:boom: Groudon reshapes the battle!☄

DISCLAIMER: Any of the Gameplay you see here is NOT by me. All credit goes to the creators of the Pokémon clips you see here.

Hello!

Today I want to try another fighter concept blog. I tried once with Paper Mario, but this time I’ll improve on things I missed or didn’t make too clear. This time, I’ll be making a moveset for Groudon, an extremely powerful, ancient Pokémon that takes the Ground typing. Rather than a Mega Evolution, Groudon has a Primal form, where his typing changes to Ground/Fire type & he becomes even stronger! With Groudon‘s background information set, let’s begin!

Why Groudon?

Groudon has NO chances of being a DLC Fighter, solely because his Primal form is Fire type (which we have enough of) and he’s not a newer Pokémon; the final evolution of one of the Sword/Shield starters has a better chance of being in. But I chose Groudon because I thought he could be interesting & he works the best out of all the “ultra beast” Pokémon (he’s also Ground type, which none of the Pokémon we currently have is also that type.)

Mechanic: Primal Form

At Groudon’s HUD is a Pokémon-themed meter leading up to a Red Orb, an item in Pokémon used to evolve Groudon into Primal Groudon in-battle. The more you attack, the more the meter builds up. Once it’s full, you can use your Neutral-Special to transform into Primal Groudon, giving all of your attacks increased power, giving you increased speed, increased recovery distance, and making you slightly heavier.

Alternate Costumes

Get ready for some Pokémon education, kids. :)

Alt #1

Regular Form: Green skin, black cracks, dark red stomach, gray spikes/claws, yellow eyes.

Primal Form: Similar coloring as above with dark yellow spikes/claws & stomach, slightly brighter magma & orange eyes.

Reference(s): Rayquaza, a Dragon/Flying type ultra beast Pokémon. The Regular form represents Rayquaza while the Primal skin represents Mega Rayquaza. He has been known to live millions of years at Earth’s ozone layer, never to come down unless Kyogre & Groudon begin fighting.

Alt #2

Regular: Blue skin, red cracks, light gray stomach, red spikes/claws, yellow eyes.

Primal: Similar coloring with yellow spikes/claws, red eyes, and sky-blue magma.

Reference(s): Kyogre, Groudon’s greatest rival & ultra beast. Kyogre is pure Water type, making their rivalry ironic. It’s said that long ago, Groudon & Kyogre had a very fierce duel before both went to slumber for an extremely long time.

”KYOGRE is named in mythology as the POKéMON that expanded the sea by covering the land with torrential rains and towering tidal waves. It took to sleep after a cataclysmic battle with GROUDON.” -Pokédex, Pokémon Sapphire

Alt #3

Regular: Dandelion skin, black cracks, brown-ish stomach, white spikes/claws, yellow eyes.

Primal: Gray skin, yellow-orange magma, dark gray stomach, purple spikes, dark yellow claws, orange eyes.

Reference(s): Groudon’s shiny colors for both Regular & Primal forms.

Alt #4

Regular: Pink skin, lavender cracks & stomach, pink spikes/claws, blue eyes.

Primal: White skin, lavender magma, purple stomach, lavender spikes/claws, magenta eyes.

Reference(s): Mew & Mewtwo, with the Regular skin representing Mew & the Primal one representing Mewtwo. Mewtwo was a science experiment gone wrong & was meant to be the most powerful Pokémon in existence.

Alt #5

Regular: Gray skin, black cracks, dark gray stomach, white spikes/claws & eyes.

Primal: Similar coloring with light gray magma & black spikes/claws.

Reference(s): No real reference, but you could say it may represent the Gameboy because of how old it is & Pokémon Red/Blue were on the Gameboy.

Alt #6

Regular: Tan-ish skin, dark tan-ish cracks, brown-ish stomach, tan spikes/claws, yellow eyes.

Primal: Similar with red magma & brown eyes.

Reference(s): Groudon’s Ground/Fire typing, with the Regular skin for pure Ground & Primal for Ground/Fire type.

Final Alt

Regular: Pale green skin, black cracks, pale blue stomach, white spikes/claws, gray eyes.

Primal: Similar with slightly brighter skin, bright red stomach, red magma, and dark red/maroon eyes.

