Piranha Plant Guide: Matchup Chart and Combos

This is a guide to using Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Piranha Plant's bread and butter combos, how to unlock, frame data, alt costumes and skins, as well as Piranha Plant's matchups, counters, and tier list placement can all be found here.

Piranha Plant Tier and Overview

Stats and General Info

Piranha Plant
Game Series	Super Mario Bros.
Smash Bros. Debut	DLC
Fighter Number	70
Unlock Order	DLC
Number of Jumps	2
Weight	112 Units (9/87)
Dash Speed	1.72 (44/87)
Air Speed	1.0 (58/87)
Fast Fall Speed	2.73 (27/87)
Special Attributes	None

Tier List Placement

Tier

A fighter that uses unique projectiles to limit the opponent's options

Piranha Plant can use their unique projectilesーPtooie (neutral B) and Poison Breath (side B)ーto limit the opponent's movent and bait out an option. It has some decent combos, as well as great grab follow ups, and even a kill throw (Up Throw). Their recovery also allows them to travel a very far distance, allowing them to safely make it back to the stage, and combined with their weight, gives thm good endurance.

Piranha Plant's main weaknesses are its poor mobility (speed), and mediocre frame data, with noticeable lag on most aerials. It also has poor range, giving Piranha Plant a hard time against characters with large hitboxes. It's body is rather big and easy to combo, so it has a rather poor disadvantage state as well. Overall, Piranha Plant is best played in a bait and punish type playstyle, where you use projectiles to trick opponents into picking a bad option, then punishing them for it.

See Our Tier List Here!

Piranha Plant's Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths	・Heavyweight and high endurance ・Neutral B is great for edgeguarding ・Has a kill throw in Up Throw ・Very powerful Out of Shield option in up smash
Weaknesses	・Very poor mobility ・Significant landing lag on aerials ・Poor range on most attacks

Piranha Plant Matchup Chart

Matchup Chart

-2
-1
0
+1
+2

Notes About Matchup Chart

1. -2 = Disadvantage. -1 = Slight Disadvantage or Even. 0 = Even. +1 = Slight Advantage or Even. +2 = Advantage.
2. The matchup chart was based around both the opinions of professional players of each character, as well as our own experience through playing Piranha Plant.
3. Characters within each tier are unordered
4. Pokemon Trainer's individual Pokemon (Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard) as well as Echo fighters with no significant difference than their regular counterpart are not shown.
5. For other characters who are not shown here, we are still investigating the matchup.

Piranha Plant Combos

Bread and Butter Combos
Up Tilt→Jab Combo (From 0% to 10%)
Up Tilt→F Tilt (From 10% to 20%)
Up Tilt→Nair (From 20% to 40%)
Up Tilt→Fair (From 30% to 60%)
Up Tilt→Up Air (From 30% to 70%)
Down Tilt→Nair (From 0% to 30%)
Down Tilt→Fair (From 10% to 100%)
Down Tilt→Up Air (From 30% to 60%)
Down Throw→Fair (From 10% to 90%)

Bread and Butter Combos Guide

Up Tilt→Jab Combo (Forward Tilt)

Up tilt combos will only connect at lower percents. It is an easy and powerful combo.

Up Tilt→Fair (Nair, Up Air)

A combo that works at middle percents. For this combo, forward air deals the most damage and is recommended.

Down Tilt→Nair (Fair, Up Air)

For this combo, forward air deals the most damage and has the highest range of percents, so it is recommended.

Down Throw→Fair

When you manage to grab your opponent, try out this combo for reliable damage.

Piranha Plant Moveset

Jab (Neutral Attack)

Jab / Rapid Jab

Piranha Plant jabs with its leaf, followed by a flurry of biting, then one final bite that can launch the opponent.

Dash Attack and Tilts

Dash Attack

Piranha Plant's Dash Attack has it launching pot first towards its enemy in a dropkick-like fashion, with good range.

Forward Tilt

Piranha Plant bites forward with its Forward Tilt, which is good for poking, especially because it has a quick start up and its mouth is intangible.

Up Tilt

Up Tilt has Piranha Plant swing its head from side to side, with a hitbox behind Piranha Plant and intangibility for its head. An ideal choice for intercepting aerial attacks.

Down Tilt

Down Tilt launches your opponent as Piranha Plant sweeps their legs with his leaves, making it a good combo starter.

Smash Attacks

Forward Smash

Piranha Plant grows spikes and mauls its opponents with its head in this move. Its head becomes intangible, and the move's knockback is good.

Up Smash

Piranha Plant bites upwards, which can be used as an out of shield punish.

Down Smash

Piranha Plant sweeps both sides of the ground with its pot, knocking its opponent back. The knockback is the ideal distance to use Ptooie (Neutral Special) for an edgeguard.

Aerials

Neutral Air

Piranha Plant's Neutral Air has it spinning in a circular motion, which makes it a great anti-air and viable to hit low as well to intercept midair.

Forward Air

Piranha Plant's Forward Air swings its pot to the front quickly. With its fast start up time, it makes it ideal for intercepting enemies in the air.

