Charizard (PM)

Charizard is a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M. It has been separated from the and so fights alone. Charizard was heavily buffed from Brawl, gaining several new moves that are more useful than their predecessors, as well as getting speed and power buffs to its other moves. 
Charizard is ranked 24th out of 41 on the official tier list, at the bottom of the B tier. This puts Charizard slightly above Pokémon Trainer's position in Brawl, which was 29th out of 38. In Project+, Charizard is ranked 21st on the , at the top of the B tier, marking a slight improvement over its Project M iteration. 
==Attributes==
In Project M, Charizard leaves behind the slow, tanky attacks, stamina system, and negligible defensive type effectiveness it was known for in Brawl. Instead, it fights alone with a quicker moveset optimized for taking its battles to the air.
Much of Charizard's moveset was given tweaks to encourage a quick offense. Its neutral attack and all of its tilts can combo into themselves, while its down-tilt has a powerful sweetspot that can semi-spike; its smash attacks and aerials all have increased speed or KO capabilities, and its down-smash can now serve as an edgeguarding tool. In particular, Charizard's new forward-aerial trades its predecessor's range for speed, damage, and strong diagonal knockback, making it a potent KO option especially when SHFFL'd. Charizard's new glide attack also has substantial KO potential and its hits link together even at high percentages.
While Flamethrower remains untouched and largely situational, Rock Smash was replaced with a new side-special, Heat Wave. It trades some damage potential for speed, range, and knockback, giving Charizard a faster KO move when used up close while providing an acceptable spacing option otherwise. Charizard's reworked up-special now functions as a single, strong hit, and the purely horizontal knockback it deals at the start can help Charizard break out of combos. 
The biggest change to Charizard's moveset, however, is its new down-special, Fly. When used on the ground, Charizard will lift off in a high jump, achieving heights otherwise out of reach while providing greater speed than its jumps and up-special. Fly can be angled, used immediately or charged for nearly a second, and Charizard can cancel it into any aerial or special move while preserving all of the move's momentum. This gives Charizard incredible chasing options after launching a foe; it can rack up further damage (using neutral or up aerials), it can quickly meteor smash opponents recovering high (down aerial off of an angled Fly), it can semi-spike (back-aerial or close side-special), or it can go for a KO off the top (forward-air, glide attack, or late up-special). Many of Charizard's ground moves are designed to pop foes into the air where they can be chased with Fly, especially its new up-throw, which deals strong damage and vertical knockback that can leave damaged foes close to the upper blast line. 
Charizard's defensive weaknesses are still present. While it has impressive dashing speed and range on its ground attacks, opponents with disjointed hitboxes and projectiles can easily wall Charizard thanks to its large hurtbox. Charizard also has very limited options for dealing with attackers below it, making Fly a double-edged sword if an opponent can reach the stage before Charizard can. Charizard remains weak in recovering horizontally, as its glide will not reset if Charizard is hit, forcing the use of its glide attack to power through edgeguarding. 
As a result, much like in its home series, Charizard can't give its opponents the time or position to strike back, as its weaknesses are difficult to cover. However, when played to its strengths of speed and aggressive attacks, Charizard can easily dominate its opponents without letting them take advantage of its shortcomings.
==Changes from Brawl to PM==
Charizard has been noticeably buffed from Brawl to PM, while also receiving many new moves and changes. Like and , Charizard is now a separate character from the . The main benefit this provides is that Charizard no longer suffers from the Stamina system and it no longers suffers from the risk of changing Pokémon and being heavily punished for it. As for its individual buffs, Charizard is much faster both in terms of its movement and in the speed of its attacks and a fair amount of its attacks have increased KO power or combo potential. 
Charizard has also seen a few nerfs. As it is no longer tied to the Pokémon Trainer, it can no longer swap out with Squirtle and Ivysaur to gain access to a smaller hurtbox, greater mobility and zoning and to generally cover up its bad matchups. As for direct nerfs, some of Charizard's moves have seen a decrease to their speed, range or power. 
Overall, Charizard is a considerably more effective character and as of the latest tier list, it outclasses its fellow party members. 
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===Attributes===
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===Ground Attacks===
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===Special Moves===
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==Changes from PM to P+==
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==Revisions==
===v2.1===
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===v2.5b===
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===v2.6b===
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===v3.0===
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==Moveset==
Up to date as of version 3.6.
