Byleth (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

This article is about Byleth’s appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For other uses, see Byleth.

Byleth
Universe	Fire Emblem
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	Progenitor God Ruptured Heaven
Tier	B- (42)
Character Statistics
Number of Jumps	2
Can Wall Jump	Yes (with Tether)
Has a Tether	Yes
Character Stats
Weight	Middleweight
Voice Actors
Voiced by (English)	Male: Zach Aguilar Female: Jeannie Tirado
Voiced by (Japanese)	Male: Yusuke Kobayashi Female: Shizuka Ito

Byleth is a newcomer fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game. Their inclusion was revealed in the character presentation through the Nintendo Direct on January 16th, 2020. They are the fifth and last fighter announced for the first volume of the Fighters Pass and were released on January 28th, 2020.

Attributes

Strengths

• Disjointed reach.
• High damage output.
• Strong defensive game.
• Forward Aerial, Back Aerial, Forward Smash, and Aredbhar deal extra damage and knockback when connecting at the tip.
• Down Smash and Down Aerial deal high shield damage.
• Down Aerial is capable of Meteor Smashing.
• Up Smash and Up Air are active for long durations and good for juggling.
• Neutral Aerial possesses a landing hitbox, making it a useful tool for anti airing and combos.
• Failnaught deals high damage and shield damage, and can be shield or jump cancelled. The stronger variant covers massive range and deals high damage and knockback.
• Aredbhar covers a wide range above and covers platforms.
• Tether recovery in Sword of the Creator, which can also anti-air opponents.
• Aymr has super armor and can break shields, as well as deal massive damage when connecting.

Weaknesses

• Poor mobility.
• High startup and endlag on most attacks.
• Forward Aerial and Back Aerial have precise hitboxes, lacking vertical reach.
• Short grab range.
• Easily punished if misspaced.
• Can struggle to recover horizontally.

Summary

To be added.

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Normal

• Neutral Attack: A knife-hand strike, followed by a roundhouse kick, and finally either a sidekick or if the button is mashed, a flurry attack with the whip-sword.
• Side Tilt: An elegant outward slash done at a downward angle.
• Up Tilt: Swings their sword in an upward arc above their head, akin to Mii Swordfighter’s up tilt.
• Down Tilt: A low swipe with his whip-sword.
• Dash Attack: An inwards swipe while sliding forward.

Smash Attacks

• Side Smash: Thrusts Areadbhar forwards.
• Up Smash: Swings their whip-sword above themself, hitting multiple times, akin to Zero Suit Samus.
• Down Smash: Sweeps Aymr from front to back.

Other attacks

• Floor Attack (Front): Slashes behind and then in front of themself.
• Floor Attack (Back): Same as their front floor attack.
• Floor Attack (Trip): Slashes in front and then behind themself.
• Edge Attack: Performs a low outward slash while climbing up.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral Air: Spins Failnaught around themself.
• Forward Air: Swings Areadbhar horizontally forward.
• Back Air: Thrusts Areadbhar backward.
• Up Air: Swings their whip-sword upward, hitting multiple times.
• Down Air: Swings Aymr downward, with the ability to meteor smash opponents.

Grabs and Throws

• Grab: Reaches out with their left hand.
• Pummel: Knees the opponent.
• Forward Throw: An upward slash with the sword in its whip form.
• Back Throw: Wraps the Sword of the Creator around their opponent and swings them around twice, throwing them behind on the second spin.
• Up Throw: Shoves the opponent upward with their sword.
• Down Throw: A downward slash with the sword in its whip form.

Special Moves

Byleth's Special Moves
	Ultimate
Standard Special	Failnaught
Side Special	Areadbhar
Up Special	Sword of the Creator
Down Special	Aymr
Final Smash	Progenitor God Ruptured Heaven

Taunts

While she is taunting, Female Byleth has slightly different animations. This does not change her hitboxes, though.

• Up Taunt: Male Byleth swings the Sword of the Creator outward and holds it to his side while raising his left hand to his chest and looking upwards, while female Byleth swings the sword behind her and holds it in a reverse grip while placing her hand over her chest. Based on Byleth's victory animation while wielding a sword
• Side Taunt: Holds the Sword and the Creator in front of them while saying, "Let the lesson begin!" or "Stay focused." The first quote is one of their lines used when activating a critical hit, while the latter is based off their quote when selected as a unit.
• Down Taunt: Spins the Sword of the Creator in whip form in front while saying "Try me!"
  

  

  

On-Screen Appearance

• Warps onto the stage with a pointer before replacing it with the Sword of the Creator.

Idle Poses

• Swings the Sword of the Creator in a reverse grip before holding it out in front of them. Based on their animation when selected as a unit.

Victory Poses

• Plants the Sword of the Creator into the ground alongside the other Hero's Relics already planted, and walks forward saying "Each battle, a chance to grow" before swinging out their left arm and lowering it while facing the background. Combines the game over screen of Three Houses with Byleth's quote after defeating an enemy.

The following victory poses differ based on the gender selected.

