A Little Love for Link (alliteration makes him happy)

[xTheft]

Do not fear the red text.

A follow-up to Link's recent changes. Mostly buffs since average opinion of this character isn't very high. The nerfs he's received the past few patches should give him enough room in his power budget for these.

Assets (merge with existing assets folder): hdr-assets link for PR.zip

Credit to AParticularUser for the Bomb roll.

Dash Attack

+ [+] FAF: 42 > 40

+ [+] Angle (early hit): 70 > 75

# FAF matches P+ Dash Attack, angle is a middle ground of current angle and P+'s various angles (range of 65-90 degrees).


! [R] Projectile-invulnerable frames replaced with a reflector property. Reflector size matches the late hit's size. 

~ Reflector Multiplier: 1.55x

~ Damage Threshold: 999%

- [-] Reflector active frames: F7- 14 > F11-14

Up Tilt

(Sourspot:)

~ [/] BKB: 30 > 27

~ [/] KBG: 122 > 120

# Knockback is now slightly lower than the sweetspot's. 

Down Tilt

General:

~ (*) Moved Bomb Cancel call from effect script to game script.

Tipper:

+ [+] Angle: 82 > 92


Sourspot: 

+ [+] Angle (sourspot): 64 > 71

+ [+] KBG (sourspot): 101 > 94


# Current sourspot feels undertuned and also sends at an odd angle on DI out. New angle can still escape all followups with optimal DI except DACUS (lasts until ~70%).

Down Smash:

! [R] Now a dedicated kill move, filling Up Smash's former role. 


General:

- [-] FAF: 42 > 57

~ [=} Bomb Cancel window: F31 > F36

~ [$] Adjusted SFX

~ [$] Adjusted animation timing.

# Slower animation, similar to Ike's Down Smash.


Hit 1:

- [-] Frame Activity: F9-10 > F14-15

+ [+] Angle: 75 > 80

~ [/] BKB: 30 > 35

~ [/] KBG: 95 > 96



Hit 2: 

- [-] Frame Activity: F21-22 > F30-31

+ [+] Angle (sourspot/sweetspot): 75/86 > 80

+ [+] Damage (sourspot/sweetspot): 10%/14% > 14%/17%

~ [/] BKB (sourspot/sweetspot): 20/40 > 35

~ [/] KBG (sourspot/sweetspot): 75/86 > 107/97
# Back hit is slightly stronger than the front hit. 

Forward Throw

+ [+] FAF: 35 > 32


# Matches frame advantage to Back Throw.
# Still loses to DI down at high percent lol

Down Throw

~ (*) Added missing Bomb Cancel call, can activate on F28.

Forward Air

(Sourspot:)

- [-] Damage: 12% > 11%

! [R] Angle (sourspot): 361 > 50

+ [+] KBG: 103 > 110



# Brings the kill percent closer to that of the sweetspot (~12% kill percent difference instead of ~20%) and gives the sourspot some combo potential on DI in at mid percents, while also reinforcing the unsafety of this hitbox. 

Back Air

Hit 1:

(Ground)
+ [+] KBG: 100 > 118

# Improves ability to follow-up off Bair 1 against grounded opponents.
# +5 against ASDI down and +2 against CC if landed perfectly. Was originally +3/0, respectively. 

Neutral Air

Late hit:

- [-] Damage: 8% > 7%

# Matched to P+. Knockback uncompensated to reduce edgeguard potency and encourage DACUS/DACDS confirms at higher percents.

Up Air

+ [+] Landing Lag: 14F > 13F

- [-] Angle: 85 > 80

# Returns some of the lost combo potential after the nerfs this move got during 15 degree DI. Opting for landing lag over angle buff to give more varied punishes on bad DI and to improve the feel of the move.

Up Special (Spin Attack):

(Ground:)

+ [+] Startup: F12 > F10

- [-] FAF: F86 > F86
# Matches P+ JC Up Special. Unadjusted FAF effectively adds 2f of endlag. 

~ [$] Hitlag Multiplier: 1.0x > 1.3x

~ [=] SDI Multiplier: 1.0x > 0.7x
# Gives the move more visual punch. 

Side Special (Boomerang)

General:

+ [+] Startup: F27 > F25

+ [+] FAF: 46 > 42
# Matches P+ Boomerang startup with +1f endlag.

~ [$] Voiceline changed. Now starts during the initial frames to maintain reactability.


Early hit: 

- [-] Frame Activity: F1-9 > F1-7

+ [+] Damage: 10% > 11%

- [-] Angle: 80 > 78

~ [/] BKB: 91 > 64

~ [/] KBG: 29 > 40


Middle hit:

- [-] Angle: 80 > 78

~ [/] BKB: 74 > 57

~ [/] KBG: 37 > 46

# Damage and FAF reduction included mostly for shield safety purposes (now -4 when fresh). 
# New knockback curve is a middle ground between the current HDR and P+ early hits. This creates more dynamic routing across percent ranges, no longer causes tumble at 0% universally, is more susceptible to CC, and can result in more plat tech chases. 

+ [+] Boomerang catch FAF: 11 > 1
# Small QoL buff from P+, allows Link to act instantly out of Boomerang catch. Does not enable anything like K. Rool's krowndashing.


Empty Throw:

! (!) Now has a hand hitbox that appears when Link throws Boomerang while it's already out.
# Just the hand hitbox that the Links have in PM. 

<img width="1671" height="1328" alt="boomerang hand hitbox" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6ee83b35-8bb1-4865-abf9-d31dbebb7708" />
# Picture of hitbox. A video will be in the Link channel. 

~ Frame Activity: F25-26

~ Damage: 4%

~ Angle: 45

~ BKB: 16

~ KBG: 100

+ [+] FAF: 60 > 42
# Matches standard Boomerang FAF.

Down Special (Remote Bomb)

! (!) Link can now roll Remote Bomb by pressing Down B while holding it. 

~ FAF: F21
### Less endlag than standard item toss. 
### !!! NOTE FOR TESTING !!! Bomb's momentum is reduced on the Training stage for some reason. If you're going to test it, test on standard stages for accurate results. 

[github-actions]

Download the artifacts for this pull request:

• hdr-switch

[SuddyN]

planning to leave this up, as there are other in-progress link things (including stuff you've posted) and I'd rather not go back and forth on his design over and over (lucario dilemma)

[SuddyN]

I just saw that you added bomb roll here but point stands. will consider after next beta