 	Name 	Damage 	Description
Neutral attack 	 	7%/9% (clean/tip), 6%/7% (late/tip) 	Charizard swings its left wing upward. It is strong for a jab, having high base knockback with a diagonal angle, setting up nicely for aerial followups.
Forward tilt 	 	12% (mouth), 11% (neck) 	Charizard extends its neck and bites forward. This move has both good reach and power. Hitting at Charizard's neck produces less knockback than hitting at the mouth. This move can be angled, but doing so does not alter the damage.
Up tilt 	 	10% (clean), 7% (late) 	Charizard points its wings upwards and jabs the opponent. This move can easily lead into aerial attacks.
Down tilt 	 	10% (tail), 12% (flame) 	Charizard sweeps its tail across the ground. The sourspot has weaker knockback scaling that leads into aerials, while the flame sweetspot has transcendent priority and is a strong horizontal finisher.
Dash attack 	 	11% (clean), 9% (late) 	Charizard kicks forwards with its left foot. Sends opponents at a diagonal trajectory. Has little endlag compared to most dash attacks.
Forward smash 	 	(clean), (clean sweetspot), (late) 	Charizard lunges forwards while swinging its head in a large arc. It has slow start-up, but is a strong horizontal finisher, and has a very powerful sweetspot at the flaming part of Charizard's mouth.
Up smash 	 	(hit 1), (hit 2) 	Charizard slashes upward twice with both of its wings. It is similar to 's up smash, but has faster startup and covers a wider area above Charizard.
Down smash 	 	(center), (edges) 	Charizard violently stomps the ground once with both feet, causing the ground to erupt from either side of it. Coming in contact with Charizard's body meteor smashes opponents, which can set up for aerial combos as well as punish opponents hanging on an edge. The shockwave portion of the move can only hit grounded opponents.
Neutral aerial 	 	9% (tail), 11% (flame early), 13% (flame mid), 10% (flame late) 	Charizard spins its entire body in a somersault, hitting with its tail. The sweetspot is located at the flame that is on the tip of Charizard's tail. Each part of the attack sends opponents at a different angle; the start of the move sends opponents upwards, the middle of the move sends opponents diagonally upwards and away from Charizard, while the end of the move sends opponents diagonally upwards and behind Charizard.
Forward aerial 	 	11% (arm), 16% (claw) 	Charizard swipes forward with a flaming claw. The sweetspot is strong vertical finisher, and is also Charizard's second most damaging aerial. Charizard's head, neck, and both of its wings are intangible while the hitboxes are active.
Back aerial 	 	12% (clean tail), 15% (clean flame), 9% (late) 	Charizard swings its tail backwards. It can be used for a wall-of-pain at low percentages.
Up aerial 	 	11% (clean neck), 13% (clean mouth), 7% (late) 	Charizard extends its neck and bites upwards. This move can be used to juggle opponents effectively at low percentages, and then serve as a KO move at higher percents.
Down aerial 	 	17% 	Charizard stomps downward with both feet. It is a very powerful meteor smash against aerial opponents, while popping up grounded opponents and setting up into aerial attack.
Glide attack 	 	2% (hits 1-4), 9% (hit 5) 	Part of the Fly move used in midair, Charizard spins and attacks with its wings engulfed in flames. The glide attack now propels Charizard faster and the attack hits up to 5 times; though it's difficult to connect with all hits. Using the glide will cause Charizard to lose all its jumps, however Charizard will not fall helpless unless it uses the glide attack.
Grab 	 	— 	Charizard grabs its opponent with its mouth.
Pummel 	 	3% 	Charizard bites the opponent, groaning every time it does so.
Forward throw 	 	10% 	Charizard spins the opponent once, holding them with its mouth, then throws them forward. This throw has decent diagonal knockback.
Back throw 	 	10% 	Charizard throws the opponents backwards with its mouth. It is similar to the forward throw, but with weaker knockback and launches opponents at a more vertical angle.
Up throw 	 	2% (hits 1-3), 5% (explosion), 4% (release) 	Charizard flies upwards while holding the enemy, flips twice, then plummets down, creating an explosion upon landing. This is one of the strongest throws in the game, dealing very high damage and knockback, making it an effective KO move. This throw lands on soft platforms, akin to and 's up throws. Interestingly, when this throw is used on a moving platform, Charizard will still "land" on the ground, making it hard to perform a Sacrificial KO.
