Squirtle (PM)

Squirtle is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. Like and , it has been separated from the and so fights alone. Its down special move, Pokémon Change, has been replaced with . Since his Brawl incarnation has also been given significant buffs.
Squirtle is ranked 31st out of 41 on the official tier list and is placed toward the lower half of the C tier. This is roughly the same as its placement as part of the Pokémon Trainer in Brawl, where it ranked 29th out of 38. 
==Attributes==
In Project M, Squirtle's kit puts a strong emphasis on movement. Able to out-maneuver most opponents, Squirtle can play evasively while looking for an opening before launching into fast-paced combos to carry opponents to the side blastzones or kill off the top. Squirtle's access to fast burst movement options through its unique run turnaround animation, shellshift, and low friction on the ground enable it to quickly chase down escaping opponents even offstage, where its remarkable up-special allows it to effectively gimp opponents and return to stage from practically anywhere.
However, the trade-off is that Squirtle has generally unimpressive range on his attacks and grab. Squirtle plays similarly to in his short range, low profile, good mobility and powerful up smash, and shares the weakness of light weight, but is generally more grounded as a result of his wider variety of ground movement options and advanced techniques.
==Changes from Brawl to PM==
In Brawl, Squirtle was tied to the and was considered the strongest Pokémon in its party by far. Squirtle has now been separated from its trainer and its moveset has been significantly revamped. As a result, Squirtle received a mix of buffs and nerfs. Squirtle's mobility has been improved further due to its increased speed and the introducution of various mechanics such as wavedashing. The strength of many of its attacks has also increased and the general changes to Project M's physics further improve Squirtle's combo game. Squirtle's specials moves have also been heavily revamped to make them more effective. Due to being a solo character, Squirtle has a new down-special move, Bubble. Bubble's hitboxes are transcendent, similar to 's lasers, and will trip the opponent like 's banana, making it a valuable tool to combat crouch cancel. In addition, using Bubble while airborne will cause Squirtle's vertical momentum to stall for a short period, making it situationally usable as a recovery tool.
Another major change is the addition of the move Aqua Jet as a powerful kill option. Aqua Jet can be activated by using Squirtle's side-special move, Withdraw. If Squirtle is in contact with an opponent during the first five frames of Withdraw and the player is holding B, the initial move will be canceled with a strong hit upwards and a water particle effect, sending Squirtle into special fall. Though this move is similar to Rest in terms of usage, it is nearly identical to 's up-aerial in terms of damage and knockback, but sends at an angle that is five degrees shallower.
Squirtle's neutral-special, Water Gun, was also improved. It now produces damaging hitboxes and is overall a more effective tool at walling out opponents. 
However, Squirtle did also receive some nerfs. The most notable nerfs come from its separation from the Pokémon Trainer. Because of this, Squirtle can no longer switch out with or to improve its endurance, kill power and generally cover up its bad matchups. This also means that Squirtle is no longer affected by type effectiveness greatly hindering its endurance against fire attacks. As for direct nerfs, Squirtle's air acceleration was decreased making it harder to weave in and out in the air and Squirtle's aerials have considerably less range making it harder for Squirtle to wall out its opponents in mid-air. Some of Squirtle's moves including down smash and down aerial also have reduced KO power despite the improvements Squirtle's other KO moves received. The first hit of Squirtle's neutral attack has considerably less utility as it's slower and it can no longer lock opponents.
Overall, Squirtle is a more viable choice for competitive play due to no longer being bogged down by stamina, extremely slow and punishable switching between its party and its trainer's other less effective Pokémon which it was forced to switch between. Despite this, according of the latest tier list, Squirtle is now worse than its previous party members Ivysaur and Charizard. While Squirtle is lower in tier list than it was in Brawl (as predicted if judged as a standalone character) Squirtle in PM is overall much more viable thanks to the better balance.
===Aesthetics===
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===Attributes===
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===Grabs and Throws===
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===Special Moves===
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==Revisions==
===v2.6b===
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===v3.0===
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===v3.5===
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==Moveset==
Up to date as of version 3.6.
 	 	Name 	Damage 	Description
Neutral attack 	Neutral attack 	 	3% 	Squirtle punches once, jumps and thrusts both legs forward, then flips forward and hits with its tail.
