R.O.B. (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

This article is about R.O.B.'s appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For other uses, see R.O.B.

“	He has two powerful projectiles: Robo Beam and Gyro, along with a very effective recovery. The 1P color in the North American version of the game is a light gray, and the 2P is red and white, but this is reversed in the Japanese version.	”
—Description from the Super Smash Blog.

R.O.B.
Universe	R.O.B.
Also appears in	Brawl 3DS/Wii U
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Guided Robo Beam
Tier	S (5)
Character Statistics
Gender	Male
Number of Jumps	2
Character Stats
Weight	Heavyweight

R.O.B. is a veteran fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, first playable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His return was confirmed during Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation.

When unlocked, he is fought at Wrecking Crew.

Attributes

Strengths

• Very heavyweight, giving him incredible survivability.
• Possesses two projectiles that are both useful for zoning and Gyro can be picked up and thrown after it is used.
• Any move using R.O.B.'s arms count as disjointed hitboxes.
• Arm Rotor can be used as a reflector and is an amazing combo finisher.
• Best recovery in the game in terms of distance with moves such as Robo Burner, Arm Rotor, Back Aerial, and Down Aerial.
• Very good edge-guarding game with a variety of mix-ups. Arm Rotor is known for killing opponents off the side of the stage. Gyro can catch opponents off guard trying to make it back. All of R.O.B.'s aerials are either fast, kill, or have huge hitboxes. Because Down Aerial gives R.O.B. a minor vertical boost, he can quickly go off the ledge and meteor smash opponents who are right next to the ledge. Robo Beam can gimp recoveries. Down Tilt can 2-frame.
• Can use aerials while recovering, making it harder to edgeguard R.O.B.
• Neutral Aerial is an extremely safe move, having almost no landing lag.

Weaknesses

• Slow startup on some Aerial Attacks.
• Large hurtbox.
• Very easy to combo and juggle. Down Aerial stalls R.O.B. in the air, making this even more apparent.
• Very short Grab range, being one of the shortest in the game.
• Robo Beam has to charge over time to be most effective.
• Gyro can also be used by the opponent.
• Robo Burner does not have a hitbox meaning it cannot combat edgeguarding on its own.

Summary

R.O.B. is a heavyweight zoner who in previous games was originally thought to be a top tier, but never truly was until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. His specials, aerials, and down tilt are all good edge-guarding moves.

Changes from 3DS/Wii U

Attributes

• Second alt is now his default in European version of the game.

Ground Attacks

• Side smash has a new charging animation.
• R.O.B.'s arms during his down smash spin significantly faster.

Aerial Attacks

• Down Aerial comes out slightly faster.

Grabs and Throws

• Has new pummel.
• R.O.B.'s down throw now buries opponents in the ground.
• New forward throw.

Special Attacks

• R.O.B. now has a fuel gauge on his chassis to indicate how much fuel he has left when he performs Robo Burner.
• Arm Rotor no longer has it end with R.O.B.'s head spinning and is now a much better combo finisher.
• R.O.B.’s Final Smash has been changed a bit. Instead of firing a laser immediately, he sends out small missiles that target fighters while the laser charges up, culminating in a giant green laser blast that can be moved up or down, causing knockback to any fighter caught in the blast.

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Normal

• Neutral Attack: Double punch with knockback for foes in range.
• Forward Tilt: Hook punch with knockback; can be angled.
• Up Tilt: Two-fisted upward punch that launches enemies up.
• Down Tilt: Low-leaning punch that can stagger enemies.
• Dash Attack: Double-fisted ground slam that launches foes up and away.

Smash Attacks

• Forward Smash: Eye beam shot with knockback; can be angled; high damage and long range. Has a sourspot at the tip.
• Up Smash: Handstand, firing foot thrusters into the air that knock enemies up.
• Down Smash: Whirling attack with both arms outstretched, striking foes and knocking them away.

Other attacks

• Floor Attack (Front):
• Floor Attack (Back):
• Floor Attack (Trip):
• Ledge Attack:

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral Aerial: Somersault attack with foot thrusters.
• Forward Aerial: Two-armed forward slam that can knockback; tends to be very fast.
• Back Aerial: Thruster shot behind; high damage and also propels R.O.B. forward.
• Up Aerial: Two-armed vertical spin that culminates in a double-fisted launch.
• Down Aerial: Downward-facing thrusters that often meteor smashes.

Grabs and Throws

• Grab: Quick, but short range.
• Forward Throw: Standard, but can quickly follow-up.
• Back Throw: Standard, but can quickly follow-up.
• Up Throw: Slams foe into the ground for pop-up.
• Down Throw: Plants opponent into the ground. Allows for tech chases.