Down throw 	 	1% (hits 1-5), 2% (release) (7% total) 	Charizard sets its opponent on the floor, and then breathes fire on them. This move leaves the opponent on the ground, similar to and 's down throws. It can be instantly teched, but still acts as a powerful tech-chasing move, and can occasionally meteor smash and KO foes if used near an edge.
Floor attack (front)	 	6% 	Charizard swings its tail backwards, then headbutts forward.
Floor attack (back) 	 	6% 	Charizard gets up while performing a semi-circle claw swipe.
Floor attack (trip) 	 	5% 	Charizard gets up and performs a semi-circle claw swipe.
Edge attack (fast) 	 	8% 	Charizard gets up and headbutts forward.
Edge attack (slow) 	 	10% 	Charizard slowly gets up and flicks its tail.
Neutral special 	Flamethrower	2% (clean), 1% (late) 	Charizard spits flames out of its mouth that gradually weaken if the attack is held. It is similar to 's Fire Breath, except that it doesn't possess an ending bite and the flames' far hitboxes doesn't make the opponents flinch. The flames can be angled up or down.
Side special 	 	Hit 1: 15% (near), 4% (far)Hit 2: 13% (near), 3% (far)Hit 3: 11% (near), 2% (far)Hit 4: 9% (near), 1% (far)	Charizard shoots a flurry of flames with its wings. This move has slow startup, but deals 25% if all hits connect, as well as having strong horizontal knockback. This move propels Charizard a bit backwards during each use.
Up special 	 	Ground: 11% (leap), 10% (rise)Air: 12% (leap head), 9% (leap body & rise) 	Charizard spins upwards with its wings engulfed in flames. The hitbox before Charizard rises contains a strong horizontal hit that can punish opponents attempting to edge-guard Charizard, while the rest of the attack is a single hit that deals strong, vertical knockback. Unlike in Brawl, Charizard doesn't possess armor.
Down special 	Fly 	— 	Charizard crouches, then leaps from the ground. It can be charged for about 30 frames, increasing the height Charizard jumps, and can be angled sideways slightly. The jump doesn't possess any hitboxes, but can be canceled at any time and allows for any aerial to be used while keeping the momentum of the jump. Using the move in midair causes Charizard to glide, which works like in Brawl.
Final Smash 	 	10% (hits 1-2 big flames), 2% (hits 1-2 small flames), 18% (hit 3) 	Charizard shoots three large fireballs out of its wings. The first two fireballs deal small knockback, while the third fireball deals massive knockback. The attack is roughly similar to Charizard's portion of Triple Finish, for which it also uses Fire Blast.
==In competitive play==
===Most historically significant players===
See also: :Category:Charizard players (PM)
* - The best Charizard in the world. The first Charizard player to win a major in the history of Project M, doing so at Shipwrecked. Ranked #11 on PMRank 2023.
* - Ranked 38th on PMRank 2017.
* - Ranked 49th on the PMRank 2016.
==Alternate costumes==
===Project M===
Charizard now has more significant, independent palette swaps. His colors are based on , , , Shiny Charizard, and . It also gains a costume based off the armored Charizard seen in the beginning of . The same costume received a black recolor based on in Project M 3.6 Beta.
							
							
Coincidentally, most of these Pokémon in the main games references in Charizard's alternate color schemes have dragon-like properties (Golbat being the exception), like Charizard, by either being capable of learning a variety of -type moves, or being commonly owned by notable Dragon-type specialized trainers.
===Project+===
Charizard gains additional colors for its standard and Armored appearances. Standard gaining , , and colors. The cyan costume is also converted into a second blue team color. Armored Charizard gains colors based on , , and .
Secret costumes:
 
Z-Secret Costume: Mega Charizard X: One of Charizard's two s introduced in Generation VI, being activated when it is holding and the player Mega Evolves it.
R-Secret Costume: Mega Charizard Y: One of Charizard's two Mega Evolutions introduced in Generation VI, being activated when it is holding and the player Mega Evolves it.
==Trivia==
*During the Pokémon battle in All-Star Mode, two more Charizard will appear in place of Squirtle and Ivysaur.
*'s appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4 has some changes from Brawl that are similar to its Project M incarnation, including a claw slash for its forward aerial, a Fire-type power-based move for a side special, and Seismic Toss as its up throw and a KO option (in later versions).
==External links==
*Charizard's page at the Project M website
*Labbing Discord Tech Post
Category:Charizard
Category:Characters (PM)