Reference: Tyranitar & it’s Mega Evolution. Tyranitar can easily make mountains crumble, bury rivers, and even change the landscape completely. It can bring down a whole mountain for a nest.

”Its body can’t be harmed by any sort of attack, so it is very eager to make challenges against enemies.” -Pokédex, Pokémon Gold/FireRed/LeafGreen/HeartGold

Alright, we’re done with Pokémon trivia. ;P

Animations

Entrance

Groudon emerges from the ground by shots of magma, like a volcano. Once finished, he’ll stance for battle.

Taunts

Regular Up-Taunt: A transparent Red Orb floats above Groudon as he looks at it before it disappears & he toughens up.

Primal Up-Taunt: Groudon roars upwards as the magma inside of him turns black for a second.

Regular Side-Taunt: Groudon roars in-front of him.

Primal Side-Taunt: Groudon takes a step forward & brings both of his claws towards him 2 times, like Captain Falcon’s side-taunt. (I tried to explain it as well as I could, lol)

Regular Down-Taunt: Groudon crouches down as his cracks become burning yellow-orange magma for a second, before turning back to normal & looking back up.

Primal Down-Taunt: Groudon attempts to use “Calm Mind,” which is a Physic-type Pokémon move that raises the ’s Special Attack & Special Defense by one stage each. However, Groudon can’t learn Calm Mind in any way, so when he tries to use it in his D-Taunt, it fails & he bulks up instead.

Victory Screens

#1: A stream of fire & water are seen clashing before it’s revealed that a fight between Groudon & Kyogre is going on. Groudon jumps over Kyogre’s attack & smacks him away with his tail, which is where the splash screen occurs.

#2: Rayquaza is seem flying downwards before going to ground level. It then cuts to Groudon running towards the screen as Rayquaza swings by beside him, where the splash screen occurs & Groudon makes a pose.

#3: A Pichu is seen evolving into a Pikachu, then into a Raichu before jumping onto a sleeping Groudon. The Groudon awakens & both Pokémon make a pose, where the splash screen also awakens. This victory animation is never played when winning against Pichu.

#4 (Team Victory): Groudon takes 2 steps forward before evolving into Primal Groudon & striking a pose.

Victory Theme

The Moveset!

Finally, we move on to the moveset! Groudon would be a very big boi, up where Bowser & K. Rool are at heaviness. He would also be pretty quick, yet quicker in his Primal form. His fall speed would be decent, but slower in said form. For all of the moves that will be listed, they are for base damage without the 1v1 multiplier. As for Groudon’s moves, let’s start with the A button.

Jab & Tilts

Jab: Similar to Pichu & Pikachu, Groudon performs a sm0l headbutt instead of an actual jab. Regular Groudon’s version can lock, but Primal Groudon’s can’t. [Damage} Regular: 3% near, 2.5% far/Primal: 5% near, 4.25% far]

Up-Tilt: Groudon crouches down & swings his tail upwards quickly. Combos into itself, N-Air, B-Air, and Up-Air. In Primal form, it does not combo into itself. [Regular: 4%/Primal: 7%]

F-Tilt: Groudon chomps in-front of him. Similar to Wolf’s F-Tilt, it’s a 2-hit move. This move is a combo finisher in both forms & it semi-spikes. [Regular: 4% hit 1, 2.5% hit 2/Primal: 5% hit 1, 3.5% hit 2]

D-Tilt: Groudon swipes his tail forwards, like Charizard’s F-Tilt, except it’s faced downwards of course. [Regular: 5.5%/Primal: 7.75%]

Aerials

N-Aerial: Groudon swings his tail all around him, but not in a circle facing the camera. Rather, he swings his tail similar to how Peach spins her dress; kept below, yet spinning. What makes this move interesting is that it has 3 different hitboxes that are active one after another; the first at Groudon’s tail when it’s behind him when beginning to swing, the second when it’s in-front of him in the middle of the swing, and the last when it’s behind him again after the move ends. The first hitbox knocks whoever gets hit into the second hitbox before getting launched forwards, while if they’re hit by the second one first, that hitbox will knocks the opponent into the third to get launched behind Groudon. [R: 4.5% each hitbox/P: 5.5% each hitbox]

