Picking a Character

In this guide, we’re going to answer the classic new fighting game player question of “Who should I play?”

To help you answer this question, I’ll provide a brief rundown of what each character offers: going over their unique abilities, strategies they’re a good fit for, general strengths and weaknesses they may have, and other key facts.

I’m not going to be addressing competitive viability or tier list placement anywhere in this guide for a few reasons:

• Firstly, for new players, I’d recommend that you play a character that you resonate with so that you want to actually play and learn the game, and picking a character purely because some stranger on the Internet told you that they’re “the strongest” probably isn’t the healthiest way to learn any fighting game, and it can really warp your expectations if you’re not handling them correctly.

• Secondly, everyone is good enough to be viable anyway in this game so it’s kind of a moot point. The game is generally pretty well balanced and anybody can succeed with any character. You can take a look at the most recent RCS rankings and see just how much representation there is across the whole roster:

• 

In other words: you won’t be holding yourself back because of your character choice, so just pick whatever sounds most appealing. Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Zetterburn Copied to clipboard

As the prince of the Fire Empire, Zetterburn serves his militant nation as a fierce warrior with pride, ferocity, and absolute loyalty.

On the macro scale, Zetterburn is this game’s manifestation of the Space Animal archetype. Spacie players from games like Melee and Project M will find a lot of familiar moves in Zetterburn’s arsenal.

The most obvious twist that Zetterburn introduces to your typical spacie formula is his fire mechanic. A number of Zetterburn’s moves will light the opponent on fire. This fire will deal damage over time for a few seconds.

All of Zetterburn’s Strong Attacks are amplified when hitting a flaming opponent, causing these already strong moves to be able to take stocks frighteningly early. He’s well-equipped with ways to set up into these Strongs as well, so this power is always easy to tap into at a moment’s notice.

Zetterburn’s advantage state is considered to be particularly explosive and oppressive. He’s also considered to be a rather straightforward character: he doesn’t really have any obtuse gimmicks to learn and his moveset and gameplan are relatively orthodox, making Zetterburn a popular choice for newcomers.

His most obvious drawback is his recovery: he has a number of strong ways to mix it up, but it can still be quite a pain point, especially as you’re trying to learn the character. Zetterburn can often find himself in a position where he gets stuck in a loop trying to make it back onto the stage from the edge, especially in certain matchups.

Otherwise, he is considered to be quite well-rounded, and a good Zetterburn player can absolutely succeed in any situation that the game throws at them.

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Orcane is a trickster with a reputation for causing trouble. While he’s publicly denounced by The Water Merchants, he is often called to their aide to carry out their more back-alley affairs.

His moveset reflects his trickster nature, as he gets a lot of mileage out of conditioning, laying traps, and opportunistic play. His normals have a great combo of good frame data and large hitboxes, allowing him to strike with confidence when an opening presents itself. Complementing this is some of the most readily accessible kill power in the game.

He’s able to make these openings with the help of his puddles. Most of his special moves will put a puddle on the ground, which Orcane can use in many ways. He can pop a puddle into a flurry of bubbles which can trap the opponent and grant Orcane a followup, he can consume puddles to dramatically increase the range and damage of his Strong Attacks and Side Special, and he uses puddle for recovery by using Up Special to teleport to it.

Using his great low-commitment pokes in neutral while laying traps with puddles is a deadly combination - once he’s conditioned his opponent to play around his puddle is when Orcane really starts to come into his own.

That said, while his ability to set up traps and mixups is quite potent, he has no consistent long-range option like a fireball-type projectile or a fast and reliable burst option, so he can struggle to close a distance in some matchups. His long-range presence relies on puddles, which must be planted in advance, and usage of puddles in this way must be balanced with the utility they can offer elsewhere.

Regardless, Orcane is a slippery scoundrel who has no trouble keeping any opponent on their toes with intelligent play.

Wrastor Copied to clipboard

An ace fighter of the Air Armada, Wrastor fights under the banner of the Air Nation, earning a reputation for his fighting prowess and bold, loose cannon nature in equal measure.

He is an aerial fighter with high mobility and a nearly unparalleled ability to chase opponents through the skies. He has the most mid-air jumps of any character in the cast, possessing 4 in total. With all of these jumps, his good air control, and his great aerials, he has excellent air juggles and can carry opponents far off the ground with good tracking of positioning and DI.

