Zagreus (Smash Plus)

Zagreus is a playable character in Super Smash Brothers Plus for the Nintendo Switch Plus. Representing the Hades universe, he is the 1st revealed character for the Season 2 DLC pass, and as such has no number within the in-game list. He is also classified as a Lightweight fighter. He can only be unlocked through individual purchase, or by purchasing the Season 2 DLC.
Zagreus is a fairly straight forward fighter, at least on paper. With a large number of weapons at his disposal and rapid movement across the field, Zagreus best works as a quick strike artist who doesn't stay in one place too long. His damage output is below average to start with, so players need to take advantage of his decent range and good speed to move in and out from attack position quickly, as one good hit can send him reeling. Of course the biggest trick in his playbook is somewhat affected by RNG. Utilizing his Shield Special, Zagreus can upgrade his Up and Neutral Special with Olympian Boons, which bestow a variety of affects on these moves and can grant other effects to his other attacks based on what the boons do. Of course, utilizing these boons is a risk-reward scenario, as Zagreus can only accept one boon per stock, and if the RNG isn't in his favor, he'll have to wait a short time before accepting a different boon. Zagreus has two normal jumps and no additional movement options.
==Moveset==
===Basic Attacks===
*Special Gimmick: Olympian Boons- Zagreus can bestow on himself a boon from one of the Olympian Gods, which will grant certain perks to his moveset and also upgrade both his Neutral Special and Up Special. These boons are summoned with a Shield Special move, creating a randomly generated icon of the god right in front of Zagreus. Touching this icon will accept the boon. Alternatively, Zagreus can ignore the boon for five seconds, at which point it will disappear. He can then use Shield Special again to summon a different boon, as the same boon will not appear twice in a row (unless it is accepted the first time.) Only one boon can be active per stock. The gods he can draw boons from are:
**Aphrodite- The Goddess of Love, her symbol is a pink heart. Accepting her boon will cause all of Zagreus' attacks to cast Weak on opponents, which lowers their damage output slightly while under its effects. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Crush Shot while changing his Up Special to Passion Dash.
**Ares- The God of War, his symbol is a red spear tip. Accepting his boon will cause all of Zagreus' attacks to cast Doom on opponents, which increases their damage output slightly but weakens their defensive stats while under its effects. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Blade Rift while changing his Up Special to Blade Dash.
**Artemis- The Goddess of the Hunt, her symbol is a green arrow. Accepting her boon will give Zagreus Critical capabilities, giving all of his attacks a slight chance of doing much more damage than they normally would at random. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to True Shot while changing his Up Special to Hunter Dash.
**Athena- The Goddess of Wisdom, her symbol is a golden shield. Accepting her boon will give Zagreus' shield Deflect properties, which causes Zagreus' normal bubble shield to reflect projectiles rather than absorb them, at the expense of reducing Zagreus' damage output and knockback ability dramatically. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Phalanx Shot while changing his Up Special to Divine Dash.
**Demeter- The Goddess of the Harvest, her symbol is a white stalk of wheat. Accepting her boon will cause all of Zagreus' attacks to cast Chill on opponents, which will slow their overall ground speed while under its effects. It also gives all of Zagreus' attacks a very small chance of freezing opponents. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Crystal Beam while changing his Up Special to Mistral Dash.
**Dionysus- The God of Wine, his symbol is a purple wine glass. Accepting his boon will cause all of Zagreus' attacks to afflict Hangover on opponents, which has a chance of poisoning them for a short amount of time after they take damage (though only for a very small amount of damage). It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Trippy Shot while changing his Up Special to Festive Dash.
**Poseidon- The God of the Sea, his symbol is a blue trident. Accepting his boon will cause all of Zagreus' attacks to have greatly increased knockback, while slightly lowering Zagreus' speed overall. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Flood Shot while changing his Up Special to Tidal Dash.
**Zeus- The God of Thunder, his symbol is a yellow lightning bolt. Accepting his boon will cause all of Zagreus' attacks to have Jolted effects on them, which gives them a random chance of dealing additional electrical damage with every hit. It also changes Zagreus' Neutral Special to Electric Shot while also changing his Up Special to Thunder Dash.
*Neutral Jab- Zagreus performs a 5 hit combo using Malphon, the Twin Fists. This has little to no launch power, even on the final hit, allowing for some degree of combo, though there is a delay between 5 hit combos.
*Side Tilt- Zagreus performs a stabbing attack with his Stygian blade.
*Up Tilt- Zagreus performs an uppercut with Malphon that hits slightly above himself.
*Down Tilt- Zagreus performs a low sweep attack with the Aegis shield, hitting directly in front of him.
*Dash Attack- Zagreus performs a Dash-Strike with his spear, Varatha. It has high knockback and good range for a Dash Attack, but does very little damage.
*Grab & Pummel- Zagreus grabs with both arms, and pummels with a punch from Malphon.
*Forward Throw- Zagreus tosses the opponent up in the air and then blasts them away with a blast from his railgun, Exogryph.
*Back Throw- Similar to his forward throw, only Zagreus tosses the opponent behind himself rather than behind himself.