F-Aerial: Spins similarly to Charizard’s N-Air, except with a little bit more startup lag & a meteor-smash hitbox in the middle of the swing. [R: 9.5% regular hitbox, 12% meteor hitbox/P: 11.5% regular hitbox, 14% meteor hitbox]

Burial

B-Aerial: Similar to Mewtwo’s b-air, except the tail actually comes back down for a meteor smash. Those hit by the tail coming up will get knocked into the meteor smash. [R: 3.25% going up, 5.25% going down/P: 4.5% going up, 6.5% coming down]

Up-Aerial: Groudon faces the screen & flings his tail upwards as quick as he can. Mainly a combo finisher, though depending on the percent it *could* combo into itself. In Primal form, this move is solely a combo finisher. Also, this move has a sour & sweet spot, so if you hit a sour spot you could possibly combo off of it. [R: 8.25% sweet spot, 7.5% sour spot/P: 9.75% sweet spot, 8.25% sour spot]

D-Aerial: Groudon breathes rocks below him, which slows his falling speed & covers any attacks below him. You have to hold the button to keep it going, like Bowser/Charizard’s Neutral-Special. In fact, this move is basically said Neutral-Special except instead of fire, it’s a bunch of rocks & it’s facing downwards. [R: 2% per hit/P: 3.25% per hit]

Smash Attacks

Up-Smash: Groudon rears his head back before swinging it above him. In Primal form, he also breathes some small fire while swinging his head, increasing the attack’s range by a little bit. [R: 15% no charge, 17.5% mid charge, 20% full charge/P: 17.5% no charge, 20% mid charge, 22.5% full charge]

F-Smash: Basically Bowser’s old F-Smash (Giga Bowser’s F-Smash) except it doesn’t push Groudon forwards. [R: 17% no charge, 19.25% mid charge, 21.5% full charge/P: 19.25% no charge, 21.5% mid charge, 23% full charge]

D-Smash: Groudon stomps the ground in-front of him using his foot while his tail does the same behind him. Both the foot & the tail bury opponents, but the foot does more damage. There are sweet & sour spots, but they don’t change in damage; the sweet spots bury, the sour ones don’t. [R: 16% no charge tail, 17% no charge foot, 18% mid charge tail, 19% mid charge foot, 20% full charge tail, 21% full charge foot/P: 18% no charge tail, 19% no charge foot, 20% mid charge tail, 21% mid charge foot, 22% full charge tail, 23% full charge foot]

Dash & Ledge Attacks

Dash Attack: Groudon jumps a small height, then comes down to stomp the ground before slowing down & stopping. The stomp doesn’t bury opponents, but it doesn’t send them too far. It does knock them upwards a little bit, so you could combo into an Up-Air, B-Air or a N-Air. If your N-Air faces backwards after Dash Attacking, it’s a true combo because of N-Air’s hitboxes. Same deal with B-Air; if it’s faced backwards, meaning the tail would hit the opponent, it would also be a true combo. [R: 7.5% sweet spot, 6.25% sour spot/P: 9.75% sweet spot, 7.5% sour spot]

Ledge/Getup Attack: Groudon swings his tail in-front of him (Ledge Attack) or all around him (Getup Attack). [R: 9%/P: 12%]

Pummel & Throws

Pummel: Groudon smashes his head on the victim. [R: 2%/P: 3%]

Up-Throw: Groudon buries the opponent on the ground in-front of him, before using his physical ground abilities to make a chunk of land throw the victim way up high. After the victim has been thrown away, the chunk explodes, dealing damage to those nearby. This is Groudon’s main kill throw, but the ground chunk’s explosion can be used to start a combo into Up-Air, Up-Tilt, reversed N-Air, or reversed B-Air. [R: 3% bury, 4% throw, 9.5% explosion/P: 4% bury, 5% throw, 11% explosion]

F-Throw: Groudon uses his ground abilities once more to make a stone glove over his fist, which he uses to punch the opponent away fiercely. Instead of exploding, the rock glove falls apart. [R: 9%/P: 10%]

B-Throw: Like King K. Rool’s B-Throw, Groudon drags the opponent on the ground before throwing them back behind him. Also like K. Rool’s said throw, this move does not combo into anything, as it’s just meant to get the opponent away from you or away from the stage. [R: 1% drag, 11% throw/P: 2.5% drag, 12% throw]

D-Throw: Buries the opponent like K. Rool does, except instead of throwing the opponent straight down in-front of him, he buries them behind him. [R: 5.5%/P: 7.5%]

Special Moves!

