erroneous hostilities.

As they drink their tea, several Mr. Game and Watches fall from the bridge and turn into shadow bugs that coalesce to form the monstrous Duon . The three prepare to fight, but are joined by Lucario, Snake, and Falco. They then proceed to defeat Duon, and it turns into the trophy of Mr. Game and Watch, who Peach revives. Then she and the other heroes journey into subspace for the final battle against Tabuu. Sometime between then and the entrance to Subspace, Sheik transformed back into Zelda.

Trivia

 * Sheik has the shortest on-screen appearance duration out of all the characters in Subspace Emissary.
 * Unlike in Melee, where completing Classic mode with either Zelda or Sheik would get both Zelda and Sheik trophies, Brawl makes one play both characters separately to retrieve their trophies.
 * Along with Sonic, Squirtle, and Zero Suit Samus, Sheik is one of the only characters to not be seen in trophy form during The Subspace Emissary. Coincidentally, all four of these characters begin with the letter 'S' and are blue.
 * Interestingly, Sheik has a dagger in a sheath on her back, which she never uses to fight and never had in Ocarina of Time and Melee; similar cases occur for Snake, Captain Falcon and Ganondorf. She did wield it in a poster for Ocarina of Time, though it never appeared ingame.
 * Sheik's black costume is the only outfit in which her hair changes color, although in her light purple costume, her hair is slightly lighter and her red's a tiny bit darker.