Neutral attack 	Neutral attack 	 	2% 	Squirtle punches once, jumps and thrusts both legs forward, then flips forward and hits with its tail.
Neutral attack 	Neutral attack 	 	6% 	Squirtle punches once, jumps and thrusts both legs forward, then flips forward and hits with its tail.
Forward tilt 	↗ 	 	9% 	Squirtle gets on all fours and slaps forward with its tail. This move has short range but is very quick and can repeated in rapid succession. Can be angled slightly up or down.
Forward tilt 	→ 	 	8% 	Squirtle gets on all fours and slaps forward with its tail. This move has short range but is very quick and can repeated in rapid succession. Can be angled slightly up or down.
Forward tilt 	↘ 	 	7% 	Squirtle gets on all fours and slaps forward with its tail. This move has short range but is very quick and can repeated in rapid succession. Can be angled slightly up or down.
Up tilt 	Up tilt 	 	6% 	Squirtle hops upward, attacking with its head. Very quick. Squirtle's small body becomes the hitbox for this move and can lead into other moves.
Down tilt 	Down tilt 	 	2% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2) 	Squirtle gets on its belly and then spins forward, sweeping foes with its tail.
Crawl attack 	Crawl attack 	 	3% 	Squirtle quickly dashes forward in its shell.
Dash attack 	Dash attack 	 	9% (clean), 7% (late) 	Squirtle jumps and attacks foes with the back of its shell.
Forward smash 	Forward smash 	 	(early), (clean), (late) 	Squirtle withdraws into its shell and launches forward. Squirtle gains launch resistance frames when performing the attack, but its short reach and long start-up and ending lag limits its effectiveness. This move can be angled up or down.
Up smash 	Up smash 	 	- (hit 1), , , , , (clean to late hit 2) 	Squirtle jumps and slams both hands down on the ground, causing two geysers to rise on both sides, hitting a fairly large area, especially upward. A powerful vertical finisher and is one of Squirtle's most powerful attacks, being able to KO at 65% when fully charged.
Down smash 	Down smash 	 	(hits 1-2), (hit 3) 	Squirtle withdraws into its shell and spins, shooting water out of both sides that traps the enemy for multiple hits before knocking them away vertically. This attack is comparatively weak and has short range.
Neutral aerial 	Neutral aerial 	 	11% (clean), 8% (late) 	Squirtle withdraws into its shell and spins in midair, releasing water from all sides. A good defensive move for spacing.
Forward aerial 	Forward aerial 	 	13% (clean), 7% (late) 	Squirtle quickly thrusts both legs forward. Deals high knockback, being able to KO opponents off the stage at higher percentages. Has sex kick properties.
Back aerial 	Back aerial 	 	12% (clean), 8% (late) 	Squirtle thrusts its tail backward, hitting opponents behind itself. Deals decent knockback and has sex kick properties.
Up aerial 	Up aerial 	 	11% (clean), 6% (late) 	Squirtle flips upward, using its tail to knock opponents vertically. Somewhat weak, having a hard time KOing foes with good DI.
Down aerial 	Down aerial 	 	2% (hits 1-4), 5% (hit 5) 	Squirtle thrusts its tail downward, spinning around in a multi-hit attack. Similar to 's Mario Tornado, but with more vertical range due to the tail and the last hit inflicts horizontal knockback and does not have a hitbox upon landing.
Grab 	Grab 	 	— 	
Pummel 	Pummel 	 	3% 	Headbutts the grabbed opponent. Relatively fast.
Forward throw 	Forward throw 	 	2% (hit 1), 4% (throw) 	Squirtle kicks the opponent forward.
Back throw 	Back throw 	 	5% (hit 1), 5% (throw) 	Squirtle puts its opponent behind it, and kicks their back. Has little KO power, KOing opponents near the ledge around 200% damage.
Up throw 	Up throw 	 	2% (hit 1), 5% (throw) 	Squirtle throws its opponent upward and tackles them while in its shell.
Down throw 	Down throw 	 	2% (hit 1), 12% (throw) 	Squirtle throws its opponent on the ground and slams on top of them. Squirtle's strongest throw, dealing strong diagonal knockback. Easily KOs at around 125% damage.
Floor attack (front)	Floor attack (front)	 	6% 	Squirtle attacks with its tail forward and then backward.
Floor attack (back) 	Floor attack (back) 	 	6% 	Squirtle attacks with its tail forward and then backward.