Back Air

Back Air is Piranha Plant's most powerful aerial, and has a flame effect. It is very useful as a KO move.

Down Air

Piranha Plant smashes down with its pot in its Down Air, which has good meteor capability. It can be used to shoot down opponents.

Up Air

Up Air makes Piranha Plant swing its head in an upward arc, which makes for a good anti-air or a combo starter.

Specials

Neutral Special (Ptooie)

Called Ptooie, this special shoots a metal ball above Piranha Plant and has him spitting it towards enemies, hence the name. The ball is heavy and travels in a downward arc when fired, although it can be cancelled to try and trick the opponent.

It is one of Plant's most useful moves, as it can restrict the opponent's movement in neutral, and can also be used to get KOs after an opponent is hit offstage.

Side Special (Poison Breath)

A charged special, Piranha Plant ends up spitting poison that deals continous damage to opponents. Good for zoning and breaking shields, and especially good for ledge pressure.

Up Special (Piranhacopter)

Piranha Plant flies with leaves as its propellers, with hitboxes in its leaves. Take note that your head is vulnerable, and you can be spiked while doing this.

Down Special (Long-Stem Strike)

Piranha Plant digs itself into the pot, then launches and extends itself. The longer you hold it the stronger and longer you get. The pot can also tilt left and right, but once you commit to a direction you cannot return. It has super armor when launching, and will deal a ton of shield damage.

Grabs and Throws

Forward Throw

Forward Throw will strike your opponent with Piranha Plant's head. Even at low percents it will send opponents away, so it can’t be used to combo.

Back Throw

Back Throw will toss your opponent behind you. It can’t be used to combo, so instead use it to get opponents off stage. At higher percents, it can KO near the ledge.

Down Throw

Down throw has Piranha Plant knocking its opponent to the floor and biting them. The move can also combo into aerials, making it the go-to throw at low percents.

Up Throw

Up Throw chews up an opponent then launches them upwards. At high percentages (around 160%) it can kill an opponent.

Final Smash

Attack	How to Use	Effect
Petey Piranha	Press B after obtaining the Smash Ball	Piranha Plant summons Petey Piranha, a giant piranha plant that attacks nearby opponents with its whirling cages.

Piranha Plant Balance Changes

Version 13.0.1 Balance Patch

	Change
Side Tilt Attack	Extended launch distance for the final attack.
Down Tilt Attack	Increased the amount of time hit detection lasts. Reduced vulnerability.
Down Air Attack	Increased the amount of time the meteor effect lasts for the damage window.
Down Special	Shortened the time to use the move.

Version 8.0.0 Balance Patch

	Change
Up Tilt Attack	Adjusted launch angle. Increased attack speed.
Down Smash Attack	Increased attack speed.
Forward Air Attack	Increased attack speed.
Back Air Attack	Extended launch distance.
Up Air Attack	Increased power. Extended launch distance.

Version 7.0.0 Balance Patch

	Change
Other	Made the lips briefly invincible after deactivating shield.

Version 4.0.0 Balance Patch

	Change
Dash Attack	Adjusted launch angle.
Up Tilt Attack	Reduced vulnerability.
Side Special	Capped the attack-power increase when repeatedly reflected. Increased attack speed. Increased the amount of time hit detection lasts.
Down Special	Reduced vulnerability. Increased the power against shields. Shortened the charge time until reaching max charge.

Version 3.1.0 Balance Patch

	Change
Neutral Attack 3	Increased attack range.
Flurry Attack	Increased the amount of time opponents will be in the damage animation when the move hits.

Version 3.0.0 Balance Patch

	Change
Neutral Special	Increased attack range for the spiked ball.
Edge Attack	Increased attack range.

How to Get Piranha Plant

Steps for Buying Piranha Plant

①	Open up the Nintendo eShop
②	Type “Piranha Plant” into the search bar
③	Open up Piranha Plant's page and proceed to the purchase screen

Until January 31st, 2019, Piranha Plant was given for free to Smash Ultimate players who purchased a digital copy, or registered their physical version with a Nintendo Account. From February 1st, 2019 onward, it was made available from the Nintendo eShop. Unlike other DLC fighters, Piranha Plant is not included with the Figher's Pass, and thus must be purchased separately.

For players who did not get the early download of Piranha Plant, follow the steps below.

Open up the Nintendo eShop

From the Switch's main menu, select the Nintendo eShop icon.

Type “Piranha Plant” into the search bar

After it loads, go to the top bar, and type in “Piranha Plant”, then search.

Open up Piranha Plant's page and proceed to the purchase screen

Open the page up and proceed to the purchase screen. Piranha Plant will cost US $5.99 (CA $7.55) to purchase.

Piranha Plant Alt Costumes and Skins

Piranha Plant Reveal Trailer

Smash Ultimate Character Guides

List of Fighters
Tier List	Unlocking Fighters

Character Stat Lists

Character Stats
Weights of All Characters	Run Speeds of All Characters
Air Speeds of All Characters	Fast Fall Speeds of All Characters