Further complementing this are his Strong Attacks, which can only be done in the air but serve as great finishers once Wrastor carries his opponent into the skies.

Wrastor can also set up these juggles quite well in part thanks to his unique ability to jump-cancel his tilts, making them great combo starters.

His Side Special deploys a Slipstream, which dramatically increases his horizontal speed while he’s inside it.

This high speed lets Wrastor excel in an aggressive playstyle where he suffocates his competition or in a defensive playstyle based on using movement to bait and punish with strong burst options to quickly close distance.

Complementing his speedster status, Wrastor is the lightest character in the game - and very floaty as well - making him an extreme glass cannon.

Regardless of one’s preferred playstyle, Wrastor excels at punishing bad approach attempts and really commands a strong control over the flow of a match with the looming threat of swooping in in the blink of an eye. Anyone fighting a skilled Wrastor needs to tread carefully or deal with the consequences.

Kragg Copied to clipboard

Kragg is a steadfast member of the Wall Runners: a group dedicated to maintaining The Rock Wall, which protects the Aetherian Forest from the outside world while keeping its wrath contained.

Kragg is arguably the closest thing Rivals has to a traditional platform fighter heavyweight. He’s built like a brick, having a high weight and fall speed which both grant him high survivability. On the other hand, his mobility is rather low when compared to most of the cast, but not to a degree where he can’t keep up with the pace of most fights.

The bruiser that he is, Kragg hits very hard, and one good read can quickly turn the tide of a battle.

Despite his larger stature, Kragg’s frame data is pretty solid, and he can certainly hold his own in most close-range engagements.

In addition to his strong Normals, Kragg’s Special Moves allow him to play a strong defensive game. His Rock is a great projectile with loads of utility, being able to be thrown at multiple angles or broken apart into a spray of shards.

Combined with other parts of his kit like his Down Special, you can consistently stuff the opponent out very well from a distance. His zoning has gaps in the mid-range, but clever play can make this less of a factor.

For his Up Special, Kragg summons a rock pillar from below. This offers him a uniquely powerful flexibility in his recovery, but it often leaves him quite vulnerable if it isn’t used with care.

His kit is overall fairly easy to grasp, yet still permits a strong, multifaceted gameplan. Indeed, Kragg’s relatively approachable and consistent kit makes him a common choice for newer players, but there’s still plenty of depth to be had at higher echelons of competition.

Forsburn Copied to clipboard

The brother of Zetterburn, wrongly framed for the murder of their father, Forsburn has retreated to the shadows in exile and teamed with the rebels of The Smoke Tribe to expose the corruption of The Fire Council.

Forsburn’s kit is a blend of area control and far-reaching pokes with an affinity for deceptive gameplay. He attacks primarily with a dagger and cape, giving him great disjoint and reach on many of his buttons and letting him exercise strong stage control.

His overall mobility is a bit below average, and he doesn’t have a standard projectile to just toss out in neutral, so good positioning and being able to play patiently when the situation calls for it is particularly important for playing Forsburn effectively.

The stun of his cape swipes on his Strong Attacks and his many normals that knock the opponent vertically harmonize with his range to let him lock opponents down once he finds an opening and force them into punishing mixups.

Forsburn’s special moves further bolster his ability to keep opponents guessing. He can set up a smokescreen to conceal his movement and take information away from his opponent, who has to predict where Forsburn will be.

Opponents can clear smoke by attacking, but they must be careful not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, lest Forsburn get the jump on them.

He can also create a clone to trick the opponent, and he can pop the clone to create an opening on an opponent who guesses wrong when trying to find the real Forsburn.

This all comes together to give Forsburn access to some of the trickiest mindgames in the entire game.

Forsburn’s presence is one which breeds obfuscation and uncertainty, and a Forsburn that can play unpredictably is a uniquely threatening foe indeed.

Maypul Copied to clipboard

As a Treetop Dweller, Maypul watches over the Aetherian Forest, acting as both a liaison with the surface dwellers and as the watchful protector of the forests below.

Maypul is a speed demon who rewards precision and control. She has the highest ground speed in the game by a fairly large margin.

This mobility lets her excel at using positioning to outspace her opponents and she can quickly close gaps between her and other players. She tends to stay grounded, as her aerial frame data is a bit on the slower side and her neutral functions best when she can use grounded movement to quickly reposition.