Special Moves

R.O.B.'s Special Moves
	Brawl	3DS/Wii U	Ultimate
Standard Special	Robo Beam
Side Special	Arm Rotor
Up Special	Robo Burner
Down Special	Gyro
Final Smash	Diffusion Beam	Super Diffusion Beam	Guided Robo Beam

Taunts

• Up Taunt: Faces the screen and spins his arms and head in alternating directions. Based on his victory animation from Mario Kart DS.
• Down Taunt: Faces the screen, moves his arms down and then moves them back up again, spinning them whilst he does so.
• Side Taunt: Faces the screen and moves his head around, flashing bright lights from his eyes while clapping.

On-Screen Appearance

• His parts fall down in order and make up R.O.B.

Idle Poses

• Briefly looks toward the screen.
• Briefly nods off, then shakes his head and wakes up.

Victory Poses

• Left: While advancing forward, R.O.B. rotates his hands outward while his arms point out straight. After halting, he spins his arms in alternating directions and rotates his head 360° counterclockwise. Afterward, he adjusts his arms to face upward, continuously raising and lowering them in a flexing gesture. R.O.B.'s head also rotates 360° clockwise after every two times he pumps his arms.
• Up: Uses Robo Burner, spins, and then lands. He then proceeds to continuously lower and raise his arms while rotating his head.
• Right: Turns his head and flashes the lights in his eyes while clapping, similar to his side taunt. He then proceeds to continuously clap, lowering his arms after each clap.

In competitive play

From the start of the game, R.O.B. has always been considered to have significantly improved from 3DS/Wii U. With better approach options, more versatile projectiles with Gyro and Robo Beam, even more threatening KO options, and a heavily improved edgeguarding game, he has always been seen as an excellent zoner with a wide array of utility options. R.O.B. also heavily benefits from some of the universal changes in Ultimate with the 3 frame jump squat and reduced landing lag on aerials, with his neutral air being especially good for comboing and approaching. Because of this, he was immediately seen as a competitively viable character. Additionally, R.O.B.'s match-up spread is strong as well, having even or positive match-ups against meta relevant characters such as Joker, Wolf, Shulk, Pokémon Trainer, Olimar, Pac-Man, and Min Min, although he has disadvantageous match-ups against mostly combo-centric characters such as Pikachu, Mr. Game & Watch, Peach, Mario, Young Link, and Bayonetta.

After offline returned, R.O.B. continued to thrive, being one of the most popular characters at nearly every major tournament alongside Roy and gaining the best overall results of any character in the cast. Zomba in particular achieved consistent top 8 placements, notably getting 2nd at Glitch - Infinite, 4th at Smash World Tour 2021 Championships and 5th at both GENESIS 8 and Pound 2022. Many currently believe the character to be at least top 10, with Dabuz saying the character is top 5.

In online tournaments, which were the standard during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, causing almost all offline tournaments to switch to online, R.O.B. fares better, due to his already safe aerials and tilts being much more reliable due to lag. Many players, including Epic_Gabriel, Raffi-X, and Benny&TheJets, have performed fairly well in Wi-Fi tournaments, including various Ultimate Naifu Wars, The Quarantine Series, and The Box.

Classic Mode: Unreadable Expressions

R.O.B.'s opponents all wear masks or lack expressive faces. His boss, Galleom, fits in with the theme due to being a robot and lacking an expressive face.

Role in World of Light

Although R.O.B. was absent from the World of Light opening cutscene, he, along with every base game character (aside from Kirby, who had managed to escape), was vaporized by Galeem.

R.O.B. was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He can be found in the Mysterious Dimension sub-area, as the fighter closest to the entrance, standing in a floating island with scattered mechanical junk. To reach him, the player must first defeat the spirit of Redd as the answer to a trivia question ("Which of these spirits sells furniture?"), allowing access to the island he's in.

Palette Swaps

Gallery

R.O.B. with Wario on Gaur Plain.

R.O.B. with Alph on Distant Planet.

R.O.B. holding the completed Daybreak.

R.O.B. with Mr. Game & Watch, Mario, and Yoshi.

R.O.B. is super giant along with Mr. Game & Watch and Mario in Tortimer Island.

Trivia

• R.O.B.'s fighter spirit is a picture of the NES toy. It's shown in his North America design regardless of what language the game is set to.
• R.O.B. is the only character:
  • Where his default alt depends on what language the game is set to. In most languages such as English, he has the Nintendo Entertainment System design as his default, whereas in Japanese his default design is the Famicom inspired design. These two alts can be interchanged.
  • To technically come from real life.
  • To not have a mouth in any form.

External links

42 R.O.B. – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate