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Byleth

Jab1 (-15) & Jab2 (-17):
NAir (Frame 7)

Jab3 (-22):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
Grab (Frame 16)

Rapid Jab Finisher (-40):
GSA (Frame 9)
Grab (Frame 16)
FSmash (Frame 26)

FTilt (-15):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move can be spaced out)

UTilt (-15):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

DTilt (-14):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move can be spaced out)

Dash Attack (-23):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)

FSmash (-31 Sourspot, -27 Sweetspot):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)
FSmash (Frame 26)
(This move can be spaced out)

USmash (-22):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)

DSmash (-40/-30):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)
FSmash (Frame 26)
(This move deals heavy shield damage)

NAir (-9):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

FAir (-6 Sourspot, -7 Sweetspot):
NAir (Frame 7)
(This move can be spaced out)

BAir (-8 Sourspot, -7 Sweetspot):
NAir (Frame 7)
(This move can be spaced out)

UAir (-11):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

DAir (-21):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)
(This move deals heavy shield damage)

Failnaught (-8 Uncharged, -21 Charged):
Unpunishable
(Projectile usage. This move also deals heavy shield damage when charged)

Areadbhar (-34 Sourspot,-20 Sweetspot):
Grab (Frame 16)
(This move can be spaced out)

Sword of the Creator (-35):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)
FSmash (Frame 26)

Aymr (--):
Shield Breaker

• Neutral Moves: Aerials (NAir/FAir/BAir), Areadbhar, Jab Tilts, Dash Attack, Grab.

• Kill Moves: Smash Attacks, FAir, UAir, BAir, FTilt/UTilt, Dash Attack, Amyr, Failnaught, Sword of the Creator.

• Kill Confirms: NAir > runoff FAir, DTilt > UAir, DThrow > BAir.

• Byleth has commanding disjoints, which allows them to cover a wide array of space in both horizontal and vertical space. Byleth is rather slow despite this, meaning they are more of a defensive waller-style character.

• Byleth’s FAir and BAir cover a wide amount of horizontal space, but a low amount of vertical space. The tipper hits of these aerials have high killpower. When spaced, these moves are entirely unpunishable on block.

• Byleth can space FAir/BAir to hit dashbacks or cover low to the ground approaches from afar. Byleth can also use FAir/BAir to safely hit Young Link using projectiles from outside of their range of their normals.

• FAir/BAir are high startup, and it takes a lot of time to setup a falling FAir/BAir. In that time, Young Link can close the distance and throw out an attack (Dash Attack/NAir/BAir), or full hop over Byleth’s short hop and land with pressure.

• NAir is a lingering hitbox that rotates circularly around Byleth. Because the hitbox rotates around Byleth and covers Byleth directly, NAir can cover a lot of close range interactions for a lengthy period of time with the lingering hitbox. It’s Byleth’s go-to move for close quarters combat when opponents are too close to be hit by spaced FAir/BAir. It can beat Young Link’s NAir and BAir head-on, since Byleth’s NAir has more range.

• Because their NAir lingers, it’s often used to intercept opponents at Byleth’s blindspots, and catch their approaches head-on. This also makes it hard to punish, since Byleth can cross up on shield at any point, change the amount of hits with different fall timings, and utilize the landing hit of the move to catch early shield drops.

• While Byleth’s NAir is great at covering space over a lengthy period of time, it can be whiff punished, since it has 13 frames of landing lag. Byleth’s NAir can’t autocancel from a short hop.

• Byleth NAir can be punished before Byleth executes the landing hit. On block, the third hit will always comes out 20 frames after the first. This can be parried into a NAir, which is fast enough since the rehit rate of Byleth NAir is 7 frames. Refer to the video in Sets & Resources for the examples.

• Byleth’s NAir sets up for combos/kill confirms (Dash Attack/runoff FAir), and the landing hit at higher %s will force a tech chase close to Byleth. Byleth can then read a tech option with tipper FSmash to close the stock.

• ZAir as a mix-up can catch Byleth attempting to land with/rise with an aerial (often NAir) if they are a split second too late to meet Young Link in the air. Young Link can use ZAir before the startup of Byleth’s FAir/BAir to intercept their aerial.

• Fire Arrow in this matchup is good, but can be very vulnerable, since Byleth can hit Young Link for using Fire Arrow from outside of their range (using BAir/FAir). Fire Arrow can force Byleth to shield/jump to maintain pressure, and they need to be directly next to the opponent to utilize NAir, which limits it's flexibility as a quick punish option.

