Lloyd (Super Smash Flash 2)

Lloyd is playable starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He uses the same sprites he had in SSF, making him the only character to do so. Most of his special attacks involve him using techs ("artes") from Tales of Symphonia.

Lloyd currently ranks 3rd on the tier list; a small increase from his 4th place position on the previous tier list. Lloyd has very strong combo potential as a result of his good mobility, fast attack speed, and very disjointed hitboxes on almost all of his attacks. He also possesses one of the longest grabs for its startup time, and good throws that allow for easy followups. He has the ability to immediately cancel his recovery into any aerial attack, which makes him very difficult to edgeguard due to his aerial prowess. He can also increase his horizontal distance in the air with Rising Falcon, giving him one of the best recoveries in the game overall. On top of this, he has a great onstage edge guarding game, due to the very long active duration on many of his attacks, especially Beast. His down special move, Grave Blade, will always hit his opponent unless they are in the air, giving him the ability to completely bypass the need to tech chase or even approach altogether, while also providing him with yet another tool for starting combos. Despite being a sword fighter, he also possesses a projectile in Demon Fang, which can chain into itself at low percentages. He also possesses potent killing moves in his down smash, up smash, forwards aerial, forwards tilt, and Sonic Thrust, most of which have guaranteed setups. All of these traits combine to give Lloyd not only an outstanding punish game, but also a great neutral game as well, allowing him to outperform virtually any opponent by utilizing different aspects of his incredibly diverse toolset to his advantage.

However, Lloyd has a somewhat high maximum falling speed which limits his offstage game, preventing him from going deep for kills and making his recovery a tad more difficult. This weakness is further exposed by his greater tendency to end up offstage due to his light weight. He has some difficulty finishing off his opponents if he allows them to take too much damage, as many of his setups do not work at high percents. Despite having a long range, very few of Lloyd's attacks actually cover his hurtboxes, leaving him vulnerable if his opponent gets uncomfortably close to him.

Overall, Lloyd's cons are almost completely overshadowed by his pros, putting him directly into the top tier.

Lloyd has good representation in online tournaments, as his strength as a character coupled with his low difficulty curve make him very attractive to competitive players who wanted to succeed with a minimal amount of effort, to the point where many high-level players have him as at least a pocket secondary. However, his usage has dwindled somewhat due to the emergence of an even easier character to play well with,, as well as the negative stigma associated with the character due to his perceived brain-dead qualities.

Attributes
Lloyd is categorized as a lightning bruiser in this demo, possessing many strengths with few weaknesses to balance it out. He has a very strong offensive game, as the reach and speed of his attacks, combined with their long active hitboxes and hitstun duration, gives him great comboability with easy followups. He has a good number of kill options which have similarly easy setups, allowing him to score KOs very quickly. He has an amazing grab and throw game, possessing the longest non-ranged grab in the current demo that is low in start up and ending lag. He is one of the few characters in the game to have good uses for all of his throws, as his forward, down and back throws can chain grab the majority of the cast and his up throw can be followed up with his excellent juggling ability. He has a good aerial game with the majority of his aerials having long reach and fast start up. He also has an effective camping ability because of his ability to halt most approaches just by spamming Demon Fang. Grave Blade is similarly useful for preventing opponents from camping, though it can also be used as a free tech chase or to launch the opponent at the perfect speed and angle for an easy juggle. Tiger Blade, while not the best recovery in terms of distance covered, is very difficult to punish, since he can immediately cancel it with any other aerial attack to prevent helplessness.

His weaknesses are very few and far between, but it's enough to prevent him from being the best character in the game. His light weight and high terminal velocity leaves him vulnerable to getting semi-spiked to death, as his vertical recovery is average at best and his small ledge sweet spot leaves him vulnerable to edge hogging. Demon Fang has low-priority and can be easily reflected or canceled out by other attacks. Most of his attacks possess hitboxes that do not cover his hurtboxes at all, which makes it difficult for Lloyd to effectively hit his opponent if they are directly on top of him.

The end result is a character with a very strong neutral game, punish game, and adaptability, with a few minor glass cannon-esque traits that fall drastically short of keeping him balanced. This, coupled with his shallow learning curve, can make him one of the most frustrating characters to fight against.