Male

• Swings the Sword of the Creator outward and holds it to his side saying "Allow me to demonstrate!" while raising his left hand towards his chest and looking upwards. Based on Byleth's victory animation while wielding a sword, with the quote deriving from one of his critical hit quotes.
• Opens his eyes and takes the Sword of the Creator from his shoulder and swings it at the ground in front of him while in whip form saying "No hesitation!" before returning it to its normal form and holding it out in front of him. The quote originates from one of his lines upon activating a critical hit.

Female

Female Byleth has slightly different animations from her male counterpart.

• In the first victory animation, she swings the Sword of the Creator behind her and holds it in a reverse grip before he places her hand over her chest saying "Allow me to demonstrate!". Unlike Male Byleth, she looks toward the screen.
• Swings the Sword of the Creator twice in whip form before holding it vertically close to her saying "No hesitation!"

In competitive play

Initial opinions on Byleth, shortly after release, were mostly lukewarm, if not negative. Most players believed Byleth was a mid or low tier, citing the character's poor frame data, slow ground and aerial speed, limited landing options, and difficult matchups against faster characters such as Fox, Zero Suit Samus, and Sonic. An early success for the character came at Frostbite 2020, where MkLeo used the male varaiant to defeat Maister in grand finals; despite this, most players remained unimpressed, citing how MkLeo used Joker until the very last game of the tournament, as well as Maister's poor record against him and Mr. Game & Watch struggling against long range characters, in addition to matchup inexperience due to Byleth's recent release at the time. A few weeks afterwards, the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America, forcing an halt of tournament activity and leaving most of Byleth's early metagame development to proceed online. During this period, MkLeo decided to continue using Byleth online, being unsatisfied with how Joker played under additional input lag.

After adjusting to the new environment, he found success with Byleth, leading to a final placement of 5th on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7. Byleth was also buffed in update 11.0.0, released at the height of the pandemic, which further improved his standing. Overall, during the pandemic, opinions on Byleth were starting to turn around, but they were still occasionally dismissed as MkLeo's "online main", implying that Leo didn't take online tournaments as seriously and would eventually return to Joker following the reopening of offline tournaments.

MkLeo would defy these expectations by continuing to use Byleth in all events he attended since the return of offline tournaments, starting with SWT: Central America Ultimate Regional Finals, often using the male varaiant as his sole character. With Byleth, MkLeo has achieved dominance on par with what he had with Joker before the pandemic, if not arguably even greater, as he has placed no less than second in every tournament he has attended until Smash Ultimate Summit 4, winning the majority of them. His efforts have shifted the community's perception on Byleth, leading most players to believe that the character is either in upper mid or high tier.

Despite MkLeo's overwhelming success, however, other players have failed to achieve comparable results with Byleth. Data collected by OrionRank curator Barnard's Loop showed that MkLeo made up roughly 66% of all results obtained by Byleth (an amount only second to BassMage with Jigglypuff). In Japan, Byleth is primarily represented by Rizeasu and Ly, with the former being notorious for having a very large roster of characters and the latter co-maining the character, while online he was also represented by Pelupelu and Sparg0, as both have achieved respectable results but has not transitioned to offline play, with Sparg0 sticking to Aegis and Cloud in offline majors. As a result, while Byleth is widely agreed to have been initially underestimated, his definitive standing is still debatable, with the more skeptic players tending to attribute his results to a perceived wide skill gap between MkLeo and other top level players, rather than any particularly dominant strength of the character itself.

Classic Mode: A Heroic Legacy

Byleth's Classic Mode route is themed around the Fire Emblem fighters and stages from across the Smash series, fought in order of release year. All battles are stamina battles and the player always starts with 100 HP.