• Short hop Fire Arrow (mainly B-reverse) can be used for catching jumps out of shield that Byleth may use to approach.

• Fire Arrow will clank with Byleth’s NAir, since there’s a constant hitbox at the center of Byleth.

• Boomerang is good for catching Byleth’s full hops, but is rather slow for covering short hop/ground space, where Byleth’s aerials will clank with the it.

• Bomb can be used to pressure Byleth at a short hop height to stuff out Byleth’s FAir/BAir on startup from a distance. There are more opportunties to pull Bomb than usual, due to Byleth’s low mobility.

• While Byleth has high range and active hitboxes, Byleth’s mobility is very low. It’ll take more time for them to reach the midrange that they want in order to space their aerials. It’ll also be more difficult for Byleth to work their way in compared to other sword characters, and once Byleth gets to the midrange/close midrange, they still have to time a hitbox around Young Link’s fast boxing tools/ZAir if Young Link didn’t commit to a projectile.

• In addition to this, Byleth’s airspeed and air acceleration are low, lower than Young Link’s in both stats. This limits how they can mix up jumps in neutral and how much range they have from jumping.

• Outside of NAir, most of Byleth’s moves have somewhat high startup. If Byleth is using NAir a lot, they can be pressured with whiff punishes/ZAir/Fire Arrow, and they may use FAir/BAir more as a result. When that happens, the window to clank projectiles with FAir/BAir is shorter than NAir, which can open up Young Link’s projectile game.

Combos & Counterplay:

• DI-ing down/down and in on Sword of the Creator can position Young Link below Byleth at an angle where they can’t combo it into DAir.

• Byleth can confirm DThrow into BAir. This is most difficult on DI out, where the confirm will stop being true past the % window.

• Byleth can confirm DTilt into an UAir as a combo/kill confirm. DI away to maximize chances of escaping, though be aware that they can cross your DI up, as well.

Boxing (How do I escape this situation?):

• Byleth can use Areadbhar for callouts. Unlike FAir/BAir, it has more vertical reach on it's hitbox while maintaining a comparable disjoint. Byleth can use this to anti-air from the ground.

• In general, between these aerial options and grounded options, rushing in with an aggressive option on a read is less likely to succeed due to the nature of disjointed pressure. Shield dashing can be an option, though, since Byleth has to space most of their moves.

• Byleth’s go-to corner pressure is in FAir/BAir, large horizontal hitboxes with high killpower when spaced. Young Link can’t approach from outside of their range and threaten an unreactable aerial at the same time.

• As such, Young Link lacks the ability to force his way out of the corner against Byleth spacing their aerials. Slowly get out of the corner with movement/defensive options, threatening Byleth with boxing tools when they’re too close.

Platform Pressure
(What tools do they have? How can we escape this pressure?):

• Byleth’s large disjoints allow them to cover most or all of the platforms at once. FAir/BAir/Areadbhar all accomplish this.

• However, they can’t cover all of the platform at multiple different timings with the same attack, The attack they use will cover the platform all at once, meaning a delayed roll in/roll out can avoid the attack Byleth uses.

• Byleth can hit platforms from below with UTilt/USmash.

• Mix up tech option timings to use the intangibility to avoid the wide coverage of Byleth’s attacks.

• Byleth can hard punish shielding on platforms with full hop DAir.

Landing
(How do they cover it? What are my best options?):

• Byleth’s UAir outranges Young Link’s DAir, meaning that Young Link can’t challenge Byleth with DAir reliably. Byleth’s UAir also has high killpower and covers slightly to the sides. Byleth can match Young Link’s drift and still land the UAir due to the horizontal range of the attack.

• Byleth can hit Young Link drifting away from them with FAir/BAir. The range on these aerials reach far enough that Byleth can air-to-air Young Link for attempting to land with projectiles.

• Byleth is still slow, however, so landing away and quickly from Byleth without commitment is viable.

• Mix up airdodge and fastfall timings to land safely. If Byleth is chasing Young Link from a platform, they can quickly throw out an UAir to catch Young Link using NAir/BAir to escape tumble.

Offstage
(How Do I Escape This Position And What Do I Look Out For?):

• Be wary of Failnaught when offstage. When far from the ledge, getting hit by an arrow means losing the stock. Byleth can jump cancel out of the arrow charge. NAir can clank with an arrow. Byleth can use the arrow shot to bait out an airdodge and trap Young Link offstage as well.