Ground attack

 * Standard attack: Slashes forward. 3%
 * Standard attack 2: Slashes upward. 5%
 * Down tilt: Stabs out in front of him. 9%
 * Down smash: Slams a sword onto the ground.
 * Side tilt: Stabs forward with a sword. 10%
 * Forward smash: Makes an nove called Beast, the face of a bear appears in front of Lloyd as he slashes forward. 14% uncharged, 20% fully charged. This move is stronger in the intial frames of the move.
 * Up tilt: Slashes upward quickly. 9%
 * Up smash: Stabs upward, yelling "Take this!".14% uncharged, 20% fully charged.
 * Dash attack: Stabs forward. 10%

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Tempest (JP: Rekkūzan, 裂空斬, "Rending Sky Slash"). Spins in a circle several times, whipping both swords around himself while yelling "Tempest!". 18% if all hits connect.
 * Forward aerial: Slashes in front of him. Lloyd's strongest aerial in terms knockback, although it is not the most reliable one due to its slow start up. 11%
 * Back aerial: Begins to slash Flamberge like in his Forward Aerial but then quickly stabs behind him. 10%
 * Up aerial: Slashes over his head. It is very similar to his Up Tilt. Very useful for juggling. 10%
 * Down aerial: Turns his front to the screen and does a slash from his left side to his front with a sword, and a slash from his right side to his front with the other sword, all in the same time. Very fast attack.

Grabs and throws

 * Grab: Lloyd stabs out and "spears" foes on the end. Very good grab, as it's long ranged and has few start up or ending lag.
 * Pummel: Stabs opponent. 2% per hit.
 * Forward throw: Slashes in front of him. Very similar to his Forward Aerial.
 * Back throw: Slashes the opponent backwards behind himself. Can chain grab. 7%
 * Up throw: Slashes over his head like his Up Tilt, then stabs upward, like his Up Smash. 6% for first hit, 7% for second hit.
 * Down throw: Stabs four time 12%. 3% for each stab. Can chain throw.

Other

 * Ledge attack: Rolls up and slashes forward. 10%
 * 100% ledge attack: Rolls up and stabs. 10%
 * Floor attack: Swings a sword in an upwards arc. 6%

Misc.

 * Entrance: Teleports using the Eternal Sword.
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Swings his sword around and says: "This is gonna be a piece of cake!".
 * Side: Same as standard.
 * Down: Takes a battle pose, holding both swords out saying: "Here we go!"
 * Fanfare: Remix of Victory fanfare from Tales of Symphonia.
 * Wins: Swings his sword around, then says: "It just wasn't your day"
 * Loses: Crouches down as if he is injured.

Changes from v0.9a
Lloyd has received nerfs even though he was considered a mid tier character last demo. He mainly has received nerfs to his KO options, his grab & throw game. However, Lloyd is seen as a more effective character this demo due to advances in his metagame. Lloyd also benefits from this demo's lower hitstun which makes him less susceptible to combos while being one of the few characters who can combo like last demo.

Active

 * Chaos0
 * Infamous
 * SuliHyuga

Inactive

 * Lunary

Tier placement history
Initially, Lloyd was seen as a mid tier character, ranking 4th overall (tied with ) on the first tier list for demo v0.6. He remained in mid tier up until demo v0.7's release, in which he ranked 13th, putting him dangerously close to the dreaded Kirby Tier. Lloyd remained a low tier character until demo v0.9a, where he became a mid tier character again. Then, in v0.9b, the ability to play online gave Lloyd an outlet for showing his true colors at last, allowing him to rise up to 4th on that demo's initial tier list. He currently stands at 3rd place, where he is seen as a top tier character on the second tier list for v0.9b.

Trivia

 * Lloyd, along with Sonic and Tails, are the only veteran characters who did not undergo a sprite change for this game. Lloyd uses his Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 sprites in both games.
 * Prior to version 0.2b, Lloyd's Falcon's Crest worked very differently. When using it, Lloyd would create a series of explosions that came from the ground and radiated out to either side of him.
 * In versions 0.5a and 0.5b, Lloyd's side special move was Beast instead of Sonic Thrust. During these versions, a weaker version of Sonic Thrust was the finishing part of Lloyd's neutral combo. In version 0.6, Sonic Thrust became his side special once again, while Beast became his forward smash.
 * Lloyd is the only swordsman in the game so far to wield two swords in battle; Fire Sword (Flamberge) and the Ice Sword (Vorpal Sword).
 * Lloyd, along with , , and, are the only characters so far to wear their default costumes in team battle when they are on the red team.
 * Lloyd is currently, one of 5 characters to have his availability status changed (he was an unlockable character in the original Super Smash Flash) the other 4 characters (so far) are, , and.
 * Lloyd, along with, , , , and , are the only characters who don't applaud for the winner of a match.
 * As of the SSF2 Beta, Lloyd is the only character in Super Smash Flash 2 whose weapons don't flip when he changes directions — Flamberge always being held in his left hand and the Vorpal sword in his right.
 * Lloyd is the second character, after, to have gone through the most move set changes.