Pincers

The **Pincers** are a Primary Weapon in Counterpick Labs. They are a claw machine claw attached to a long metal handle.

## Moveset

Certain attacks have a pinching animation and unique sound. These attacks do 1.8x shield damage and 1.25x shieldstun on the claw hitbox. Many attacks (even non-pinching ones) have a sweetspot on the claw hitbox as well. However, unlike the Quad Staff, the claw hitbox out-prioritizes the handle.

## Version History

### Patch 0.14.1

  **[=]**  Added an inner (shaft) hitbox to the second hit of neutral air that deals 5% damage. This reduces its consistency, but increases its combo potential.

  **[-]**  Added a much less desirable weak hit on Up Air that hits on the shaft and in front and deals 10%.

  **[+]**  Added a much more desirable weak hit on Down Air that hits on the shaft and in front and deals 10%.

  **[+]**  Extended the active frames of up air and down air by 3 frames which have late hitboxes that deal 7% damage. Up air's late hitbox has a slightly higher knockback angle.

  **[+]**  Slightly increased range of down air.

  **[+]**  Slightly reduced knockback scaling of down air, increasing its combo potential.

  **[+]**  Reduced start lag of forward strong by 1 frame.

*Similarly to cannon, pincer's combo game sometimes felt one-dimensional. Unlike cannon, pincers is seen as undertuned balance-wise, and in particular can struggle with setting up kills at higher percents. So, while these new hitboxes are intended to promote better spacing and improve combo variety (as with cannon's new hitboxes), due to their knockback angle and their positioning (close to the player) they're also intended to assist in creatively extending combos and setting up kills. They're also accompanied by some straight buffs.*

### Patch 0.13.0

  **[+]**  Hitboxes that deal extra shield damage now also deal an additional 25% shield stun (previously they dealt no extra shield stun).

  **[+]**  Reduced start lag of forward strong by 1 frame.

  **[+]**  Slightly increased size of up strong sweetspot hitbox.

### Patch 0.11.0

  **[+]**  Increased damage and kb of jab, and reduced kb angle from 45 to 35.

  **[-]**  Added 3 frames of end lag and slightly reduced range of jab.

### Patch 0.7.0

  **[+]**  Increased shield damage multiplier of pinching hitboxes from 1.5x to 1.8x.

  **[+]**  Reduced landing lag of neutral air by 1 frame.

  **[+]**  Reduced start lag of forward air (1 frame), forward strong (2 frames), up strong (2 frames), and down strong (1 frame).

  **[+]**  Reduced end lag of down tilt by 1 frame.

  **[+]**  Slightly increased range of down air.

  **[+]**  Slightly increased base knockback of forward tilt.

### Patch 0.6.0

  **[+]**  Increased damage of most attacks, though the knockback of non-strong attacks has been compensated:

  **[+]**  FLight: 10% → 12%

  **[+]**  ULight: 11% → 12%

  **[+]**  DLight (Tipper): 8% → 9%

  **[+]**  FStrong: 13% → 15%

  **[+]**  UStrong: 13% → 15%

  **[+]**  DStrong: 10% → 13%

  **[+]**  FAir: 12% → 14%

  **[+]**  BAir (Clean): 10% → 12%

  **[+]**  UAir: 9% → 12%

  **[+]**  DAir: 10% → 12%

  **[-]**  Added 2 frames of landing lag to neutral air.

  **[-]**  Reduced range of neutral air.

  **[=]**  Neutral air hit 1 no longer has fixed knockback. At high percents, this prevents it from comboing into the second hit, but potentially allows it to combo into other moves.

  **[-]**  Increased startup of forward air by 1 frame.

  **[+]**  Tweaked the knockback angles of all strong attacks to improve their KO potential. Up strong sends slightly more vertically, and forward and down strong send slightly more horizontally.

*Pincers' neutral game was too centered around neutral air, which dominated significant horizontal space and was difficult to punish. Pincers' finishing tools outside of forward air felt lacking, and overall they didn't pack enough of a punch damage-wise.*