Palette Swaps

Quotes

English

Male

Trigger	Quote	Audio
Taunt	Let the lesson begin!	File:Byleth Male - Let the lesson begin.ogg
	Stay focused.	File:Byleth Male - Stay focused.ogg
	Try me.	File:Byleth Male - Try me.ogg
Victory	Allow me to demonstrate.
	Each battle: a chance to grow.	File:Byleth Male - Each battle a chance to grow.ogg
	No hesitation!	File:Byleth Male - No hesitation.ogg
Attack (light)	*grunts*	File:Byleth Male - Attack Light 01.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Attack Light 02.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Attack Light 03.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Attack Light 04.ogg
Attack (medium)	*grunts*	File:Byleth Male - Attack Medium 01.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Attack Medium 02.ogg
Side smash attack	There!	File:Byleth Male - There.ogg
	Areadbhar!
Down smash attack	Take this!	File:Byleth Male - Take this.ogg
	Aymr!
	*grunts*
Neutral special - Failnaught	*grunts* (starting to charge)	File:Byleth Male - Neutral Special 01.ogg
	*grunts* (starting to charge long shot)	File:Byleth Male - Neutral Special 02.ogg
	*shouts* (launching long shot)	File:Byleth Male - Neutral Special 03.ogg
	Failnaught! (launching long shot)
Side special - Areadbhar	*shouts*	File:Byleth Male - Side Special 01.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Side Special 02.ogg
	Areadbhar!
Up special - Sword of the Creator	*shouts* (swinging sword)	File:Byleth Male - Up Special 01.ogg
	*grunts* (jumping off a wall)	File:Byleth Male - Up Special 02.ogg
	*grunts* (jumping onto an enemy)	File:Byleth Male - Up Special 03.ogg
Down special - Aymr	*grunts* (charging)	File:Byleth Male - Down Special 01.ogg
	*shouts* (releasing)	File:Byleth Male - Down Special 02.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Down Special 03.ogg
	Ay... (charging)	File:Byleth Male - Down Special 04.ogg
	...mr! (releasing)	File:Byleth Male - Down Special 05.ogg
Final Smash - Progenitor God Ruptured Heaven	I'll finish it with this!
	*shouts*
Jumping	*shouts*	File:Byleth Male - Jump.ogg
Picking up heavy item	*grunts*	File:Byleth Male - Heavy Item.ogg
Stunned	*exertion*	File:Byleth Male - Stunned.ogg
Asleep	*snoring*	File:Byleth Male - Asleep.ogg
Waking up	Oh!	File:Byleth Male - Wake Up.ogg
Teetering	Whoa...	File:Byleth Male - Teeter.ogg
Grabbing onto a cliff	*weak grunt*	File:Byleth Male - Cliff Grab.ogg
Drowning	*gasp*	File:Byleth Male - Drowning.ogg
Launched (low)	*grunts*	File:Byleth Male - Launched Low 01.ogg
		File:Byleth Male - Launched Low 02.ogg
Launched (high)	Ahh!	File:Byleth Male - Launched High 01.ogg
	No!	File:Byleth Male - Launched High 02.ogg
KO'd	Ahhh!
	Not my best!
Star KO'd	My battle ends here...!!

Female

• "Forgive me...!" (after being KO'd)

Japanese / 日本人

Male / 男性

To be added. / 追加される.

Female 女性

To be added. / 追加される.

Gallery

Male Byleth's splash art

Female Byleth's splash art

Byleth's Hero's Relics as mapped to a certain direction

Byleth using Back Air in the Marketplace section of Garreg Mach Monastery

Byleth along with Lucina in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage.

Byleth in each lord's palette swap with their respective weapon in the Entrance Hall

Byleth's Screen KO.

Byleth's Final Smash: Progenitor God Ruptured Heaven.

Byleth along with Robin in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage.

Byleth along with Marth and Kirby in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage.

Byleth along with Ike and Kirby in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage.

Byleth along with Roy in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage.

Byleth along with Lucina and Kirby while using the Super Scope.

Videos

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - The Ashen Demon - Nintendo Switch

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Mr. Sakurai Presents "Byleth"

Trivia

• Byleth's code name within the game's files is "master", a reference to their role as Professor in Three Houses.
• Byleth is the only fighter to have two splash arts, which is due to the Japanese version of Byleth having two names for each gender.
  • It is also due to this difference of names that both genders of Byleth are shown together in advertisements and other promotional material for the Fighters Pass.
  • Female Byleth's Splash art states that she was recruited by the male Byleth himself.
• Byleth is the fifth fighter to receive an invitation in their trailer, following Villager, Isabelle, Joker, and Terry.
• Byleth is the only character in the Fighters Pass to originate from a second-party series.
• Byleth is the third character from the Fire Emblem universe:
  • To be added as DLC following Roy and Corrin, but the first one to come with a stage.
    • Much like Roy and Corrin, Byleth also comes from a game that released after a Smash title, as Three Houses came out 7 months after Ultimate.
      • This also makes Byleth the most recently released fighter in the game, and by extension the entire Smash series.
  • To be playable as both male and female, after Robin and Corrin.
    • They are also the sixth overall with this distinction, following Robin, Corrin, Villager, Pokemon Trainer, Wii Fit Trainer, and Inkling.
    • Unlike the other Fire Emblem characters to be playable as both male and female, Byleth has two appearances per gender that match canon appearances.
• Much like Ike, Inklings, Pokemon Trainer, and Wii Fit Trainer, both genders of Byleth will have different animations. This can be seen with their idle animations and victory screens.
• When K.O.'d, male Byleth may shout "Not my best!", while female Byleth may say, "Forgive me!", being one of the few characters to say something while KO'd.
  • Byleth is also one of four characters in the Fighters Pass to do so, the others being Joker, Terry, and Min Min
• When Star KO'd, Byleth screams, "My battle ends here!", being the second character to do so following Pit.
• Byleth currently has the shortest wait time between announcement and release, being two weeks.
  • This was not the case in Korea, oddly enough, as the reveal was delayed to January 22nd as opposed to January 16th with the rest of the regions.
• Three of Byleth's alternate pallettes are based on the three Lords in Three Houses.
  • The Dimitri-based alt notably changes the color of Byleth's dagger to match the one Dimitri gave Edelgard when they were younger, the only alt to do that.
  • The Edelgard-based alt, as well as a Sothis-based one (both being alts for Female Byleth), sees Byleth keep her high-heeled knee-high boots despite her leggings adapting to match the basis (Edelgard only wears ankle boots with her red leggings, though said boots are high-heeled like Byleth's are, while Sothis has no footwear whatsoever).