She has great Normals all around, coming together to form a toolkit that is very fundamentally sound, if a bit weak in terms of directly beating other moves out - but she makes up for that with her speed anyway.

Her down special plants Lily, which hurts anyone who gets too close. Lily is a valuable stage presence - Maypul can use the bite to extend combos or simply put Lily down to control a space.

Other special moves will mark the opponent. A marked opponent will be wrapped if hit by Maypul’s strongs or by Lily, allowing Maypul to get all sorts of extended followups.

In addition, Maypul can tether to a marked opponent to recover from offstage or extend deep for a punish. Tether confirms are a key part of what makes Maypul’s punish game as deadly as it is, as they allow Maypul to follow up on opponents that are out of reach for most other characters.

Much like a Formula 1 racecar, she demands precision from those who pilot her. But, with a skilled driver, it can take a lot to avoid being left in the dust.

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Absa is a renowned scientist who wields the power of thunderstorms to protect her secluded mountaintop society from the wars that rage on the surface below.

She is an explosive character with excellent zoning and incredible kill power. Absa has a toolkit that commands respect at any range and which benefits heavily from conditioning and frustrating the opponent.

She’s also a glass cannon, boasting some of the most infamous kill moves and kill setups in the game while being quite lightweight and fairly vulnerable once her defenses are breached.

Her grounded mobility is pretty average, and her kit isn’t the best for just charging into opponents headfirst. But, her high air speed, low gravity, and excellent recovery options allow her to move about freely in the air, as well as chase opponents deep offstage.

Her signature feature is her ability to summon clouds. She can place one at her feet or send them flying forward to pester opponents from a distance.

The cloud is a cornerstone for her gameplan, and she can interact with the cloud in many different ways - including popping the cloud to disrupt people in neutral and extend combos, detonating it with aerials to enhance her kicks’ already deadly sweetspots, and she can generate powerful lightning bolts between the cloud and herself.

Clouds complement her air mobility and Forward Tilt really well to form her strong defensive foundation. Indeed, the mere presence of a cloud commands a lot of respect.

Few characters have the ability to erode mental stamina quite like Absa, and her unique blend of defensive gameplay backed by the threat of accessible stock-taking power makes her a good fit for anyone seeking to play with dominance.

Etalus Copied to clipboard

Etalus is a warrior hailing from the far northern reaches of Aether. As one of the last surviving members of the elite Harbor Guard, his goal is to destroy the mysterious Black Ice.

Etalus is a big dude who hits like a truck. In many ways, he’s built like a traditional platform fighter heavyweight, but his ice mechanic, which serves as a foundation for many of his strengths, turns a lot of those conventions on their heads.

Etalus can lay ice along the ground with a handful of different moves. This ice dramatically lowers his traction, letting him use his wavedash and jump-cancellable dash attack to skate back and forth across the stage at unmatched speeds, making him hard to pin down.

Etalus can also consume ice to gain ice armor, making him nigh unkillable until he takes a certain amount of damage or consumes it with another move.

That said, while Etalus is a quick and resilient target, he is still a big target and can easily become combo food - particularly offstage thanks to his sometimes quite vulnerable recovery, or if you get caught with ice armor in the wrong situation.

His punish game is very scary, as his high burst mobility makes him great at whiff punishing. Furthermore, he can use Down Special to trap opponents in ice for guaranteed damage in some punish scenarios.

He has excellent edgeguards partly thanks to icicles (Side Special) and his large stature is matched with large hitboxes.

Ice does a lot for Etalus, so managing your ice control across the stage can be quite important to get the most out of his kit. That said, he’s no gimmick who relies on ice to be good: his kit is still fundamentally strong and robust.

When played well, Etalus uses his mobility in conjunction with his other tools to be flexible in his playstyle and command respect over the ground he controls.

Ranno Copied to clipboard

Ranno is a skilled martial arts master who now guards his homeland, the Swampy Estuary, under a doctrine of pacifism, but his fighting skills are still fearsome and deadly.

Ranno is highly adaptable, straightforward, and consistent - making him quite beginner-friendly. He also has arguably the best frame data in the game, and he can flourish with a high-APM playstyle with how good he is at capitalizing off of any opening he finds. Once he gets an opening, he uses his infamously strong punish routes to obliterate opponents if they are caught in a bad spot.

His needles are excellent projectiles for conditioning your opponent and disrupting their actions both onstage and offstage.