*Up Throw- Zagreus tosses the opponent straight up into the air and then shoots them with three shots from his Coronaught bow.
*Down Throw- Zagreus pins the opponent to the ground and then fires a grenade from Exogryph, causing a small explosion in front of himself that launches foes away.
*Neutral Air- Zagreus shoots several arrows with Coronoct around himself in a circle.
*Forward Air- Zagreus performs a stabbing attack with Varatha, stabbing forward three times at different angles.
*Back Air- Zagreus performs a downward slash with his Stygian blade. This move can spike foes if it connects right at the beginning of the move.
*Up Air- Zagreus shoots Exogryph above his head in a front to back arc, potentially hitting opponents multiple times.
*Down Air- Zagreus performs a downward stab attack with his Stygian Blade after flipping in midair, falling straight down to the ground. If used over the blast zone, could easily result in a self-KO.
===Smash Attacks===
*Side Smash- Zagreus will shoot a single arrow forward from Coronoct. The arrow will travel further the longer the attack is charged, creating one of the longer disjointed hitboxes in the game. However, the knockback of the attack is among the weakest in the game, preventing it from being a reliable KO at the edge until high percentages. It also has high endlag, especially if the arrow misses.
*Up Smash- Zagreus tosses the Aegis Shield straight up into the air, where it spins several times above his head. This will hit opponents multiple times before launching them on the final hit.
*Down Smash- Zagreus performs a spin attack with Varatha, spinning the spear around himself in a full 360 degree motion, launching foes on contact.
===Special Moves===
*Shield Special: Olympian Boon- Activating Shield Special will cause a small icon to appear directly in front of Zagreus. By touching it, Zagreus will be granted the boons associated with the Olympian god that the symbol represented (more information on this is located up above.) The boon is chosen at random, and Zagreus can choose another boon by allowing the icon to remain idle for five seconds, at which point he can use Shield Special again to summon a different boon (as the same God will not appear twice in a row.) Only one boon can be active per stock, so if Zagreus has accepted a boon, he cannot summon another one until he is KO'ed.
*Neutral Special: Shot- Zagreus will fire a simple bloodstone projectile forward. The stone will travel a short distance forward and has slight homing properties in its base form. After it reaches the end of its flight, it will remain in place for a second, before reappearing in Zagreus' arsenal. He can fire up to three stones at a time. Neutral Special will be upgraded by an Olympian Boon, if Zagreus has chosen one, which will change the properties of Zagreus' Shot. These alternate shots are:
**Crush Shot- Powered by Aphrodite's boon, Crush Shot is an incredibly short range explosion of power, which has high damage but only average knockback.
**Blade Rift- Powered by Ares' boon, Blade Rift is a slow moving, multi hitting vortex of blades, that can do massive damage due to their non-existant knockback. However Zagreus is highly susceptible to reflectors when using these.
**True Shot- Powered by Artemis' boon, True Shot fires a green arrow that will home in on enemies. It's range is far greater than the regular shot, but it's damage is the second weakest of all the projectiles, unless the attack scores a critical.
**Phalanx Shot- Powered by Athena's boon, Phalanx Shot fires a small ball of energy forward that is surrounded by shields. If this projectile hits any other projectile, it will reflect that projectile back from whence it came. It also does the second most knockback of any of the projectiles.
**Crystal Beam- Powered by Demeter's boon, Crystal Beam places a small crystal right in front of Zagreus, which then fires a beam towards the nearest enemy, dealing constant flinching damage to them if it hits. The beam is active for roughly 5 seconds. Using this reduces the number of casts that Zagreus can have on screen at once to 1.
**Trippy Shot- Powered by Dionysus' boon, Trippy Shot fires a small projectile up at an arc. When the projectile hits the ground or an opponent, it will cause an explosion of fog which will deal damage to any foe who is in it. The fog will linger for three seconds. This is the slowest shot to come out.
**Flood Shot- Powered by Poseidon's boon, Flood Shot also fires a small projectile up at an arc. If it hits an opponent, it will cause massive knockback, but very little damage, as it is the weakest projectile in that category (even the standard bloodstone does more damage overall).
**Electric Shot- Powered by Zeus' boon, Electric Shot fires a ball of lightning towards an enemy. If it connects, and there is another enemy nearby, the lightning will also target that enemy and attack them. It can target up to three additional enemies (including its original target, bouncing back and forth between targets). However each bounce reduces its damage by half.
*Side Special: Bull Rush- Zagreus will hold out his Aegis shield and charge energy for as long as the special button is held down. After it is released (or after three seconds) he will charge forward with the shield in front, doing decent damage and knockback to anything in his way. While charging, the shield will grant Zagreus Super Armor, nullifying all knockback he would suffer. It will also block any projectile completely and cut the amount of damage physical attacks deal to him by 25%. However, he cannot move while charging, and the blocking affects do not protect him from attacks he receives from behind.
*Up Special: Dash- Zagreus will dash forward in an indicated direction. Like Pikachu's Quick Attack, players can input a second direction at the right time, and Zagreus will dash in that direction. In its base form, Dash deals no damage or knockback to opponents. However it can be upgraded depending on if Zagreus has accepted a boon. The alternate dashes are:
**Passion Dash- Powered by Aphrodite's boon, the Passion Dash will create a small explosion of energy whenever Zagreus reaches the end of a single dash, which will deal damage and knockback to any opponent hit by it. It does not increase the length of the Dash, however.
