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Absa new
Attributes
Weight:
Light (1.1x knockback)
Ground speed:
Normal
Aerial speed:
Fast
Falling speed:
Slow (base)
Normal (fastfall)
Jump height:
Low (base)
High (double)

Absa represents the element of air, through her high aerial mobility and lightning-imbued moves. She is one of the hardest characters to learn due to her unique playstyle based around her cloud control and her Up Special's tricky movement. These are difficult to master but provide lots of options.

Attributes[]

Strengths:[]

  • She can easily edgeguard opponents with her aerials, disjointed Forward Strong, and her exploding clouds.
  • Absa can track opponents with the Forward Special cloud and then use it as a remote mine with Neutral Special. The cloud can set up scary "ping-pong" combos between it and Absa. Learning to parry the most predictable ones is essential, however Absa can also intentionally miss you with her cloud to bait a parry.
  • Up Special mastery grants swift movement, providing good rushdown, evasion, and recovery capabilities. Additionally, hitting the ground with the first dash of the Up Special will act as if Absa touched the ground, resetting her movement options, even if she opts to use the second dash to go back into the air.
  • Absa has a multitude of ways to both recover and air stall, due to a combination of her low falling speed, unlimited cloud hops with Neutral Special and unique double jump.
  • The charged Neutral Special thunderbolt is good at getting sneaky kills. It can be parried on reaction but it is hard for opponents to be aware of it at all times, especially after a combo.
  • Forward Tilt sends a beam of electricity across the field, hitting opponents at extremely far distances and often covering entire stages horizontally.
  • Sweetspotted aerials near the edges of the stage score early kills.
  • Neutral Special can be used like a third jump if there is no cloud currently on the field.

Weaknesses:[]

  • Parrying the cloud stuns Absa for a duration proportionate to the distance between her and you : you'll always have the time to run up to her and attack her for free, even if you are very far from her.
  • Absa's Forward, Back, and Down Aerials have short durations and small hitboxes, and can get beaten out by many other, longer-lasting and larger-hitbox attacks.
  • Forward Tilt's second hit is considered a projectile and can be reflected by a parry, or distrupted by anything else that affects projectiles.
  • Not good in close quarters, her Jab is quick but lacks range, her Forward Tilt has high end lag and her aerials startups are a bit slow.
  • Projectiles are great at disrupting Absa's Up Special as they always hit her first in that form.
  • Up Special rushdown attempts can be crouch-canceled and countered with a quick attack of your own. Additionally, Up Special has more lag if whiffed.
  • Her projectiles reach very far but can easily be played around and do little damage on their own.
  • Ori's Down Special can send Absa's cloud back at her, completely nullifying any function from Absa.

Techniques:[]

  • Double Jump Cancel : During a double jump, if you input an attack and still hold the jump button, you will continue the jump as usual. However, if you don't hold the jump button as your attack starts, you will cancel your upward aerial momentum. This can be used to more or less reduce the height of your double jump depending on your timing. Examples of uses : fit in extra aerials attacks while still auto-cancelling them, aim an aerial more precisely, hit grounded opponents with low hurtboxes (Orcane, Maypul, Etalus) with a sweetspot.
  • Gravity Jump: When fastfalling by dropping down from a platform, Absa can double jump downwards by tapping/holding jump shortly after the fastfall begins. This will not consume her double jump, and allows for tricky, unexpected movement. She can also do this with a normal fastfall in the air, but the timing is much more strict.
  • By starting or landing on the ground during the last dash of Up Special, Absa avoids being put in the helpless state. This is essential for Absa's neutral game movement and combos.
  • Clever use of Up Special can also help mitigate some of Absa's more difficult stages, such as Blazing Hideout and Aethereal Gates, where the platforms are unusually high. By zipping forward and then diagonally up, in the case of Blazing Hideout, or just diagonally up, in the case of Aethereal Gates, Absa gets in perfect position for wavelanding onto a platform.
  • Neutral Special can be used like a third jump to avoid attacks, recover and mix up attack timings. This is especially useful after a walljump.
  • After using Neutral Special, Absa can position herself to sweetspot the cloud with any aerial before touching the ground. This is especially important with Down Aerial for edgeguarding. Alternatively, she can wavedash shortly after placing the cloud, which is useful defensively.

Gameplay[]

In-Game Info:[]

"Absa can use her Forward Special or her Neutral Special to create a cloud that lingers in the air. Absa can tap her Neutral Special to pop a cloud. She can hold her Neutral Special to create a Lightning Bolt. Absa can use her Down Special to create an Electric Chain on herself or her cloud that explodes after time."

Elemental Powers:[]

  • CLOUD CONTROL - Absa can place a cloud using her Neutral or Forward Special. This cloud hangs in the air until Absa bursts it by tapping her Neutral Special and knocking enemies away.
  • THUNDER BOLT - Absa can charge her Neutral Special to create a powerful lightning blast that connects her to her cloud. All opponents caught between the two will be knocked away at high speeds.
  • CONDENSED STORM - Absa focuses the power of a lightning bolt to the tip of her hoof. If she can line up one of her aerial kicks perfectly, she unleashes great power.

Moveset[]

Move Damage Description
Dash Attack 3%, 6% Absa thrusts her arms, which are covered in lightning, in front of herself. The move hits two times, and the latter launches the opponent up and away from Absa.
Neutral Jab 3%, 4% Absa begins quickly zapping at short range in front of her. Loops into itself by holding the button.
Forward Tilt 6%, 4% This move is a two part attack. Absa spins around with lightning first. If the button is pressed a second time, Absa flings lightning from her hand after a short delay, hitting the first opponent in a straight horizontal line in front of her.