These needles, along with his Strong Attacks, also apply poison, which deals trace amounts of damage to opponents as they attack.

These poison stacks also enhance his tongue command grab, which traps opponents in a bubble for extended combos.

These tools all combine to make his conditioning superb - forcing opponents to respect his quick buttons and punishing their hesitation.

His grounded mobility is pretty good, and he gets a lot out of platform play, but his air speed is rather low so he sometimes has trouble chasing and approaching in the air. Many of his on-stage combos get around this by making using frequent hitfalling to reposition on the ground before continuing his followups in the air.

Similarly, he can have trouble landing against a savvy opponent, especially with how low his disjoint tends to be, but his excellent aerials are also great get-off-me tools, so he can keep opponents on their toes.

Ranno is a scrappy and accessible character who is versatile enough to fill any role and well-rounded enough to be a commanding presence while doing so.

Clairen Copied to clipboard

Clairen is a strong-willed time-traveler from a doomed future. Blessed with the lost gift of Fire, she found herself sent back in time to right the wrongs of the future Fire Empire and save her world from a corrupt regime.

She stands as Rivals’s rendition of a swordfighter. Her plasma sword gives her an impressive, disjointed range. You’ll be using long pokes to hit your opponent from a distance most other characters can’t easily contest.

However, she’s not just a simple fencer: she has a flashy, complex punish game, thanks, in part, to her tipper mechanics. Any tipper will stun the opponent temporarily, granting her access to improved setups and combos.

While she has plenty of tools to build an impressive offense, she can’t just swing recklessly as a lot of her moves have high endlag, leaving her particularly vulnerable to getting whiff punished.

To that end, Clairen can also excel in a more defensive or bait-and-punish-oriented playstyle, carefully using her range to pressure her opponent.

While her Up Special is pretty large and undoubtedly a bit of a noob-killer, she lacks straightforward recovery mixups and can easily find herself being bullied offstage if she’s caught in a bad spot.

Conversely, however, her edgeguarding is exceptional, using her disjointed pokes and strong setups to give any recovering opponent a real run for their money.

She has access to a wide assortment of kill setups, but they’re all quite precise; a good Clairen player needs to stay cognizant of the different situations that she can create and how to respond accordingly to them.

In truth, this situational awareness is key to her success across the board: her kit is overall very flexible and she has a pretty good answer for almost any situation if you can stay on your toes and play with keen perception.

Sylvanos Copied to clipboard

Contained by The Rock Wall, Sylvanos is the rage of the Aetherean Forest given physical form: seeking to endlessly expand the forest after it was scorched by fires and plundered for resources for countless years.

He is a control-focused heavyweight with great keepaway and strong zoning. He’s well equipped to control the stage and force opponents to play around a bevy of strong tools in the mid-range. He has the longest attack range in the game, with an assortment of large and disjointed hitboxes.

Sylvanos often focuses on playing a very oppressive neutral game, keeping the opponent at a distance such that he can control the pace of the match and avoid letting people get close.

This is almost a necessity, as he can struggle to shake opponents off that breach his defenses thanks to his slow frame data and poor escape options.

Sylvanos combines his long range with his high ground mobility and his passive grass ability to set up a strong stage presence. Grass grows wherever Sylvanos walks, and he uses it in various Special Moves, such as shooting spikes across the grass to cover a large area, chomping through it to extend his Side Special, and giving him a strong hitbox on his burrow recovery.

Leaving a grass-covered surface will cause the grass to wither away after a short time unless one of his flowers are planted there, so taking advantage of his strong grounded presence and managing flowers is essential.

Sylvanos can also have a hard time ending stocks, often relying on strict setups or reads for most of his kills. But he makes up for this with his ability to quickly bring opponents to high percents thanks to his exceptional techchase game, allowing a good Sylvanos player to put their opponent in a blender and rack up the damage.

Sylvanos is in many ways a character of extremes, but a player who knows how to make the most of his exceptional strengths can become a terrifying threat with a command over the game unlike any other.

Elliana Copied to clipboard

Elliana hails from the Eastern Wastelands, and once dreamt of flying with the Air Armada. Now, after they rejected her for who she was, she seeks to destroy the Armada out of spite.

Elliana is an aerial zoner with a frightening control of the battlefield and a strong trap-based punish game. She has a destructive advantage state built on setting up aerial juggles.

Her mine is a powerful win condition; Elliana’s deadliest punishes center around setting up a mine and following up on opponents caught in its blast.