• Byleth can use DAir from the ledge/onstage to catch low recoveries to the ledge, even from a moderate angle. This is because of the sheer range of Byleth’s DAir, which hits Young Link from above, where ASA doesn’t cover him.

• When recovering close to the ledge, be wary of FAir. Byleth can immediately run off of the ledge and use FAir, which is an unreactable burst edgeguard. FAir covers a lot of horizontal space in front of the ledge.

• Byleth can use the lingering hit of NAir to intercept tether recoveries, although it likely won’t send Young Link far enough away to close the stock.

• Byleth can hang from the ledge and wait to line up an Up-B offstage. This edgeguard can steal stocks at insanely early %s, and all Byleth has to do is go below the opponent. This is excellent at punishing delayed recoveries.

• Mix up ASA timings/spacings to get around Byleth’s aerial edgeguards, and use quick tethers to the ledge to avoid a Sword of the Creator edgeguard before the attack comes out.

• Boomerang can be used to stop Byleth from going for a DAir edgeguard/grabbing the ledge to set up for a Sword of the Creator spike.

Ledge:

• Byleth can throw out an FSmash from roll distance to threaten a 50/50. Angled down catches roll, ledge hang, ledge attack, and ledge getup, while angled up covers ledge jump. Byleth has to hold the angle during the charge, so it genuinely is a 50/50. Rolling into FSmash may get the weak hit of the attack, though.

• Byleth can pressure the ledge with FTilt at high %s to close a stock safely, as FTilt can catch both neutral getup and jump. Byleth’s FTilt is unpunishable when spaced.

• Byleth’s disjoints allow them to cover neutral getup from roll distance (because Young Link’s ledge roll is so short). Mix up timings with options to get off of the ledge, then get out of the corner with empty movement and defensive options. Boxing tools can work if Byleth misspaces.

Juggling/Boxing:

• Byleth can use NAir out of shield at Frame 9, Sword of the Creator and Grab out of shield on Frame 10, and USmash/UAir out of shield at Frame 13. None of these out of shield options can reliably and consistently punish a spaced DTilt on shield, or landing NAir/FAir/BAir.

• Byleth can use Dash Attack out of the corner as a burst option, and can use DTilt/FTilt to pressure Young Link trying to run directly into Byleth. Byleth can use Areadbhar to hit Young Link for jumping in on them.

• Byleth can charge Failnaught from the corner to pressure Young Link for using projectiles in advantage. If Byleth does the arrow charge earlier than Young Link, then Young Link will get hit for buffering a projectile. This forces Young Link to jump over the arrow, shield it and take shield damage, or clank the arrow with NAir.

• Byleth can scrap their way out of the corner or hit away opponents below while trying to land with NAir, since the hitbox is lingering and can catch the opponent approaching at multiple different timings. However, NAir can be whiff punished, since a rising NAir can be reacted to, and has 13 frames of landing lag.

• If Byleth uses NAir to land from high up, it will likely autocancel, as Byleth will time the NAir so that they can land just as the autocancel window starts. In the air, Byleth’s NAir has 23 frames of endlag. It autocancels starting on Frame 39, or 11 frames after the hitbox ends. Whiff punish with NAir/Dash Attack/reading the landing with a projectile.

• Byleth can land with FAir/BAir to hit Young Link for attempting to use projectiles too close to Byleth in the air/while trying to catch Byleth on the ground, or if Young Link is too slow in catching Byleth in the air. FAir/BAir cover horizontal airspace, so even in disadvantage, Byleth will win the air-to-air at this range. Byleth is left vulnerable from below when using FAir/BAir to land, which Young Link can take advantage of by going under the hitbox and punishing.

• On rare occasions, Byleth can use DAir as a landing option to punish Young Link for a late whiff punish/buffered UAir. DAir will outrange Young Link’s UAir, so Young Link can’t challenge DAir head on.

• Byleth can use Failnaught to B-Reverse their aerial momentum, and jump/airdodge cancel out of the arrow charge.

• Byleth can also use Areadbhar to stall in the air, but the move is laggy, so it can be somewhat reacted to.

Offstage:

• Byleth can use Failnaught to hit opponents standing at the ledge/forcing them to shield, and use Areadbhar offstage to hit opponents challenging them offstage.

• Sword of the Creator, as a recovery, essentially prevents consistent edgeguarding pressure. If Byleth lands Sword of the Creator as a command grab offstage, Byleth will instantly spike the opponent, leading to kills at percents as low as 30%.

• If Byleth has already reached the low angle to set up Sword of the Creator to snap to ledge, going offstage means that Young Link would be in it's path, and be spiked by it.

