Palutena (Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U)

''This article is about Palutena's appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. For other uses, see Palutena.''

Palutena is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.

Pros:

 * Very powerful attacks that often have high range and/or affect a large radius, as well high priority, and hitting multiple times.
 * Fast Aerial Attacks with little ending and landing lag.
 * Her Neutral Attack and all Tilts are disjointed hitboxes.
 * Is the only character (not counting Mii Fighters) whose Custom Moves are completely different for each Special Slot. This gives her a variety of tools among her Special Attacks to deal with every type of opponent (but only with customizations on).
 * Has a counter attack.
 * Can reflect projectiles.
 * Has a Meteor Smash: Down Aerial.
 * Can use of mindgames strategies to lure opponents into her attacks.
 * Fast dash and air speed.
 * Powerful Smash Attacks.
 * Forward and Down Smashes have windboxes, being able to push opponents, although it's not a strong effect.
 * Up Smash has the highest range of all Up Smashes in the game, and has transcendent priority.
 * Can edge-cancel her Warp, much like Zelda with Farore's Wind.

Cons:

 * Lightweight and floaty, being easy to juggle and KO.
 * High lag in most attacks, mostly for ground attacks and Smash Attacks, leaving her vulnerable.
 * Up Smash doesn't have long hitboxes, despite appearing to have.
 * Can't take pressure from faster characters.

Summary:
Palutena can be a considered an all-around character. Offensive-wise she is a powerhouse with strong normal attacks, especially her Tilt Attacks, as well powerful Smash Attacks with long reach (most notably Up Smash) and a fantastic dashing speed.

When fighting on close-combat, Palutena's most valuable tool is her Down Throw, as it has low knockback scaling, allowing her to pull combos regardless of the opponent's percentage. Players can follow up with a Forward Aerial, RAR Back Aerial and even Up Smash; on higher percentages the player can also follow up with Up Aerial, which at high percentages is a powerful KO move. Down Tilt also plays a similar role in follow ups, most effective at lower percentages. Her Forward Aerial can combo with itself, and her Neutral Aerial has very low landing lag, meaning she can easily connect ground attacks after using it.

As for the killing moves, aside her Smash Attacks, her Up Aerial is a deadly multi-hit attack that can easily trap opponents, although it has small hitboxes, being a bit hard to land, specially against smaller and/or faster opponents. Her Down Aerial, while not being a powerful Meteor Smash and having very low range, it will always send opponents downwards because it has no sourspot, unlike most Down Aerials.

Her Custom Special Attacks are different from the other characters in the game: instead of each custom move being a variation of the respective attack, it's an entirely different Special Attack. This means that Palutena, alongside the Mii Fighters, is the character with the highest variation of Special Attacks in the franchise.

With her standard Special Moves, Palutena takes a much more defensive approach. She can bounce back projectiles back at their senders with Reflect Barrier, deal heavy damage to melee characters with Counter and has a great recovery move with Warp, which, while doesn't deal damage can travel great distances. This makes Palutena formidable against any type of character.

All that said, Palutena is overall very slow in terms of attack speed (mostly for ground attacks) due to her ending lag issues, and can easily get trashed by quicker characters. For example, if she is on a 1 on 1 with Pit, assuming equal skill levels, Pit is prone to do much better. And although her Smash Attacks have great reach and definitely decent launch power, they leave her vulnerable for a pretty long period if compared to other characters. One of her best assets is her Dash Attack and Back Aerial, which is fast and can even KO at higher percentages. As mentioned, her Up Aerial is easily her most powerful Aerial Attack.

When playing as Palutena, it is very important to predict your opponent correctly, because her biggest flaw is the enormous number of attacks and abilities which leave her vulnerable, such as her Smash Attacks, her Side and Up Tilts, and all of her Special Attacks excluding Warp. When playing against Palutena, trick the player into using these abilities to your advantage, counterattacking at every chance.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack: Stabs her staff forward.
 * Neutral Combo: The end of the staff repeatedly glows a blue spark, causing multiple hits and trapping opponents. The finisher causes a small burst of energy with knocks back the opponent.
 * Side Tilt: Lets go of her staff, which spins in front of her and returns to her hand. Hits multiple times times.
 * Up Tilt: Ducks while spinning her staff above her. Hits multiple times times.
 * Down Tilt: Spins her staff on the ground.
 * Dash Attack: Smacks forward with her shield. Great launch power, can kill at higher damages. It also can destroy projectiles and out-prioritize most attacks. Also has the interesting effect of blocking counters.