The lightning acts as an instant projectile, it can be stopped by disjointed hitboxes and parrying it reflects it back at Absa.

Up Tilt 10%

4% (late)

Absa ducks before shooting lightning from her horns, hitting opponents above her. The hitbox is round despite the animation.
Down Tilt 7% Absa quickly zaps the ground in front of her, sending opponents away. This is a quick but low range attack.
Up Strong 14-20% Absa channels a globe of lightning above her. It hits up to three times, and the final hit deals a bit more than half of the total damage.

The recovery can be canceled into any special if it hits something.

Forward Strong 16-24% Absa channels a globe of lightning in front of her. It hits up to five times, and the final hit deals half of the total damage.

The recovery can be canceled into any special if it hits something.

Down Strong 13-20% Absa begins spinning around while emitting lightning from her feet. This move hits up to five times, the final hit deals a bit more than a third of the total damage.

The recovery can be canceled into any special if it hits something.

Neutral Air 2% (x4), 5% Absa shrouds herself in lightning, continuously hitting around her and carrying opponents. This move sends opponents slightly upwards with the final hit.
Up Air 12% Absa shocks the air with her horns, sending opponents upwards with high knockback in a large area above her. This move has a lot of lag.
Forward Air 6%

12% (sweet)

Absa kicks in straight in front of her. It is faster than her back-air. There is a sweetspot at the tip of her hoof.

Sweetspotting a cloud destroys it and enlarges the sweetspot hitbox.

Back Air 6%

12% (sweet)

Absa kicks both hooves straight behind her. There is a sweetspot at the tip of her hooves.

Sweetspotting a cloud destroys it and enlarges the sweetspot hitbox.

Down Air 6%

12% (sweet)

Absa quickly stomps with her hoof. The sweetspot slightly behind her spikes opponents instead.

Sweetspotting a cloud destroys it and enlarges the sweetspot hitbox.

Neutral Special 4% (cloud)

12% (zap)

Without Cloud : This move forms a cloud below Absa and makes her jump slightly upwards.

With Cloud : This move quickly bursts the cloud, launching opponents slightly up and away from it. Holding the button instead forms a huge lightning zap between the cloud and Absa. It has two hitboxes, the lightning and the electrified cloud itself, that launch opponents very far up.

Both variations stop Absa's momentum in the air and destroy the cloud.

Up Special 4% (x2) Absa quickly transforms into a small lightning ball and performs a fast dash in one of 8 directions. She can follow up with a slightly longer second dash by inputting a different direction than the one used for her first dash. Each dash can pass through opponents to hit them with small knockback.

Leaves Absa helpless if she ends up in the air, unless her last dash started on the ground or landed on the ground at any point during its travel. The dashes don't fall through platforms but can slide on them.

Her hurtbox shrinks while using this move, but she is still vulnerable to attacks and will instantly go back to normal form if she gets hit.

This move is very important for Absa's combo game, but whiffing the move adds 3 extra frames to its endlag.

Forward Special 5% Hold the button to channel a cloud image in front of Absa that can be angled up or down. Upon releasing the button, or at max range, the cloud materializes at the location, launching opponents slightly up and away from it.
Down Special 11% Absa's creates a cloud on herself if there isn't already one and begins charging it with electricity. After two seconds, the charged cloud explodes, destroying itself and hitting around for massive knockback, launching opponents straight away from it.

This move can be charged for up to two seconds before releasing. If you fully charge it, Absa creates electricity around herself instead of her cloud, exploding around her in the same way as the cloud after two seconds. If she gets hit while being charged the electricity disappears.

She can still fully act after completing the charge, which notably allows her to use up-special while charged to quickly chase opponents and explode on them.

Cancels Absa's upward momentum on the start of the move.

Costumes[]

Special Costumes[]

Background[]

Story[]

Absa is a famed engineer and secret martialist of the Elders of the Air Alliance, who live high above the cloudline in the Archai Mountains. Before the Air Armada, winged citizens of the Alliance would fly between the high trees of the Aetherian Forest and the mountaintops of Archai. The Elders of Air dispensed wisdom and law from the Archaian mountaintops, and Air society flourished under a peaceful neutrality. However, after the Fire Kingdom burnt down the Aetherian Forrest, the winged citizens began to question the peaceful policies of the mountain-dwelling Elders. A rift formed between the Air citizens who could fly and those who could not. Soon the winged Air-dwellers built the Air Armada and declared war on the Fire Nation… leaving the Air Alliance in tatters.

Absa was only a young girl when half of the Air Alliance left with the Armada. However, young Absa, math prodigy and wunderkind inventor, perceived the vulnerability of her mountaintop civilization. She studied the world of Aether and developed a defense to protect the mountains from war. She mastered weather patterns and harnessed the power of lightning to create a permanent electrical storm at the base of the Archai Mountains. This storm barricade has hidden the mountains so well that the Air Elders consider themselves impervious to the turmoil of Aether. Yet, Absa, the inventor of the storms herself, fears that the barricades may prove insufficient. Despite the laws of the Elders, Absa secretly developed her storm techniques for offensive use. In martial arts societies hidden in the caves of the Archai mountains, Absa honed skills that she hoped to never need.

Trivia[]

  • Side special official name is "Cloud Control", neutral special is "Thunder Bolt".
  • Absa is the seventh character to be announced. She represents the element of storms and is a mountain goat.
  • In a recent tweet, Dan Fornace stated that Absa's name comes from one of his friend's online names, "Absolution75."
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