Floor attack (trip) 	Floor attack (trip) 	 	5% 	Squirtle spins once, attacking nearby foes with its tail.
Edge attack (fast) 	Edge attack (fast) 	 	6% (body), 8% (tail) 	Squirtle gets up and whips its tail forward. Similar to its forward tilt in both appearance and range.
Edge attack (slow) 	Edge attack (slow) 	 	10% 	Squirtle slowly gets up and headbutts forward. Has limited range.
Neutral special 	Neutral special 	Water Gun	1% (per hit) 	Squirtle shoots out water. The move can charged to spray more water out with more range. The enemy takes small damage if they are close to Squirtle when it release the water and will be pushed back when hit from a set distance. The player may also change the full spray's direction by tilting up or down on the control stick. When fully charged, Squirtle can hold the charge and battle normally until the player presses the special button again.
Side special 	Side special 	Withdraw 	8-9% (slide), 15% (Aqua Jet) 	Squirtle retreats inside its shell and speeds across the stage, powered by a jet of water shooting out the back of its shell. During this attack, Squirtle's shell behaves like a Green Shell for a limited amount of time and becomes immune to both damage and knockback. The attack can be cancelled by pressing the special button. Hitting an opponent will cause Squirtle to jump out of the move, allowing Squirtle to follow-up using an aerial attack. Getting hit the moment Squirtle goes inside its shell will instead make it use , an attack that deals high damage and knockback, but will leave Squirtle in a helpless state, making it a risky move to use offstage. The invincibility provided by the move is sufficient to block many Final Smashes that do not involve grabs (e.g., 's Critical Hit can be negated, but not 's Great Aether).
Up special 	Up special 	Waterfall	5% (hit 1), 2% (hit 2), 1% (hits 3-5), 9% (hit 6) 	A torrent of water appears that Squirtle "surfs" on top of. The attack deals multiple hits with strong knockback towards the end. It is difficult to interrupt as a recovery move, as the hitbox is large, disjointed, and directly in front of Squirtle. The movement direction of the attack can be slightly altered with the control stick to be more vertical or more horizontal.
Down special 	Down special 	 	3% (hits 1-3) 	Squirtle shoots out a small stream of bubbles that push the enemy away, dealing slight damage and tripping them.
Final Smash 	Final Smash 	 	2-3% (small water loop), 25%/24%/22% (big splash low/mid/high)	Squirtle retreats into its shell and starts bouncing on the ground while two large geysers of water attack opponents from either side of it, having a fairly large radius of attack.
==In competitive play==
===Notable players===
* - Best Squirtle player along with Dirtboy. Ranked 13th on PMRank 2023.
* - Ranked 14th on PMRank 2023. Has been ranked in every release of PMRank.
* - The best Squirtle player in Europe. 
* - Placed 17th at Undertow.
==Alternate costumes==
===Project M===
Like Ivysaur and Charizard, Squirtle received more significant alternate costumes for Project M. It now uses its default costume for the Blue Team.
							
							
							
Each of Squirtle's new color schemes are mostly based on other Pokémon.
*The green one (used for Green Team) is based on .
*The orange one (used for Red Team) is based on .
*The yellow one is based on Koopa Troopa.
*The pink one is based on Mew.
*The purple one is based on a Shiny . Fittingly, this recolor emits sparkles in Project+ like in the mainline games.
In addition, it also has an alternate costume where it is dressed out as a Shinobi ninja, as well as a white recolor for said costume. Additional recolors were added in Project+.
===Project+===
Squirtle gains a new recolor that references the mythical kappa, a Japanese demon that takes the form of a turtle, as well as recolors that reference other turtle Pokemon and , as well the Generation V water starter . The Shinobi costume also gains team colors, and a black costume that resembles .
Secret costumes:
 
Z-Secret Costume: Alternate Ninja Squirtle: A costume that may be a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, specifically how the main four characters wore red in the older comics and the general colors of the mask and armbands worn by Raphael.
R-Secret Costume: Rescue Team Squirtle: Based on Squirtle's appearance in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, and their remake, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX.
==Trivia==
*Strangely, Squirtle and are the only characters in Project+ that cannot appear as opponents in All-Star Mode.
==External links==
*Labbing Discord Tech Post
Category:Squirtle
Category:Characters (PM)