**Blade Dash- Powered by Ares' boon, the Blade Dash will create a short-term Blade Rift at the end of the move (whether it be one Dash or Two), which will deal multi-hitting damage to opponents. The Blade Rift will only exist for three seconds before disappearing, and while on screen Zagreus cannot use his Blade Rift Shot. It slightly increases the length of the Dash.
**Hunter Dash- Powered by Artemis' boon, the Hunter Dash will cause a single arrow to fire at the end of the dash, which homes in on nearby enemies. This arrow doesn't have the pinpoint accuracy of True Shot, but does do slightly more damage. The Hunter Dash does travel the furthest of any of the Dashes.
**Divine Dash- Powered by Athena's boon, the Divine Dash will cause shields to appear around Zagreus as he dashes. Not only will this deal small amounts of damage to anyone he hits, but it will also reflect any projectile that hits him while he is in his dash form. However, it only travels the same distance as a normal dash, and it limits Zagreus to one dash per use.
**Mistral Dash- Powered by Demeter's boon, the Mistral Dash will cause a small explosion of cold energy whenever Zagreus reaches the end of a single dash. This not only damages opponents, but it also has a small chance of freezing them. It does slightly lower the distance a single dash travels, however.
**Festive Dash- Powered by Dionysus' boon, the Festive Dash will cause a large explosion of Festive Fog (similar to Trippy Shot) at the end of the move (whether it be one Dash or Two), which will linger on the field for six seconds. Anyone caught in the cloud will take damage as long as they are engulfed by it. Festive Dash slightly increases the distance a single dash travels.
**Tidal Dash- Powered by Poseidon's boon, the Tidal Dash will cause a small explosion of energy at the end of the move (whether it be one Dash or Two), which deals large knockback to any foe that is hit by it. While Tidal Dash's first dash is slightly longer than a base dash, it's second dash is cut in half.
**Thunder Dash- Powered by Zeus' boon, the Thunder Dash will cause a small explosion of electrical energy whenever Zagreus reaches the end of a single dash. This energy deals a good amount of damage and knockback to anyone hit by it. The Thunder Dash is slightly shorter than a base dash, though.
*Down Special: Boon of Hermes/Curse of Chaos- Zagreus' Down Special will change depending on if he has accepted an Olympian boon during that stock. If he has not, he will use Boon of Hermes. This causes Zagreus to glow orange for a short while and will greatly increase his speed and attack speed. It will also give him a third Dash in a chain. However, while empowered by Hermes, Zagreus cannot summon another Olympian boon, and his defensive stats are slightly lowered. Boon of Hermes will last for roughly 13 seconds, and there is a 10 second cooldown period after it expires. If Zagreus has accepted an Olympian boon, he will use Curse of Chaos. This will greatly increase his attack strength and knockback, at the expense of cutting his speed down greatly. Curse of Chaos also automatically deals 35% of damage to Zagreus upon activation. It's effects will last for approximately 10 seconds, and there is a 5 second cooldown period after it expires.
*Final Smash: God of the Dead- Zagreus performs a Dash Strike forward with Varatha, causing any opponent hit by it to be sent to a cinematic. They appear in a barren winter landscape, before they are confronted by Hades, the God of the Dead. Hades tells them "There is No Escape," before blasting the opponents with a laser of Hellfire, which sends them flying as the cinematic ends.
===Miscellaneous===
*Entry Animation- Zagreus simply drops in from the sky, saying "Let's Go Again."
*Idle Animation 1- Zagreus holds up a pomegranate briefly before putting it away.
*Idle Animation 2- Zagreus looks behind himself and then turns back to normal position.
*Side Taunt- Zagreus places the Stygian Blade over his shoulder while facing the camera, smirking.
*Up Taunt- Zagreus reloads Exogryph with a flourish before tucking away the railgun.
*Down Taunt- Zagreus rubs his forehead and curses under his breath "Blood and Darkness..."
*Victory Animation 1- Zagreus stands at attention and holds the Stygian Blade over his shoulder as he says "In my Father's name..."
*Victory Animation 2- Zagreus is shown next to the three headed dog Cerberus, petting him as the dog's tail wags excitedly. Zagreus says "Who's the best boy?" which causes Cerberus to bark.
*Victory Animation 3- Zagreus is shown standing in front of the camera, holding a bottle of ambrosia as he toasts the camera and says "Cheers!" He is also joined by one of the Chthonic Companions from the game at random, who each say different things.
**Achilles says "Good on you, lad!"
**Dusa says "Great job, Prince!"
**Megaera simply laughs.
**Skelly says "Couldn't have done it better, boyo."
**Sisyphus says "Knew You Could do it Prince Z!"
**Thanatos says "Nice work, Zag."
==Reveal Trailer==
Coming Soon...
Category:Super Smash Bros. Characters
Category:Super Smash Bros. (series)
Category:Smash Plus Characters