She has tools to open up the opponent from just about anywhere, including steam to ensnare opponents and missiles that she can aim freely.

But she reaps what she sows - she’s one of the biggest pieces of combo food in the entire game, with a massive hurtbox and limited escape options.

Instead of having a standard double jump, Elliana can fly, granting her unique aerial mobility: letting her swoop through the air to both intercept her prey far offstage and hover out of harm’s reach.

Elliana’s central mechanic is her heat gauge. She builds up heat by flying and using projectiles (and certain Normals), and releases it by using Strong Attacks or Up Special.

When the heat gauge is full, she becomes overheated, where she gains access to very powerful strong attacks at the cost of losing access to her flight and most of her special moves.

Heat management - that is, controlling one’s move usage to be overheated or not overheated at the right moment for the right situation - is a crucial part of any Elliana player’s skill set. For example, her Overheated Strong Attacks are great combo enders, but timing your overheat mid-combo to be able to lead into it can be a difficult balancing act.

In terms of mechanics and overall game flow, she’s a unique specimen across platform fighters at large and she can be tricky to adjust to for some people. But, dedicated players looking for a unique gameplay experience will be rewarded splendidly for their efforts.

Ori and Sein Copied to clipboard

Ori is the first of Rivals of Aether’s guest characters, hailing from Moon Studios’ Ori series.

They are a high-speed character - both in terms of mobility and attacks. Ori excels at keeping the opponent on edge at all times with threatening burst options and slippery movement. Their ground and air speed are both top-shelf, and they generally have the best overall mobility in the game meaning they can outmaneuver just about any other character in most situations and control the pace of a match quite well.

Ori’s kit is loaded with strong combo tools which flow remarkably well into each other, although often at the cost of range and raw power. At the same time, their quick frame data gives them an edge in close-range fights and they can easily shake off an opponent who gets too greedy. They excel at forcing their opponent into bad situations in order to close out games, which is important given that their raw killpower is somewhat mediocre. However, once the enemy is where Ori wants them, they’ll find themselves being carried into the blastzone or falling victim to a devastating setup.

Ori is accompanied by Sein. Sein follows behind Ori at all times, copying their movement.

Sein’s biggest asset is as an option coverage tool, effectively allowing Ori to be in two places at once, making Ori’s edgeguards, techchases, combos, and stage control significantly stronger. Sein has two attacks: quick taps that do a short amount of stun and help Ori extend combos and a charged explosion that is great for setups, edgeguarding, and whiff punishes.

Together, the two can hold a suffocating control of the stage, provided that their positions are managed effectively. This elusive duo is a tenacious force in the right hands. Fighting with graceful agility, their presence is unrelenting.

Shovel Knight Copied to clipboard

Marking another notch on his already expansive cameo resume, Shovel Knight joins Rivals as Guest Character #2 courtesy of Yacht Club Games.

He is a quirky fighter with a customizable toolkit which snowballs in power throughout the match. He has a lot of unusual and unorthodox moves in his kit, and moreso than most other fighters, his moveset is brimming with nuance that might not be obvious at a glance.

Fighting with his shovel and a variety of other weapons, he has good reach and disjoint across his kit, while still having decent frame data. Many of his best moves give him great stage carry, and many of his deadliest combos involve dragging people deep offstage.

Shovel Knight truly begins to come into his own once he spends his gems. Gems are a currency acquired throughout a match, spilling out from opponents as they’re hit. He can use these gems to buy relics which grant him new Special Moves or armors which grant passive abilities or buffs to his attributes.

During a typical game, Shovel Knight will only be able to amass enough gems to buy around 2 items of the 6 that are available, so it’s important to choose your purchases carefully based on the current matchup, your opponent’s habits, and the current state of the game.

Despite being such a grab-bag of unusual abilities and features, Shovel Knight is relatively well-rounded. He has a little bit of everything: solid frame data, some good disjoint, good mobility options, decent zoning, and great kill power - a real jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none.

There’s a little bit of something here for everyone, and players looking to be as adaptive and flexible as possible would probably dig this member of the roster.

Mollo Copied to clipboard

Mollo uses various bombs to pester opponents from a distance and for creative setup-based gameplay. He can pull bombs and then throw them, or hit bombs dropped on the ground with a variety of different moves to keep opponents on their toes with different trajectories and timings.