• Young Link can edgeguard Byleth if he can get at a lower angle than Byleth before they can. Then, Young Link can throw out a NAir to gimp Byleth. However, this is a significant commitment that needs time to set up, and Byleth now has the option of a high recovery.

• Stay onstage most of the time, using projectiles to force chip damage/condition later edgeguards. If Byleth gets hit by an Fire Arrow/Boomerang offstage, it may be more feasible to setup the low angle necessary to edgeguard Byleth.

• Byleth can use FAir/UAir/Areadbhar from a dropdown double jump off of the ledge.

• Byleth has the capability to ledge plank and stall at the ledge for a decent amount of time. Byleth can use their massive hitboxes (particularly Areadbhar) to swing at the opponent and instantly regrab ledge. Areadbhar’s half circle arc covers space well into the ledge, and can catch the startups of jumps away.

• Byleth can extend their ledge planking capabilities with various movement mix-ups. For example, Byleth can charge Failnaught to B-Reverse their aerial momentum, and jump/airdodge cancel out of the arrow charge.

• Byleth can grab the wall with Sword of the Creator to get a wall jump, and still recover. Byleth can threaten a BAir/Areadbhar/Failnaught from this pseudo-wall jump.

• Young Link can’t stand at the ledge consistently against Byleth due to the range of their hitboxes, and standing at roll distance can still be caught by their FAir. Going directly to the ledge is best to threaten the ledgehang, or when Byleth isn’t using their hitboxes at the ledge. Staying back and taking projectile ledgetraps/strong corner pressure is more consistent.

Ledge Info:

XLR8’s Spreadsheet Young Link Ledge Info:

DTilt: Hits

DSmash: Hits

FTilt: Hits

Most Reliable Move: All

Animation Info: Slight head rise animation, timing to hit this animation isn’t required.

Note: Attacks must be spaced from the ledge in order to hit Byleth.

• FD DTilt > ASA %s: 111, 100

• FD FThrow @ Ledge %s: 180, 152

• FD Milkshake %s: 104-139, 94-117

• Byleth Kill Throws: BThrow

• Byleth’s NAir has a landing hit.

• Battlefield:
  Terrible. Byleth can extend juggles and combos with the platforms available, and hiding under them can make up for Byleth’s lack of movement, since sharking under the platforms works well with Byleth’s large hitboxes.

• Small Battlefield:
  Terrible. Byleth can exert strong pressure here by sectioning off half of the stage with center stage control alone. Byleth’s reach is enough to exert corner and platform pressure with the same swings. This extends Byleth’s coverage in advantage, which makes disadvantage much more volatile.

• Final Destination:
  Great. Without platforms, Byleth loses the ability to use them to approach around projectiles. This, combined with their slow movement speed, makes it difficult for Byleth to approach Young Link on this stage.

• Smashville:
  Indifferent. Byleth can’t immediately pressure with landing full hop aerials due to the central platform. This stage doesn’t offer much space for Young Link to run away from Byleth, though.

• Town & City:
  Indifferent. This stage is rather volatile in that Byleth can close stocks early with tipper BAir and Sword of the Creator offstage, but Byleth still struggles to get in against Young Link onstage in neutral.

• Lylat Cruise:
  Indifferent. Similar reasoning to SV. Byleth mostly has to threaten Young Link with short hop aerials, and Young Link can use Lylat’s slants to extend the range of Fire Arrow.

• Pokémon Stadium 2:
  Great. This stage gives Young Link a generous amount of room to zone out Byleth. The stage being closer to the blast zones reduces the amount of time Byleth has to set up a Sword of the Creator edgeguard.

• Kalos Pokémon League:
  Indifferent. Similar reasoning as T&C. The side platforms can help Young Link get off of the ledge, but they also further protect Byleth’s ledge planking.

• Yoshi’s Story:
  Terrible. Same reasoning as BF.

• Hollow Bastion:
  Indifferent. With the extra space this stage has compared to SV, Young Link can more reliably run away and zone out Byleth. It can be difficult for Young Link to get out of the corner without the platform, though, and the platform protects Byleth when they’re chasing Young Link’s landings.

• Young Link vs Byleth Matchup VOD Playlist: YL vs Byleth Matches

• hivesteel's Byleth Notes

• (Bylethcord Resources) Bylethcord Website: Garrag Mach Library

• (Bylethcord Resources) Bylethcord YouTube Channel: Crest Scholars

• (@bluewokou on Twitter) Parrying Byleth NAir on reaction: bluewokou's Tweet