Smash

 * Side Smash: Palutena summons her angel wings to attack horizontally. Also causes a small gust of wind which pushes opponents on the direction of the attack. Causes more damage and knockback if it hits closer to the enemy.
 * Up Smash: Palutena creates a blue laser that rises up from the ground in front of her feet. The attack's height is roughly a bit more than 3 times Palutena's height, being the Up Smash with the highest reach in the game. However, only the initial "thrust" of the animation have hitboxes; when the laser reaches its maximum height and starts to fade, it'll no longer be able to hit ememies.
 * Down Smash: Palutena summons her angel wings to attack each side of her by slamming them on the ground. Also causes gusts of wind on both sides of her, though they push opponents, but less than her Side Smash.

Other
To be added

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Aerial: Swings her staff around. Hits multiple times. Has very low landing lag, but also low range. One of her best assets for starting combos.
 * Forward Aerial: Kicks with both her legs. A good follow-up to her Down Throw. Looks similar to Zelda's Lightning Kicks, but without the powerful sweetspot. However, it can combo with itself against opponents with low percentages.
 * Back Aerial: Swings her shield backwards, in a motion similar to Captain Falcon and Ganondorf's Back Aerials Very powerful in terms of knockback, although having low range.
 * Up Aerial: Her wings glow blue and rise above her head a short length. Deals multiple hits and the last one knocks opponents directly upwards. Notable for being her attack with the least lag (both startup and ending), as well having very high knockback scaling, being one of Palutena's strongest attacks.
 * Down Aerial: Sweeps downward with her staff, but has very low range. It's a Meteor Smash with no sourspot, meaning the attack will always Meteor Smash regardless of how and when it hits the opponent.

Grabs and Throws

 * Pummel: The staff deals magical damage.
 * Forward Throw: Lanches the opponent forward.
 * Back Throw: Flips the opponent over her head and kicks him. Can KO at high percentages.
 * Up Throw: Launches the opponent upwards.
 * Down Throw: Telepathically slams the opponent into the ground. It has low knockback scaling, meaning the opponent won't be launched back very far even at higher percentages. Her best asset for starting combos.

Taunts

 * Up Taunt: Stretches her arms as her wings pop out, and says "You shall be purified!", while her symbol appears behind her.
 * Side Taunt: Twirls around her staff with her leg outstretched and laughs.
 * Down Taunt: Lets go of her staff and acts flirtatiously, saying "Ready when you are", while her symbol appears behind her.

In Competitive Play
To Be Added

Palutena
''In Kid Icarus: Uprising, the goddess of light uses telepathy to communicate and grants miracles to support Pit on his adventure. In Smash Bros., she has special moves like Warp and Heavenly Light at her disposal. She's very adaptable--you can customize her into a long- or close-range fighter!''
 * NES - Kid Icarus (08/1987)
 * 3DS - Kid Icarus: Uprising (03/2012)

Palutena (Alt.)
''Palutena's Reflect Barrier side special deflects any attacks and projectiles that come at her from the front. Unlike others' reflective moves, she can move a bit while the barrier is active. If you really want to ruin someone's day, you can push him or her over an edge using this move.''
 * Same as above

Trivia

 * Palutena's attacks are based on Powers from Kid Icarus: Uprising.
 * According to her trailer for Super Smash Bros. 4, it was evident that she was able to outrun Sonic, despite the fact that she was hovering. However, this is during her Custom Down Special Move, Light Weight.
 * Rosalina, Greninja, and Palutena are the only characters to have a unique sidestep; inside of truly sidestepping she will disappear for half a second and reappear. Her roll is the same thing.
 * Palutena is the only character that appeared first as a Final Smash (as being part of Pit's Palutena's Army).
 * Her Up Smash has the highest range of all Up Smashes in the game.