Each of his bomb types have unique effects: he’ll be using different bombs depending on what your current goal is, whether that’s knocking the opponent around, controlling space, building up damage, or closing out stocks.

Mollo particularly rewards good awareness and creativity with using different bombs in clever situations. There’s plenty to unpack with Mollo’s bombs, so some lab time and a strong working knowledge of different setups can be especially beneficial.

Mollo’s bombs may be his headlining feature, but he’s more than just a projectile spammer as he has a solid close-to-mid range presence as well. His decent buttons let him keep up the pressure when things get scrappy and he can discourage the opponent from disrespectfully charging in through bombs by making them think twice about how to approach him.

Mollo is a character whose potential is only going to grow as time goes on as more bomb setups are developed and the strategies around each bomb type grow more complex. So if you want a lot to chew on, Mollo might be just what you’re looking for.

Hodan Copied to clipboard

On a surface level, Hodan’s a fairly traditional platform fighter heavyweight in many ways: being hard to kill, having big moves that hit hard, and getting especially strong returns on hard reads.

However, Hodan has the unique distinction of being a charge character in a platform fighter. He can build a charge by pressing and holding any downward directional input, and the charge will stay until shortly after down is released.

Charging lets Hodan enhance many of his moves or grant them special properties. For example, Charged Forward Air is much larger than its uncharged version, and charged Side Special travels faster and goes at a different trajectory.

Maintaining a charge in the thick of a fight can be a bit tricky, especially when trying to move or react for DI, so it takes some care to find time to charge and keep it stored.

He can also interact with the sweat spirits he places with Side Special to enhance other attacks. Charge and sweat spirit enhancements give Hodan’s kit a lot of diversity and flexibility.

His strongest moves can be especially committal, but can lead to damaging openings or an early stock if Hodan makes the right response or callout for a situation, particularly if the opponent is caught above Hodan at a bad time.

A skilled player can take advantage of this and formulate a solid gameplan around conditioning their opponent to avoid these situations and applying pressure to combat attempts to play around them.

Pomme Copied to clipboard

Pomme creates a strong presence in the air with her unique mobility centered around her float. Much like similar mechanics from other platform fighters, holding Jump while falling or pressing down lets Pomme float at a fixed height while maintaining some horizontal air control.

This lets her do things like mix up her landing timing, hover outside of harm’s reach, and easily access her aerials while close to the ground.

If she’s inside her harmonic field, which she can place with Down Special, her air control improves greatly while floating and she can also drift up and down, giving her even more movement tricks.

She can be a pretty mechanically intensive character if you want to get the most out of the advanced movement that float opens up for her, but she’s got solid fundamentals that any skilled player can tap into.

She has many attacks with great frame data, loads of clever ways to extend combos, and the ability to apply strong pressure in close-to-mid range, but her long range presence is relatively lacking.

Like most other Air characters, she’s light and floaty, so mistakes can spell an early death if you’re not careful.

This superstar’s more than just a pretty face; while her floaty tricks might give a very particular first impression for those coming from Smash, she’s got plenty of unique quirks going on behind the curtain and can truly sing a tune of her own.

Olympia Copied to clipboard

Olympia is a brawler with chunky attacks and a scary advantage state. Out of the four latest additions to the cast, she’s definitely the most straightforward. She’s an in-your-face martial artist who rewards strong offensive, rushdown-oriented gameplay.

Despite her average size, she hits like a bulldozer and feels more like a heavyweight - that is, she’s on the heavier, slower end of the cast. Fortunately, Olympia has some clever movement tricks with Down Special Focus Cancels and her Side Special dashes, letting her bob and weave unpredictably despite a slower raw speed.

When she gets an opening, Olympia has a particularly potent punish game, able to dish out flurries of blows with relative ease. Her great kill moves are matched with solid setups to ensure that she has no trouble closing out games. Furthermore, her Neutral Special and Down Special let her put opponents in a crystallized stun state, giving her even crazier combos.

Her Neutral Special acts as a stage control tool with the looming threat of crystalizing the opponent if they wander into the crystal’s field unprepared, while also letting her jump cancel her Side Special if she is inside it to catapult herself forward.

If your top priority is letting loose with some punches and kicks and being as direct with your beatdown as possible, then Olympia would be a brilliant choice.

Now, you should have a better idea of what to expect from Rivals of Aether’s roster and hopefully have some guidance on who you might want to play.