Neutral-Special: Primal Reversion

(Copy & paste of an earlier statement.) At Groudon’s HUD is a Pokémon-themed meter leading up to a Red Orb, an item in Pokémon used to evolve Groudon into Primal Groudon in-battle. The more you attack, the more the meter builds up. Once it’s full, you can use your Neutral-Special to transform into Primal Groudon, giving all of your attacks increased power, giving you increased speed, increased recovery distance, and making you slightly heavier. (End of copy & paste statement.) If you try to use your Neutral-Special when the meter isn’t completely built up yet, Groudon will use his Jab instead. While transforming, a whirlwind around you sucks in players nearby. When you evolve into Primal Groudon, those who got sucked in are blasted away. [15%]

Side-Special: Precipice Blades

Groudon’s signature move. When used, 3 blades made of the land will rise in-front of Groudon. They will arise one after the other very quickly before exploding less than a second afterwards. The explosions can send the opponents pretty far off, so this is mainly to attack from a distance & get in high damage quickly. [R: 21% each/P: 28% each]

Up-Special: Earth’s Lift

Not an actual Pokémon move, Earth’s Lift makes Groudon make a chunk of Earth rise below him as a platform. The chunk gives Groudon a boost before leaving. You can slightly change the direction by inputting left or right on your joystick. When the chunk of Earth is being summoned or is leaving, it can hit opponents in its way out of the way. [R: 13% rock/P: 17% rock]

Down-Special: Desolate Land

Groudon surrounds himself in intense sunlight, making Water & Ice-based moves evaporate when they attempt to hit him. This move lasts 30 seconds & covers a sm0l radius around him. In Pokémon, Desolate Land is one of Groudon’s abilities. It activates on switch in & it causes the sunlight to become very intense, making any attacking Water-type moves evaporate & not hit. Ice-type moves don’t evaporate, but they do in Smash to make this move a little more viable. But to make sure this move doesn’t ruin Greninja’s life, the evaporation effects only work on Special moves. So, if there’s an Up-Smash that has to do with water, it still hits perfectly normally.

Down Special: Evaporation List

All of the moves listed can’t reach/effect Groudon after Desolate Land is active:

•Mario’s F.L.U.D.D. (D-Special)

•The Ice Climbers’ Ice Shot (N-Special)

•The Ice Climbers’ Blizzard (D-Special)

•Zelda’s Nayru’s Love (N-Special, would be usable next to Groudon, but would have no effect on him.))

•Mr. Game & Watch’s #8 (S-Special, same thing as Zelda.)

•Squirtle’s Water Gun (N-Special)

•Squirtle’s Waterfall (Up-Special, when the water evaporates, Squirtle starts free-falling where he is.)

•Lucas’ PK Freeze (N-Special)

•Greninja’s Water Shuriken (N-Special)

•Greninja’s Hydro Pump (Up-Special)

•Corrin’s Dragon Fang Shot (N-Special)

•Corrin’s Dragon Ascent (Up-Special, same situation as Squirtle. Also, “Dragon Ascent” is coincidentally a Pokémon move!)

•Corrin’s Counter Surge (D-Special, same deal as Zelda and G&W.)

Final Smash: Inferno Overdrive

”The breathes a stream of intense fire toward the target with the full force of its Z-Power. The power varies depending on the original move.” -Pokémon Sun/Moon/UltraSun/UltraMoon

Groudon faces forward & unleashes a deadly stream of heavily hot fire from his mouth. Whenever the stream isn’t doing damage, it grows. The stream lasts 3.5 seconds before Groudon resumes battle. [R: 47% total/P: 56% total]

BONUS: New Stage!

And that was how Groudon would work in Smash! Of course, if Groudon DID come to Smash, he would come with a stage, right? Well, the stage I would have would be the Galar Region from the Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield! I don’t know how people get a stage & it’s ID for an image, so I’ll just put the ID here:

Galar Region: 1J5DCDC1

It would be way better looking if it were official.

That’s a wrap!

This might be my longest blog yet! What did you think about my vision of how Groudon would work in Smash? Would you main him? Who should I do next? Tell me in the comments & I’ll see you when I find meaning in life! ;D